http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/7413842</p> A pretty good scouting report of the Rockets after the Mavs game. He examines what they did well, and what they did poorly.</p> He's exaggerating the defensive issues with our PGs (Alston and James), in my view. He already made up his mind a while a go that they "don't play a lick of defense." A lot of those shots by Terry came in transition or off broken defensive plays which weren't directly the fault of the PGs. The play where Barea beat Alston on the back cut, there wasn't any help defense. Not all Alston's fault. Still, overall, good insight.</p> Here's the "A" and "F" aspects:</p> <h4>A-Game</h4> Yao Ming was outstanding in the low-post. He was regularly double-teamed and came up with numerous flawless out-passes. He only registered three assists, but his accurate passwork enabled several assist-passes to be executed by his teammates. On the three occasions when he wasn't two-timed, Yao wheeled into the middle and dropped three jump-hooks. Even better, in the third quarter he split a double-team and rang up a dramatic dunk. Yao also hit on three of his five mid-range jumpers and generally made impeccable decisions with the ball.</p> Chuck Hayes played superb defense in difficult iso-situations versus Dirk Nowitzki and Jerry Stackhouse. Hayes showed great anticipation, quick feet, quick hands and admirable power. His defense was so good that the Rockets never bothered to double whomever Hayes was defending.</p> Shane Battier also had a superior defensive game. He jammed Nowitzki's attempt to score in the low post several times, and also forced Josh Howard into missing a hotly contested 17-footer.</p> Both Hayes and Battier also made several helpful defensive rotations.</p> Rafer Alston ran the offense smoothly, efficiently and without committing a single turnover. Instead of forcing his shots and/or his drives, Alston was content to properly position the ball so that the Rockets could easily get into their designated plays.</p> When Tracy McGrady undertook his several isos, he always looked for open teammates cutting to the hoop. Most of his eight assists created uncontested layups.</p> Bonzi Wells rebounded like a big man — four offensive and four defensive — and also played extraordinary man-to-man defense against Nowitzki. Wells showed terrific hustle in trailing a fast break and putting back a missed layup by T-Mac.</p> Luis Scola executed several textbook box outs.</p> <h4></h4> </p> <h4>F-Game</h4> Alston was helpless on defense. He was burned when he topped a down-screen and let J.J. Barea make a simple back-cut that turned into a layup. And he was absolutely chumped by Jason Terry.</p> The Rockets missed 11 layups — one each by Mike James and Alston, two each by Wells and Hayes and five by T-Mac.</p> James took too many forced shots, going 4-of-13, and made several lazy wing-passes, and was also atrocious on the defensive end.</p> The Rockets' end-game was a disaster that featured:</p> <table width="980" height="124" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" class="bdy"> <tbody> <tr valign="top"> <td width="715" style="padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; background-image: url(/fe/img/Story/header_gradient.gif); background-position: left top; background-repeat: repeat-x;"> [*]A pair of bad passes by James. [*]McGrady missing highly makeable shot in a crowd. [*]Yao fumbling a perfect entry pass. [*]Alston shooting an airball. [*]Alston also had a layup blocked. [*]A clear-out screen-fade left Nowitzki unguarded and let him bury a critical 16-footer. </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h4></h4> </p> <h4>Closing Analysis</h4> So, then, exactly where are the Rockets and what might their immediate fate be?</p> They certainly have plenty of scoring power — but Yao needs many more touches in the paint (he played almost exclusively on the high-post in the first half).</p> Instead of being fed a steady diet of mid-court isos, McGrady needs to receive the ball after curling off of weak-side screens, i.e., within the context of a team-oriented operation.</p> Rick Adelman has to decide whether Alston or James is his primary point guard. On the basis of this game, the nod has to go to Alston.</p> The S/R defense has to be tweaked. But, given the current personnel, the perimeter defense just might be beyond fixing.</p> The Rockets have a long journey ahead of them, but unless drastic measures are taken, it certainly looks as though they're no better than a second-rate power in the Western Conference. But even more galling to Houston fans, the Rockets are likely to be only the third-best team in Texas.</p> </p>
Thanks for the post durvasa. I didn't see the game last night and I'm sure most of Rosen's analysis is right. I agree with most of his points judging from previous games.</p> Btw, isn't he the guy who used to bash us every year in the season previews? </p> </p>
I have to agree with most points. It was extremely frustrating to see Jason Terry get wide open jumpers over and over in the second half. Where the hell was Mike James?? I think Adelman left Head in too long after it was clear the Mavs were going to abuse him in the post with Josh Howard / Stack. Yao needs to aggressively look for his shot more often. Yes he was doubled often, but he also seemed to wait for the double team every time with the intention to pass out of it 90% of the time. He needs to just turn away from the double team and shoot the turnaround jumper. The Rockets won't win too many ballgames if Mike James shoots more than Yao. Rockets PG's combined for 1 assist all night. I don't know if Francis would fare any better, though.</p>
