I think we have a very knowledgeable fan base visiting this forum and of course 2000 eyes are better than two. What if McHale has an account here. What do you think would be a good advise to him? Please keep the LOFs and LOHs arguments out and no fire McHale calls either. 1. What I saw last night was awesome. I can't believe we didn't do it enough. Harden/Howard p&r that resulted in easy baskets. 2. Daniels needs to start. Maybe parsons would be a better fit when we play another team but he got destroyed and his shots we're falling. 3. Harden/Parsons/Lin/Beverley need to stay aggressive and need to stop jacking up low percentage outside shots. 4. What happened to D-Mo? 5. Keep doing what we've been doing and increase the intensity because if POR keeps shooting from the outside, I believe they will eventually not go in. I could've sworn they sold their souls to the Devil last night because every circuit shot they threw up went in. They're playing out of their minds and we've been playing crappy! That's why I still believe in this team!
Rebounding. Getting out in transition. Getting to the line more than 11 times in the games first 44 minutes. Someone foul Aldridge hard a couple times , good hard playoff fouls like the one he laid on Lin's chin the other night.
Keep with the twin towers lineup. DH carried us last game. Daniels deserve lots of credit but if not for Howard hustling and playing his heart out getting putbacks and dunks and rebounds we would have been down by 20. I don't care what Barkley says. DH is scoring at a very efficient pace. Keep feeding him. The pnr with him and Harden was great. Also better spacing for shots or cutters when DH is doubled. Some of those pass outs were stressful to watch. Protect the glass and defend threes - Batum killed it last game on both these areas with threes and offensive boards. We can't go another game making him look like prime Grant Hill with three point range. Better rotations off picks and dribble penetration - Lin got picked multiple times leading to assists and good looks for Portland. There needs to be help from the picker's man or better rotations.
Buzz (TD) does great off the bench... I am hoping coaching staff don't forget what an asset he can be. But something tells me, people now understand he doesn't belong sitting on a bench. He saved VCU Rams on many an occasion just like last night, and when he gets a bit more comfy, RAM Havoc D will indeed rear it's head.
Defense. In game two the Rockets traded basket for basket and the Blazers had a 7 point lead for what seemed like an eternity. I've never seen a Rocket team that with it all on the line just could not get a stop. Harden. Take it up a notch. Last night was better but he's got to be the catalyst and do the things he did in the regular season. Mainly get to the line more. Howard and McHale. If they double Howard what's the plan here? Need some kickouts to Daniels and co to hit those open threes.
Rebounding is key. Take care of the ball, no idiotic turnovers. Run plays that involve D12 and Harden, i liked those tight PnR during the game i wanna see more of those.
Keep good changes from the 3rd game: 1. Put Beverley on Lillard whole game. 2. Use twin tower when both Lopez and Aldridge are on the court. 3. Would like to see berveley, Lin and Daniels on court when harden is resting, but it will be too small if Harden is also on the court. It did surprise Portland in last game, but they will figure it out and start posting Batum or Matthews.
Either exaggerate in the form of mockery of there head snaps and the excruciating attacks to the basket or just follow suit
1. PNR, dwight/harden, dwight/lin, asik/lin (though I always get scared of this because of Asik's stone hands) 2. I wouldn't start Daniels...what would that do to PArson's confidence? Daniels should come on with Lin. 3. Starting line up: Asik/Dwight/bev/parsons/harden. I don't want Tjones, he should come off the bench for limited minutes. Last night we had an early big lead, but parsons and tjones took turns playing selfish ball and killed the momentum. 4. ball movement. has to move. need to stop taking heat check 3's with a hand in their face. 5. bev/lin/parsons/harden/dwight closing in the 4th. parsons can be interchangable depending on what is happening, same with lin and bev, though i like lin and bev combo on the floor a lot. 6. Dmo should get some burn too, give him like a few possessions and see what he can do... let's scrap out for the win.
they need a healthy does of Harden and HOward pick n roll, I dno't know why they went away from it, does anyone know if someone ask Mchale that? Why do we go ISO when we need the basket the most? Start TT line up, smother LMA, they way I see it is he went 18-28 in game 2 ( i think) so that's like 66% shooting. Even if we smother him at the expense of leaving Batum, Mathews or Lillard open, they are not shooting 66% as a team. Sure they will hurt us but LMA making his jumpers is almost a constant. Double teaming is not necessary, but single coverage with Asik, but they can't leave him when they set the pic like they kept doing in game 2. There are so many factors in this series though, you can't just say "oh they played their best and barely won while our games played terrible and almost won".
ANd I was all for Dmo getting minutes but if Asik can continue to gaurd him well, I don't see the need for Dmo unless you want to foul him hard a few times.
TT every second that Lopez and Aldridge are out there. Get Lopez in foul trouble. Attack Matthews. He is begging to send a technical or flagrant our way; hell he almost did it last game. Don't let Lillard penetrate. As much as he is becoming a dual threat with his outside shot, I still would rather have that than the easy buckets he is getting or dumping off to when he blows by Lin or Harden whenever they try to guard him. And finally, the most important (and ambiguous) goal: Read and react swiftly to the changes Stotts is about to make. I expect that he will try to go back to what worked so well in Game 1: getting Asik and Howard in foul trouble with a litany of flops on picks and in the post. Loose ball fouls to try to piss off Dwight. If they can shake our big man rotation, they will severely weaken us. And hope as you might with Troy Daniels, but he will absolutely become a target now for Stotts to go after. As soon as he checks into the game, look for Mo Williams or Batum or Lillard to go straight at the guy. I don't know if he will be much of a factor the rest of the series except in short bursts in the right spots.
Try to bait Mathews into getting fouled out. Not going to lie, but he plays 1on1 defense vs Harden and Lin QUITE well. He's beefy and can make Harden work in the post - and fast enough to guard Harden laterally.
The key to winning tomorrow is not to play on TNT. For some reason we lose every time TNT covers the game.
