It would be great if the Rockets could take a 3-6 point first period lead and make it 6-12 by the half and 9-18 going in to the fourth and win by 20 most nights but that is just not realistic. I'm concerned like everyone about them blowing 4th period leads especially against teams with losing records. However, there is some good to come out of it. The Rockets are learning how to win close games. Last night against the Nets, big plays on defense and clutch shots. These are the kind of things that are going to be needed later in the season and in the playoffs. They have got to be comfortable in these situations and I feel that's is what's happening. So, just trying to see a positive here.
I thought we are doing OK so far in close games. The only close game we lost is the first OKC game IIRC. We shoot a lot of threes so our leads are probably inflated. When we don't make treys and the other side make them, the leads evaporate quickly. This is just how we play.
Yes we're learning how to play close games. However, in playing close games, we have a tendency to play Harden & Ariza more minutes. My fear is that they'll be tired out come playoffs. I'd like to see a 35 minute cap on all the Rockets.
I've felt like the Rockets run one offense for three quarters and a different one in the fourth quarter. They're top five in total points in every other individual quarter. They're 19th in fourth quarter points. I don't want to take the ball out of Harden's hands, I'm fine with him getting the helm late. However, I think they tend to kill all the off-ball actions, fun double screens, and so on that gives Harden options for the rest of the game in favor of a very simple series of isos and boilerplate high P&Rs. The nominal reason for this is that late, you want to carefully control the clock, and launching a bunch of early shots a la "Seven Seconds or Less" is taboo. And this makes sense in the last two minutes, but I think Houston overdoes it and leaves their fast sets behind too early in the fourth in favor of running clock.
I think part of it is that the team is gassed by the time the fourth quarter rolls around. Our frantic style of play will do that. Maybe our guys just need to get into better shape.
Harden typically doesn't come back until halfway in the 4th. I am fine with "boilerplate" PnR since the objective is to get the ball to a player that is in position to score. Harden off the screen is deadly as he can stop and pull up, step back, drive, lob or dish so that objective is accomplished.
To me it seemed pretty clear Harden tightened up in the end of the 4th against the Nets. When the pressure is on in any sport everyone gets a little tight, I'd just like to see him trust his own game and trust the offense a little more in crunch time.
Just as long as they don't panic (aka, don't run plays anymore in the end stretch) they're getting better at it too. Plus MDA is coming up with the appropriate timeout and set plays down the stretch.
thats what happens when you keep overplaying the starters and dont use your bench's full potential. kj should be avg 10-15mpg, he's good for it. im not really sure if dekker should get more minutes cuz this is really his rookie year and he might get tired midseason like the rookie wall thing. so kj should be getting some burn to give ariza and harden some rest. i thougght mda was gonna be on top of this but he's the same as jb and mchale, maybe a little better but not enough.
really kj is the answer to this problem. the bigs and pg get enough rest. ariza is a role player on his 3rd straigh tseason playing superstar minutes, harden has been doing that since he came here, maybe the year after i forget. maybe give dekker a little more burn and kj 10-15mpg, problem soolved. forgot about ryan. to compensate for harden on the bench they need to get ryan in the offense. i dunno how this hasnt happened yet. if eg is on the bench too that is
We are playing a 10 man rotation. KJ to me is what Phil Jackson calls a "space cadet". The kid can leap but can also easily lose focus on the court. This is not going to help him when he needs to earn his minute.
Teams start guarding us more aggressively and Harden tries too hard to take over, the ball gets sticky. DD
I feel like we're in need of more depth at the the 5. Teams seem to understand how to beat our defense provided we're out of gas. We run out of gas quite a bit. Because of this, I'm really hoping DMo works out or Chinanuhahaunahauhanhahauna makes a leap in the d-league.
The Rockets just need to respect their opponents. They're clearly a better team than teams like the Nets but when you let these teams hang around for 3 quarters it's going to be tough to close them out in the 4th.
Our offense had a significant part to do with losing the lead late in the 4th but honestly we couldn't stop Lopez. Pretty sad how effective he is at scoring but can't or better yet WON'T rebound. He by chance grabbed one rebound that fell his way. I understand he's probably not mentally right after so many foot fractures but.. come on how do you only grab 1 rebound in 30+ minutes. Rockets need to continue to move the ball for sure, we'll get in some losses soon, it's going to be interesting when we finally go against a properly disciplined team who have legit PF/C combos.
Defense doesn't allow 43 points in the 3rd quarter, 4th quarter doesn't matter. Everybody doesn't suck at the FT line, 4th quarter don't matter.