Kevin McHale made an important adjustment by having the team play harder and with more energy. This made a huge difference tonight. Not sure why he didn't come up with it until Game 5 though. The team still faces an uphill battle. The odds would likely be different had McHale coached the Rockets to play hard and with energy since Game 1.
They finally came out and played with some heart,they fought on every play and it was really nice to watch.
it was good adjustment. the only downside is it came way too late. many fans here already pointed out key changes that had to be made since game 1, and McFail does that when we are down 1-3. so frustrating, but hey better late than never.
Yes or Kirby hoisting 40 shots and flexing after reaching 30 points in garbage time.... Like Jerry Stackhouse, no one is impressed.
i think carl has a point though. mchale DID get them to play harder and with more energy. the real question is how did he do it? asking them nicely? promising them a pizza party? strippers? or maybe we shouldnt give mchale too much credit. perhaps morley used analytics to figure out precisely when and how much to beg them?
This was Mchale and his staff's best coached game. The employed the hack a jordan correctly...They attacked Jordan early getting him in foul trouble early. They took out players when they needed too. And got timely shots by players other than Harden. OH and they finally figured out how to defend the double High screens that have killed the Rockets, and effectively gotten them out of position.
Or maybe the Clippers came with no intense urge to win? They didn't have the drive tonight. Settling for threes.
Smith starting. Rockets playing base defense with Jet and Pablo guarding Paul. Harden getting rest in the first and third quarters. Capela getting decent run.
The adjustment was getting the Rockets focus on battling in the paint--scoring and rebounding. With Smith on the starting line-up, we had more muscle up front vs Blake. We didn't go on those 3pt missing binges because we weren't settling on 3s. Of course, it helped a lot Clips were missing their usual shots in our arena. Hopefully their shooting regresses to the mean.
I think it was a combo of the clippers losing their intensity because they have a comfortable lead mixed with the Rockets players really not wanting to put on lipstick and a dress and being the Clippers women tonight.
Capela and Jones are able to outplay the Clips' back-up bigs. Capela did a good job, not afraid of the big moment.
This reminds me of my college years. We had this terrible professor for Physics. I mean absolutely terrible. He would come late to class. Sometimes came in flip flops. Sometimes hair and clothes all messed up. But what was consistent about him was his teaching. He was horrendous. Could not explain simple concepts and frankly he didnt give a damn. Personally I did not care because I hardly went to classes and did most of the work myself. I was indifferent towards him. However, I could understand why more than 3/4 of the classes couldn't stand him. So it's the last day of the class and this girl who is really pissed off at him asks him, "Can we have the survery scantron to fill out?", to which he responds, "Why do you want it?" So she tells him that she would like to fill out a survey because she has done it for all her other class. He says, "You would be wasting your time filling those out. I am tenured." I LOLed and walked out of the class as I was LOLing. I loved that guy from that day onward. Like a BOSS.
