biglove44 wrote:TMACFORMVP wrote:Our defense in the 2nd half was much better, especially on the interior. Sessions was killing us in the third, but in the 4th, with Parsons switching onto him for a couple stretches - we did a much better job. Kemba was great, we leave guys wide open from the perimeter, and he knocked em down. He's tremendously improved that jumper...
Morris was great all game, knocked down 3's, got to the line, and played good defense on the interior. I wish he could play like this every game, but it's probably time for him to go into hibernation the next 10 games. And the thing is, these looks Morris got are primarily the looks he gets almost every game...when he's active defensively, and being aggressive, he's much better (obviously). His 3's came from the corner..maybe that's something he can look to get every game?
I don't know how to really judge this..I mean, the Bobcats had lost 14 in a row @ home coming into this game...so for us to be down 7 entering the 4th in the first place is still concerning.
We did a much better job of taking care the ball after that first quarter.
Harden's shot is still off, I don't even remember the last time he's hit a jump-shot. Fortunately, he didn't have to in that 4th b/c he got a parade to the FT line, and CONVERTED. But he's seriously got to find his stroke, dude is shooting like 25% the last 4 games..
Beverley...his activity is very good. He had some big offensive rebounds, hit a BIG three (I'm still unsure whether I truly trust him from behind the arc, but he's shooting a good percentage so far -- it's just that his misses are way off). And defensively, he competes, and did a better job than when Lin was on the court. I've noticed that Lin's defensive aggression seems to have died down a little...and his lack of shooting ability really hurts us at times. +17 w/ Beverley.
Delfino also had a huge three, and Parsons had a very efficient all rounded night...rebounding from a terrible performance against the TWolves.
Aldrich wasn't bad defensively in the 4th, but the dude doesn't do much on the court, basically a big body, lol. Should hopefully have Smith back by Wednesday?
We'll definitely need to play much better through 4 quarters if we wanna have a shot at the Nuggets. I'm already concerned though, I hadn't realized the game would be on NBATV, so they basically pick your commentators....I don't HAVE to have Houston commentators, but the two I absolutely cannot stand, and make me grit my teeth more than any other team are the Nuggets and Celtic commentators..
Anyways, not gonna lie...I missed butts and struts.
I disagree on Lin's defense. You can criticize his offense (sucks on this team) but Beverly was not better on Kemba than Lin. Kemba had 35pts, no one was
that on him. Everyone picked it up in the second half, including Lin, holding Kemba to 5 pts until he was taken out for Beverly, and then Kemba scored consecutive 3's, going into the 4th.
Those consecutive 3's at the end of the 3rd were on Morris and Harden.
On the first one, Beverley was on the weakside matched up on Taylor. The Rockets didn't match up correctly in transition. Delfino was initially on Walker, but a pick caused Delfino and Morris to switch, so Morris was on Walker when he hit the 3.
On the second one, Beverley was again matched up on the weakside on Taylor, with Harden on Walker. Again, they didn't match up correctly in transition, as I can't ever imagine a scenario where you'd want Harden and his piss poor defense guarding Walker. Harden sagged into the lane to stop Sessions' penetration, but then Harden gave no effort to recover on the kickout to Walker.
So those two threes at the end of the 3rd weren't on Beverley.
Overall, this was the tally of who Walker scored on:
16 pts on Lin (6/9, 1/1 3P, 3/3 FT), 77.5 TS%
4 pts on Beverley (1/2, 2/2 FT), 69.4 TS%
15 pts on everyone else (5/10, 5/6 3P), 75.0 TS%
Of those 5 threes (15 pts) on everyone else, 3 were on Harden (Harden's defensive effort sucks ass, tape don't lie), 1 was on Morris like I described above, and one was wide open in transition, nobody guarding him, after Lin got his weak layup attempt volleyball spiked by Biyombo (near the end of the 2nd quarter).
But anyways, look at those stats. You can't say Lin's defense on Walker was better than Beverley's. Walker torched everyone, but Lin was Kemba's Yummy Bear.
And you know what Calvin Murphy always says about Yummy Bears...
