Rockets have some time off to rest and recover. But also to practice something that doesn't cost anything but a point something FREE. Spurs are up 3-2 and we know the Spurs are going to hack-a-whoever we are seeing that in the clippers series and we saw that in the series finale with the spurs here were josh went 12-26 (and we lost by 1) I think the reason why the spurs use the hack-a is because they can't keep up with the pace. to void this strategy we have to be in the gym shooting at least 500 free throws daily. if we as a team shoot free throws at 70% we will beat the spurs. If anyone has any other agendas they would like to discuss please share.
Really, just FTs? I'd say FTs, 3pt shooting, more FTs, boxing out, strategy to get Ariza and Terry better and more open looks, FTs, defensive rotations, boxing out, FTs yet again, rebounding, FTs and yes: when to switch and when NOT to switch! Can you imagine Terry or Harden stuck on Duncan or TJ / Dwight on Parker, good lord, that scares the hell out of me!!!!
If the Rockets spend the next 4-5 day shooting 500 free throws a day, it will result in them shooting the same as they would have otherwise.
They're not going to improve their free throw shooting at this point in the season. In fact, the day before game 4, McHale gave Howard off of practice but told him to just go shoot free throws. Howard then had his worst free throw shooting of the playoffs the next night in game 4. So not only did he not shoot better after shooting a bunch of free throws the day before... but he shot worse.
they need to clean up these turnovers. way too many. the deeper the rockets go the more costly these become if they don't clean this up a bit.
Watch what the games from both Spurs and Clippers. Rest and prepare. Shooting FT's should be a given for this team. Hopefully they are doing that every day regardless of whether they have off or not.
do something offensively to limit those turnovers, it pains me seeing Harden at times going iso and lose control the of the ball. Also boxing out, its playoffs put a body man get some rebounds. They're pros though, these kind of things will be cleaned up. Good thing for now we have some recovery time.
a lot less of these plz. i dont care about lights out shooting. 20/20 is unacceptable period. no excuse. i'll settle for high 30s fg% and low 30s 3pt%, tho he should do better than that with all the open looks he gets. who knows if he'll even get open looks against a good defensive team [/IMG]
Whomever we play will pack the paint and make our shooters beat them 4 out of 7 games so Ariza will get his looks.
They need to cut down on the TOs and get a scheme in place to funnel Parker and Mills to Dwight because I know neither of our PG can stay in front of those guys. Of course, the series is already over for us if Ariza continues to shoot in the low 20%s from the field.
they need 4 or 5 really large speakers and put them on as loud as they can while howard, smith, and cap shoot ft's so they can get used to the noise
DEFENSE! The one time the Rockets beat the Clippers, they said they spent time game-planning against them. They need to work on their strategy to stop either the Spurs or LA.
Hire that douchebag couch from the Mavs that was trying to psych out Ariza from the sidelines before Harden iced them with his step back jumper in game 3. Have him do the same thing to our free throw shooters until they can make free throws in any sort of stressful, annoying situation. Then when everyone shoots 70+%, let each Rocket punch him once wherever they want, throw some greasy crumpled bills at him and kick him out on his ass. In all seriousness, free throws is what it's all going to come down to for the rest of the playoffs. We can win without hitting threes (thank God). We can't if we suck at free throws. Also, they don't need to shoot 500 free throws a day. They need to shoot a couple hundred well-thought-out free throws. They need to take each practice shot carefully, working on their rhythm and form with each one. They need to imagine situations where they're being hacked and they're pissed off, and then keep their composure through it and make those free throws anyway. They need to think hard as they're practicing to improve themselves. Shooting 500 or 5,000 free throws or threes or jumpers or whatever is pointless if you're just trying to get a cutoff number and are making (and reinforcing) the same mistakes each time. Quality over quantity practice.
Oh, another time-off agenda item: EVERYONE FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE YOUR DAMN LAYUPS AND PUT BACKS. I wish I had numbers for how many points we gave up just missing layups we should have made. I already know it's a lot. Can't be shooting ass from the arc AND miss points at the rim. That's literally, by dictate, our entire game plan: paint or threes. And go for the dunk first, guys.
