Van Gundy mentioned this yesterday, but teams with soft power forwards really kill the Rockets for some reason (Gasol, Radman, and Dirk). Neither Cato, nor Taylor can keep up with them out on the perimeter. For all of Van Gundy's defensive accomplishments, he doesn't seem to know how to deal with those type of players. I don't think he's ever had to deal them before because when he last coached, it was prior to the influx of euro-power forwards.
Cause their better? The rise of Memphis over the Rockets is really pathetic. Other teams seem to be able to reload quickly; the Rockets keep trying to ride the Francis express. Give it up, and move on.
Its very relevent. Since Memphis has beat us twice and are neck and neck with us in the playoff race they currently hold the tie breaker. The Sonics are out of the race but the races for the last few playoff spots are tight and any loss, especially to a Conference opponent, matters.
Y'all have all raised good points. Now is there anything we can do about this. If Memphis, Seattle, Sac. and Dallas have a formula for beating us what sort of adjustments can we make to get over that and do we have the personel to make those changes? Or even if we did can JVG adjust his style enough to do that?
What I meant was, the Rockets can't beat: 1) Spurs 2) Mavs 3) Kings 4) Sonics 5) Grizzlies They can't really beat anyone in the west except an injured Laker team and the bottom dwellers like the Jazz and Clippers so that's why I said the title was irrelevant.
I think the Rockets are due for a few wins against the West powers. So, once Dirk Nowitski, Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Tim Duncan, Mike Bibby, Peja, Chris Webber, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Jason Williams, Pau Gasol, and James Posey all retire or get traded to the East, watch out for the Rockets!
Keep in mind that the Sonics are coached by Nate McMillan who was part of the Sonics "illegal zone" crew that forced the 90s Rockets to shoot jumpers too. Nate McMillan played in the playoff series sweep of the Rockets in 1996. The Sonics shot 20 of 27 3 pointers in Game 2, and the Rockets weren't able to match the gunners. Rockets have a totally different set of players and a new coach, but the defensive gameplan still works. It wasn't until Charles Barkley and Matt Maloney aka the zone buster duo came to town that the Sonics lost to the Rockets in 1997.
we can't beat the grizzlies because of their team speed and fast break. the sonics are nothing special, i think that one is a stochastic anomaly. we match up bad with speed and uptempo teams, like the mavs and kings as well as th e griz. i don't really see a quick solution to that. the spurs just have a great team defense. we can stop them from scoring but normally they score more points than we do. we average one of the lowest point totals in the league, so against a good defensive team that's gonna suffer even more. we can't beat San Antonio because they can hold us to 70 points. in those types of games a tim duncan, that'll get you 20 points and 20 rebounds will make all the difference. but... say we get an athletic 4 in the offseason, and yao improves his consistency, that'll go a long way to solving most of our weak spots.
