since AD is supposed to be a better player than Harden, I just need to know why he couldn’t even manage to be competitive last night Let me guess, it’s because he didn’t care? please let us get the Lakers in the 2nd round...they are not that difficult to defend since they lack perimeter threats, and AD is overrated as hell...defensively, they’re suspect on defense as well Green and KCP are your 2 primary defenders for Harden? Lol, that’s light work
A very important win to gain confidence. We have to cut with the tendency that each important win is followed by a painful defeat against a team with a negative record. This team needs more consistency to go far in the playoffs.
Good win, way to take care of business. So that's something that this team CAN do! Rockets need to do whatever it takes to stay in the 4/5 bracket if they want a chance at the WCF. Lakers look vulnerable as hell.
It’s not too bad for us. As the lakers are right now I’d rather play them than Portland. If lebron gets going that’s a different story though.
lebron can't handle westbrooks pace in a seven game series..He aint going to have no D on the perimeter and will probably pull something. i aint worried about him or the Fakers at all. We will run them off the floor.
https://theathletic.com/1980688/202...less-p-j-tucker-is-a-viewers-dream-come-true/ How much can you take away from a game in which neither LeBron James nor Russell Westbrook played? Turns out, more than you expected… 1. TNT decided to mic up P.J. Tucker for Thursday night’s game and I don’t think I’m in the minority when I say that was a brilliant choice. 2. Truthfully, Tucker doesn’t necessarily need a mic for us to be able to hear him on the floor. His raspy voice (raspy brothers unite!) projects and all night long, he was barking out defensive orders and just keeping everyone on the same page. “Create your own energy” was the message he gave to his teammates before taking the floor against the Lakers. 3. From the tip, you could instantly see that Tucker was engaged and ready to go. He was given the Anthony Davis assignment, given that LeBron—his normal matchup—was out of the contest. Tucker joked earlier in the week about being well aware of his aggressiveness and the number of fouls he racks up, but the truth is no one works harder than him on the floor. He refused to let up even an inch on the floor, regardless of whoever he was guarding. At one point, the TNT broadcast pointed to a clip of Tucker’s effort against all five Lakers and said this is what kids who want to be great should study. 4. [Vid] Tucker gets a lot of praise for his upper body strength and low center of gravity but his footwork and lateral quickness matches too. Watch him pressure Davis well past the three-point line, stay with him on the dribble, switch seamlessly onto Quinn Cook and pressure again, forcing the ball to be swung to Danny Green who takes a low-percentage shot. None of that is made possible without Tucker’s presence. 5. Tucker’s box score stats aren’t glamorous (six points, six rebounds, two steals) but you’ll never hear an NBA player wane on his importance to a team’s makeup. His dirty work makes everything that looks pretty about Houston’s offense possible. Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Harden, the list goes on and on. Tucker needs his flowers. 6. Overall, the Rockets were able to take advantage of a struggling Lakers team and put on a defensive clinic from start to finish. The Lakers missed 17 of their 19 3-pointers, committed 25 team turnovers, and just looked disjointed from start to finish. Honestly, they haven’t looked good at all since the restart, but one of Houston’s Achilles heels has always been their lack of focus against weaker (or weakened) teams. There were some questionable stretches of offensive play but you’ll take a 16-point win at this point of the season. 7. “Yea I think we did a better job, especially in the second half,” Mike D’Antoni said following Houston’s 113-97 win. “We just had some miscues in the first half. But we got a little sloppy. It’s one of those games that you know they didn’t have their big guns so we weren’t real sharp but I liked a lot of things we did defensively—especially in the second half. We gotta keep working, got another four games to improve a lot more.” 8. I think the most impressive part of the game was how Houston’s pressure forced Davis to move the ball and not be as effective as he should have been. Once news broke that LeBron wouldn’t be playing, I think most expected Davis to have a monster game, especially coming off of a 9-point game against Oklahoma City. But Houston did a good job of making Davis uncomfortable, getting up under him, and not conceding anything early on. Davis had to work for every shot, and would end up taking just eight field goals. 9. “That’s what’s going to win us a championship – on the defensive end,” D’Antoni said. “Laser-focused is going to be what it takes. I think each individual guy—the effort is there and the team effort is there.” 10. The Rockets defense in the bubble has done a good job lately of causing teams to play out of their realm of normalcy. D’Antoni praised Harden’s commitment to the defensive end of the floor as the most surprising part of their restarted season. When you study the games, you’ll notice him pointing things out like screens coming or rotations to pick up. Tonight he was locked in, getting some timely deflections down the stretch, looked sturdy in the paint, and had a nice block to prevent a transition basket. 11. We spoke of absences earlier and no one’s was felt more clearly than Westbrook’s at the beginning of the game. It had an AAU feel to it from a cohesiveness standpoint. Westbrook’s playmaking was sorely missed, whether it was disjointed offense, sloppiness, or the pressure he normally brings. Westbrook missed the game with what was described as quad soreness but the team is expecting him back by the weekend. 12. “We’re hopeful,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t know whether they’ve listed him or whatever but I think he has a real good shot at being ready. With that being said, we’re not going to push him. It’s gotta be completely well or he’ll sit a little bit more but we’re hoping for Sunday.” 13. Harden had trouble settling into a rhythm against the Blazers but that problem was nowhere to be seen against the Lakers. He looked at his absolute best, scoring 25 first-half points en route to 39 for the game, to go along with 12 assists and 8 rebounds. Most of the playmaking and ball-handling fell on him tonight and he did a good job of setting his teammates up. When the Lakers would send traps (soft or hard), he was able to impact the game by making quick decisions. It seemed like the team played a half-step slow against Portland but this wasn’t the case Thursday night. The ball zipped around looking for the most efficient shot possible. We even got a Harden relocation sighting…
14. “It was really good,” Harden said. “That’s nothing new to us. We’ve seen that already. That’s actually something that we practiced when we were practicing. We watched film on teams that trap. Guys are in their right spots and we got a lot of open shots and a couple open layups. We’ve been seeing it all year. We kind of know our spots and how we’re going to get shots.” 15. Speaking of shots, the Rockets got a lot of them—and actually had quite a decent advantage over the Lakers in that department. Houston connected on 21 threes compared to the Lakers’ two. But that might have been the confusing part of this game—the Rockets’ inability to stretch the lead early enough. At one point, they were +42 from deep but only led the game by 8. They’ll have to do a better job of punishing teams earlier especially with weaker opposition coming up in their next 4 games. Rest will be crucial as it’s clear some Rockets are accumulating bumps and bruises. 16. Houston is 3-1 in their first four games in four months and they’ll believe they should be 4-0. All things considered, they’re in pretty good shape as the season heads to the final week. Gordon and Westbrook will return to 100% and the rest of the guys can maintain their rhythm heading into what will be a competitive playoff bracket. 17. “We’re playing pretty good,” Harden said. “3-1. There’s a lot of things, especially defensively, that we can correct. Every game other than the Portland game, I think our pace has been pretty good. Hopefully, we get these rest days, get Russell and Eric back in our next game, and kind of hit that stride.” D’Antoni echoed that same sentiment. “I do like where we are,” he said. “But we have to prove that we gotta get our two guys back and healthy. We gotta keep improving our defense, making little mistakes here and there. Offensively, we’re going to be fine once we got everyone back rolling. Our conditioning’s pretty good, it can get a little better. Guys gotta play some minutes to get into that rhythm they’ll need or also the physical condition you need for the playoffs. We’re at a good halfway point, we got another week to get better at it.” 18. Harden will get most of the attention, but I thought the supporting cast stepped up—especially the second unit. Ben McLemore slotted into the starting lineup and is looking more and more like Gerald Green-plus by the day. I use Green’s name because he’s the one guy that’s been in this system and can hit moving threes with the degree of difficulty that McLemore can. There’s added value in that skillset because you’re not a stationary shooter that needs certain things to happen for you to be effective. Plays break down, we see that all the time but it’s important to get looks off even if they’re semi-contested. McLemore finished the game with 20 points on 5-10 shooting from distance. 19. “It’s tough to describe,” McLemore said of the difference shooting in the bubble, “But as a shooter, I get a lot of shots up each and every day. Practice times, when I’m not practicing, things like that. When I’m in the game, it’s all about making them.” 20. Besides McLemore, we saw continued strong bouts of play from Rivers, Green and House. I’m of the belief that although the Rockets don’t possess the bench quality of say, the Clippers, this second unit has been extremely effective in what they’ve been asked to do. They’ve kept the offense afloat, have gotten after it defensively, and most of all have had confidence and conviction in what they do when the ball is in their hands, rather than panic and rush to get the ball back to Harden. You can see it when Harden gets the ball up to House and he’s able to create drive-and-kick scenarios of his own, or when Green can operate out of the short roll, or Rivers in his preferred off-the-dribble action. 21. We also got to see Michael Frazier in action. The coaching staff brought him to the bubble because he has been impressive in practice and they like what he can do on both ends of the floor. Against the Lakers, he defended hard and played his matchup the full length of the floor. 22. He missed both of his free throws, which was surprising given his sweet stroke, missed all three of his 3-point attempts, and finished with four fouls in 12 minutes. Not great. But D’Antoni understood that Frazier may simply be playing with nerves out there—expected of someone who hasn’t played all that many NBA minutes in general this season. “It’s definitely valuable for him,” D’Antoni said of his exposure. “He just has to have confidence, that’s the biggest thing. It’s hard, he’s put in a tough situation. But he’s a talented player, a great kid, works hard and everybody’s pulling for him which is great. He just has to calm down, not foul so much. He’s a great shooter—most of that’s nerves—he can counter that.” 23. This was another game in which Houston was outrebounded (49 -34) and especially in offensive rebounds (13- 4) but the 2nd-chance points battle was close (14 to 13). I thought, for the most part, the Rockets battled down low whenever those chances presented itself for the Lakers to capitalize. I must say that Dwight Howard might have had the quietest 15-rebound game I’ve ever seen in my life. “I think we did a pretty good job,” Harden said. “I think we’ve been fighting and competing. They’re going to get a few more offensive rebounds than we want, but I think we’re making up for it with the ball pressure and getting steal opportunities. And then on offense, we’re taking really good shots. I think it makes up for it.” Parting shots Harden’s gravity is real and this needs to be discussed more. He’s able to warp defenses by just getting downhill and turns those into a ton of open looks for his teammates. Time and time again, the Lakers would sink in on Harden, only to have Rivers, McLemore, Green, or House with the ball in acres of space in front of them. Gordon got up a few shots before the game and he continues to rehab from his ankle injury. It’s yet to be seen if he’ll be able to get on the floor before the season ends but Houston is targeting the Pacers game on Aug. 12 or the 76ers finale on the 14th. The Lakers scored a whopping 58 points in the paint. That is, uh, not good. The raging war Rockets Twitter has with D’Antoni burns on, this time surrounding the lack of playing time for Demarre Carroll. I’ve had people around the league ask why he’s not playing but my guess is D’Antoni sees him and Luc Mbah a Moute as emergency options.
