Warriors At Rockets Game 6: Was The Chris Paul Trade A Mistake?

Hello Sports Fans Coach Nick, here and this video is brought to you by the bball breakdown online membership, click the first link in the description below to learn more and join the Warriors. Last night they ended the Rocket season in six

game

s, surprising many since they were on the road and without their best player, but in an epic clash of styles, Golden State proved they were the tougher team, beating the hostile crowd , even more hostile refs and the individual brilliance of James Harden, but this isn't just about a closing

game

in a series. it's about how the Rockets put together their teams and their attacking philosophy on the court.

It's time to take a serious look at whether this is the best way to do things or if team basketball is once and for all about trust, energy and, most importantly, chemistry. The way forward in the first half of game six was clear that the Rockets were going to focus their defense on the only two true shooters on the clay floor and Curry seemed to work with Curry, who didn't score a single point in the first. half and on some of these shots it was embarrassing as he was clearly off his game, but klay Thompson kept them afloat with 21 crucial points and Chris Paul came to five feet of space, let's make Klay think about it before taking him down while the Rockets they want to change the pick-and-roll capela is two steps too late to get to the proper starting position and that's literally all the time in the room Clay needs to poke it in his eye.

It was strange to see the Rockets move on from Clay when he is clearly the only guy. that he can score in this particular lineup and again Chris Paul stunts on him and gets him completely lifted and leads to an open eight footer while James Harden runs the show for the Rockets and creates openings that finally get him they lead to him. Finding room for his patented step-back three-point shot on the left wing with Klay Thompson guarding him more than usual without KD in the lineup, he gets too far ahead and Harden rises above the competition for another three, but was extremely ineffective in the first half as Andre Iguodala was able to harass him and get help from Looney on this floater and Clay was great at catching him on the help where they got two big rotations and blocks from Jordan Bell unexpected but welcomed with open arms by Golden.

State finally got on the board with ten points in the third quarter, no one in the building would have expected another 23 points in the quarter and it started when Chris Paul lets himself be fooled by the slightest hesitation and allows Curry to come right in the middle of the lane to a smooth floater that rolls around and through the Rockets shot him three times during his trip down the court and resorted to yet another heart and I, with everyone watching and controlling Iguodala's contortion, two closely contested, three but avoiding any contact. To force the error, the referees left out a series of calls that seemed to favor the Rockets, so I guess the basketball gods decided to even things up by allowing Dream On to not only slap Capela on the wrist so hard that you could hear its speed inside. cappella, but then somehow the referee gave the ball to the Warriors, the Rockets doubled curry in the pick-and-roll online and this goes back to the pre-KD days where draymond was getting short throws and taking big ones decisions.

Capela must rotate to stop the ball and harden must turn down, he arrives late and Looney continues his strong play for two. The Warriors try to draw the double team again but Tucker recovers so it becomes a return pass to Curry who just throws this from 30 feet and buries it and suddenly the Warriors are in control, Curry hits his hand left already injured in this possession and the television coverage should let us see how Curry ended up on an island against Harden, who stops and drops the layup on another short roll. by draymond, he makes a

mistake

by diving into cappella in the hope that the refs will throw him out.

The Rockets have a chance, but Draymond runs past Harden on the other end and gets shoved pretty hard, which doesn't justify the green head snap. but there is no other way to see it. This play gets tougher. The chicken wing goes too far and the referees have to call it for only two. The Rockets against whom this pick and roll and curry again get to work on Tucker. Defense is naked salad. and the challenge is there but Curry hits him with some dribble combos and ironically takes a step back and this one was just impressive, in fact it was so impressive that James Harden decides to throw a bounce pass to Chris Paul who doesn't .

He comes back for the ball and Klay Thompson surprises the arena by stepping in and stealing it. This week it's white like Hamlet checking an old ball or something, but since they're not in the bonus, they have to commit the foul and stop the clock. five harden gets the half court screen wish i wasn't ready dreyman doesn't want to foul so he keeps backing off and let's let harden set it and this was the do or die moment the

rockets

changed their curry defense and caught him outside the pick-and-roll again, this time harden is in the right place to take away the pass from Looney green shoots the ball to Iguodala and here is the

mistake

Chris Paul makes, he takes two steps towards the corner even though even dalla had been hot throughout the game, you take a chance on him by shooting him, since the alternative is what happened.

Klay gets the ball on the left wing, neither Tucker nor Paul can get there in time and Clay sticks the dagger and twists the knife in the game. ends with Curry making his free throw, he hasn't missed one in the fourth overtime of a playoff game since 2015 and the Warriors advance to the Conference Finals. The real question in this series is whether the Rockets made the right decision in hiring Chris Paul. First, let's go back and examine the

trade

they made with the Clippers in 2017, the Rockets were forced to give up seven players and one first-round pick the Clippers ultimately got thanks to that

trade

was Lou Williams Montrezl Harrell.

Patrick Beverley and Danilo Gallinari are the backbone of a surprising Clippers team that took the Warriors to the same number of games as the Rockets and it's worth wondering if the Rockets could have used those three players in their series against the Warriors instead of Chris Paul Williams averaged 21 points (7 points per game) and caused serious problems for the Warriors defense throughout the series. Patrick Beverly was such a driving force for them defensively that he got into Kevin Durant's mind and protected virtually everyone on the court by bringing defensive ferocity. that Houston just relaxed, Montrezl Harrell was someone the Warrior just didn't want to see on the court and his scoring was extraordinary despite only averaging 26 minutes per game as he scored on a ridiculous 73 percent of shots, the Warriors had no response, while Chris Paul's overall series numbers were somewhat in line with his regular season production for too many minutes, he would disappear and not have much impact on the game, as it was difficult to go into isolation mode total time and time again and Defensively he's just not the same dominant player he once was and it's unfair to expect him to be since he's 33 years old and playing in his 14th season, the Warriors were able to bother him down low when they caught him with a mismatch due to all the changes.

The Rockets defense does and I know that in the past he has been more effective in these situations than he is now. Compare him to Patrick Beverly and you'll see a more dynamic, athletic and effective defender in every way. He just wouldn't let the size of him. be a problem against the Warriors and his tenacity on the ball was unmatched by anyone in this year's playoffs, on top of that, Beverley lit up the nets behind the arc by hitting 43% of his five attempts per game, compared to CP's lean triples. 31.4% from three and you could even argue that he would have been better off with just Beverley instead of Paul.

We've seen the Rockets time and time again be willing to treat their players like pawns on a chessboard, assets with no sense of chemistry and as long as it gets them going. in a position to win on paper, it seems as if there is a glass ceiling for them. I'm not willing to say it's a question of offensive style. Completely scoring the ball isn't really the problem, but as Steve Kerr told me in the past, there's a reason. the Warriors don't run many pick and rolls and the same could apply to all the Rockets isolations if your pick and roll run over and over again three guys are standing there and losing some juice, it's not clear what the Rockettes are intending to do.

They will do it this offseason, but they will undoubtedly be very active in the market to move more of those pieces around the problem: they are committed to their big three for three more years and have almost no cap space to play with the contract and age by Chris Paul. making him non-tradable and moving cappella doesn't open up much room anyway, the Warriors also learned a bit about themselves. They went from averaging 200 98.9 passes per game in the playoffs to making 325 last night and that led to their highest field goal percentage. from this series I'd like to think it's clear what wins in the NBA and should be a model for all lower levels and when you lock yourself into a stat stripping style without enough attention to nurturing the team at all levels you get the Rockets . a great team that can seriously threaten the defending champions but ultimately falls short