ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Clippers 1/18/2016

This just shows it's a team effort of fail.

As I always say, defense is always always always a team thing. A team plays for another, backs up each other, they would not let that guy go off like that.

 

defense is a team thing, no doubt.

but it starts with your leader (or supposed leader). always.

 

Sometimes your leader isn't always your best player though. Sometimes it's not a player at all but the coach. Sometimes teams have multiple "Leaders" it's not such a simple thing.

NOW, this doesn't excuse Harden's play or his seemingly aloofness. Just that he's not the only one leaving guys wide open, giving up lay-ups, and all the good stuff we come to expect from the Rockets.

 

what you said isnt wrong.

but again, it all STARTS with harden.

those "sometimes" scenarios obviously dont apply to this current rockets team. harden is the only and clear cut "leader".

 

We need a coach man we have talent, we should be running plays like that for Thornton thought the game. Lawson should be our point guard with harden cutting to the basket that **** would be unstoppable. So damn sad

 

Everyone seems to think Harden is MJ even the coaching staff. They created an ISO monster and now that Harden is struggling everyone is mad. You get a better coach and we'll be fine. James played great Sunday night and people were still complaining about him. There are a lot of people on this board who just don't like him and will b**** either way. He's not the leader Jason Terry is. Your best player is not always your leader. If stars should be leaders then why does no one put that same pressure on Dwight instead of an immature 26 year old.

 

1st play: Trap JJ in the corner, force him to cut baseline and clog up the passing lane rather than chase him around (2 screens). Why chase this man around the 3 pt line? You know he likes to run around it. You know Dwight is there to help just in case with Deandre damn near at the 3 pt line. Force Reddick to make that pass (possible steal/turnover) and hack Deandre when he catches it (foul trouble? Who cares we are deep).

I would put Ariza on Reddick and Harden on Pierce to begin the game and let him make this decision just so he JJ doesn't get hot from the start (coaching error). We also get more transition opportunities with Pierce having to chase Haren up the court.

2: Harden should get back on defense because that is a terrible angle to grab O rebounds from. Ariza already has Pierce boxed out as well so He can get that rebound. If he wants to crash then he should be guarding Pierce, not JJ who is known to shoot in transition. Pierce is older and slower, therefore easier to stop his pull ups in transition.

3: Ariza was ball watching. When Reddick sees that he is gonna run up with his hands out and call for the ball because he wants to catch and shoot it. Hard to blame Ariza, because it was deep...but he already made 2 in a row. Also, you know there is someone in the corner on your side, why not deny the passing lane and force the ball handler to make a play rather than feed the hot shooter? Take away their spacing.

4: Harden didn't get the call and instead of instantly finding his man after the turnover (who is wants to attack in transition after you attack him or a turnover) he gets lazy. If I am the coach I see that and consider subbing Harden out for rest before the 4 minute mark from now on even if it's just for a quick breather. Not sure why Jones didn't follow Reddick (once he didn't stop his baseline drive/beat him and draw the charge) to the other side with an out stretched arm coming down on and blocking this midget like Capela does.

5: Why didn't T-Jones run to the corner once he saw his man cheating off and doubling Harden? He could have hand more time to get that shot of his off.

Harden had no idea where the shooter was and Reddick put as much distance as he could between them and hid while Harden tried to grab the rebound. You box out the shooter, grab the long rebound, and trust your teammates. He didn't need to be that close and that was the perfect time to play the passing lane too.

6: See 3. Also seems like Howard doesn't know which hand Reddick shoots with.

7: Harden tells Reddick I am denying you the ball, so he knows he should go baseline or to the corner 3 (take what the defense gives you). Both Harden and Capela ball watch...WHY? The Clippers game is to drive and kick it out to there open shooters. Capela should have stayed in that corner 3 zone, he didn't need to come over to help. YOU DO NOT BALL WATCH THAT MUCH AGAINST TEAMS WITH SHOOTERS. If you want to do it against a cutter then you deny him the cut while you watch and use your hands to tell you where he is and where he isn't.

What is going on that they are so worried about? A CP3 Deandre pick and roll. That's easy to stop. Foul Deandre on the catch and know CP3 is looking to draw the foul so beat him to the spot and draw the charge.

Pat should have denied that pass to Paul as well because he is there playmaker. Even if all you make them waste is 1 second that is better than nothing. Dwight should have denied the ability to set that screen so easily for Deandre. Put a hand on him and that will help.

The biggest mistake is Beverley. Why is he playing there best play maker/penetrator that close on the catch that far out? If he is gonna do that then he needs to be shading him to the middle because the left corner is empty (a good indicator is there is a man at the top of the arc). If he is a few steps back, Deandre can set the pick and he can quickly go under it (or over it if he sets it low) because he gave himself room, now Deandre has to reset and you can trip over his foot when you go over and it's a foul.

8: See #1. JJ is in the corner and acts like he is out for the play so Harden backs off. Dumb mistake. Why? There wasn't any single reason to sag off the best NBA shooter that much. I guarantee Harden gets more steals if he denies there best shooter close and keeps him tucked away in the corner with way less gambles. Harden gives his teammates no chance to play defense. They can get beat early, learn, and adjust, and start predicting the other teams offense. Instead, Harden keeps them guessing the entire game making it impossible for them.

9: See #1. Why do they double Deandre that hard? Just foul him on the catch.

10: Unsure why Harden didn't try to attack Deandre, draw the foul, then back off and reset if he didn't get the call. You get to the rim on Deandre, sell him a pump fake and he will go for the block, easy lay up. If he is out of the play and Paul comes to help (who was cheating off his man all night) then you sell him the pass fake to Terry and lay it in, or hell, pump fake, pass fake, different pump fake (fully extended), pass to Terry.

On the second screen, Ariza should know there is a GREAT chance they are gonna double Harden with Deandre down low (teams have been doing it a lot lately) and slip cut in to catch the ball near the FT line, and go for the right handed lay up, or draw in Deandre and alley to Dwight. Pierce can't jump or run so it's easy to get the ball around him with a quick lob. I like the jump pass CP3 and Crawford use to get it over the defense when they get doubled on screens. Harden should drive in, bait them before this pass to get them to commit to the double which would make the pass easier to complete.

Can't blame Harden for that 3. The man was hot by then and he played the transition game perfect. I blame Dwight for not securing that rebound. He needs to come down, stick his butt out and either keep the ball high so they can't strip it or wrap up and secure the ball. Then he can either go back up or kick it out. If he does that he sees Terry wide open in the corner for the 3 and we tie the game instead of going down 6.

11: Ty needs to realize CP3 is calling a play and harass him/go for the steal. Force the action. Paul also has this tendency to want to dribble it on the same side he wants to pass it to. That means you can even play the passing lane and intercept that steal or just take away the entire play to begin with and force him to pick up the ball or drive.

Harden and Ariza can switch when Reddick stops under the rim. Force the action, keep them guessing. They ended up switching later which worked, then Harden decided to be Harden. Pierce drives (gets trapped) and he knows Harden always sags off when someone drives so he looked for Reddick and bailed them out instead of trusting his teammates and giving them a chance to beat them with defense and learn throughout the game.

In conclusion, Harden is the worst individual, help, and team defender. He doesn't trust his teammates on (either) side of the ball. He doesn't like to space the floor for them on offense either.

 

"Everyone seems to think Harden is MJ"? who? certainly not me. never.

"You get a better coach and we'll be fine"? you dont know that for certain. no one does.

"James played great Sunday night and people were still complaining about him"? its against the fakers. harden got his #'s and that's it. it was a no show on defense by both teams. of coz ppls have sth. to complain about the defensive effort, esp. for the 1st quarter when the game was close. and guess where the lack of defense started?

"Your best player is not always your leader"? that could be at times. so are you saying harden is not the leader of this team now? if so, then i agree wholeheartedly.

 

What everyone expects from Harden is on Jordan's level. By all of the comments and criticisms if he played the way people wanted him to he would be on Michael Jordan's level. No Harden is not our leader I don't know why people keep saying that. Why not the 30 year old thats been in the league 12 years?

 

Harden is the best SG in today's NBA and a top 10 SG of all time. There is nothing wrong with comparing him to the bests at his position if you want him to learn. Jordan didn't win his first championship until he was 29, so maybe he will figure things out eventually.

Harden is already a much better 3pt shooter than Jordan at this stage of his career, and he's been getting to the line more than Jordan (not so much this season).

 

what most cf's here expected and have been demanding is a little decent effort, and also stop being a ball stopper on offense, for god's sake.
now that's not talking about mj's level, is it?

so now you're saying harden is not the leader. lol. so does this preclude him from being mvp or an all time great? according to harden himself, he's clearly the best in the league.

 

Truth is, Rockets lost their leader.

Terry was never the leader, he can't be with the minutes he plays. You do see that when he does play though there is a lot more communication and togetherness when he comes in.

Truth is, as much as McHale sucked with strategy and rotations, he did have a voice. I don't think the players take "Play Harder." the same from Bickerstaff as they did McHale. When McHale wouldn't let a b2b be used as an excuse or basically how he'd blame every loss on a lack of energy.

Now, I wanted McHale gone but I thought they'd replace him with a much better coach. So now we still have all of McHale's bad rotations and strategy but without the motivation.

The team just looks leaderless right now mainly. You'd like Harden to step up and fill that role but not everyone is meant for that role obviously.

 

MJ was actually 28 when he won his first title. When he was 26, the Bulls were en route to their first of 3 straight trips to the Eastern Conference Finals(they finally beat the Pistons the third time in 1991). Anyone think the Rockets look poised to be anything but first round fodder this season?

 

Harden is the leader whether you guys think so or not. He has been leading the Rockets for the past 3.5 seasons and teams have their entire game plans geared getting the ball out of Harden's hands and making someone else beat them. Still, that does not excuse Harden's poor defense. All the greats take pride in defense.

Imagine playing next to a guy who demands the ball so much while giving you little to no effort on defense. Your job is just to cover for his mistakes, play hard defense, and be ready to shoot when he finally passes you the ball. Then when you do play great defense he just stops because he wants to do everything and make his man beat him. It's toxic to the team.

 

Was that because he had a GM and a Coach that knew what they were doing or was it all MJ??? Keep in mind the Bulls were capable of getting to the second round without Michael. Just like the Warriors and Cavs are capable of getting to the second round without Curry and Lebron. Your star puts you over the top but he is not thing that always gets you there. The Rockets needs less one dimensional players and better coaching. They also need a coach that will hold Harden responsible.

 

I know you think it's wrong to compare the two, but Harden also averages the similar rebound and assist numbers to MJ on top of everything I wrote earlier. What Harden lacks in dunking, he makes up with crafty moves to the basket, what he lacks in pull-ups/faders/leaners, he makes up for with step backs and hop shots. He doesn't have the same post game as MJ, but MJs post moves didn't really develop until later after stealing some moves from Hakeem.

The biggest difference in their games is on the defensive side and Harden is not even on the same stratosphere. Jordan committed to defense and got so many steams just by playing smart defense and trusting his teammates.

That is why Harden is barely a top 10 SG, and maybe a top 50 player of all time while Curry and LeBron are already in the top 25.

 

Harden is not the leader whether you want to admit it or not. Harden has never been a leader unless you mean in scoring?? He's always been bad at defense. he's always went to strip clubs. Nothing different he's just not playing as well as he has since last year. Jason Terry has been our leader since he got here a reason why Harden didn't want him to leave. Terry leads the huddle. Terry motivates the players it's not Harden. Your best player is not always your leader or captain. When Yao and Tracy were here Shane was our actual leader.

 

You lead on the court by example and you cheer on the bench. When a team needs a stop, or a basket, who do people look at? The guy on the bench or the guys making the most money?

Harden can lead you on offense and get you the basket, but I don't count on him to get the stop. Dwight is the opposite since teams just hack him either way and dare the refs to call it.

 

I agree we should be running more set plays like the one Thornton got in the 4th but the ty Lawson infatuation needs to stop.

I'm not sure what you guys are watching that make u believe he's a good player. Sure he gets in the paint ever so often and makes a nie dish to a big for a layup but at the same time he does that same thing and gets a bad TO.

All is see him doing is dribble around going no were. His main problem is team no he is not going to the paint looking to score. The only time he looks for his shot is off a screen for a pull up 18 ft jumper and the defense will take that all day.

Our offense is designed for the guards (harden and Ty) to attack the paint and look to score and when the defense collapses they have two options the lob to a big if the help comes from the center or an open corner 3.

That's all we did last year and it worked because we always had 4 players on the court who would shoot the 3 ball.

I like capela but we're not doing in favors to harden, bev, ty or ariza with him starting with dwight. It impossible to get in the paint, Hell even lebron couldn't get in the paint with that lineup.

We desperately miss DMO and jones not only for their passing out of the pick n roll with harden but also the spacing.

The games harden looks like his old self is the games he able to get in the paint and that happens usually when jones is in unfortunantly.

A healthy Dmo or even Ryan Anderson would help us so much.

Our defense is a problem but we can't keep going on these stretches were we don't score a point for 6-8 possesions straight. That's hurting the team more than rebounding defense or TOs.

All those things would regress to last years numbers if we didn't have so many offense lulls.

Of course our defense looks bad when we don't score for 5 staright minutes and the other team hits off for 10 points.

Good offense can help the defense and right now the offesnse is a mess. Yes we get hot and some how fome back in the 4th quarters but I we didn't have these droughts we would have more 10-15 point wins instead of all these close nail biters.

Morey if your reading this make the move for Ryan Anderson it can be a solid fix for This year and he's a free agent anyways so it doesn't tie up any cap space this summer.

 

I ment we miss dmo and smith not dmo and jones