Is there a worse offensive backcourt you can put together than Rondo, Caruso and KCP?
2020 NBA Playoffs
- Thread starter Swurv
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Yet people really think that will win a championship.. bubble or not lol.
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Too many fouls are called now
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Yes.
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Any backcourt with Bruce Brown for starters.
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Good to see the Rockets battle back. Lakers gave them fits in the first half with the double team/zone hybrid mix they threw at Harden. Russ played too wild and the Lakers made them pay. James figured it out and were able to comeback and take the lead after being down 21 pts. This is going to be a long series.. still think Houston wins in 7
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Lots of lazy fouls are being committed too.. It's not just on the refs
trojanfan12
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You must be a Celtics fan.
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True, but I mean in general for basketball. CBB is the worst offender of it. Every little touch is a foul now
trojanfan12
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The game went about how I figured it would. The Lakers jumped out to a big lead which they needed to do to let the Rockets know they now have their attention.
Figured the Rockets would make a run. They always will, even if they're shooting poorly from 3, because they have enough guys who can shoot it, that sooner or later, they are going to string together a few of them.
This might sound a little crazy, but I wonder if the Rockets defensive emphasis/improvement might actually hurt them a little against a team like the Lakers. It takes a lot of energy to defend against the Lakers size and to try to rebound with them (the Rockets have done better than I thought they could with that).
I'm not sure the Rockets fouls were lazy as much as the Lakers wore them down. Tired players start reaching instead of moving their feet.
trojanfan12
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Depends. Rondo can't shoot, but he's an excellent passer, sees the floor well and is the closest on the team to Lebron as far as being able to put guys in position to score easily.
KCP is streaky. So, if he's hitting, he's good. But when he isn't...it can get ugly.
Caruso probably shouldn't be on the floor much without Lebron being in there. He and Lebron have some kind of weird chemistry where they play really well together.
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Well no third quarter meltdown for the Celtics today is nice to see Rock!
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houston will adjust.. the lakers didn't do anything special to get the "attention" of the Rockets. They threw zone and double teams to Harden, which confused and for whatever reason, made the shooters gun shy. They kept making extra passes that would either lead to a turnover or end up right back into Russ hands for him to jack a three ball up.
This is going to be a long series, Houston won't be getting down 20 plus points early, and they probably won't get as hot from beyond the arc like they did in the third quarter. I actually think Carruso does better than Rondo for the most part, so I'm cool with Rondo getting more run.
Big x factor is PJ/RoCo getting into early foul trouble.. when PJ was off the floor, Lakers made that huge run. PJ got a bad break but he also made a dumb, lazy foul on Morris too.
I still have Houston in 7
trojanfan12
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It's going to be interesting to see what they come up with. The Lakers did the same thing to the Blazers and they never really figured it out.
Again, it depends on what the need is. Caruso definitely has a way of making plays out of nowhere. I think defenses kind of go to sleep on him. But as far as keeping the offense flowing, Rondo is much better than Caruso. With Rondo, there is a slight downtick because he's not Lebron (who is? lol), but when Caruso is at point, the offense slows way down and they run a lot more halfcourt/iso stuff.
I know that one game +/- stats can be a bit funky (AD was -7 for that game for example), but Rondo was a +28 while Caruso was only a +7.
That's the problem for the Rockets. When the Lakers decide to attack the paint aggressively, there really isn't much the Rockets can do about it except foul and hope the Lakers miss their free throws (which isn't a terrible strategy when you consider the Lakers are a poor free throw shooting team). PJ is as tough as a $2 steak and I'd love to have that guy on the Lakers. Every team needs a PJ Tucker, imo. But he's only 6'5" and not real athletic, so there's not a lot he can do when AD decides to be aggressive. And that's just AD, Lebron and Kuzma are both bigger than anyone on the Rockets.
I have the Lakers in 6. While I agree that we won't likely see the Lakers jump out to a 21 point leads or the Rockets shoot like they did in the 3rd quarter, I think the combination of the Lakers size and the Rockets coming off a tough 7 game series will wear them down. They looked spent in the 4th quarter. I think Westbrook will have a game where he goes off and that will get the Rockets another win.
Having said that, if the Rockets can figure out a way to get Harden loose, they can keep the same energy for the whole game and can get Westbrook going...they would have a great chance at taking the series.
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