ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Lakers 10/28/2014

I think it was Matt Mosely last night on Twitter that said Parsons will be fine after he loses that extra 40lbs. I lol'd. Dallas media honeymoon is over Chandler Bang!

 

What's more important in the playoffs? Defense or depth?

 

Despite Terry being on the team, I just hate how he celebrates after making a shot... at least he can celebrate last night unlike CP25...

 

Our defense looks better. Not ready to condemn the bench, but early returns not looking good. Free-throws!!! We gotta do better there-- Bev, Dmo, come on!

 

I love waking up after watching a beat down of the Lakers the night before. Life is good in Rocket land.

 

Chandler's game choking shot: https://vine.co/v/OMg5w0trDgH
Chandler Bang - 2 for 10, 5 pts. Stood in the corner like a role player most of the game. Couldn't even get bench guys to pass him the ball. At his salary, that is $37,000 per point. Nice job, Chandler Bang.

Jeremy Lin's "business as usual" game performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWwjAyIuKQ
Linsanity - 1 for 5, 7 pts. 4 TOs, all really bad. -17 eff rtg. 127 def rtg! Bad TOs, fouling 3pt shooters, getting scored on and getting blocked. Apparently will back up Ronnie Price once Ronnie Price is 100% again. Wow, Laker plan is for Lin to back up Ronnie Price, y'all. But I thought it was mean Mr. McHale?

As for Omer, he played awesome and proved why you couldn't play a guy like him on the bench. No way no how. He's a perfect fit with Anthony Davis who can operate outside of the paint and let Asik have it. Best of luck, Big O. Tarik Black / anyone willing to be on the court > Sulky, non-playing Asik. Upgrade this season.

Harden made 32pts look easy. Howard looks like no one will be able to stop him. Terry and Ariza are awesome. Jason Terry > Lin. Ariza > Chandler.

National media worried about our bench depth? Well The Jet > Lin. We already got that sorted out. But Pap is our bench depth. 19 minutes and 6 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, 87 DEF RTG!, and 4 pts 2 for 6 while his shot is adjusting... Pap is such a huge upgrade to last year's Casspi when we went 54 wins in a stacked West. PLLLEASE don't figure it out yet, National Media. Let us fly under the radar for a couple more months.

Terrence Jones. 1 game, but Hello Terrence Jones! 50% FG, 16pts, 13 boards hooray!, 3 ast, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 89 Def Rtg!

 

I hope Lakerfan4life comes back and posts more former glory images.

 

That is hilarious

 

How many times have we opened up the season against the Lakers? Seems like we do so every year.

 

It was a fun game. Harden looked great. Team defense seemed improved. Beverley's effort is still a thing to be amazed at. Jones was an unsung component of the win.

Black looked lost the first half, but seemed to be slightly more comfortable the second half.

I was shocked by Daniels lack of shooting.

Ariza looked good last night. He isn't the facilitator or really able to drive and create but he did a nice job helping the Rockets get the win. His offense was tremendous.

Kostas seems like he will be able to adjust to the game, and made some positive adjustments as the game went on.

I always love seeing us beat the Lakers.

 

Really good game summary. If Terry can "hold up" he might be the best addition of the off season next to Ariza. Didn't want Ariza back, but it looks good right now. I think Black and Papa are going to be "quiet" contributors. T.Jones flashes some of that "potential." Against the lesser teams he looks like a superstar. Let's see if he has improved against the "big boys." Hard not to get somewhat excited, first game and all, but it is going to be a long season for the Lakers. They are awful.

 

Good thing Black was there to catch kobe or he might of tore his meniscus.

 

This went pretty much as expected.

A Lakers team with tons of new players, new coach, light on talent and playing a 10 man roster shouldn't even remotely challenge the Rockets.

Unfortunate that Randle got injured. He was looking like he was going to have an interesting development curve this year. Fortunately it's only a broken bone, so he'll be back in a few months.

Not a fan of Byron Scott's aversion to shooting 3's. I don't think a team can be competitive in the modern NBA without shooting 3's. Take away 3's and you basically destroy any on court spacing and remove one of your most effective offensive weapons from your toolbox. If he sticks to that philosophy the Lakers will be even worse than they should be (which is already pretty bad).

The Rockets were a bit worrying. Dwight did get in foul trouble pretty quickly and this will potentially hurt us unless the bench bigs can step up. The bench lacked fluidity in terms of offense. Barea can shoot but the offense stalled when Harden was off the floor.

That 2nd unit could cost us when we get to the actual play off teams on the schedule.

The biggest worry I have right now is depth if either Howard or Harden suffer injury. Over an 82 game season is anyone really betting on both of them playing all 82 games? Harden hasn't played an 82 game season since 10-11. And Howard hasn't played a full 82 game season since 09-10. I worry more about the potential of a Harden injury than a Howard injury. We can still outscore opponents if Howard is offline for a while. If Harden goes down I don't trust Dwight's offensive game to put multiple games on his back when he is so determined to be a post up vs PnR player.

I was actually very happy with McHale's minutes management. 31 minutes for Harden and Howard. Hopefully they can really push up the score early in a lot of games so that McHale isn't tempted to run them into the ground.

Still, first game of the season and every team looks rusty and somewhat disjointed. We probably won't know what we have until the All Star break.

 

Our season is over anyways if Harden or Howard gets injured. Might as well tank to keep our pick at that point.

 

It's funny that people make excuses for Kobe and the Lakers based on too much turnover in personnel. The Rockets made the play-offs 2 seasons ago with exactly 1 returning player (Parsons), a bunch of players that had never started in the league and a 2nd year coach and everyone wanted to act like that was no big deal.

At least Byron Scott has coached his way to a couple of NBA finals.

It's time to stop giving the Lakers an excuse.

 

is batkins making a highlight vid for every game?

 

very few players play over 80 games in a season - things happen - minor bumps and all. Sometimes if a seeding is locked up there is no reason to play and risk anything.

To be honest I think the team will be fine if both Harden and Howard are able to play around 75 games each this season.

 

I've been exhausted, hungover, and pooping every 20 minutes today.


So glad the nba is back!!

 

H & H will play crazy mins. The only reason they played ~30m is because it's the Lakers.