The Defense Never Rests

Rockets working hard to shore up team defense

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Houston - For the past several years, defense was the foundation upon which the Rockets’ franchise had been built. It was their calling card. Their rock. Their constant.

When the club hit a scoring slump, Houston could still survive (and at times even thrive) due to the suffocating nature of its lockdown ‘D.’ The Rockets weren’t merely good at shutting opponents down, they were elite. And though not every Houston player was a lights-out, on the ball defender, collectively the five men on the floor could often combine to forge a nearly impenetrable wall, which is why few teams in the NBA could compete with the Rockets when it came to the proficiency they displayed at keeping the ball out of their own basket.

The goal is no different this year. But the challenge is greater. Without the injured Yao Ming patrolling the paint and with a host of new faces, the Rockets now have to find a way to make up for the loss of one of the league’s best rim defenders while simultaneously integrating all the newcomers into their system. So while most fans may be fretting about how the team plans to compensate for Yao’s contribution on the offensive end, the Rockets know it’s just as imperative that they make the necessary adjustments in order to fill the void left behind on the opposite end of the court.

“I think defense and getting on the same page defensively will be our biggest challenge this year because we have so many new people,” says the quarterback of Houston’s defense, Shane Battier. “In the past, we’ve had a core that’s been together for many years. We were very familiar with each other defensively so we didn’t have to spend much time on defense. But we’ve got a brand new group and it’s going to take a lot of time and repetitions to get the schemes right defensively.

“We want to play up and down offensively but it’s hard to play up and down when you’re taking the ball out of the net every time. You can only fast break if you generate turnovers and rebound the basketball.”

The Rockets found that out the hard way Monday night against Milwaukee when the Bucks scorched Houston for 37 second quarter points, capitalizing on the vast number of wide-open looks they received due to several breakdowns on the Rockets’ defensive end. For that reason, Tuesday’s film session was entirely focused on fixing those issues and ensuring the Rockets don’t suffer a repeat when the real games begin.

“We were awful (Monday) night,” concedes head coach Rick Adelman. “It’s as simple as that. The guys saw it: we gave them a lot of open looks that were unnecessary. We don’t have the margin of error we had before. We don’t have size around the basket. We have to do things as a team and if we break down we’re going to get beat. That’s what we showed them on film. It was really apparent when they saw it and we had a good practice (Tuesday). We were much more in-tuned to what we were trying to do but you just can’t do it when we do drill work – it’s got to carry over into the game.”

Step one of that process demands much better defense of the pick-and-roll, since that was the source of so much discontent Monday night. The Rockets are certainly not alone in their occasional struggles to defend the game’s most fundamental play – “Who doesn’t?” asks Adelman. “That’s why you see it 80 percent of the time in our league.” - but there’s little solace to be found by simply being a part of the overwhelming majority. Breaking free from the pack means a return to the basics, beginning with the lesson that, when it comes to defending the pick-and-roll, less almost always means more.

“In the pick-and-roll situation, you have to be able to guard it with two players,” says Battier. “If you have to defend it with three players or more, there are obviously going to be open shooters on the perimeter and open spaces for the offenses to attack and that’s what happened against Milwaukee: our pick-and-roll defense was getting broken down, we were forced to help and that left the three-point line wide open – and defending the three-point line is something we’ve done great the last couple years – all in the name of trying to protect the paint.”

Part of the answer, of course, lies in nothing more than simple repetition; the more time guys get to play with one another, the better they’ll be both individually and as a fully-functioning, cohesive unit. But clearly one can’t simply press the fast forward button, speed through the process and approximate the value of having played several seasons’ worth of games together. So how does a team manage to make up for its relative lack of experience and still taste success in the interim? It begins by cranking up the level of intensity.

“You can erase a lot of mistakes schematically if you just play with energy,” says Battier. “As long as you make errors of aggression versus errors of omission, you can live with that as long as you’re taking steps toward solidarity on the defensive end. It’s when we’re passive and we make boneheaded rotations on defense and don’t think – those are the things that will kill us if we don’t eliminate them.”

Another tried and true way to foster improvement on the defensive end: increase the chatter. Just as it is within any relationship, communication is of paramount importance for teammates as well. There is no room for shyness or timidity; fresh-faced rookie or seasoned vet, players must learn to speak often and with authority if they aspire to success on the court.

“It sounds corny but I believe when you are loud and demonstrative, you’re going to play more aggressive,” Battier explains. “And I think that also puts doubt into the offensive player’s mind. If I come out and play the pick-and-roll and whisper, ‘blue, blue, blue’ - which is one of our coverages - you think Kobe Bryant is going to think twice about going right around that, versus me coming out and yelling, “BLUE! BLUE! BLUE!?” Maybe it’s just psychosomatic but just by being demonstrative you can create an edge on defense.

“That’s one of the things I’ve talked to David Andersen about: he’s been around a long time and played pro basketball longer than I have but he’s soft spoken on the court and I told him, ‘Hey, that may work in Europe but it doesn’t work in America.’ You have to be loud, you have to be proud and it’s not only the man playing defense on the ball-handler who has to hear you – your entire team has to hear you. So the louder, the better.”

All those lessons (and more) are currently being learned, digested and applied. That’s what preseason is for, after all. And for all the fussing and fretting, it’s important to recognize that the Rockets’ defensive sky is by no means falling. Houston adjusted at halftime of the Milwaukee game and limited the Bucks to a mere 33 points in the second half. The Rockets still rank 7th overall in defensive efficiency during the preseason. And with stalwarts like Battier, Trevor Ariza and Chuck Hayes on board, there’s no reason why Houston shouldn’t be able to maintain its defensive integrity once the regular season begins.

Will there be unique challenges this time around? Absolutely. But the pieces are in place. Now it’s just a matter of making the proper adjustments, applying some tweaks when needed and conducting a little experimentation to ensure that Houston’s trusted, reliable foundation stands firm once again.

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