yosemiteben wrote:euphorbus wrote:He did change tactics between games, but you have to do it in the middle of a big game like this one, game six at home with a 3-2 lead. Instead, he kept to the "game plan," whatever it was, even though Miami was shooting 63% once again and making a mockery of his strategy.
Did you notice a difference in our defense and MIA's offense in the second half? How does that fit into this complaint?
1) The team actually did play harder, and with more aggressiveness, on defense in the second half. The Heat’s shooting percentage went way down. But the Heat still committed more shooting fouls than did the Hornets for the game: the Heat were 13-15 at the line, but the Hornets 21-25.
2) In terms of strategy, the Hornets doubled down on packing the paint, rather than changing it, leading to a number of missed shots or blocked near the basket and in the lane in the third quarter. Nevertheless, the Hornets failed to block out, and continued to give up offensive rebounds at the same rate. For the game overall, they had 83 shots to our 76. It’s hard to win that way. As a result of this strategy, the Heat continued to make three-pointers at a 50% rate: two in each quarter, with the last two coming from Wade.
3) Meanwhile, the Hornets took but one more three-pointer, and ended up shooting 5-17. I wrote in the game thread that Miami could not stop this team if they rained threes. It never happened, in part because Cody Zeller was the only one setting good screens, and he played half the number of minutes of Frank Kaminsky. Also, the Hornets never deployed their other two three-point threats, Daniels and Lamb. Daniels, not coincidentally, shot an astounding .484 from three in the regular season.
4) Also on the offensive side, Marvin Williams was 0-7 in 37 minutes, Courtney Lee was 1-2 in 40 minutes, and Jeremy Lin was 1-8 in 24 minutes. The team was tired, hurt and desperately needed some fresh shooters off the bench, plus someone---Hansbrough--to set screens and hit the offensive glass.
