Was just thinking back to the Houston series two years ago, and how effective we were with hacking Howard: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/howardw01/gamelog/2014/#pgl_basic_playoffs::none The three games Stotts went to an extreme (17, 17, 11 FTA's) we won. DeAndre is a far, far worse free throw shooter in the playoffs, hitting only 43%. Here's the actual game log from last year--that 34 FTA's really stands out. How much do you think this will be a factor in the series? Personally, I'd like to see Stotts put him on the free throw line 20 times in the first game just to see what happens. It's the first game and there's no pressure on Right now the Clips are trying to assimilate Griffin back into the offense, and the last thing I want them to do is find that mojo right out of the chute. Slow down the game, reduce the overall touches the Clippers offense has. Take away Paul lobs. Make guys eager to "get theirs" when the ball swings to them because so many shots are being siphoned away by DeAndre. Sew some chemistry seeds in that first game and see what happens. Thoughts?
Jordan averaged 15 FTA's against Portland in his 4 games, so I suppose I'm not really going out on a limb here. Attempts went: 6, 34, 4, 16. Seems very situational.
Don't forget that Griffin is a bad FT shooter as well. I'm expecting Stotts to hack anyone and everyone not named CP3/Reddick/Crawford even if he has to check himself in and commit the fouls himself.
If we're going to hack DeAndre it would just prove that our coach is a loser, that our team is an embarassment and would make me root for the Clippers
You know who else used a hack-a-player strategy in the playoffs? Greg Popovich. He practically invented it. Is he a loser? Were his teams an embarrassment?
All I'm saying is that resorting to these tactics is weak and you don't win in the playoffs by being weak
Actually Don Nelson is credited with incorporating this strategy in recent NBA games, starting with Dennis Rodman and then later Shaq.
It's weak, it's an officiating loop-hole that weak teams use when they don't believe they can win fairly. it's bad karma and every time we use it I hope the player makes his free-throws
If Sabonis ever flopped, it was only in an attempt to get the officials to pay attention to how Shaq was bulldozing him. Also when he first was in the league the officials totally ignored any fouls against him; possibly in some kind of misguided resentment of Russia, because Sabonis of course was Lithuanian. Sabonis eventually began an exaggerated reaction to fouls (hoping to get some calls) which I actually think hurt his follow-through and therefore reduced his field goal accuracy.
Anyone remember the Shaq clackers. Two hand shaped pieces of plastic on each side of a plastic handle, and when you move it left to right it made a lot of noise. You don't see things like that in arenas anymore, must be something about the noise levels.
The only thing Portland has actually started was the Free throw guy. Not that he actually made much difference.
