Jon Barry: Portland/Houston the two worst Western Conference playoff teams

Getting tired of reading quotes like this:

"They played well, you can't take anything away from them," Rockets forward Chandler Parsons said after the game. "But it's just hard to play a team and play against ourselves at the same time. It's impossible to win that way."

Hey Chachahandler.... it's called getting "beat". You've been outplayed and taken out of your game. Learn the game, then play.

 

Goes along with people saying Harden is playing bad, without hardly giving any credit to the defense that Nic and mainly Wesley have played on him. He has missed some open shots for sure, just like any player will, but they've played great defense on him, and it seems it's more about what James is or isn't doing instead. Oh well.

 

I do agree that Houston makes some bone-headed basketball plays in the clutch. The Blazers capitalized on those mistakes and that's what good teams do, but Parsons is partly right that they're not executing and doing the little things needed to win.

 

Could be possible, but I like Portland's chances. They've done very well scoring against defensive teams in the regular season (I know it's much different in the playoffs). I think Portland can play half court ball because LMA is still a player that demands doubles. I also think Stotts is a good enough coach to make adjustments.

 

I don't see why sample size for it should matter. If a team plays good defense in a game, the DRtg for that game would be good, and vice versa. If a team was stepping up their defense from the regular season, it would stand to reason that their DRtg would be improved. SA is only giving up 1 point per 100 difference than we are in our series. Which probably explains why they're down 2-1, really. But their defense hasbeen crap. Clippers and GS series, also, far worse than the regular season.

 

Harden's struggles have more to do with the defense of Matthews and Batum, IMO. Everything is heavily contested and he's not getting his shots in rhythm. Plus, the refs aren't buying the flops from Harden

 

Yeah when I heard that comment from Parson, I was like "Fucking douché!" He is a joke...

 

DRtg is one of those stats that seems to mean more, the more data you get - everybody has up and down games and it's more useful the more opponents teams play to make it useful comparatively. comparing a couple of games vs. a single opponent to a team's regular season DRtg is where it breaks down. A better measure would be to compare the DRtg a team had during the regular season against their current foe. At least that way you're getting an apples to apples comparison.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with Barry

The only thing is the Blazers have found some magic formula that is allowing them to pull games out of their ass so far against Houston. A lot of miraculous shots and miraculous comebacks in the 4th Q has given them the 3-1 lead. If they can keep that going they will win more games in the playoffs. Some things just can't be explained.

If the Rockets could actually close instead of choking, this series would be 3-1 going back to Houston. For almost every game they've been the better team for 42min. They've held a double-digit lead late in the 4th Q in 3 out of the 4 games. They've lost two of them.

 

You haven't heard of Stott's Mohammad Ali approach? Get against the ropes and tire them out. Then rip their heart out in the 4th. We aren't one of the best 4th quarter defenses for nothing.

 

[video=youtube;7i-bzcSSGsE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i-bzcSSGsE[/video]

 

Personally, it seems to me like the Blazers are playing much tougher defense in the playoffs. They've been very strategic about fouling, they've contained Harden, and they seem committed to covering Dwight in single coverage and just living with the consequences of that.

I guess part of the reason Portland's defense looks ok is that our weakest defender (Lillard) is covering their weakest offensive player (Beverley). We basically get to hide Lillard for a lot of possessions. In the next round he'll be forced to guard either Parker or Ginobili, or Harris/Ellis/Calderon. Most of those guys will have a tough time staying in front of Damian, so it will balance out a little. But I think in the next round we're going to hear a lot more criticism of our team defense, and especially Lillard's.

Anyway, is Dallas (49 wins in the regular season) really likely to be that much better than Portland at defense? Ellis, Dirk, Calderon, Carter....there are quite a few guys there who play big minutes who aren't exactly renowned for being defensive stalwarts. The Spurs are just getting killed with shitty bench play.

 

I don't get it... Jon Barry wasn't even talking

 

They do look better on defense in this series than I recall them playing for most of the regular season ... at least they seem to get dialed in during the end.

 

I think our team plays defense during crunch time. They save their energy for the last push, which I think matters most. Houston wasn't getting stops, we were. They were making prayers after prayers. If they didn't this season would have already been over.

 

WES is selling out on defense. He has a PER of 7 and his offensive efficiency has gone to shit but he's holding Harden to a 15 PER and frustrating the hell out of him.

 

I think if we make it past this round, Wes will have a huge offensive turn around. I think either SAS or Dallas doesn't have that "Harden-type" player, so he can focus more on offense.

 

Parsons has been a real revelation this series. Dude is either a dumbass or has a very serious overestimation of how good he and is team are. Nic is destroying him in second halves of games. And his D is nearly on par with Harden in how bad it is.

 

No question. But even this series I'm fine with Wes struggling on offense. Whenever you can hold one of the best offensive players in the league to 8 PER below their season average you deserve a pass on the other end.

 

Man, I seriously hope we can end this thing on Wed and get like 4-5 days of rest before the next series. Give time for the bodies to recuperate and Stotts to prep.