Jazz have right idea, wrong personnel

看板UTAH-JAZZ (猶他爵士)作者RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)時間19年前 (2007/04/25 22:02)推噓20(20推 0噓 7→)

留言27則, 7人參與討論串1/1

Jazz have right idea, wrong personnel Charley Rosen / FOXSports.com Posted: 4 hours ago Pity the poor Jazz. They achieved nearly everything they set out to accomplish in Game 2 on Monday night, yet still lost to the Rockets, 98-90. Obviously, the focal points of Utah's game plan were Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, and here's what they had in mind: Above all, Jerry Sloan's design was to have Carlos Boozer attack Yao's huge but slow-footed defense. He knew that Yao would be guarding Boozer because Mehmet Okur is strictly a stand-still outside shooter who operates far beyond Yao's comfort zone. On most of Utah's offensive sequences, then, Boozer was stationed at the high post where Yao was forced to guard him face-to-face. On the several occasions when Boozer received the ball in the pivot, he usually turned and faced Yao. One dribble either way (mostly left) before stopping and popping, or else a straight catch-and-shoot, were moves that easily left Yao flat-footed and helpless. In all, Boozer was 8-for-14 from the high-post versus Yao, and 3-for-4 when he faced up Yao in the pivot. But Boozer was also able to take Yao to the basket off the dribble from both the high road and the low road ─ 3-for-5 on these moves. In addition, Boozer beat Yao downcourt on a fastbreak for a solo dunk, shot 1-for-2 off curls, and 1-for-1 on screen/fades. For the game, Boozer was 17-for-30, with 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 41 points. Only two of Boozer's points were tallied when Yao was on the bench. An excellent strategy perfectly executed. At the other end, the Jazz planned to have Okur (35 minutes) and Jarron Collins (11 minutes) defend Yao straight up without the benefit of double teams. With Okur blocking three of Yao's shots (and Andrei Kirilenko another), Yao shot only 9-for-24 in accumulating 27 points. Another excellent strategy, this one executed with plus-results. The Jazz tried three different defenders against T-Mac ─ Derek Fisher, Matt Harpring and Gordan Giricek ─ with mixed results. Although Fisher was able to beat McGrady to the hoop for a total of four layups, his relatively miniscule stature (6-1 to T-Mac's 6-8) allowed McGrady to simply catch, turn and shoot too often and too easily. Harpring's aggressiveness on defense almost compensated for his lack of foot speed. McGrady failed to embarrass Harpring mainly because his 3-point attempts were off the mark (1-for-8). Indeed, many of T-Mac's long-distance dialing was done while he was off-balance. His release was also too bottom-heavy, so the ball left his hands with too tight a spin, and thereby frequently fell far short of the mark. Harpring sought to go right at McGrady in the same fashion that Boozer attacked Yao. But Harpring's maneuvers included hard cross-cuts along the baseline, a few curls and several post-ups. In response, T-Mac took Harpring into the pivot once and scored an easy bucket. All told, Harpring was 7-for-14 for 14 points ─ most of these tallied against McGrady. Giricek likewise did a yeoman's job of playing McGrady chest-to-chest. Even so, McGrady made a host of spectacularly twisting fadeway jumpers. At the other end, Giricek fired mostly blanks on several curls ─ 2-for-6 for 4 points. For sure, McGrady wound up with 31 points, but he only shot 9-for-29 from the field. Still another excellent strategy, this one accomplished in only a barely satisfactory manner. So, by limiting the Rockets' big guns to 18-of-53 shooting ─ just 33.9% ─ and by defensing the Rockets well-enough for them to shoot only 36.1% as a team, how did the Jazz lose? Because the home team was much quicker and more athletic, and therefore able to get into the lane and draw fouls. Houston was 34-for-38 from the stripe as opposed to Utah's 13-for-17. Because Chuck Hayes had a monster game in a supporting role ─ 5-for-5, 12 rebounds (7 offensive) and 12 points. Because Okur had another bum game on offense ─ 2-for-9 for 4 points. Because Deron Williams' offense was slighted. He was 6-for-13, but three of those shots came at the end of the game when the result was already decided. Because Kirilenko was awful: On his first touch of the game, he committed a charge. His second touch resulted in a turnover. His third touch led to a backboard-shaking brick unleashed from the low-post. On his fourth touch, his dribble was stolen. His numbers were unacceptable ─ 0-for-3, 3 rebounds, 0 assists, 5 fouls, and zero points. (Okay, he did have two blocked shots.) In his less than 18 minutes of playing time, Kirilenko looked like he had no business being on the court. The Jazz lost because all of their discipline, their execution and their brilliant blueprint were undermined by their overall lack of quickness and individual creativity. How did this team ever win 51 games in the tough Western Conference? Because of Jerry Sloan's coaching, that's how. But not even Sloan's brainstorms can enable single-engine aeroplanes to soar with space-age rockets. At least not in the playoffs. http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6732590 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 59.42.97.119

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amonway

04/25 22:05, , 1^F

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CarlosBoozer

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04/25 22:07, , 3^F

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