Thing is... lot of Pacer's opponents see their scoring go up when they play against them. Accounting stats goes up for both teams. Rocket's scoring looked better by their standards, but has more to do with the Pacers than organically being better. Problem with this type of match-up is Pacers built their team this way. They have the personnel, and they been at it longer. They prefer their opponents to play their style than your own. There's likely a stat out there to effect of when Pacers and their opponents score above X points, Pacers win Y % of the times. They have an identity. Offensively lot of movement and relocations. Defensively, they hide Haliburton. Funnel you a certain way where you can score a lot, but there's a Turner lurking for that block. When your scoring 'appears' to be easy, and playing at the fast pace, you wouldn't for example hunt Haliburton on defense. Them Pacers Bucks games. Giannis can go off, but in a high scoring game, Pacers' scoring can usually put pace them. I'm not mad at the Rocket's strategy to play fast, but the lessons taken away from the loss is maybe different than others who watched the game. The Pacer's style works around the NBA, but to an extent. They can win games, but they're also not top 3 in the east for a reason.
His last five games: 20, 10, and 6 with 1 steal on 47% shooting 15, 10, 1, with 2 stocks on 50% shooting 24, 13, and 8 on 71% shooting 10, 10, and 5 with 2 steals on 36% shooting 31, 12, and 7 with 3 stocks on 61% shooting Only one of those would I straight-up call bad, and even then it was still a double-double. It wasn't his best game, but he still wasn't the main problem tonight. Main problem was the bench. Cam and Unc had bad nights, and Tate & Holiday can't buy a bucket that isn't set up for them on a platter.
+ Adams doesn't want to run as well. If our identity is running and pace, then we must get rid of both Sengun and Adams. Fred as well. We must decide this: Low basketball IQ tunnel vision runners or smart team basketball? For me our biggest problem is shooting and spacing. We don't have consistent shooters. I like Amen, but he will never be good at shooting, same as Ben Simmons.
Rockets outrebounded Pacers by 23 and shot 48% from 3 and still lost.......Pacers are just a scoring juggernaut.
Loved the 30 pt game by JG But in my opinion the story of this game is how TJ Mcconnell scored 17 points and managed to turn the game around late in 3rd quarter
Actually, he really doesn't do a lot of twisting odd angle shots...his shots are by and large pretty ordered and straight forward. Pull up elbow jumpers, 3's (ever notice they are hardly ever CORNER 3's...of course the fact that he sits waiving his hands and doesn't get the ball has a lot to do with that). Also, as Calvin pointed out , going to the basket, rebounding and doing put backs because there "were few shots for him " in the 2nd half.
Gave up 64 points in the paint...meanwhile we are missing bunnies left and right. Played more than well enough to win. I keep coming back game after game to defense.
When teams play in transition you'll hear the saying scoring quickly before the other tema's defense is set. This is true. But it also applies to the opponent when they run fast break on us (layups and transition 3's). Then both teams ramp up their transition defense, in chaotic sequences, there'd be scrambles, where players miss bunnies around the rim.
I could not think back to one season when they were not missing bunnies.......a long time ago. Average shooting and missing layups have been the ongoing theme for years now. At least the undersized Morey Forwards era is officially over.
What was magic Johnson? Amen is a pg or point forward depending on the rotation. He is going o be great and will b our starting pg as soon as next year.
Memphis was the 5th ranked pace team last season going 51-31 with Adams playing 27mpg and the team enjoying the best NETRTG 5 man lineups with Adams "not wanting to run". If this team plays "smart" last night doing the same old PNR stuff with Sengun we lose by 20. I agree the shooting is bad, but its an effect of the poor spacing you mention. When the whole NBA knows you want to run PNR and kick if they cover the roll man then you become predictable. What this team needs is for Sengun to evolve to where he can be a pick and pop player on top of being a good roll man. Until then the blueprint is out on how to defend this team. When they can get out and run and offer something to break the pattern then it gives them a leg up, but its important to be able to wax and wane with manipulating the tempo to your desire and not being reactionary. If Amen will never be a good shooter then neither will Sengun. Do you agree?
the best thing about this loss and losing fred, is that jalenn played like a star, playing the westbrook role. He can indeed be our point until hopefully amen learns how to shoot. We dont need fred. We dont need to trade jalen either.
Udokas rotations need to be part of all interviews moving forward. The guy does some really questionable things with the roster.
This game was an expected loss without FVV and Eason, two of our best (if not our two best) defenders. Very predictable that the bench would blow it, I wish Udoka would stagger some starters in the bench lineups more especially when injuries make our bench so thin.
Amen has elite skills, not a elite player. It’s a BIG advantage having a 6’7 point guard on your team, passing advantage, rebounding and on ball defense. He is a point guard, he just have to match his mind speed with his handles…we have a Star point guard
There are advantages and also disadvantages of having a big pg. Generally the bigger you are looser your handles are. They snatch the ball away from you or you lose the grip of the ball. Generally you want your PG to be master at manipulating the ball. If he tightens up and improves his handles in the future he can be our pg if he doesn't he is a small forward. When i watch him i see a small forward not a point guard.
Why would a rookie be a finished product on any of his skills though? I think it's obvious he'll tighten up. It's not like he's turning the ball over a ton right now anyway--the statistics don't support the idea that he has major problems in this area. Eye test, yes, sometimes he makes ugly turnovers related to ballhandling. That's why I keep saying it's inconsistency, not lack of skill. The ugly ones stand out, but they don't actually happen that often.
Let Sengun handle most of the PG duties. The Nuggets don't have a PG; Jokic is their ball handler and protects the ball accordingly. Sengun is even smaller, so by your logic he should take care of the ball even better!
