The last 7 games, we gave up 99, 90, 100, 85, 89, 109 and 107 points. I know some of you are going to say that 4 of those games went to the OT, but that's not why I'm frustrated. Remember before, our D can always be counted on to make key stops and keep us in the game down the stretch. Not so lately. We've been blowing 12+ pt leads. What have we been doing wrong?
I believe it's the fatigue fact. Just look at the average minutes for our starters, JVG's rotation strategy finally caught up with us at the critical stage of the season. Yao Ming * Steve Francis*Cuttino Mobley*Jim Jackson 32.9 ** 40.7 ** 40.2 ** 38.8 Memphis plays the same intensive defense as us, but they use a much longer rotation. No one on that team average more than 30 minutes a game except Pau Gasol who logged 32.1 minuets.
1. Fatigue. 2. Teams have been rotating the ball better on us. JVG's system denies the paint. Good rotation can often get an open 3... and lately, teams have been hitting them. 3. I hate Cato (rather have Mo or Spoon in), but we are a better defensive team with him.
I gotta agree, and go with fatigue. Just watching the game, you can clearly see our rotation isn't as fast as it was in the beginning of the season, leaving to open shots. Also, guys are now giving uncontested shots. Remember when all shots taken by opponents had atleast a hand in their face or a running Rocket coming at them? Well, that's all gone. But the one thing about it, is that no one is really to blame. Teams get tired when the end of the season comes along, it's just the way it is. And it also doesn't help that JVG has a horrible sub rotation, I said it earlier in the season and I'll say it again. The minutes our guys our playing everynight will take its toll and we can see it right now with our D. It's just not what it use to be and unfortunatley, we have to rely on our offense.
True true, but stats can only tell part of the story. Today, i think we played good D when we needed it the most. They really stepped up the intensity the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter and some of the OT....clogging the lane, rotating and helping, forcing turnovers, contesting and blocking shots... All of which allowed us to come back from behind and ultimately win it. We may have allowed 107 pts (in OT), but we stopped them when we most needed to. But yeah, I also think they're getting tired. JVG needs to expand his rotation, not only to rest his starters but to get his bench players more action, in preparation for the playoffs. Players need to be ready to play whenever they're called up suddenly. More playing time will help. Plus, I don't think we use our valuable bench players enough when they're services are required, i.e. MJackson, SPadgett, EPiat.
I don't like this attitude. I certainly hope the players don't hold this attitude, or else it would explain why we have so many 4th quarter collapses. The 1st quarter is just as important as the 4th. A shot scored in the opening minute of the game is worth the same amount as it would be at the last second. Only at the end of blowouts would defense not matter. Otherwise, they always matter. If we had played good defense for the whole game, it would've been a 10-15 point lead near the end of the game, and we'd have the game easily in the bag.
Great teams always go through that phase where they become a defensive team, then they realize that they're not scoring enough. So once they've mastered the defense, they decide to focus on offense. Then when they've been in the system that long, they can run the offense efficiently, and pace themselves on defense, while turning the D up to an intense level when needed. Right now, we're trying to figure out everyone's role in the offense. We've already mastered the defense. Aside from this, Cato and A Griffin are out. This means more minutes for MoT and Boki, which naturally would make our D a bit weaker.
You also have to keep in mind that in the first half of the season we played 24 games against the Eastern Conference, and since the AS Break we've only played six against the East.
Our defense has progressively gotten worse over the course of the season. Just over the last 20-30 games, we are giving up 90-something points per game. While I will attribute some of that to us playing better teams than through the first 2 months of the season, you can't argue that as a team, we've slacked off of defending open shots and allowing inside penetration. Better the Rockets get this out of their system now, because come playoff time, they better get the house back in order or we'll have a quick first round exit.
Without Cato at the power forward position, this team is thin in the middle and Yao can get into a foul trouble because he has to help out outside. I think the Rockets really miss cato, his energy and rebounding.
