ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Clippers 5/10/2015 (Playoffs Round 2, Game 4)

rockets are just poorly coached. I'm watching other games and I see when players are running around screens, the opposing player on that corner switches and guard the player running around instead mchale has terry and Pablo running around and chasing reddick unsuccessfully giving him open looks. we switch every pick and roll which is horrible enough in itself and it leads to disadvantages and them usually taking advantage. mchale had the last 2 seasons to counter doc of zoning harden and he has had no answer. pretty pathetic. draw players where we can backdoor or run harden off of screens or something instead of running the same play over and over that's not working. our team has no effort and don't box out and team rebound. when a shot goes up, they just stand there. I don't know if it's all on the players but has to be on mchale for not getting on them about this. also doesn't help when our players can't shoot either, brick after brick and it allows the clippers to fully zone harden and ignore the other players.

 

I'm very depressed, and I really wish we had Bev and Donuts to put out on the court for these games. Their "replacements" aren't getting it done. Not even close. That game one loss is rearing its ugly head. No CP and we couldn't manage to play a decent game, much less get a win. Now we go back to Houston needing to win 3 in a row to advance, two in Houston, with another trek to LA in between. Yeah, right. That's a miracle I won't be holding my breath for, and I'm typically an optimist. This is a bummer of epic proportions. I'm past looking for heart on this team. Right now, I'm looking for a pulse.

 

we should just play straight up and stop the hack a jordan, it kills the game momentum and makes it unwatchable. still holding hope but things don't look so good right now but it can change.

 

There's no way McHale uses it in Game 5 as much as he did in Game 4. Harden complained about it afterwards and said it killed his rhythm and Doc even trolled the Rockets by saying it helped Chris Paul not put too much strain on his hammy.

Of course that means McHale has to actually draw up normal defense plays to try to stop the Clippers which he seems incapable of doing. Which is why I don't see this one going back to LA.

 

Feeling pretty low about the Rockets right now. But there is a kernel of hope left. After all the series isn't over until one team has 4 games.

It's just that there's so much that needs to be addressed.

The transition D

Brewer and Smith not really providing the same spark they had previously

Harden not being as aggressive as he should be.

It seems like the team has been mentally bullied and haven't been strong enough this series.

Missing an abnormal number shots in the paint.

Strategy on when and if to use Hack-A-Jordan

Those are just the things of which the team has control. It doesn't include the uneven officiating etc.

It would be different if the Rockets were down 3-1 but every game was close and competitive. If only one or two things had gone differently, I wouldn't feel so down about the team. But there is a really a lot.

I still think the Rockets have a chance even though it's a small one. I'm still proud of the team and all they've done despite injury after injury to key players on the team. I'm proud of the way that Harden took his game to the next level this year. I just hope they all continue to grow and fulfill their potential.

Go Rockets!

 

I love what the delusional idiot fans were telling us after game 3. Basically that Clips got blown away by the Spurs in game 3 by 27 points and came back to win the series so Rockets can do that to.

LOLOLOL

Clips have a coach who is capable of making adjustments after being embarrassed and players who actually have heart, pride and care about the game. Rockets OTOH are incapable of making any adjustments (hacking aside) and players don't seem to give a flying ****

 

This.

They know they can't stop or slow down the Clippers.

So, in McHale's words, try to "muck it up a little bit" or as Ariza said here "make the game ugly".

Desperation move that didn't really work.

 

Those are interesting quotes from the players. They definitely don't sound like they were on board with that strategy. Granted, hindsight is 20/20 when you just got demolished for the 2nd straight game, but that's about as close as I've ever heard these guys come to publicly questioning McHale's coaching. How they come out in Game 5 will say a lot about whether or not they've quit on the guy.

 

I disagree. Doc would have pulled Jordan IF it was hurting them.

In other words, there's actually 2 parts to the Hacking strategy.

1. So they don't score as much per possession.
2. You get to continue running your offense as normal and outscore them.

If you're hacking a player, as long as they score more points than you're scoring during that period there is NO reason to pull the player. They're still even or outscoring you, so there is no incentive for them to pull Jordan off the floor since all you're doing is racking up fouls on your team.

Doc pulled Jordan off the floor against the Spurs because the Spurs were either closing the gap or running up the score. When the Spurs weren't able to score, he left Jordan on the floor even when he was shooting poorly at the line.

So, for the Hack strategy to work to the point that Jordan is pulled, the Rockets would have needed to not suck in the half court. As soon as the Rockets were unable to capitalize, you remove most of the incentive for the Clippers to pull him.

That said, it doesn't mean there was no return. Jordan shot like crap. Give those same possessions to CP3 and Griffin and it's likely they score even more points, especially considering how the Clippers completely shredded our defense in the 3rd quarter.

 

This all comes down to the approach we took into the game and the lack of leadership that followed once we got into trouble. mchale and the coaching staff decided that the main approach to this game was going to be hack-a-jordan. That's such a desperate approach for a team that is only down 2-1. Immediately you are taking away the core intuitiveness of the team (transition, fast break). We are terrible in half court offense because we don't run an offense because we don't have a coach that can coach a half court offense. We need to keep playing a fast game so the clips don't have time to set their defense. I mean ****, chris paul was basically able to walk back to the other side of the court every possession, not having to put any strain on that hamstring. Also, you could tell the hack-a-jordan approach killed our confidence. Taking that approach as the main strategy of the game basically tells the players that the trust isn't there to actually beat the clips just playing ball. Terrence Jones has been god awful. why? because he's way better in a fast paced game. Same goes for Josh Smith, Corey Brewer, Dwight Howard. I mean dear god mchale, do you not know your team? Harden has been god awful as well regardless of his stat line. First off lets face it, the guy is not a leader. just isn't. He's just as lost as everyone else out there. he doesn't constructively communicate with his team on what to do. doesn't set an example on either side of the court and is trying to play hero ball while masking it as "aggressiveness". He is back to his old ways of playing no defense. I mean dear god. The reason the clips kept getting easy buckets is whoever harden was guarding would drive right past him making dwight have to roll over and help which turned into an easy bucket for whoever dwight was guarding. (also terrence jones cant guard anyone) and its hilarious to watch harden guard blake acting like he's playing defense. It's not defense when you foul every single time. There's a lot things wrong, but when it comes down to it we have a players coach with a very weak sense of strategy on a team without a leader who is able to hold the team up when the walls are caving in.

 

The game's not over until the whistle blows at the end of the fourth ("fat lady sings" if Violet's on the court.)

McHale can't throw in the towel that early. Doesn't matter if he thinks the victory is out of reach, he's got to get his team in fight mode, trying to dig themselves out of the hole. This keeps the team focused and puts some fear into the opponent - "damn, they almost came back! We were lucky this time and might not be lucky next time.")

Rolling over early in the playoffs shows a lack of competitive fire and is going to inspire the Clips in the next game into thinking that the Rockets will fold if they get under pressure.

It's time for McHale to start earning some of his salary but I don't think he has the coaching brainpower. Yelling and demanding "more energy" isn't going to do it.

 

The depressing truth. If we'd skipped hack-a-jordan it could have been worse. Or not, I suppose, but my glass is half empty today.

 

It must be crazy demoralizing when the guys are falling behind, Herman has them huddled up, and the best he can muster out of a timeout is a chucked up 3 by Josh Smith.

 

One game at a time...if we win game 5 and have some confidence rhen u never know what happens in Game 6. Harden and Howard could go off or one of the role players steps up. That's what being a fan is....never giving up until it's over....and if it happens all the bandwagon fans will jump right back on..

 

Well...did the Chron break out the tombstone yet? It can only help.

 

Start a new starting lineup for tomorrow's game what the heck is worth a try:

PG: Harden C: Howard PF: Smith SF: Ariza SG: Brewer

Bench: PF: Jones C: Capela PG: Prigioni SG: Terry

 

2. To say that Dwight Howard was off from the opening tip would not be entirely accurate. He seemed out of sorts before the tip. When he and DeAndre Jordan were in position for the initial jump ball, Howard and Jordan jockeyed for arm position as if winning the opening jump would somehow be key. The Rockets lost it. When the game began, Howard quickly got into foul trouble. When it was over, he was in the locker room with six fouls, two technical fouls and just seven points and six rebounds. The Rockets came into the game with a plan to post up Howard and get him the ball as they had not often enough in their losses in Games 1 and 3. He might have been excited about the opportunity but handled it horribly. The Rockets had just 36 points in the paint, 20 fewer than their average in the Dallas series. The Rockets were outscored by 28 when Howard was on the floor and he was not on it long enough to make much of a difference, anyway.

3. The idea that the Rockets would have an advantage off the bench had long since been dismissed. The Clippers’ depth was expected to be their undoing, a line of thinking that now seems foolish. The Clippers reserves have thoroughly outplayed the Rockets’ previously strong bench. Josh Smith has made 27.3 percent of his shots in the series, 11.1 percent of his nine 3-pointers. Corey Brewer has made 35 percent of his shots, .83 percent of his 12 3-pointers. With Jason Terry starting with Pat Beverley out, the Rockets not only miss Beverley’s defense on the ball, they have lacked Terry’s scoring off the bench. Austin Rivers has become the sort of instant-offense force he had never been since leaving Duke. The Rockets bench has been as unable to stop him and Jamal Crawford as they have been incapable of answering on the other end.

5. The Rockets have not lost three games all season and would have to avoid their longest losing streak to prolong the season. After 91 games, however, the only trend that seems to have any relevance is the two-game losing streak in Los Angeles. The Rockets had never lost by 25 or more points twice in the same post-season, never mind the same series or same weekend. They have shown no signs that they can stop the Clippers, or that when the Clippers have a run of any kind, they won’t topple over like a child’s toy. Rallying back in the series seems inconceivable, but after consecutive humiliating defeats that make even the Game 1 no-show seem not so bad by comparison, showing up and playing Game 5 with some fortitude would at least display some pride. The Rockets have shown few of the qualities that got them their 56 wins and second seed, displaying little of the determined defense, high-speed bench or Harden-driven offense of paint and 3-point scoring. They miss Pat Beverley and Donatas Motiejunas greatly, but the problems have been much greater than being shorthanded. Game 5 is unlikely to change the series, but it would at least improve how they feel about it. At this point, that might be all that’s left.​

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...rockets-95-five-things-we-learned/#32888101=0

 

Our rotation players showed no heart or passion for the game, i would rather see Capela, kpap and johnson go out there and try than watch the rotation players give up.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WATCH: Dwight Howard invites heckler fan to &quot;come out here&quot; during Game 4

<a href="http://t.co/52sXb6SDXi">http://t.co/52sXb6SDXi</a> <a href="http://t.co/NGFynUDDwT">pic.twitter.com/NGFynUDDwT</a></p>&mdash; CBS Sports NBA (@CBSSportsNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSSportsNBA/status/597798462541996034">May 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAAGFBMVEUiIiI9PT0eHh4gIB4hIBkcHBwcHBwcHBydr+JQAAAACHRSTlMABA4YHyQsM5jtaMwAAADfSURBVDjL7ZVBEgMhCAQBAf//42xcNbpAqakcM0ftUmFAAIBE81IqBJdS3lS6zs3bIpB9WED3YYXFPmHRfT8sgyrCP1x8uEUxLMzNWElFOYCV6mHWWwMzdPEKHlhLw7NWJqkHc4uIZphavDzA2JPzUDsBZziNae2S6owH8xPmX8G7zzgKEOPUoYHvGz1TBCxMkd3kwNVbU0gKHkx+iZILf77IofhrY1nYFnB/lQPb79drWOyJVa/DAvg9B/rLB4cC+Nqgdz/TvBbBnr6GBReqn/nRmDgaQEej7WhonozjF+Y2I/fZou/qAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/2hn2kJqWd3/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Dwight Howard threatening me.</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A video posted by S. Sami (@s_universal) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2015-05-11T02:45:29+00:00">May 10, 2015 at 7:45pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote>
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KJ McDaniels might have been key. He could have backed up or played with Harden easily. Is he available but just not on the Play Off Roster? How does it work?