This. I am not getting into this game......A lot happened when the team did not believe personal doctors, and the player did not believe team doctors.
Yeah, I was more annoyed that he wasn’t competing on the boards and on defense. GS is an elite team, so it is not surprising they found a way to take away the lob and limit his effectiveness on offense. But not securing defensive rebounds is what really doomed the Rockets. Clint needed to be better on that end of the court.
i don't believe the virus excuse against GS simply for the fact that his FT percentage cratered as the series went on as well. his head was clearly not in the game. missed defensive assignments galore and as you said, not securing def boards that should have been his
When I looked at Capela's regular season games vs the Warriors, I noticed he had one monster game, but on a per minute basis, the other games were pretty much what he did against them in the playoffs. Maybe 10 percent off those per minute numbers, which I attributed to him still shaking off that respiratory bug. He stunk more in the playoffs because he played fewer minutes. And deservedly so. The point is, other than that one 29/22 game or whatever it was, he's just not very good against the Warriors. He's decent against most other teams. He does need to go to Big Man Camp or whoever can get him to develop some post moves and some Rebounding 101 fundamentals. Playing him those last few games against the Jazz was monumentally stupid, and I said so at the time. Like th Rockets weren't beating the Jazz that series, Capela or no Capela.
I think it affected him. Clint was so good on the switch just last season, that was how he got the money he got. He couldnt keep up with anyone in the golden state series, it was awful.
Clint's needs to be spoon fed on the offensive end and he's simply not going to get leaps and bounds better at this point. His game is all about hustle.
The truth is the Warriors played the lob passes mostly to perfection. They forced the lobs to Clint to be really difficult passes and few were made. Regular season lobs were right at the rim. Now he made a few easy lobs but most of the other lob passes never should have been made. He got the ball too far from the rim to do anything verse 7'0" Durant early in the series and Looney's 7'3" wing span. I felt like Harden's tear drop disappeared vs. GSW and that lead to playing the lobs easier for GSW which made Clint seems less effective. maybe the eye injury had something to do with the lobs. On your question: That kind of infection is tough to come back to full strength so no doubt it still had some impact in Game 1 but after that I think he was 90%. I want to look at Clint's game by game results along with what I remember from the series. How much blame does he real deserve? Game 1 Clint was timid and still recovering, only played 26 minutes had 6 boards and in foul trouble and took 2 shots. The Rockets just flat out failed to box out in GAME 1 and were out rebounded by 12 in a game they lost by 4. MDA should have fixed the rebounding issue in the first quarter absolute latest by half time. I remember my son commenting how thet were just flat footed and standing around. (He knows when I coached he if you don't find someone to box out I'll tear you a new one.) Win game 1 and MAYBE the series goes another direction and we are looking at Clint vs the Raptors. Game 2 Harden's eye smashed into his head but no foul... Clint wasn't the problem, 14&10 with 2 blocks and 6 fouls in 32 minutes. Iggy played an awesome game and in the 4th quarter Livingston came in and score 3 buckets in 64 seconds. The Rockets bench in the entire 2nd half consisted of Green with an early 4th Q 3 pointer and a Rivers 3 pointer with 5 seconds to go in a game that was over. The fact this games was close was amazing but loss wasn't Clint. game was no answer for I, the eye, the lack of bench but not Clint. Game 3 Clint again numbers wise had an average game. He shot 6/9 from the floor and had 11 boards no TO and a block in 34 minute victory. Probably his best game. Game 4 Clint only played 21 min despite no real foul trouble 3/4 from the floor and 9 boards in those limited minutes. Rockets won and had 17 point lead in the 3rd quarter, Clint played zero minutes in the 4th so maybe MDA was looking to see if Shump could work vs Hampton 5. Game 5 Clint again with low minutes 25 but still rebounded (14) but was only 3/10 from the floor. This game had some terrible lobs to Clint, many shouldn't have been made. But this game was on CP3 he was awful. The worst game I've seen him play. Game 6 is the one game Looney actually was a factor, he was basically a zero the 1st 5 games but he went 6/8 with 5 boards in 22 minutes. Clint was below average with 3 turnovers, 10 points and only 10 boards in 30 minutes. Not a championship top 3 core player performance but some posters act like Looney owned Clint the entire series and that's not true. KD no doubt bottled him up early but KD bottles most everyone. Like most events in life the results are due to many factors not just the hash tag phrases. Clint can still get better but I'm not sure how much, but no doubt the team, coaches included need to maximize all the players abilities where possible and that didn't happen verse GS which is why the staff is gone and MDA is on the hot seat.
*affected Utah, sure, illness. Thank God he didn't infect the rest of the team. By the time GSW came around, the relevant illness was in his head.
Good call on the grammar , my mom is an English teacher and even she could not instill proper effect/affect usage . This mixup is something that has affected me my whole life . No one takes me seriously ! Also , agreed that thank God Clint didn't infect the rest of the team ... that would have been a horrible effect , and we might now have made it vs utah
I don't think the illness affected his play against the Warriors. However, I think his play against them may end up effecting his departure from the team.
Well , only time will tell if your fortune telling powers are effective . Or if you have been on CF too long and it's cynicism has infected your mind and affected your mental abilities
A mix of illness (Thanks D'Antoni), growing pains and the lack of defensive communication spawned from an entire year of bad habits/roster flux. He was not right for the entire playoff run. Let's give some credit to Draymond Green too. Regardless, Clint will be back better and stronger than ever. That is the kind of person he is and the kind of person I want to bet on and cheer for.
I hope you are right . I was feeling really good about Clint and the investment we made in him last year . This last playoff run he did not look close to the same . I'm hoping it was a combination of external events that led to it , and not a complacency or lack of development on his part
