Game 1: Utah Jazz (0-0) @ Houston Rockets (0-0)

Andri · Post #141 » by **Andri** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:06 pm

Our offense ranked in the 13rd percentile of the season, theirs in the 88th in pts per possession.

Even our OREB% was way below our average, being one of their key weaknesses.

We better come out with something different because that numbers tell me that it wasn't a problem of bad executing

KqWIN · Post #142 » by **KqWIN** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:25 pm

Look at this ****. I’m not blaming Rubio, Gobert, or even Mitchell leaving his man to help on Capela. Mind blowing how dumb this is.

Read on Twitter

?

Andri · Post #143 » by **Andri** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:59 pm

What surprised me more was we were more focused on guarding Harden from behind than funneling him to his right

Watch on YouTube

LesGrossman · Post #144 » by **LesGrossman** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 5:36 pm

Cant talk about the offense and ignore the defense. Its much harder to take the ball out of the basket and run a set offense compared to one shot, rebound and run.

I'm not really making too much ouf of this. Our main scorers didnt show up at all. Let Mitchell be his usual self and this game looks VERY different on both ends.

Andri · Post #145 » by **Andri** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 5:43 pm

LesGrossman wrote:Cant talk about the offense and ignore the defense. Its much harder to take the ball out of the basket and run a set offense compared to one shot, rebound and run.

I'm not really making too much ouf of this. Our main scorers didnt show up at all. Let Mitchell be his usual self and this game looks VERY different on both ends.

Agree. With the percentile thing I was trying to probe that not only our offense was terrible, but also our defense, as the Rockets has one of their better nights of the season

KqWIN · Post #146 » by **KqWIN** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:01 pm

LesGrossman wrote:Cant talk about the offense and ignore the defense. Its much harder to take the ball out of the basket and run a set offense compared to one shot, rebound and run.

I'm not really making too much ouf of this. Our main scorers didnt show up at all. Let Mitchell be his usual self and this game looks VERY different on both ends.

For sure, but I think we all knew the offense was going to be a problem. I did not expect Quin to make destroy our defense.

The Rockets don’t run sets. They run Harden, and they need no preparation to get what they want. Especially when our set defense is to let him have a direct line to the basket.

It’s also harder to score when you get no stops and create no turnovers. It goes both ways, but taking the ball out of the basket doesn’t matter much to a team like the Rockets who do not run.

If transition defense was the problem it’d be one thing, but transition defense was absolutely not the problem. It was our set defense and horrific game plan from Quin.

Blackie · Post #147 » by **Blackie** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 7:18 pm

When watching the game I could not believed guarding Harden from the side and behind. We allowed him to dribble directly to the basket unimpeded. He either could get a good shot or find someone else who could. That was the worst defense I have ever seen and if that is the way we are going to play the game we are going to lose. Our offense was terrible too.

Rauxcee · Post #148 » by **Rauxcee** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:02 pm

Anyone else worried the Jazz are going to role out with the same plan next game? Surely they cant possibly, but I'm worried they are going to give it another go.

What a disaster. They also need to figure out how to score other than just hope the ball starts going in.

mark53 · Post #149 » by **mark53** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:50 pm

Almost felt like we were prepared for Portland and still in shock. I expect better in games 2-4. But we better win 2 of them and I am not convinced. This team needs an ISO wing and until it finds it we are lost. I think

mark53 · Post #150 » by **mark53** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 9:03 pm

Also. That side defense was employed by someone recently to great success. Maybe the Bucks i think. But more then obvious the Rockets prepared for it. Should have been switched by Q2

SoCalJazzFan · Post #151 » by **SoCalJazzFan** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 9:17 pm

Andri wrote:What surprised me more was we were more focused on guarding Harden from behind than funneling him to his right

Watch on YouTube

This certainly appears to be the gameplan that the Jazz employed yesterday. I disagree that the Jazz were trying to defend him from behind, but rather were trying, sometimes unsuccessfully, to (edit force him) to his right. One difference is that unlike the Bucks game, Tucker was hitting his 3s last night and the Jazz weren't (opposite of Bucks game). Gobert probably is stepping up too much, allowing Capela to backdoor him, and we either have the wrong personnel on Capela (I saw several times where he was guarded by Rubio or Mitchell) (edit or failed to rotate to guard him). Bucks had two bigs to try to stop Harden's drive and defend Capella (not always successfully), and those bigs must be defended as they can hit outside shots.

Pick your poison. Harden step back 3s, with perhaps guards getting in foul trouble (it would be bad if Rubio or Mitchell have to sit for prolonged periods of time), or what we saw last night. If the Jazz play them straight up, the Rockets could also revert to switching to isolate and pull Rudy out of the paint, which they did repeatedly last year. It's not a good match up, and I'll say it again, whereas Gobert normally is key to the Jazz, the Rockets simply exploit him.

sipclip · Post #152 » by **sipclip** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 9:21 pm

Rauxcee wrote:Anyone else worrued the Jazz are going to role out with the same plan next game? Surely they cant possibly, but I'm worried they are going to give it anither go.

What a disaster. They also need to figure out how to score other than just hope the ball starts going in.

I'm scared to death. We actually ran a similar defense at times last year in the playoffs and it was a disaster. Just watching that clip is one of the most embarrassing things that I have ever seen as a jazz fan.

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tleikheen · Post #153 » by **tleikheen** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 9:32 pm

Sadly the defense was an admission that Mitchell ,Rubio ,O'Neal can't stay in front of Harden. Jazz overachievers looks even more exposed than last year against the Rockets.

SoCalJazzFan · Post #154 » by **SoCalJazzFan** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 9:43 pm

tleikheen wrote:Sadly the defense was an admission that Mitchell ,Rubio ,O'Neal can't stay in front of Harden. Jazz overachievers looks even more exposed than last year against the Rockets.

Well, how many players in the entire NBA can guard Harden effectively? Considering he has more consecutive 30 pt games than everyone not named Jordan and Wilt, the answer is not many.

Guard him straight up (or try to) and he will get to the free throw line and/or use his patented step back 3. Even worse for the Jazz, let the Rockets switch and isolate Gobert and make him look foolish.

Double team him, or use the odd tactic of forcing him right but cutting off the rim as the Jazz did last night, and it opens the rest of the team to beat you with open shots or Capella back doors.

As much as we are waiting for the Warrior dynasty to end, we are also waiting for the Rockets to atrophy and age out, hopefully as early as next season.

KqWIN · Post #155 » by **KqWIN** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 11:47 pm

How about we use the same tactic we used last year and this season to hold the Rockets to well below their season efficiency?

Giving Harden a straight line to the rim at half court is the dumbest strategy I have ever seen. It's one thing to lead him to his right hand, or even force him to go right. Going behind him does nothing for us. It gives him his left hand if he wants it and easy passing lanes.

We did not force him right. We made him dribble once with his right hand, and he was free to whatever the hell he wanted. If Quin doesn't let the players play defense, we will get blown out by 20+ every single game. There has to at least be an attempt to guard him. We can't willingly get behind him at half court for no reason.

KqWIN · Post #156 » by **KqWIN** » Mon Apr 15, 2019 11:54 pm

Read on Twitter

BudTugly · Post #157 » by **BudTugly** » Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:39 am

If Harden shot the ball out of his butt that defensive adjustment would have been perfect.

Rauxcee · Post #158 » by **Rauxcee** » Tue Apr 16, 2019 1:17 am

KqWIN wrote:

Read on Twitter

dr0welf · Post #159 » by **dr0welf** » Tue Apr 16, 2019 3:56 am

stitches wrote:
sipclip wrote:
stitches wrote:Watch the press-conference after the game. The Jazz think they did well with their defensive plan and I can understand it to an extend because they managed to limit Harden. They made him shoot 27 times for 29 points. The plan seems to have been to force Harden to pass the ball and make the role players beat us... which they did. Just hats off to them.

I still think the defense was not the main problem in this game.
I have said all season that the offense was the problem but I think the defense set a horrible tone and it carried over to the offense. This is also a series that we are going to desperately miss Alec who was one of our best players last year in the rockets series. Korver better get his **** together or else we might as well give Allen those minutes to see what he can do. At least he has a future here.

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I think it looked ugly because usually we don't play that style and we are not used to see open players. But when you try to take away a single player (which again, IMO they did relatively well - if you told me Harden will shoot 27 times for 29 points I will take it every single time), you will have to suffer playing in 4 to 3 disadvantage on the rest of the court... Just HOU made us pay for it and their role players hit their shots. I am still not certain this is not a good plan. We don't have a perimeter defender who can guard Harden so the other option is to just let him go wild... I'm not saying this is the wrong strategy, it might be better than what we did... but what would you do?

Korver has been limited in the playoffs pretty much for the entirety of his career. I am having trouble imagining him getting much better now at age 38

Unfortunately this is a team game, so limiting Harden to less numbers by allowing the other 4 to shoot wide open shots isn't going to help and actually is pretty rough. Now if the team can close out quicker and someone rotates quick enough to stop the lob to Capella when Gobert comes out to defend then it might have actually worked. But alas I don't think we have anyone quick enough to recover and get back out to the corner once they hedge in like they were.

With our personnel I think this was a very horrible defensive concept.

KqWIN · Post #160 » by **KqWIN** » Tue Apr 16, 2019 4:15 am

I think it is the right defensive concept, but we went wayyyy to gimmicky. It should never get to the point where you are standing behind Harden at half court by choice. The plan will look much better with the defender attached to Harden and smarter help defense.

Last year we forced Harden right. This year, we're standing behind Harden and then letting him go whichever direction he wants.

HOU was also ready for this. They know exactly where to put their guys and Harden knows where to pass the ball. We made it extra easy by not putting any ball pressure on Harden.