Joey Wheeler wrote:MyUniBroDavis wrote:Joey Wheeler wrote:
It doesn't matter if you're used to it or not. With 4 shooters on the floor, there's absolutely no stopping the ferocity of Westbrook's drives and he's one of the best players ever at finding shooters after driving into the paint. This is a sure fire formula for the Rockets to get consistently great looks from 3.
Then you have Harden half court ISOs, they're deadly, they put players in foul trouble and just like with Westbrook if you overcommit to stopping him he has the ability to find open shooters at will. There's no stopping the Rockets from getting consistent strong looks from 3; if their role guys are making them at a high rate, they'll be a massive problem for anyone.
While they can't indeed play AD off the court, they can seriously mitigate his defensive impact. I can see AD getting into serious foul trouble in some games of that series; a lot of the time he'll be protecting the rim alone against Westbrook running at him with a full head of steam or switched on to Harden at the 3-point line
I mean AD is the kind of center they specifically dont wanna go against lol, he might not have his usual rim protecting defensive impact but the idea is they play off centers and make teams play in a way that makes them uncomfortable, whereas all they do is force LA to put in their best lineup (AD at the 5) while stull having a huge rebound disadvantage over a series
Also, closing out on threes and defensive mobility is one of davis's strengths, not one of his weaknesses, unlike other bigs. If davis can play aggressive on the boards I doubt the rockets are a big threat
That's the thing though, there seems to be no formula to defend the Rockets. AD will have to be everywhere at the same time; if you pack the pain, you leave their shooters open; if you don't pack the paint Harden and especially Westbrook will destroy you.
For the record, I believe Davis is a clearly superior defensive and overall player to Giannis, but last night how even a very strong Bucks defense led by Giannis couldn't really stop the Rockets from generating quality 3-point looks at will. I don't necessarily expect AD to be much more successful. I think the main issue for the Lakers is they don't really have anyone who can contain Westbrook, his first step and explosion are too much and once you let him gain a head of steam you're in big trouble. Harden in isolation will of course also very extremely hard to contain. And those are the two main sources of all the quality 3s the Rockets get.
On the flip side, Lebron and AD will feast on the Rockets' lack of rim protection for sure, but I think the Lakers risk running into a math problem where they're scoring 2s and the Rockets are scoring 3s. Neither Lebron or AD are great 3-point shooters and the roster in general isn't really built to withstand the kind of 3-point barrage the Rockets have the potential to put on them on a great night.
I get what ur saying, but the thing about the rockets is that theres a direct tradeoff for having pretty much 0 rim protection, and it goes beyond 2s vs 3s
Threes are more volatile that twos over a series, you can shoot anywhere from 20-50% in a game. The rockets themselves average 35% from three since the capela trade which isnt anything special, its more they take so much. 2s otoh are much more reliable
They sacrifice rim protection, beyind just size they literally dont have rim protection, and More importantly rebounding, and they try to work around this by playing centers off the court but they cant do that to AD
The bucks win is impressive but the bucks were hardly great, and None of them played above 34 minutes (harden played 34 minutes but the other guys played their usual minutes), the bucks were off from three, and the rockets hit 27/31 fts and only had 9 turnovers to the bucks 22.
Lopez is a great defender but he cant guard the perimeter, unlike AD. They beat us in the boards last time but that was prolly a freak game since they somehow were getting everything. Our advantage on the glass and the fact that AD can stay on the floor as a 5 and still provide that rebounding advantage is huge (lopez is great but he cant guard perimeters like AD, but he was still effective it seems)
We cant play dwight or javale i agree
The rockets obv can win through going nuclear but they havent in like 4 years, and as much as it was against the warriors, their defense is what stepped up in the playoffs, their offense kinda regressed.
Its not as if theyve been unbeatable anyway, theyre 13-6, off rtg vs def rtg if 115 to 113 ish. Theyve had good wins, but some bad losses too
