Tonight's game didn't reveal or reinforce any fatal flaw . We played pretty well , I was actually encouraged . Sure Ryan is playing pretty poorly right now : I bet we will all love him once his shooting comes around again ...... And if it doesn't in the playoffs , we have the depth not to play him much . Green has been a revelation . And even if his shooting drops off ( which it most certainly will ) his athleticism will not . He will only become more comfortable as time goes on . Our main concern should be getting healthy. I think our front office has enough awareness to recognize this and to let players come back when they are 100 percent ready . Tonight we played well . We can't expect to beat GS when the refs call the game like that . We do need an enforcer and hopefully nene can play that role in the postseason . But I didn't see anything tonight that spelled doom and gloom . If we can continue to build chemistry and get guys fresh for the playoffs this team will be a monster . Yes KD was out , but harden + Luc > than KD . Harden might be better than KD by himself . Seriously y'all , normally I'm pissed after losses . But between the refs screwing us ( yet again) and the thought of a fully Healthy Harden coming back , I'm feeling good .
Actually I am quite encouraged At full strength . . .we are stronger than we were in the first game Harden, Paul, Green, Ariza, Capela - Along with EGO and Luc is a strong 1st 7 (I think Green has to continue but I have alot of faith) I think trade deadline sees Tucker/Anderson/Black/Weber improved in some way Rocket River
We can retool as much as we want, yes but if we have no chemistry or whatsoever, it pretty much useless. It seems like the gsw players from 1-15 are playing fluidly of each other, racking up assist, playing unselfishly. The rockets even with full healthy roster can seem to get everyone on the same page, taking turns having hot nights but never together like the warriors. We never have harden cp3 gordon rhyno and ariza having hot nights in the same game. Ariza been hot the past few games but disappears totally in , with anderson today. This is so not fair
I'm not sure about that. Because it would be selling low . All of those guys can probably be expected to play better later on in the season than they are now . We aren't gonna get rid of PJ . Everybody is playing through some stuff right now ; he's probably not 100 percent either . Once we can get his minutes down a bit I can see him being way more effective and put in better situations . Same with Anderson ( he will come out of his shooting slump) ( just needs a confidence boosta from da wife ) Webber and black are fine for the role they will play when we are healthy
But Gerald gonna Gerald. I love the guy's enthusiasm and energy, and it's fun to watch him lighting it up at the moment. But there's a reason he hasn't been able to stick on a team so far. We were down by about 8 with a couple of minutes left, and he brings the ball downcourt to the top of the arc and let's fly with a contested 27-footer. If he makes it, he's a hero. But he missed and they got the rebound because we weren't set. The smart move would have been to hold up and look for the best shot, or maybe wait for a screener so you can get open. Nope. Instead, he bricks it and whatever hope we had went out the window on that shot. Maybe between Cliff Paul and Dan Tony they can infuse him with a little more BB smarts. He seems like a great kid, and God knows he loves being a Rocket. I'd hate to see him Gerald himself into MDA's doghouse.
I thought we did well considering everything. Gordon pieces up gsw like butter and there's no one that can stop him. He did the exact same first game of the season so it's no fluke. One thing I realized is how much experience you need to stay with gsws players when they run around 100 screens. The new guys clearly did not have a clue what to do and we gave open layups like 7-8 possessions in a row end of third and start of fourth. But we can definitely hang in there with them. They don't have a big guy inside that bothers out drives it will be interesting to meet them in the playoffs this year.
Yeah it was a bad shot . But when we are back healthy , he likely won't be on the floor in that situation . You sometimes have to live with bad shots . If he can bring the hustle on D and the shooting / slashing on a decent basis ... I'll live with the occasional brain fart from our eigthish guy
Gordon, Harden, and CP3 are all able to take advantage of their weak interior defense when they run out Green/Bell/West at center.
Nothing to worry about if A) Harden misses no more than the month of January and B) the Rockets suffer no further injuries. The schedule for the rest of this month is not that bad.
All we need is health and consistency from our role players. Ryno started great, second half of the season: terrible in every way. Tucker started great the first 3/4 of the season, now: below average (effort, rebounding and defense have been good) Ariza started the first half of the season terribly, the rest of the season: great (some sub par nights like tonight but they're few and far between) Nene/Tarik, Nene has taken a step down from last season as expected but seems like Tarik played good the first quarter of the season but has forgotten how to play since he's been on the bench for so long.
I am concerned about Anderson. He has flaws, but a reluctance to shoot 3’s should never be one. This has been going on for some time. The good news is Green fits the Rockets well. His shooting will cool off, but he defends well and his style is maximized here. I am curious to see how many more minutes Ariza gets at PF with Green and Moute taking his minutes at SF. The Rockets have an excellent chance of adding another good rotation player through trade or buyout. However two weeks ago we needed 2-3 pieces through trade. The Warriors are very, very good. We will just have to wait and see what happens.
I think A is the wrong train of thought . Rest him for as long as you need to for him to come back 100 percent . We're going to go as far as James takes us . Cp3 is great , but we need James to be stellar on both sides of the floor . He's gotta get his bounce back like he had in the game he scored 50 in 3 quarters . Webber , Gordon , green and Luc ( when he comes back ) can take enough guard minutes so that we can keep Paul fresh too.
Well obviously you bring him back when he's 100%(or maybe 90%), but my hope is that's within 4 1/2 weeks tops. The January schedule isn't too tough. February however is brutal. Frankly, the rest of the season after this month is really tough. But if the Rockets are at full strength at that point, they'll be favored in most games.
To me Feb doesn't look awful ( aside from SA and Cle at the begging ) The start to march is insane tho . BOS , OKC , MIL , TOR , and SA in 5 out of your first 6 with MIL and SA being the second night of a b2b ; but after that it's light . I'm just focused on he playoffs . Obviously we want to keep a decent seed ; but health >>>> everything
The thing I see most often on the threads about tonight’s game about harden being better than Durant is that people only discuss points. The warriors are much better defensively with that snake in the lineup. That’s the difference between harden and KD — defense
The biggest strength the Warriors have is their familiarity with one another and their system. That's why they can have their first, second, sometimes third offensive options taken away on a single play but still manage to find that extra pass which breaks a team's back. I can't count how many times that happened tonight. I'd need a couple of hands to count them. Which ties in to where I think our biggest problem lies. I've said it before, but our IQ is not good enough to win a championship. Too many mental breakdowns sees things like tonight happen where we look great defensively, look great defensively, look great defens... oh... Warriors player WIDE open shot. Plenty of tape the guys can be shown tonight to correct that. This Rockets team has the tools at their disposal to beat this Warriors team in a playoff series if we're all healthy. You need that first help defender on Curry's first P'n'R to be able to switch on him hard and force him back away from the perimeter. You need another couple of defenders capable of running with Klay/Young/Iggy that also having the defensive IQ to switch everything, and switch everything correctly. That's where we were undone a lot tonight - someone would either not switch correctly or not at all which resulted in easy Warriors points. These mistakes only get magnified because we're so close to taking them down. They can act as cool as they want about Houston - they know they're no lock for the Finals this season if we're both healthy.
