First off, what an amazing game! Not just from a Rocket's fan point of view but also from a NBA fan point view. It was an instant classic. I don't want to take anything away from this game but I pretty worried about all the lay-ups we are missing, and I think it deserves some discussion. Tonight, in the fourth quarter alone, I counted four missed open to relatively open layups; DMo missed his usually automatic 4-foot hook and a driving finger roll, Jones came up short when he had Dellavedova on him and Smith mishandled the ball going up for a layup late in the game. I mean, throughout the season we have missed so many layups! This trend is both puzzling and worrisome. Puzzling because, theoretically, we have players that should finish well around the rim. We have guys with good to outstanding athletic abilities in Smith, Brewer, Jones, and Ariza (Johnson, Capela and to a lesser extent McDaniels count here but are yet to be determined on a NBA level). And we also have the those crafty guys that usually are good finishers in DMo and Pap (we will see about Prigs). Yet, all those guys mentioned are not particularly good finishers around the rim. And that's where the worry comes in. There are going to be games where missed layups will absolutely kill us, especially in the playoffs where easy scoring opportunities need to be converted every time. We cannot continue to work hard for easy scoring opportunities and then leave them short. People in the GARM say that if we had good shooters around Harden, he would average 8-9 apg easy but if the guys could finish around the rim better, he could get up to double digit assist every night. If our offense is going to be centered around paint shots, free throws and the 3 point shot, it's even more worrisome as this team is not really proficient at any of those shots. We are a mediocre three point shooting team, a bottom-tier free throw shooting team and a below average team at finishing around the rim. Only Harden is proficient at those shots and he is the one creating those shots for others I'm not saying we have to be greater than 70% on our layups but we have to be better than we have been. As Clyde would say.. You gotta dunk that!
Dmo especially... Love his post play improvement, but he has to start dunking. Those euro floaters aint gonna cut it.
DMo's problem is he has no vertical. He only dunks when he is on a free run towards the basket. I'm pretty sure if he tried to dunk it more around the basket it wouldn't go well unfortunately. Tjones has no excuse tho. He needs to tear down that rim every time he's around the basket. Make it so people won't even want to try to block him cuz they won't want to get on the poster
Cavs were missing lay-ups too. It was such a physical game that guys were anticipating contact that never came and it caused them to miss.
That's how it's gonna be in the playoffs every game. You've gotta learn how to deal with the contact and not let it bother your shot.
I don't want to make excuses for anybody, but TJones in the 4th quarter and OT looked dead. What'd he play 42 minutes? Maybe more? He was gutting it out but I'll chalk up some of those misses up to fatigue. He also made some tough layups throughout the game.
Breaking news: Coach Mchale has mandated that each player do 200 lay ups in practice before they are allowed to do it in a real game.
Jones looked like he was shooting the ball from too low when he was around the rim. he may have been tired late, but i saw some of the same stuff late in the game as well. slightly related point. say Howard comes back in good estate, if not necessarily 100%, in time for the playoffs. crunch time in the playoffs- who do you want at PF w/ Howard? Smith, Jones, D-Mo?
I'm not too worried about the missed lay-ups by DMo and TJones. They both occurred in the 4th in a huge game. I have to believe that there were some nerves going on there as the game was winding down. Both players made a high percentage of highly contested lay-ups, hook shots, post scoring etc... prior to their misses in the 4th quarter.
Can't lie, I was getting mad annoyed by the amount of missed layups last night. DMO have to get stronger in the post. I always hate seeing him fall down to his knees try to bait refs for a call.
to add to that, beverly missed a fast break layup as well, i forgot when, maybe in the third quarter?
Bev cannot miss layups either. He understandably isn't a casual dunker. The problem may be that they exert so much energy on defense that on offense, they try to use finesse. TJ gets so pumped from dunks, we need more cowbell. Most of the blocks from last night's game would have been avoided with strong finishes. I mean come on, Mozgov is the perfect poster model.
