The team is mentally weak like they have been for years and let it effect them. No protest needed. Deserve the embarrassing loss.
How you can't be mad at this game, I have no idea. lol. But didn't Harden tie the record for most FT's without a miss? I think he's tied with, ironically DeRozan and his best bud, Dominique Wilkins. *EDIT* : He may have broken it. So there's that...
This game and everyone involved in it was a giant **** show. We are all dumber for watching it. Also I can definitively say, MDA will never win a championship. He doesn't have the nerve.
I was telling my wife right after the dunk disaster, this is what can turn games around, you lose the momentum, start missing every shot and the other team starts hitting every shot. And thats exactly what happened. Not gonna blame the refs completely, Rockets have to play smarter. Someone on team needs to make sure they stay focused and coach needs to make sure to pace the game right.
This game further illustrated why a lot of fans weren't too thrilled when Westbrook got here. He provided little to no help because he is not a shooter and Harden still had to face double and triple teams down the stretch and wore out.
Never forget... Harden had us up by 20 points with only 2:50 left in the 3rd quarter. Harden sits. Russ and his unit start giving back points. Then all hell broke lose. Harden and Westbrook must switch their staggered minutes. Playing Russ with the bench unit is SUICIDE. He's not good enough to lead them. Keep him with Capela and Tucker (&House) at all times.
D'Antoni needed to tell them to forget about the damn 2 points and hoop. he just watched Lonnie Walker go off. If they would have treated him like their best player and doubled him, he would have wilted since he is a young player.. I cannot believe they lost this game.
Why feel bad for Harden? Harden loves MDA because he’s a player’s coach and lets him do whatever he wants. And Westbrook is his best friend so Harden has exactly what he wanted.
It's not really news either, Harden was and is never the flashy and creative finisher. Remeber 2017 playoffs against the Spurs, I member, they just camped someone down there and Harden went cold from 3, that's the end of that
I don't think it effected their play, they just got lazy and went into chuck 3 mode... But the refs should never miss a ball going through the hoop. It simply should not happen. It would be like the refs missing a ball going into the net in soccer or a clear homerun...it just shouldn't happen. Protest needs to happen so they have egg on their faces.