I'm sure we will meet the Spurs at some point in the playoffs this season, hope we get our revenge then...
I think Pop is close to hanging it up once Parker and Gino retire. He seems less passionate than before but it could just be me. He seems to be more complementary towards other teams than usual. I think he's just coaching for fun now and not taking it as seriously.
Well he DID just fly in from Sager's funeral so I'm sure that played in to his somber mood. Pop call's it like it is and that's what I like about him. He doesn't play mind games with anyone or try to get into anyone's head.
good newz is Rox upside much higher than the Spurs this season and most of the mistakes tonight are correctable not to mention the off night of shooting 3's..7 3's made out of 38 and only lost by 2 points without Capela??? Yep Pop knows what's up
They are a good team. Not ready to say we will beat them in the playoffs. But last night's game showed that we can beat them in any game. Tough loss, true, but it came down to execution against a very very experienced veteran team. It was a good learning experience. By the way, if we miss that many threes , we are vulnerable to their fast break off long rebounds. Those things go hand in hand.
Tough loss but for every Minnesota comeback there are going to be games like these where the 3's don't fall and we collapse at the end. The Rockets are extremely hard to defend even with Capela out, and they will simply have to adjust their offensive scheme until he returns.
Yeah, but Pop didn't say they couldn't play against us. He said they did a good job despite the fact that we were probably one of the two most difficult team to guard.
packing the paint against the spurs in the 4th quarter... the rockets defense coach has never watched the spurs play before?
Thought the game against Spurs was a good barometer as to how far we've come this season. We went toe to toe with them and were unlucky to lose. Think Capella inside would've made a difference. Plus our horrible 3pt shooting. 6 from 38 = 15%. Even if we'd hit 20% we would've killed them. Sure their defense was part of it, but min 20% is not an unrealistic expectation. Mind you, I was impressed with how MDA changed the gameplan in the 3rd which got us back in to a good position. Impressed with Pops comments as well. Got to respect the man.
No defense is going to be able to cover up everything... The Spurs gave us a good handful of open looks in the 4th, too, on some critical possessions. Difference was we just didn't make ours this time. Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza missed some gimmes. Frustrating thing is something similar happened in our last game against the Spurs, too (though not to the same extent as last night). I know the Spurs are a good defensive team, and that obviously played a role, but it's not a comprehensive explanation to anyone who watched these games. I don't know if the Spurs have some sort of voodoo mind-trick defense figured out that is not obvious from watching TV, but I feel like they got pretty lucky in terms of our missed shots last night. We were missing [lots of] shots that we make every other game.
Man that's major props from coach pop. Good to hear what I already know, really validates what I was thinking. This is the 3rd best team in the league, nothing is going to change my opinion. The rockets are the real deal. We can win with defense and a bad shooting night no problem. The Warriors are still the favorites but I'm starting to think that it's houston that actually has the best chance to knock them off in a 7 game series. Maybe even More so than the Cavs who really seen like something is just missing compared to last year.
The Rockets got good looks from their system which did not fall in.Capela was missing. Turnovers was the difference. I'm a believer that MDA and staff have the nous to tweak late fourth quarter execution so that the guys are in a position to make plays not just JH13 and the ball does not get sticky.
