Oden - LMA - Outlaw - Roy - Rudy For some reason, we only ran this lineup for a few minutes, but it was giving the Rockets problems. Part of the problem was that Oden was fouling so much, but we could still run this lineup with Joel instead of Oden. Rudy can guard their PGs just as well as Blake, but Rudy can rebound better, is peskier on D due to his length, and is more of a threat on offense. I would like to see this lineup more in game 5.
Sub in Batum in there for Outlaw. That's pretty much all our offensive players in the lineup, which isn't really necessary. Why Batum isn't playing more still makes me rip my hair out.
Because he's passing up shots and allowing the Rockets to cheat off of him. He passed up two open looks to start the second half, so Nate pulled him.
agreed, I'm a total Batum homer but he's not what we need. Rudy has been shit hot all series, he deserves 35 + minutes a game.
He couldn't open an open jumper? You mean that ONE jumper the entire game? That one while he was up in the air having to think, "Oh, I better make this or I'm getting benched"? That jumpshot? He does things that don't show up on the statboard. Same reasons why Varejao and Chris Anderson are so damn valuable to their respective teams. And the things he can do are a thousand times more valuable than TO taking streaky jumpshots.
I love Batum and the intangibles he brings to the game. And usually I cringe when Outlaw comes in for Batum. But Batum just doesn't put enough pressure on their defense. They have 3 amazing defensive players. If we only have 3 offensive threats in the game, they can shut us down.
