In our first game, we lost the turnover battle 7-12 and the offensive rebound battle 12-4. Offensive rebounds killed us in the first half when 6 of their 9 baskets came on offensive rebounds. Aside from that, I felt our defense was good, forcing misses, but we were unable to finish the possession. They were 18/41 overall (43%), and just 5/22 from 3. Defensively, that should be good enough to win, particularly because we only gave up one made 3 in the second half and no offensive rebounds.
However, we were only 36% from the floor and 0/10 from 3. The flip side to that is we were above 50% from 2 (12/23) because we got out and ran, executed set plays reasonably well, and attacked the basket. We seemed to get away from shooting inside-out 3s (off either paint catches or penetration) and instead shot them off slot-to-wing passes, which is going to yield in a more difficult shot.
In our second game, against Jordan, we did a great job limiting our turnovers (only six) and getting offensive rebounds (nine, on 38 misses, which means we offensive rebounded 25% of our missed shots; we did have two offensive rebound baskets). Unfortunately, we were only 1/17 from 3 (under 6%), and only 24% over all (12/50, meaning we were 11/33, or 33% from 2). We got seven early offensive attempts, but only converted three of them. We need to increase both.
Defensively, we forced 10 turnovers, but gave up 13 offensive rebounds (on 34 misses, meaning they offensive rebounded almost 40% of their misses). This negated a pretty good defensive job on our part - they only shot 32% overall (16/50) and were only 30% from 3. Defensively, aside from the high number of offensive rebounds, these numbers are good enough to win games.
Our problem was, clearly, our inability to make a shot. So why did we struggle? For one, we played hurried, which I think is indicative of the number of airballs we shot. We also played too much with the dribble, often missing an open passing window because the ball was bouncing. We need to space the floor better, getting wider at the wings and deeper in the slot. Most importantly, even with a 30 second shot clock, we need to get to a third side on ball reversal. This will get the defense out of position so that we can then use the dribble to attack or get something easy out of one of our four main actions: pass and cut, dribble at, jet cut, or post slide.
Tonight we will focus on executing our set plays more precisely so that we can generate easier shots, and playing with more patience and poise in the half court. Like Coach Chamness said after the game, all of our work is cumulative and will eventually pay dividends. Approach practice with a positive attitude and let's take another step forward tonight.
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