Problem is athletic SF's or good size shooting guards can give the Rockets trouble. Jonathan Simmons will look like a world beater and take it all the way to the hoop. I requested the Rockets trade for more small forward material at the deadline. 1) D'Antoni must play more Dekker or Troy Williams to counter. Simmons has too much strength for Beverley and Lou Williams. They bump him at the rim and he still powers a dunk off. Leads to too many easy baskets.........sometimes with the foul. 2) Try to take advantage of Pau and LMA with switches at the perimeter. At least get them in foul trouble. Pau killed the Rockets with his rebounds or tap backs to the perimeter players. BLOCK him out please. Sooner.
I don't see Harrell being much of a factor in this series. Playing at home, I don't see much adjustment at all. No way they play Nene and Capela together as that would kill spacing. What I see mostly is Houston running as often as they can in transition creating mismatches where Harden can exploit. Also, different combinations of pick-n-rolls to throw off the defense to free up our 3 point shooters. Other than that, hope our shots fall and theirs don't
D'Antoni adjustment meeting: "Okay guys the game plan for game 3 is make more 3's and get the **** out of James's way. Any questions? No? Good let's go to the waffle house"
First game of the year that Harden did not play the entire 1st. This appears to be an adjustment to have him match Kawhi, who surprisingly started the 2nd Q last game vs our bench.
Pretty much first time ever this year Harden doesn't play entire 3rd Q....same with not playing entire 1st Q....matching rest time with Kawhi.
Is it just me or did it look like not one adjustment was made? Same exact formula relying that the 3s would fall. And why is up with the mid range? Harden used to get open and pop those off of a pick and roll and yesterday he didn't even take one?
Yes! I don't understand how they have been playing the last two games. The spurs are down a man and their bench isn't that great to begin with. Our bench is really good, yet we are walking the ball up the court and playing half court offense. This is playing right into the spurs hands on a couple of levels. First it negates our deep bench because we are not tiring out their starters. Second it allow them to defend the three easier and force drives into their bigger front court.
Weird... game 1 we ran and pressured SAN to the point observers (including non Rocket fans) commented that HOU had shown up SAN and that SAN looked old and slow. Rocket players led by Harden gave lip service to the need to not let up. Be hungry. Play hard. Game 2 SAN made adjustments, slowed the game pace way down, and outworked HOU on rebounds, 50-50 balls, defensive and offensively. HOU (Harden) walked the ball down the court, emphasized 3's, got frustrated with the officiating, quit driving. Quit moving the ball around. And when they did move the ball, they were often sloppy passes. Defensively, they stood around, didn't box out, and allowed a team minus its primary ball distributor to dictate the offensive pace. SAN completely embarrassed HOU. Game 3... no adjustments from HOU. Another loss (albeit closer). More walking the ball down the court. More missing threes. More getting frustrated by the officiating. More standing around on offense and defense. More ignoring of the need to box out. If there is ever a "must win game", game 4 is a "must win game." Lose that... no need to even go to San Antonio. HOU has to figure out what worked in game 1. Has to play with the urgency of a team facing elimination. Mix up the rotation. Anderson misses his first open three? Look at Gordon right away. Or Decker. Or even Harrell. Someone fails to box out? Immediate introduction to the pines. Harden walks the ball down the court? Fans start booing. Refs purposely miss a call? D'Antoni takes a T for the team... or at least calls a time out and spends the entire time jawing with the ref to show the team he won't put up with Pop controlling the refs. These are the needed adjustments. Otherwise... refund the fans for tickets for a Game 6 that doesn't have a chance of happening.
Does MDA ever make adjustments when it comes to playing the spurs for his entire career? Look at him when he was with the suns....
We need to take Ariza off of kawhi for a good stretch . He can't hold his jock . Guys like bev and Gordon have done a better job on him by pressuring his handle. Of course kawhi gets whistles , but it's a needed risk . Plus that then frees up Ariza to take guys like green , Gino , mills, and Simmons and blow up passing lanes / use his length on them . Dekker needs to play . Frankly , I would try him early with the starters unless Ryan is smoking hot and depending on how we play maybe he starts the second half . The Spurs went with size and skill in the front court ... We need to counter with athleticism which Dekker has in spades . Look they aren't going to honor him ... So yes , our spacing is going to suffer .. The inverse of that is that he is going to get open looks and if he makes them it's game . There are a lot of things we can do , within the offense itself and we aren't doing it .. It's a lack of desperation from dantoni which is unacceptable given the level of competition ... We aren't just going to straighten ourselves out. Finally , James and Lou need to be sat down and watch the film from G3 ... The lob is there and they aren't throwing it
