1. Accept that LaMarcus will just be LaMarcus Just accept the fact that he will use that court as his domain of dominance. Throwing the twin towers out there serves little purpose on the defensive end (LMA is consistently torching Asik anyways) and definitely leaves the team playing 4 on 5 on the offensive end. That being said.... 2. It's time to play Garcia, Casspi, Hamilton, or Daniels when taking out TJones You can put anyone on the Rockets' roster on Aldridge and he'll still score. So why don't you make him work on the defensive end for once? Put in one of the four I mentioned into the game when Jones goes out, put them (or Parsons) on Aldridge and just hope LMA misses. Then at the offensive end, you're dragging either LMA or Lopez way out of the painted area to actually open up the lane for......*wait for it* 3. Keeping taking it in Lillard is supposed to be a defensive sieve right? Well he sure don't look like it because he hasn't been tested all series. Make Beverly, Lin, or whoever Lillard is guarding the aggressor even if that means Harden won't get his until the 2nd quarter. You put the onus on Lillard to play some defense and he'll end up getting into foul trouble. At worst, you get their help defense to cover for Lillard and maybe free up Howard for a putback/dunk, get them into foul trouble, or both. That means you can then.... 4. Keep being the aggressor We're pretty average at shooting free throws but they need to start getting these Blazers into foul trouble. This isn't the "I'm going to drive in and look for the call without trying to score" mentality Harden has; this is the tried and true "I'm going to take it in and be aggressive and try to score and put it on the refs to blow the whistle" I've probably oversimplified "quick fixes" but there's just some things we can accept (Aldridge will continue to kill us) and move onto fixing the other problems (not getting to the line, not getting the other team in foul trouble, not trying a new game plan for once) rather than trying to fix a problem that our roster has no answer for.
McHale should have stayed with Jones more in the 4th. It was clear that LMa was going to score on anybody, but at least we wouldn't have compromised in size in the post. I think the big thing killing us is that their role players are making very little mistakes. Lopez was like a garbageman out there. I agree, attack and get them into foul trouble and it's a pretty big drop-off in talent going down the bench.
