On my NBA-wide site Both Teams Played Hard, I have just introduced the pilot episode of a new video series called All in the Game. The goal will be to break down some of the finer points of NBA basketball and hopefully have a little fun in the process.
For Episode 1, I focused on the Roy Hibbert/Brad Miller matchup last Friday. It was pretty ugly to watch the big fella guard Brad live. It was even worse watching clips over and over in slow-mo while making the video.
Obviously, Roy isn’t this bad on D normally — Miller just presents a very tough cover for him and he never really got a feel for how to play him. Honestly, he really should have made some adjustments. It was pretty bad. So while I know plenty of fans questioned why Roy wouldn’t be playing late in the fourth considering he had played so well offensively, it’s hard to fault Coach O’Brien for saying “enough is enough” and throwing Josh McRoberts out there so that Houston couldn’t continue to exploit the Miller/Hibbert matchup.
But enough from me.
Judge for yourself.
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Jared Wade founded 8 Points, 9 Seconds in 2009 and has written about the NBA for outlets including ESPN, Sports Illustrated,TrueHoop, Hoopspeak, Both Teams Played Hard, and Hardwood Paroxysm. Follow him on Twitter @Jared_Wade and @8pts9secs.
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Jared, this is consistent with the visual that Zach Harper put in the recap he did for the game at Sacramento last season:
http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2009/12/game-16-recap-8p9s-goes-swinging/
Zach’s scale would have said that Brad Miller was keeping Roy somewhere between Michael Olawahibbert and playing 4 on 5.
How is this Roy’s fault exactly? He’s a traditional big man guarding a big man who has become more and more of a outside player as his career has gone on. Plus he was on fire. Even wide open, I would not put money on Brad Miller hitting 3 3′s in a row. Why didn’t they put Hibbert on Scola who is more of a post player and has attempted one 3 all season? Plus they should have been feeding Hibbert the ball on offense to punish the Rocket’s small lineup.
It’s hardly news that Roy isn’t goint to be very effective guarding permineter oriented big men.
Well analyzed and put together, Jared. Excellent work. I’m looking forward to the next one.