On the road and whether it's weathering crappy reffing or the ball falling Houston's way or being goaded into losing composure with Howard's cheap shot elbows or Harden's flops, falling behind at crucial times.... this team has played through it with grit and composure. No panic, no finger pointing... just a mature team trusting each other. And Stotts gets a lot of credit for it.
It's crazy how much we play like a veteran team. I think it's largely a reflection of the style with which Dame and LA play. They never seem to get too up or too down. As an opponent, it must be frustrating. We seem to never die. They go up on us, we come back. We get a lead, lose it, and rebuild it. You have to play 48 minutes against this group.
For sure! That's been a huge reason for our success. We've played through the bad calls with minimal complaints. We've never looked rattled or worried. If we slip up and do something bad we immediately move onto the next play and regain focus.
I posted this in the game thread but it fits here too: You know one of the points last night when I truly knew that we were locked in and had the right mindset to win was later in the game when Wes was trying to post up Hardin and Hardin so clearly flopped and the ref bought it. But Wes calmly and quietly tossed the ball to the ref and ran back down the court. I was proud in that moment and knew that we were not going to lose the mental game to those guys.
We've been focusing a lot on offense, but I'm starting to think that the way we're playing defense on Harden is a real key. It's not so much that he's shooting badly, it's that we're defending him well and forcing him into areas on the floor where he's not comfortable.
These guys all assume the mentality that LA has and Dame is developing. This is the first time I'm seeing amazing leadership qualities out of LA.
Yes. Wes just turned and went up the court, as if it was the right call. I was shocked, because I was certain it was a terrible call. I had to replay it to check myself. Nope. Bad call. Wes had a lot more composure than me, LOL. Can't let the flops and refs get into your head. I was saying yesterday before the game that the Blazers had the mental edge. There is no doubt. And that's such a huge part of the game, and of winning.
That's what I'm seeing too. They don't take any plays off and their focus and clutch plays at the end have been the difference in both games. Houston has a huge amount of talent but no basketball IQ.
On TNT after the game last night, Kenny Smith made that very point. He said that the Rockets' offense is intended to be very free-flowing, with lots of drive-and-kicks, and Nic, Wes, and Dame (!) were doing a great job of keeping Houston's backcourt in front of them and disrupting the flow they need. I was confused for a moment when he was mentioning Blazers and "perimeter defense" in the same sentence, but I had to agree with him.
That's right. I was thinking about this last night. Houston fans and a lot of media are going to roast Harden for 'not stepping up' or 'choking' or having a bad series. Ummm....you can thank the Blazers game plan and defensive execution for that. There is a rule in basketball that, since you can't stop everything a player is going to do, you need to at least take away one thing, preferably the strongest part of their game or their best move. Like you just said, we are taking him out of his comfort zone, not letting him get the ball when and where he wants it, and for the most part not letting him go where and when he wants, when he gets it. It's similar to when one team forces the other team to play at their tempo and style.
Our D just works perfectly vs how HOU plays. They don't shoot midrange- only 3pts and layups, and our D forces guys to shoot from the midrange. Harden/Beverley/Parsons all look uncomfortable from there.
Four starters played 82 games together. They don't have playoff experience, but they have a ton of experience playing together. They run the same things now that they did a month ago and 4 months ago. Guys know their roles and where they are on the floor any given moment of any possession. They know when they'll get their minutes and who with. They know how Lopez will shove his ass into a guy to create a driving lane, they know where Aldridge will be on that left block. Batum knows how to make a post entry pass exactly where LMA wants it, Mo knows exactly where to deliver it to Lillard off the curl, and Wes knows exactly where to stand on the weak side to get an open three pointer. Stotts is a very good offensive coach, and work he put in 5 months ago on this offense is paying dividends now. The Rockets are kind of just making shit up as they go, and you can tell. They've had 17 different starters this year. They don't know what to do with Asik, although you can bet they wish they'd traded him for someone who would be useful in this series. They have two "superstars," and yet the Euroleague second year PG is the "heart of the team," mostly because he's the only one who seems to show any heart.
Agree with all this . . . Blazers should get some credit for Harden being in a funk. I don't know exactly what Wes is doing, but watching him he must have studied hours of tape of Harden. Wes sits on the side of Harden giving him the drive (into a paint that is packed) but taking away his shot. Wes sometimes is literally standing on the left side of Harden ready for Harden to take that step back shot and pressure the left hand without giving even the appearance of a foul. I think Wes's defense on Harden is the unsung x factor in this series.
You know, I thought it was actually a good call from the replay. But I agree, Wes didn't give a shit. He didn't question the call. The Rockets would be crying even if they knew it was a good call.
I think Dame is probably an average off the ball defender. He just gets blown by on the dribble or has yet to learn how to deal with a good screen.
Game 1, final play, he did do what he had to, keeping between Harden and Parsons. Harden looked for Chandler, but thought better of it, because Dame was spread wide and aware. Dame's defense is getting better.
There was a play last night where Mo got a screen from Robinson, and Mo had double coverage and passed it to Robinson. But Thomas was not in the spot, and I immediately thought "I bet Mo is used to running that with LMA and just automatically assumed the 4 would be ready to take a jumper."
