ClutchFans Game Thread: Warriors @ Rockets 1/20/2018

Rockets win, DC dominates, and Stipe survives the Predator. Great day all in all. The days of the Rockets bending the knee to the Dubs are over; mother****ers are coming for that title, yo.

 

Haha. All is well tonight! DC looked really good. Couldn't believe the main event went all 5 rounds.

 

This game reminds me of Buffy's speech to the Potentials after she dusted the Ubervamp following a brutal battle:

 

A big shout out to PJ, Luc, Clint and Nene. I was especially happy to see PJ having a big game. The Prince takes a lot of pressure off of him.

 

I knew we could win, hell yeah!!!!

 

They contributed to make a story about nothing and tried to paint CP3 in a bad light, it makes sense he's not happy with the media in general right now, especially ESPN.

 

Man I love Luc, he forms that amazing lock down D combo with Paul.

As usual, Anderson tried his best to lose this game with a ridiculous 5 pt display while letting Green score for 20+ pts. This is beyond pathetic and will bite us in the ass in the playoffs. I mean seriously how did this dude convince Morey and Sacramento he was worth 20M a year? Wtf Anderson would be lucky to get a 3M deal when his contract expires.

 

So Curry dancing and celebrating on the bench after shots and the team getting fired up shows that they didn't care huh? The Warriors ran out of gas? The Rockets were the ones undermanned. Stop making excuses for Golden State.

 

Hate to break it to ya but the Warriors had been off for three days, lol. So your bs makes no sense.

 

It is well established that Anderson is overpayed but he didn’t kill us tonight. He was a rebounding fool for us and had a key put back. I wish his confidence in his shot would come back but at least he didn’t decide to throw up a bunch of shots he knew weren’t going to drop. As far as Green, Anderson wasn’t even on the floor when he got those two wide open threes. He didn’t get points but he helped us in other ways, but yes still not work the $20 mil

 

My analysis: let me start off by saying we played far from a perfect game and still have lots to improve, which is of course a positive!

- CP3 and Harden carried us, played very good defense, showed leadership and came through in the clutch. Impressive yes, but ow how did we almost blow out with all those iso possessions. CP3 and Harden both just dribbling out the clock, no off the ball movement and just throwing up prayers. Thank God some of them went in, but it was really bad sometimes. CP3 threw the ball away looking for a foul, got his 3pt shot blocked twice (one was a foul), Harden got his shot blocked once but might be twice on a 3pt attempt and also played too much 1-on-1. We cannot rely on that to win us games in a 7 game series.

- Harden getting into a shouting match with Ryno on who was supposed to help did not look pretty. Even when Ryno was already down the floor, he was yelling "HEY" and then left it at that, on the court at least. This game I do not have much of a problem with it since he played good defense, but I just don't like it to do it on the court like that, especially from a player who misses assignments as much or even more as the next guy on the team.

- In general, we gave up way too many easy shots from three and got lucky they didn't convert them. We played very good defense on Curry & Klay, mainly by Mbah a Moute, Harden and CP3 so nothing to take away from that. However, falling for a Young fake, not running at him, giving wide open shots to Draymond is just not the way to go. I know we dared them to shoot, but at least run at them and contest.

- Our defense in stretches was very, very good. Luc and Tucker were a deadly combo again, Harden and Gordon put it in a good effort, CP3 was his usual self and they did not exploit the Ryno match-up. Nene and Capela were decent.

- Ryno's offense, oh my. It's been happening too much lately and very frustrating to see Ryno again a non-factor on offense. We played 4 on 5 out there at times, though you do see them not giving him any room so they still respect the man's shooting ability which is key for spacing. I do think Mbah's 3pt shot is good enough along with his defense to maybe start over Ryno, but it will never happen, though maybe it should.

- Gordon's offense, oh my part 2. He was forcing some shots, but in general he took the right shots and just didn't make them. Maybe should've attacked more, but he was looking to get hot and didn't. It happens. It's crazy to think both these guys are 7th and 8th right now in 3p% on our team! While Green has a small sample size, the rest are just shooting better this year. We need those two to be more reliable from three.

- Rebounding: here I have to give big compliments to Ryno and Tucker, but the team in general. I saw several guys tipping balls and even CP3 with perfect timing to jump and knock a ball away from Durant who would've had an easy lay-up if he hadn't.

- Tucker, my man! Thank you for bringing me back to seeing your value. Like some have pointed out, the man always shows up in key games: Cleveland, both Warriors wins, Wolves and others. His rebounding, hustle and all-round offensive game tonight was as big as any other.

- Luc, can't say enough about this man. His defense and 3pt shot from the top-right side is just money. He's the #2 priority after re-signing CP3. Yes over signing a Lebron or whomever and re-signing Capela and Ariza!!

- The referees were decent, but some clear non-calls: that push by Zaza of Ryno into CP3, that clear foul by Livingston on CP3's 3pt shot and the hand checking and two outstretched hands on our guys by Zaza in the first 2 minutes of the game not being called was just baffling. He could've received 3 fouls in less than a minute almost! For the rest I think it wasn't too bad, some clear AND-1's not called, but on both sides they let things go so that's why I won't give them too much grief.

- MDA was solid, glad how he staggers the minutes and gave the green light for Harden to come back in! I would've liked to see Mbah over Ryno a bit more, but glad he didn't go small too much this game. We needed that spark from Capela.

 

Luc is priority over signing Lebron?

Lmao

 

Yup, chemistry matters and I don't necessarily like the idea of Lebron with his drama. Keep it in Ohio!

 

You have no clue what you are talking about. And yeah, you don't need chemistry when you have Green, Klay, Curry, and Durant as well as a loaded bench. But you do need chemistry to beat that kind of talent. Hopefully you'll learn, Rookie.

 

All you had to say was Ariza was already a starter on a championship team, so there arguments make no sense. He won a ring in LA before they got Artest.

Man Eric Gordon had one of his worst shooting games ever as a Rocket and we won!!!! Maybe we can actually beat them.