Rudy starts 2nd half and hey ho what do you know? we win bye double digits

to bad mccluess didn't figure this out a week ago

 

Fire Nate!

 

Nate is doing a great job with this team. He is learning along with the rest of the team.

As far as giving Rudy the credit, I think he was good and certainly added to the win, but this was a team effort. Oden for example played some amazing defense. Roy played poorly through 3, but killed it in the 4th. Even Outlaw had some huge rebounds and a very important 3. LMA played great and seemed to get his confidence back as the game progressed. And blake had a very solid game and hit some needed shots and racked up 7 assists. Rudy and his 7 points on 2 of 7 shooting with 3 turnovers was not the reason we won, but he did get some great steals and blocks.

 

This was a smart decision just to make the defense work, but I think Nic should still get some minutes. I'm still dissapointed that Greg Oden can't get more than a few shots in a game. Again, if that continues next season watch Greg sign somewhere after his rookie contract. I'm confident that Pritchard will push Nate to make Greg a more featured part of the offense, he's too much of an advantage not to.

 

To be fair he was only 2-7 with 7pts.

He did however command a defender at all times, and that really opens things up.

Rudy playing 30+ minutes is a good thing,

 

Can someone tell me the +/- for that lineup at the start of the 3rd quarter, up until Rudy came out? My guess is it's a negative number....

 

ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. rudy hitting early was the key because after that battier was forced to play him tight for the rest of the game and he wasn't able to help off on any of our other guys. this opened things up and allowed for a better flow and better shots for everyone involved. also rudy just has a knack for being in the right place at the right time on the basketball floor. his bbiq is through the roof and we are a better team with him on the court. he doesn't get all the credit tonight, and anyone who looks at boxscores wouldn't see it but he was pivitol in this victory. glad nate figured it out after 5/87 games.

 

I guess I can look it up myself...

The 2nd half starting lineup was outscored by 2 points. The starting lineup with Batum outscored Houston by 3.

I like the lineup, but the stats to prove it was any better.

 

BRoy missed about 4 or 5 jumpers in the third when this lineup was in there, but they were shots he'd normally knock down.

He was WIDE OPEN for almost all of them, and I think that had a lot to do with Battier sticking to Rudy.

Props to Nate for finally making the change.

 

Great halftime adjustment by Nate to start Rudy. It just opens up the floor and forces Houston's defense to be honest with everyone on the floor. It's not Batum's fault as he just isn't a good matchup for this series. If we played the Lakers, then we'd need him.

 

Yeah, we played great in the 3rd quarter. Wait, we only scored 14 points. The move was a popular choice and we did seem to get some decent perimeter looks from it, but the results weren't stellar. I expect Rudy to start in game 6.

 

If Roy was healthy tonight, it would have been a blowout. Move Rudy into the starting lineup. He makes such a huge difference when he's in the lineup.

 

Props to Steve Blake too, he was huge for us. I just hope he can perform like this in Houston, he hasn't thus far. If he can, it would give us an excellent chance to win the game.

 

So you are saying he should have benched Nicolas to start the series before seeing what he could do in the playoffs? Jesus, then everyone would have been going ape-shit and calling for Nate's head because our best wing defender wasn't on the court -- pretty hard to make the adjustment until you've seen where it's breaking down

 

Steve Blake's stats in two games at Houston:

10-20 from the field, 100% from the line, 6-12 from three, 6 rebounds, 18 assists, 3 turnovers, and 27 points.

Aaron Brooks also played considerably worse in game 3 and 4.

That isn't performing? What do you expect out of him?

 

As much as I would like to credit Steve for his defense, I also think Brooks has come back to earth finally. The guy was hitting some insane shots in the first two games of the series. He isn't hitting those shots now.

 

I agree, but his defense wasn't worse in games 3 and 4, and you can't expect much more from him offensively that what he produced, so I'm not sure how he could say Blake hasn't performed well in Houston.

 

tince you have fallen into the box score trap. yea sure the "stats" say one thing but anyone watching the game could tell a difference in the shots we were getting with rudy on the court vs him on the bench. i love batum but he isn't effective in this series and we need guys that can keep their best defenders honest. i would still start batum and let him get some run in but that is mostly because the spark rudy/travis can give us off the bench.

 

Here is what I said...

All I'm pointing out is that we can't say this move really helped us get the win tonight, because we got outscored. I noticed that while being at the game, not looking at the boxscore, I just used the boxscore to confirm what I remembered seeing with my own two eyes. I think we should start Rudy in game 6, but I don't know how anyone could credit a lineup that got outscored, with the reason we won.

I expect a starting lineup with Rudy to give us a better chance to out-score them in the first 6 minutes of each half during game 6, so I'll be fine with the change.

 

I agree with you, and it's not hating on Greg. I think Greg will get a couple post moves down in the near future, but 4 points for the team in 15 possessions we went to Oden in the post (my total after pointing out what I remember after each game), isn't going to warrant more touches.