If you have NBA broadband, you have access to all 82 games the Rockets have played this year. I really didn't watch any Rockets games this year (except when playing the Blazers). For a high scoring team, they just weren't that fun for me, with all the fouling. So I started this thread to maybe ask for suggested games to watch to get a better idea of the competition. To start, I watched the Spurs game this morning and was kind of shocked at how close SA was to beating this team with Duncan/Parker benched for most of the second half. I mean the Spurs were winning against Houston's starters with under 3 minutes in the game! The takeaway from that one for me was: 1. Houston really, really sucks at defense if you make a few extra passes. If you use 22 seconds of the clock, inevitably Harden kind of wanders off somewhere and the rest of the team scrambles to catch up. The Spurs' passing always makes defenses look bad, but I was kind of surprised by it in this one. Kind of hoping Mo and Damian take fewer three pointers at the beginning of the possession. 2. Dwight is more mobile. I wouldn't describe him as crafty by any means, but he had much better footwork around the rim than I remember. Lopez has his hands full. 3. Parsons really is their Batum. Long stretches of wondering where he went, then suddenly you look at the box score and go, "Oh." He ended with 20/7, and I didn't even know it. 4. We'll have to weather the storm with Dwight. Houston was playing 4 starters more than 35mpg (2 of them at 40minutes). Dwight racked up 20/17rebs, but only played 31 minutes. Their two studs will play 70 minutes per game, while ours will play 80 mpg. That could be all the difference. Feel free to post your own takeaways from any Rockets games you happen to catch before the playoffs.
I watched almost all of the Rockets/Spurs game live and I took away a similar thought. "Is Pop that good or is Houston playing that poorly lately?" Also I hope that Mo's (and hopefully Dame's) runners in the lane are going in because they seem a little weak there. And then as Houston adjusts to that if they can get Mo and Dame passing out of the lane instead of the runner we should have some wide open 3's.
On offense, the other thing will be to get into our offense early. Beverley has frustrated Lillard by denying or harrassing him at the point of attack. By the time we get our offense going, there's 10-12 seconds left on the clock. Perhaps we solve it by having Batum bring up the ball and set our offense or make sure we're setting crushing screens.
We shouldn't forget the defensive side of the ball. If Wes gets into foul trouble, what do we do? If we're relying on Mo Williams to guard him 25 mpg, we're toast. Sure, we could put Nico on him, but then Parsons goes off. I think Freeland helps us simply by being six extra fouls and some interior beef. He also really helps our rotation. We can sub an actual center rather than having to go small ball or risking LA guarding (and fouling) Howard.
I wonder...if Batum brought it up every time...balls out fast as he can with a B-line for the hoop....how many transition coast-to-coast buckets would they give up, how many possession would we catch them with their pants down and not set in their defense causing them (dwight) to have to foul him. Or even better after a couple of those they all collapse on him allowing for the wide open transition 3 in the wings. If they tried to compensate and put Bev on Nic up the court he could simply pass up to a streaking Dame and enjoy the same result, him cutting hard at the rim either for the score, the foul, or the collapsed D to the shooters. Is there someone else I'm forgetting that could actually stop Nico on the quick dribble up? Any trap/double would be a success for portland so long as we were good with our crisp passes >.>
I cant help but wonder, and maybe its just wishful thinking, if in that scenario will we move Batum to Harden and bring in Claver for Parsons if needed
