Interesting story here on the coaching strategies from Sunday. Hollinger gives Adelman big props, although most of us would agree his substitutions late in the game were pretty standard. Relevant excerpts below: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playo...?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-090427 Three games, three fantastic finishes and three underdogs who have given themselves a surprisingly good chance at pulling first-round upsets. Sunday wasn't such a shabby day for hoops, as it turns out, with the added bonus that the double-OT Celtics-Bulls game spared us from having to watch much of the Cavs-Pistons beatdown. What Sunday taught us more than anything else, though, was how important late-game strategy can be, especially when we get into playoff series in which the teams are more evenly matched. In all three games, there were crucial moments at which strategy made all the difference. Let's start with a common theme around these parts: If you're up by three points, and the other team has the ball with no timeouts and fewer than 10 seconds left, for goodness' sake, FOUL! I remain shocked at how many teams won't do this, and at how many unnecessary game-tying 3-pointers we've had to witness as a result. (Such a decision provided the entire backdrop for these playoffs. The Hornets failed to do it in the season finale against the Spurs and allowed Michael Finley to tie the game. If they had simply fouled, we would have three entirely different pairings in the West, with Blazers-Hornets, Nuggets-Mavs and Rockets-Spurs.) In the meantime, let's get back to the 3s, because we had two other games in which a team was down by three points in the final seconds. In the Rockets-Blazers game, it appeared to be an I-know-that-you-know-that-I-know-that-you-know situation. Blazers coach Nate McMillan seemed to think Rockets coach Rick Adelman would foul, and thus designed an inbounds play to get him a catch-and-shoot 3-point look right away. That covers one important strategic situation. Now let's talk about the other: substitutions. Late-game timeouts present coaches with unique opportunities to substitute offense for defense, or vice versa, knowing that the players they insert won't be needed for a possession at the other end. The way to do this correctly was illustrated by Adelman, whose Rockets had a two-point lead with 23 seconds left against Portland and still had two timeouts in his pocket. Knowing darn well that he'd use one of them if the Blazers scored, he took Yao Ming and Carl Landry out of the game and put in Aaron Brooks and Chuck Hayes. Subbing Brooks in was obvious, because the Blazers had four guards on the court; subbing Hayes was the genius part. The little-used sub hardly plays because of his inability to score, but is undeniably the Rockets' best interior defender now that Dikembe Mutombo is out. Hayes stepped up and took a charge on Brandon Roy, Adelman called timeout and got him out of the game before the Blazers could foul him and the Rockets were one win away from the second-round promised land. In fact, Adelman made the same Hayes-for-Yao, back-and-forth, offense-defense substitution three times in the final nine seconds, continually optimizing the units he had on the floor for the particular situation. The incorrect way to do it, on the other hand, was illustrated by the Celtics and Bulls … again and again and again and again. Rick Adleman substituted Chuck Hayes for Yao Ming on defense late against Portland. So while all three games were exciting, the tacticians in the audience saw three very different types of battles. Between the lineups and the timeouts, we had the basketball equivalent of a kindergarten class (Boston-Chicago) followed by a grad school seminar (Adelman vs. the Blazers) with the Bizarro series in between just to shake us up a little. At the end of it, perhaps it's not so surprising that Adelman's team is the one that's a game away from advancing.
It was an offensive foul. Adleman could sub Hayes out without the timeout. There was no threat to foul Hayes, who never had the ball.
I love Adelman and hope he stays our coach for a LONG LONG time to come. I don't think this guy gets enough credit on this board.
why would nate think adelman was fouling? Even bullard pointed out how adelman doesnt like to do it and adelman visibly told ron not to foul, ron was in his ear trying to convinvce him...
It actually didn't occur to me that we should foul the Blazer's the time Outlaw shot the three. Must have been the excitement and the beer, but I did wonder why Outlaw rushed to shoot as soon as he got it.
As usual, he "discovers" something out in the open, known by everyone who actually cares, and calls himself genius.
People hate him for doing this substitution thing that Hollinger is prasing. People hate him because he plays Yao too much (Yao's played more games this year than he has in several years....I don't remember the last time Yao played just a few games shy of a full season) People hate him because Chuck Hayes used to be a scorer under JVG and now he's not (never mind we have Scola and Landry now) People hate him because of a whole bunch of ridiculous reasons. It's not that I won't ever criticize a coach if he does something astronomically stupid...like say sitting Yao all game. However he's got infinately more experience and he gets infinately more feedback from the players on the court so that l will never claim to know more....like most people here on clutchfans.
I think he's just doing some analysis and pointing something out to the regular NBA fan. Everyone does not know all the in's and out's of the Rockets, much less know our typical lineup substitutions in crunch time.
I know this is old news but it's still fascinating how one play had such a huge impact on the playoff matchups.
Riiiight, because everyone in the nation watching that game last night knew what Chuck Hayes was being put in the game for, and knew exactly what was going on with all the subs. Sometimes, the obvious DOES need to be stated.
Was anyone else scared for a moment that the charge foul Chuck drew would actually put him on the free throw line? I had that thought and worried that the charge call would earn us nothing. hoho.
Or suppose Battier wasn't there for the block, Roy hit the layup, and Chuck got called for the blocking foul? That would be have been a worst-case scenario, because Roy could have given them the lead. To make big plays, sometimes you have to take big risks.
Adelman needed to take Artest out of the game more often this season when Ron stopped the ball on offense. I would have also liked him to play Deke and Wafer more this season... Also, Yao and Artest should never be on the bench at the same time, unless it's a blowout IMO. Although the use of the pick n roll has decreased in the past few years, the pick n pop we have going on now with Scola is money. Our team passing has also become pretty effective and our offensive sets aren't nearly as predictable as they were under JVG.
Hollinger picked Blazers win this series in 6, and now that's just a mission impossible, he is trying to find something to chew on beside his own damn words.
Quote me his "genius" declaration, if you wouldn't mind. Or for that matter, the "discovers" part. Prat.
