Wes Matthews can't possibly get enough credit

Funny how lillards shot changed the way that MOST of the board would view Wes.....A lot of us would be grilling him for his extremely poor shooting and shot selection in game 6, but lillards shot cleansed all those sins.


One things for sure, no one could have guarded the last two Harden shots better

 

Blocked shots in the series, LA 16, Rolo 16, DWright 9, Wes 5, Nico 4...Wes lead the team in steals throughout the series and did a great job making Harden get tough looks and also doubling with help defense in the post on Howard and Asik. Wes and Nico did things no folks are talking about that they just don't have stats for. Tiring out your matchup is one of them.

 

Nature of sports. Parsons is a perfect example, he lucked into that shot for the most part and then screwed the pooch at the end.

If Wes had made that last shot I don't think anyone would remember all the shots he forced.

 

Wes' numbers weren't bad himself, Nate! 15.3 ppg on 44% FG and 39% pointers.

 

You should add onto his numbers the amount he kept Harden below his season numbers--even with his increased MPG--to get his effective scoring rate.

 

He really doesn't get enough credit. I looked on Spurstalk and there was a post where someone said Marion is a better shooter than Wes, which made me chuckle a bit.

 

Agreed 1,000%

 

Nic defended him quite often, too.

 

He also had an Ortg of 98, a Drtg of 117, and WS/48 of -.011.

He played decent, but let's not go overboard here. A PER of 9.3 on 19.9 USG kind of stinks, too.

 

Wes did the lion's share of the defending.

 

Those stats don't matter cuz we won the series. Those stats don't measure that.

 

His defense wasn't that great.

 

What are you basing this on?

 

My eye sight and knowledge of the game

 

My eyeball test tells me Matthews had a down offensive series but an up defensive series (which I think is to expected with the energy he was wasting guarding Harden). Harden had a tough 5 games in a row and Wes was a big part of that (not the only part but a big part).

 

How does your eyesight and your "knowledge of the game" account for Harden's horrible shooting percentages?

 

No reason to put it in quotes, everyone has some knowledge of the game. I think the fact that Houston changed their entire offense for the playoffs is the main reason. Wes did an admirable job, but nothing spectacular, IMO

 

The Drtg says that the team was better defensively with Wes off the floor than on the floor. Not sure how many of those minutes involve Harden being off the court, but Nic had at least 6 minutes each half defending Harden when Wes went out of the game.

 

Hey, I love the win! It's such a relief as a fan. Let's not overvalue what Wes did, though. He needs to step up in this next series, because San Antonio doesn't have a ball-dominant SG.

 

What really impressed me about Wes was his ability to not only stay with Harden, but his effectiveness with help defense on Howard when needed. You have to cover lots of ground to guard Harden and still be able to help with the double teams. How many times did he sneak down there and just hit the ball out of Howard's hands?