ClutchFans Game Thread: Magic @ Rockets 3/8/2020

The 3pt shooting of James Harden for the past 5 games:
4/17
3/13
0/8
2/11
3/10
Total: 12/59

Harden’ 3-pt shooting is pathetic 20%!

 

We probably not truly know unless someone pulls the beans which is unlikely but this as good an analysis of the situation as I’ve seen yet and very likely dead on. I think this probably nailed it and the fact that Russ bolts tonight right away says a lot thatbhe isn’t in there saying things like, we gotta get through this, we will figure into out, etc. remember he hasn’t played with Harden as a direct teammate for almost a decade, a lot changed since back then as far as their careers and their respective places in NBA history, I’m really wondering if Russ is just sick of the Hardens attitude and unwillingness to put the team first as it eerily feels.

 

Tilman, Daryl, Mike & James being exposed for the frauds they are.

Now keep that same energy, all four of you.

Talk, talk, talk, don't back up talk, cry & blame the refs when you lose.

Seeing what the Hornets, Knicks, & Magic did, Giannis about to skull**** the Rockets here in a few weeks.

 

Know these mugg-fuggers! Hell nawl!

Pay for these mugg-fuggers. Shiet!

 

what did i just watch?

 

They are like the secret family you start with your side piece, not that I am advocating for side pieces.

CF itself is like a dysfunctional but fun family.

 

Glad Rockets were booed at halftime.

 

I have a lot of appreciation for Russell's effort, heart, and determination. It's the only thing holding this team somewhat together.

However, I think the slump we're seeing is as a result of building a roster around Westbrook. Westbrook-led teams don't go very far. Those Thunder teams in the years after Kevin Durant left always performed terribly most of the way after All-Star break, without fail. And here we are, a Westbrook-led team, slumping as we head towards the season's end. It can't be a coincidence. There's no doubting his heart and passion and his 110% effort. But if Russ is your best performer, best leader...you're not going to make it far.

These are just my rambling thoughts, I guess, and I could be wrong. I've followed OKC pretty closely this season, and even Russ' former teammates, while still lavishing praise on him, have in the same breath insinuated the marked difference between this season and last was Russ and having to adjust to a player like him, and not in a good way.

 

Rockets, after unquestionably the high point of the year after beating the Celtics to go 39-20, have apparently just quit/given up on the season.

Oh well lol. Can we hire Atkinson?

 

sidepiece.

Like this?

 

When in doubt, just blame dead legs.

Dead legs, we'll be fine. Just gotta find our legs. We'll be fine.



It took all but 53 seconds as the first half was winding down for the Rockets’ frustration to boil over.

53 seconds that perfectly encapsulated the long, dreadful and confusing week the team had gone through.

53 seconds for a team that once again found its players shaking their heads, asking questions and searching for answers.

It would be an overwhelming understatement to declare that over the past seven days, there hadn’t been a great deal of high-level Rockets basketball. But despite the poor first half of Houston’s 126-106 blowout loss to the Orlando Magic, with less than a minute remaining in the second quarter and trailing 60-46, there were signs of life. A mini spurt of good, hard-nosed play was afoot, trimming the deficit to 14.

Although there’s no scientific method for winning in the NBA, it’s hard to believe that mini moral victories—much like reducing a team’s lead to 14 points—hold much ground, but such is the curious case of the Rockets these days.

From that moment on, however, the proverbial sky collapsed.

Jeff Green found himself in Aaron Gordon’s personal space, not allowing him to land after taking a Harden-esque stepback 3. Green’s confusion turned into complaints directed at the official, who deemed it worthy of a technical foul. A James Harden turnover under the basket led to a 5-on-4 opportunity on the other end, putting the already height-disadvantaged Rockets further behind the 8-ball. P.J. Tucker was unable to keep Nikola Vucevic off the glass after a missed corner three from Terrance Ross, and took his anger out on the ball, slamming it against the stanchion. A Westbrook shot swatted into the stands by Gordon turned into another missed Harden three, which turned into helter-skelter basketball—ending in a powerful slam by Michael Carter-Williams III in front of his former team’s bench. Covington committed a moving screen to which he fully disagreed, leading to another technical foul, which led to another follow-up tech assessed to an even angrier Mike D’Antoni.

By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, the Rockets had already committed 12 turnovers, had given up twice the amount of rebounds they had, were down 25 and looked dazed, confused and dejected. An irate D’Antoni had to be physically restrained leaving the court, wanting another go at the referees. The two officials leaving the court both turned to look at D’Antoni before chuckling to themselves and continuing their exit for the locker room. D’Antoni, regardless of whether his anger was truly untethered or whether he wanted to be temporarily put out his misery, was well within grounds to be given his marching orders but never got them.

As numerous Rockets headed for the showers with heads down and deadpan silence, a portion of Houston’s brain trust in owner Tilman Fertitta, general manager Daryl Morey and executive vice president of basketball operations Rafael Stone convened in their office entrance adjacent to the press conference room. Some 20 minutes passed before Coach D’Antoni appeared before the media, apologizing for taking that amount of time.

In the four seasons he’s been at the helm, these postgame conversations have almost become miniature therapy sessions for D’Antoni, a man who’s unable to hide expressions— elated and reveling in his team’s success in big wins, tempered and level-headed in some losses, and expressing frustration in unexplainable losses. This, a bad home loss to another bad team, fell in the latter category.

“Just a lot of things,” D’Antoni said, trying to find the words to describe what his team is going through. “I think we’re second-guessing ourselves a lot of times. There’s no swagger, we’re passing up threes (and) we’re driving in. You know, because we missed so many threes that one game, now everybody says let’s drive. Well, that’s what they did. They stay inside, so we drove, and you’ve got 25 turnovers. That’s what most people don’t understand. We need to take the shots. We need to take the three even if we miss it, so be it, but we need to play the way we play. We’re passing up shots.”

“This game, like the last two games we lost, the second-chance points were even, so it wasn’t that. Tonight, it was 22 to nothing at halftime for second-chance points. It’s this today (and) that tomorrow. To me, it’s a spirit, it’s toughness, it’s a swagger (and) it’s not hesitating. Just a lot of combinations of things that really started from a kind of lack of effort in New York. Then we ran up to a good team and now we’re questioning everything. I know it’s tough for the fans, but we will get through this. We will get through this and we’re going to be good on the other side. Hopefully, this is rock bottom (although) we don’t know that. If it gets much worse it will not be pretty, but we’ll crawl back.”

This time last week, Houston was having conversations about reaching the second seed in the Western Conference. In reality, these internal talks had stemmed as far back as early February on a number of grounds. One, that this group always seemed to crank up the intensity after the All-Star break. Secondly, that Russell Westbrook’s game had seemingly gone to another level. And thirdly, the veterans inside the locker room are generally a confident group.

 

The win in Boston was such an emotional high, given the stakes, playing on national television, the hostile atmosphere, and most importantly the result. Houston looked like serious contenders in the aftermath of that game. Since then, the loss in New York, getting run over by the Clippers at home, and a back-to-back to forget, the Rockets are sixth and are just trying to avoid falling as far down as seventh, leading Dallas by a mere game. Of the four teams, two of them—New York and Charlotte—are bottom-six offensive teams. What the hell happened?

“ I have no clue,” D’Antoni said. “Somehow, probably New York, we came out not focused because we were riding high, thinking we were really good. And then it starts to chip away at your psyche a little bit, we play bad and then run up against a Clippers team playing really well. Maybe they stole our confidence a little bit and now we’re questioning everything. We just got to get back and tonight, I’m not making excuses, we got our tails handed to us. But we fought all last night, we fought hard. We didn’t do really well but they did play hard. Short-handed, a lot of minutes and we came out and just didn’t have the same energy we needed against a team that played very well. Again, that’s not indicative of our team, we needed scraps. I hope a lot of it was just dead legs and we’ll go from there. We’ll have a day off tomorrow and try to get it back here on Tuesday.”

Had this been in November, December or even January, there might have been some reasonable explanation. But time is of the essence. Houston fully believes they belong in the same conversations as the Lakers or Bucks. A huge reason why those two teams are at the top of their respective conferences is beating the teams you’re supposed to beat. Their combined record against teams with records below .500 is an incredible 66-4. The Rockets? They’re just 22-12 against such teams. Only the Brooklyn Nets, who are five games below .500 themselves, have a worse record among playoff teams.

In the past week, Houston has finished 26th in offensive rating, 24th in defensive rating, and their net rating of -11.0 is only better than one team in the league, the Atlanta Hawks, who also went winless this week. It’s truly mind-numbing.

Offensively, the shots have dried up. Being a team that leads the NBA in 3-point attempts, there’s the belief that Houston always had a larger margin of error in a game, simply because they were able to get so many looks off. But teams are defending them a bit differently now. Closeouts are harder and faster. More attention is paid to Westbrook and Harden, wanting to pack the paint and forcing the others to beat them. But it’s not as if Houston is doing themselves any favors, either. The profile of shots they’re generating looks of a team trying to force their way out of a slump. D’Antoni called it not playing smart.

Their shooting percentage from beyond the arc is sub-.300 over their four-game losing streak, and their turnovers are in the top 10. Harden’s game looks off. Westbrook can’t do it alone, and he certainly can’t do it for 48 minutes every night.

But defensively is where the real issues lie. No matter how bad Houston shoots on a given night, they shouldn’t be allowing such bad teams to come into their building and run them out of it. On the road is a different story, even though losing in New York and Charlotte is a high crime in itself. The Rockets just arent’ communicating enough, allowing easy cuts, open shots, tons of rebounds and second-chance points, and just don’t look themselves. They’ve become disjointed, ironic given their own personal objective on offense against the opposition.

“I think it’s a mixture of our defense not helping our offense,” Tucker said. “Our defense hasn’t been great. We’ve given up a lot of easy points, second-chance points. We haven’t been rebounding great. I think our defense can help our offense a lot.”

This isn’t to say that the world is crumbling at their feet. Slumps like these granted it’s at an inopportune time, can happen. The Rockets are an experienced enough team to learn how to get through this. But there has to be some sort of awareness, not only to what you’re doing but to what the others are doing as well. While Houston is sliding, teams like Oklahoma City, Dallas, Utah are right in the mix.

Their upcoming schedule presents a challenge: a mixture of competitive games and bad teams who tend to get up for fixtures like this, which has been a thorn in Houston’s side this season. The Rockets today find themselves sitting in sixth place and a ways to go if they’re truly to climb their way back into the second or even third seed that would be desirable. It’s not too late, but there’s less and less leeway for dropped games as the days go by.

“It’s funny,” D’Antoni said. “Just eight days ago we were rolling, and then all of a sudden the bottom fell out. We’re searching for answers, and we’ll find them. We have a bunch of guys that’ll hang in there, and we’ll get through this. What’s that Winston Churchill saying? “When you’re going through hell, just put your head down and keep going”, and right now that’s about what we have to do. It’s so bad that we’ve got to (get) a little smart and get a little swagger and hopefully we’ll start (with that) on Tuesday. I thought we’d start today, but we need to start Tuesday that’s for sure.”

 

never underestimate the heart of a champion

 

Morey poured his congenital Boston pos vibes on us. We h-town, we dont do all that talking or appreciate it.

 

We have sucked ever since Harden dropped that Madison Square Harden shoe. You should know, if you associate yourself with the Orange and Blue you are cursed. Those colors, The name Madison Square is cursed

 

For anyone interested in full video of interviews to get better context of answers, check out the Rockets site at NBA.com after the games for post-game interviews ... about 30 mins after game they are posted.

here:

https://www.nba.com/rockets/video/channel/interviews

I took liberty of uploading MDA's interview that Iko pulled from, here



odd that he says we played with more energy and fight the night before in Charlotte vs Sunday game.

 

I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like all is well in the Rockets locker room. I’m not a Rockets insider, and I simply stated my opinion concerning who should be the voice of reason in a players’ only meeting.

P.J. Tucker would be the only other player I could see filling that role.

 

Why PJ and not Russ?

 

Earlier in the game thread, I said that Westbrook would be the logical choice based on effort and production to address the group in a players‘ only meeting. @YOLO responded to me with a tweet describing how Westbrook walked out of the arena without addressing the media after yesterday’s loss. What you quoted was my response: If Westbrook will not do it, Tucker is the next logical choice.