Was Charles Barkley right about the Rockets defense?

Transition defense is not rocket science. JUST RUN BACK.

 

You don't give a guy like Austin Rivers confidence to bloom in the playoffs. You defend all wings like there is no tomorrow and cover pick and rolls.

Sigh...

 

Barkley said we were one of the worst defensive teams in the league. That's clearly not a fact, thus Morey's tweet.

No Beverley + DMo and playing the #1 ranked offensive team statistically. And Dallas was an offensive juggernaut without Rondo and we saw that in Game 3/4. What were we expecting?

 

I think this just about sums it up for me.

 

That and "counterintuitive" have been couple of my favorite words for 10 years lol

 

Raise you "analytics" for a 1000

 

During the season? No, we were one of the better defensive teams.

Playoffs? Absolutely, we are terrible defensively now.

 

We are the worst team in the play-offs, defensively and as a whole. Kenny said it best: Howard blocking shots is not defense.

Barkley was on the money about jump shooting teams not winning, look at the Warriors and us. Funny enough, we have Dwight but just do not use him...Harden keep dribbling out the shot clock baby and lose the next 2.

 

I think one of the biggest problems is communication. Good defensive teams talk all the time on the court but with the Rockets everyone is lost doing their own thing , particularly Jones. And the transition defence is one of the worst I have seen from a playoff team in a second round.

 

It's not defense really.... It's desire to win that leads to effort and execution.

That's what really separates players in nba... Since the talent is so high.

These guys just don't have near the desire to win as the clips and it shows. They are playing like its a regular season game compared to the clips like each game is their last game ever

Hardens competitive nature is so disappointing. If he had 25% of kobes competitive nature he would have won mvp and we would have prob had the lead in this series

 

Barkley is an idiot. An idiot is right once in a while.

 

I don't think it's desire. They have the desire. They just aren't placed in a position to have a better chance at winning. Simply put, they haven't been coached well.

Harden is great in many things but he has real limitation. Defense against quick guard and his struggle against long and great shot blocking defensive PF/Center neutralizing much of his inside game (FT and easy shots) are some of those. For this, it's so strange that in G3, when Howard sit, McHale doesn't do any hack-a-Jordan to also get him to sit so that Harden can excel. Compounding that mistake is when Clippers went with a 3 guards lineup, McHale kept Harden in defending one of those guards. He put Harden in the WORST possible situation to excel, thus also putting the team in the bad situation. McHale lost his mind in that 3rd Quarter of G3.

 

DeAndre Jordan completely destroyed DMo when we played them. DMo can't guard centers or physical PF's. Hes a horrible defensively option and even worse rebounder

 

Our defense is not good NOW. Why should it be? As stated above. Beverly and D MO are both out. Beverly would do a much better job on Barea and the Clipper guards than the 38 yr old point guards who were never noted for their defense. D Mo's team defense is underrated. Another player brought in for his defense is KJ McDaniels and he, too, has been injured.

 

The player (and his mentality) we need is Tony Allen. Nobody on our team has that will and fire.

I will root for Memphis if and when the Rockets are out of the playoffs.

 

There's only one Tony Allen in the league. He prepares for weeks for a matchup studying hours of films.
BUT he is also boneheaded who makes big mistakes can blow simple layups and can't shoot. Plus he's 30+ y.o.
The guy is a psycho but I respect him.

 

The problem is that the Clippers are also a jump shooting team. Aside from Blake Griffin, that whole team's offense revolves around the pick and roll and shooting from the elbow area vs kicking it out for a three.

The difference in Game 3 was that Blake Griffin and Jordan were setting illegal picks every time in the first half, and nothing was getting called. They were turning into the defender while the pic was being set, very far from being set themselves, and giving players an extra bump from their behind for good measure. As a result, Chris Paul, Redick and Rivers all had wide open jump shots at the elbow area and made good on them. Rivers used all that extra space to just drive straight to the rim.

We cannot with officiating like that. But hopefully the NBA wants this series to keep going, so they'll start calling that bull**** in game 4.

 

Yes, transition defense is where we are being killed. I think we need to change our offensive strategy to help set the table defensively.

From the beginning of the game, the plan needs to be to NOT have our wings and guards force the issue inside, but look for Harden and Terry to get some good looks coming off a screens for jumpers.

This should then open up some driving lanes and we'll be in a good spot to get the post up going with Dwight.

Bad offense leads to bad transition defense. It's been the story ALL YEAR vs LAC. We force things inside against them and get frustrated. By the time we are trying to work it outside-in, the team is checked out and tired. STOP PLAYING IN TO THEIR STRENGTHS.

I want to see Harden take at least 20 shots tonight. We need to feed Howard more as well he needs to have the 2nd most shot attempts.

We look so bad on offense and it's leading to very bad defense.

 

I noticedthe same. I hope the illegal screens and the consistent traveling every time Griffin runs with the ball are called.