BackNthDay, Note that putting Hayes on Okur means there goes all his defensive rebounding. You take away the purpose of Hayes being on the court. If Yao is going to guard Boozer, you might as well put Battier on Okur and start Snyder so he can get his revenge on Sloan. imo, you just have to play them straight up. no gimmicks. the only gimmick I would consider is getting Bonzi out there. Everytime Harpring goes out there, get Bonzi in there with Howard and TMac which will force Harpring to guard Bonzi...that will quickly result in Harpring going back to the bench...and becoming a non factor in this series.
Ok... we cannot let yao guard Boozer. If Yao does that, he will be fouled out by the second quarter. also lets not forget that even though kirilenko is nto having a good year at all, he can still turn it on when needed. i think battier helping with switches on okur is the best idea and have hayes guard boozer as much as he can. i really fear deron williams killing us on the PG matchup. we all know that Rafer does not know what defense means. he cannot guard anyone!!! he made chris paul look like jordan when we played NOK. tinsley had a season high 22 points when we played indiana. i fear williams is going to rip rafer apart. and we cant let that happen because williams averages 16pts but adds in 13 assists which acutally turns into 26 extra points. I hope Rafer starts to learn how to play Defense by playoff time. lets see the two games in april and see how we matchup against their PG. i hope Van Gundy is ready to make changes when needed.
Most of their comeback game was against below .500 team. No sweat! Rocks can hold their own when playoff time.
I don't know that Chuck gaurding Okur does mean giving up any offensive rebounds. Unless his player has the ball (or is one pass from the ball) and is taking the shot, he's never more than a step from the paint at any one time. As soon as that ball goes up he's moving in for the rebound. Defensively, you have to ask yourself which of the two is more of a post presence and have that person gaurded by Yao. If its someone that picks and rolls every step of their offense, then that isn't the person you want Yao gaurding. To be honest.. I need to run over the tapes of the first two Jazz games (I just finished downloading one of them) and I can't wait for Sunday's matchup. Should be a lot of energy on both sides of the ball. I just hope that Chuck is well enough to play so that who he gaurds on Sunday (and in the playoffs) is an issue.
I didn't say anything about offensive rebounds. Plus, who Chucky guards will have no influence over who Sloan has guard Chucky. this is simply NOT the way will play any other team. Yao does not guard the best post presence. He guards the opposing Center. Name one PF who Yao guards...not counting times when the other team takes out their C, making their PF the 5 (see Nowitzki). Even if you can think of one, I still say it is a gimmick defense. Putting Yao on Boozer when Okur is in there is a gimmick defense. Putting Hayes in high post coverage on defense is silly; it takes away his main purpose for being on the court, not to mention Boozer has a better chance of getting Yao in foul trouble than Okur does. You might as well put Howard in there. If you want to forego Hayes and switch Yao to Boozer, just put Howard on Okur.
They're both a problem. I definitely don't want Yao stepping out to guard Okur and leave Boozer down low with little help. I'll take my chances on Yao guarding Boozer. I'd rather have T-Mac or Shane switching on any picks to contest Okur. What is being overlooked is the fact that not a single person in the state of Utah can guard Yao. IMO Yao is a 30-15 waiting to happen to the Jazz every game. And AK47 is not gonna nullify T-Mac. He's not much of an offensive threat either. T-Mac is too good to be taken out of the series by a 2nd tier defender. Rafer is gonna be the key to this series. He has to play at the very least on par with Deron Williams for us to win. Luther Head might be a better player to put on him being that he knows his game better from Illinois. I'd also like to see Shane in the post more often. Since Fisher is gonna guard him, we should exploit the size mismatch, the same goes for Bonzi if he's getting playoff time. They do have some bodies to throw at Yao. There's Milsap and Collins, and they're gonna be in there to foul Yao at all times while the refs turn their head(on purpose). They have no inside presence defensively, and outside of AK47 nobody else is much of a perimeter defender(Fisher is too small for anyone except Head). We should be taking the ball to the basket at all times. I see no reason we should lose to them. We should take them out in no more than 6.
Stat from NBA.com about comeback http://www.nba.com/standings/team_record_comparison/conferenceNew_Ahd_Div.html Utah and Dallas are the only two teams that seem to come back, if they are trailing at the half. Most teams seem to not do well when trailing in fact, most of the playoff teams lose when they are losing at the half. Maybe SA, but they are at .500. Dallas: 15-7 Jazz: 17-15 S.A.: 8-8 (which means they've only trailed at the half in 16 games this year) Combined 40-30 (.571). Together, these three teams will comeback and win the game 57 percent of the time. That's really revealing of how good these teams are. Other Good teams: Suns - 9-14 Rockets - 8-16 Lakers - 9 - 21 Denver - 7 - 20 Pistons - 11 - 17 Cavs - 14 - 18 < - this is actually not that bad. Miami - 10 -24 Combined 68 - 130 , if these teams are trailing at the half, they will usually only come back 34% of the time. I think it shows you how discipline the teams are above and how they have a stronger will to win even when they are down by a few or alot of points at the half. Ironically, some might even say that those are arguably 3 of the best coaches in the league (Pop, Sloan, Avery). This says two things about us: 1) For us to win in the playoffs, we have to jump out to good starts and not get behind earlier or in the 2nd. 2) We are not a come from behind type of team and if play Dallas, S.A., or Utah and slump early in the game, we will probably lose.
instead of bragging about being a good comeback team, we can brag about a team that gets good starts. I'd rather be known for having leads than having trailed teams by a huge amount of points. I think most of the reason we're losing the leads is because of lack of strong bench play especially at the backup PG and SF position. Step up luther and snyder!
I think they would be a good comeback squad because of the consistency and monotony of their offense. Regardless of what happens, Sloan's squads stick to the game plan. I honestly think Bonzi would be a wrecking ball in this series and would get the guy that i'm scared of Harpring or Kirilenko in foul trouble as neither can guard him in the post. I think he would be so much more effective against Utah and then (maybe) San Antonio in the second round that its just wrong not to have him now when we're pretty set in our playoff position. I think a strong Bonzi is better than the 4th vs. the 5th seed. Okur's 3-ball has been a bit sporadic lately and hopefully it doesn't pick up too much. Fortunately this Jazz team is not playoff tested (except Fisher and Sloan) and I feel the pressure may affect them more than us.
Guys, I need some serious help. PLEASE explain to my why people think we will have a hard time vs Utah? What % of these assumptions fall on game 1 of the regular season when we lost? Game 1 of the season means nothing. If it DOES, then w/ Yao, we dominated Dallas? It's not like Utah blew us out or anything. We've played Utah without Yao and beat them pretty good in Houston for game 2 against the Jazz. You might say MATCHUP problems with Boozer/Okur. Who will Yao guard? Granted we haven't had a good implication of how we fare vs Utah considerating we haven't played each other in a long time, I think any team thats plays a HALF COURT offense, we can beat. Utah isn't going to run and gun the entire game, thats Yaos problem vs PHX. Our guards (Rafer, Tmac) and throw in a good defender in Battier, are fast enough to chase around Utah's guards off picks and screens to erupt Utah's offense, if they have one. I don't care how smart of a player Deron Williams is, its not enough to beat us. I think the matchups will be: Deron Williams<Rafer Alston Fisher<Battier Kirilinko<Tmac Boozer<Hayes Okur< Yao Only thing is, if we stick with our lineup, Utah will have to change theirs. No way they will have Deron Williams or Fisher trying to guard Battier. Too small. He does have a nice little post up game with that baby hook. Anytime they double team our GUARDS, that leaves either Shane open for a 3, if Boozer runs out, then that leaves Hayes open for a layup. I'm telling you RIGHT now, I predict we win the first round 4 games-1 game, and by an avg margin of victory of 10 pts.
EDIT it didnt post right Deron Williams - Rafer Alston Fisher - Battier/McGrady Kirilenko - Battier/McGrady Boozer - Hayes Okur - Yao
I like your optimism...but I think it will go 6 games, us on top of course. I want to see our last 2 games against them, then we'll see what's up.
I think Chuck should guard Boozer or Battier since AK-47 isnt a prime offense threat. Yao will be beaten by Boozer. Boozer is very happy to take that 15 foot fade away jumper like Karl Malone. One quick dribble fades back, Yao is too slow to guard that. If Okur wants to shoot from outside, nobody really can block him, we just need stick up some hands to bother him, Tmac, Battier, Synder can do that. Okur will make some, but if we keep him around his 35% average 3p shooting, I will be really happy. I take that because of their loss of rebouding. Yao just need to roam around guard the paint, grab boards. Yao on high post guarding Okur IMO wont be effective.
Yao/Hayes will be in the starting lineup no matter what. GOOD thing is, if we have to, we can quickly sub Yao out. Have a Rafer/Snyder/Mcgrady/Battier/Howard lineup, where Battier can guard Okur since he isnt a banger. That might be farely effective. Snyder brings athletism and I feel he can get the rebounds we will miss from Chucky. But if they have a hard time defending our offense, they won't have this Williams/Fisher/AK47/Boozer/Okur lineup in there to start with.
Can you look up what the Rockets record is as far as "COME FROM AHEAD LOSSES". I'm not sure on the exact number, but there have been numerous losses where we lead by double digits going into the 4th quarter. Not to mention double digit leads with 6-8 minutes left in the 4th quarter. That right there is a major concern...
If anyone watch the Jazz, they dont need the the number to know the Jazz is a good come back team. It's very simple because there were so many games the Jazz would always slow start and would be down by double digits or 20+ by half time. Then the Jazz would start their come back in 3rd quarter and gained their momentum in the 4th quarter. It's a lot of fun to watch the Jazz games because of their exciting closing in 4th quarter. The only thing I wonder is that if the slow start is part of the Jazz's game plan. Jerry Sloan seems never startled about the Jazz slow start. Sloan calls timeouts and adjustes the play but he never startles and so is his team. After so many comebacks from behind, the Jazz is a mental tough team and never rattles. Excellent coaching on Jerry Sloan's part. For those mediocre coach who whines about his players dont have killer instint, how about let your team play from behind for some games instead of asking your team to push from start to finish of the games? So, your team at least can have a chance to develop a tough mentality of how to hang on and close out games.
The problem is Okur does have post moves. If we go small-lineup, Okur will post up. While Yao is on, he will probably be roaming 15 feet out, playing pick and pop with Deron or Fisher.
