Maybe, but only six turnovers for the entire game was really nice. Tough loss, but overall it was a pretty good effort. I’m not bothered by tonight at all.
MDA is the x-factor here. i have zero confidence in his in-game management or that he won't freeze up in the clutch like he has his entire coaching career. and the 2nd x-factor is of course silver's zebras
Agreed about possible changes to odds due to injuries & Milwaukee having best position/odds. Partially agree about seeding vs matchups. matchups will matter more of course, but a big determinant of matchups will be seeding. IE... Clippers and Lakers are likely to get one of the first 3 seeds. Any team with championship aspirations will really want to avoid getting an 6th 7th or 8th seed to avoid either team in the first round. Disagree that the Rockets have about the same chance of winning it as anyone in the West. Its not only my opinion that the Lakers and Clippers have a much better chance of winning the CHIP than the Rockets, it's also the opinion of millions of bettors as well as the largest gambling houses in the World - as currently the odds are Los Angeles Lakers +225 Milwaukee Bucks +275 Los Angeles Clippers +325 Houston Rockets +1400
Our FT attempts have been down ever since we protested that San Antonio game where they took away hardens made dunk. How can a player that attacks the basket so much get so little attempts? James harden does not need the ball a lot to score a lot of points. He is maybe the most efficient scorer in history because of his outside shooting and FTs. He has not been making his step back jumpers which is a key for this team. Is that Russ fault? You can say he has been doubled more since Russ can't shoot, but tonight it seemed Utah actually were doubling him mostly when Russ was not in the game. He got to play a lot of one on one. If this is because of small ball then I'm all for it. James got more one on one than I've seen In a long time. I have no problem with any shots he took tonight and he WILL get rolling again. The rockets continue to evolve. We still do not know how good this team can be. We have not had any consistency in the lineup. The role players have been inconsistent but I feel now the small ball gives them the best opportunity to be at their best. We get good attempts almost every time down the floor. Hopefully at some point we can start making 3s at the same clip as teams like Utah and milwaukee. I am not worried about James and Russ at all.
I rather see hartenstein play and possibly struggle than Austin rivers. Hartenstein is at the position as nerlen Noel or Steve Adams, but mDa benches hartenstein in order to play "small ball"! Wtf!?!?
Concerning the Vegas odds, I am well aware of them. As I stated lots of people believe the Lakers have a great chance. Vegas is usually right, I just do not agree with them on the Lakers. I believe they are good but very beatable... it is insane to me that many people believe they have a better chance than the Bucks. Time will tell.
Tucker has got burnt twice now by the guy who has hit game winning shots this season. I don’t really blame him as he is exhausted by that time due to being run into the ground. He needs to see his in game minutes reduced. Love Russ and he needs to continue his attacking the basket. Harden played well outside of shooting to many threes again.It seems harden due his current injuries has decided he will be more of a playmaker then a scorer and let Russ attack non stop
Between Harden, Gordon, and Westbrook all dealing with nagging injuries and Westbrook resting on back-to-backs, we're not going to see many games with the team at full strength which sucks. Really need another SF/SG buy out candidate to help out when any of those players sit.
I had to leave before the end of the game to go to the ER but now m seeing how we lost I wish i would have stayed at the ER, holy hell unreal we get beat by another buzzer beater 3 from 35 feet with virtually no time on the clock again, unbelievable ?!?!? Still don’t love small ball even though we match up pretty well against The Jazz with it, still missed too many gimme buckets and Harden was bombshell away from 3 (which he sucked from of course) which he had kinda stopped doing recently ... what a frustrating loss.
Dumbtoni gonna Dumbtoni. If you watch his PHX days this is just history repeating itself his PHX teams always got outcoached and lost at the last minute. Dumbtoni is a lot like Tex Winter. Tex Winter was an innovator who developed and strengthed theories on the triangle offense. But Tex Winter didnt win in the NBA as a head coach, it was Phil Jackson who did that. We need a PJ not a tex winter at the helm. MDA can be an assistant coach in charge of the offense he is great at that.
im surprised the lakers have better odds than bucks and clippers tbh. those are the two teams they have struggled against the most. they can both limit lebron. when you do that the lakers are very vulnerable. AD simply cant carry the team the way lebron can when AD is struggling. as for the rockets, well we have just made a major change. we are still a wild card. i wonder what the mavs chances were at this point in the year in 2011.
He had a good game (although I missed the final 4 minutes, but his 3 point chuckfest wasn’t helpful again, everything else including most of his D was great ... really wish he would go back to that mid range jumper he was money on a few years ago, this is where Morey and MDA’s offensive concept does the team no favors imo. I get we are a layup and 3 dominant offense but there really should be an occasional Plan, which there never seems to be...
Can't put exhaustion on PJ this time. He and Chandler made mistakes on that last play. PJ was late on the curl by Bogdanovic and Chandler did a horrible job contesting the inbounds pass. Fixable but not what you want with 1.6 seconds in the game.
James shoot poorly from 3 tonight...but just by watching him, I can see he's just about ready to break the dam and go on a long hot streak. Explosion coming soon.
Excellent point about the Mavs, I doubt they were among the the favorites, seeing as they didn't even win their own division. Agreed about Lakers vulnerability. Their biggest liability imo is that aside from LeBron, noone else is a capable ball handler and playmaker. Their offense is the worst when he's on the bench and top 5 when he's in. It's something like a 10+ net rating difference.
