To me the rockets made only 1 glaring , tactical mistake tonight ( which I will get to later ) Where we struggled was in execution. We blew 5-10 layups . You can't do that vs the warriors . Not only do we lose points .... and it is crucial to keep the scoreboard moving vs GS , but then GS gets to get out in transition where they are absolutely devastating. Those missed shots KILLED us . Collectively , if Luc , PJ , Trevor and (3/4 quarters ) Eric are going to get outplayed by nick young , Livingston , iggy , and West then the series is over . Those guys have to hold serve . Eric is the biggest disappointment. When he plays aggressively like he did in the 4th ... he's fantastic . I'll now get to our tactical mistake . We needed to play capela more ... specifically from 4 minutes in the 4th quarter. I was at the game , let me explain what I saw . Mike was going to go with Clint , PJ , and the 3 guards to close it out .... this was the correct choice . Trevor had 5 fouls and was playing poorly . Eric was heating up . However , before Clint inbounded the ball , CP3 talked with the coach and Ariza was put in his place instead . I can't be certain , but I think that CP3 was worried they would hack Clint . The very next offensive play , harden drove in the paint ... and turned it over trying to pass out to the corner. I'm not sure James even knew Clint wasn't in . Beyond that , we NEED his alley oop threat . The situation was 4 minutes left and we were down 9 ( I think ) . We were still in the game . Yes , we would have had to play very well .... but that is something we are capable of doing . You don't need to drastically change up your strategy at that point . I.e. You don't need to go with all shooters . You need to score and you need to get stops . Clint is a better offensive player that Ariza ; he is a better defensive player than Ariza . He has been our 3rd best player . And while he didn't have as many opportunities this game , he was playing about how I expect him to . That was really our only tactical mistake ... or at least the only glaring one . Mike used a weird lineup in the first half , but hey, the game was tied and we were playing fairly well . So to sum it up , the gigantic majority of the reason we lost comes from the execution side . I know this is a long list , but this series isn't over . We were playing our game through 3.75 quarters and were right there with them . Who knows what the score would have been at that point if we had just managed to make those layups / a few more ft's . Let's see how our guys respond before calling it over . One final note , the crowd was ducking awesome tonight .
Toyota Center as lit Maybe we play better with less crowd And Warriors are used to fully packed arenas
It was legit electric in TC tonight . The way we came out in the first ... the crowd was ****ing on fire . Even in the second half , every time we fought back and kept it tied or close the crowd got loud . GS making that run at the end killed the crowd .
It was even worse seeing it in person . He had the lineup ready to go ... and then CP3 convinced him to make the change ... very next play harden turns it over because of no alley-oop threat and the defense can play passes to the corners . The game was over at that point
We could play a lot better. Our role players disappointed. D'Antoni is going to make some adjustment and we will take Game 2. Get a split at Oracle. Rockets in 6!
2 things... 1) KD is unstoppable when he isn't trying to create for others.. None of that drive and kick mess he did during the season.. Just rise and shoot.. 2. They did this to us with us having100% confidence, on our homecourt, and with Harden playing lights out! We Done bro! Nothing to be ashamed of.. No need to bash our players or coaches.. They're just better!
Luc was afraid to Dunk because his shoulder. And Ariza well.... Was being Ariza by not being able to hit lay ups in traffic.
No reason we can't keep our confidence . No reason guys can't make layups next game . Harden is better than KD .
Give harden Durant Teamates and he will be doing layups the whole game. Curry and Thompson cannot miss when they are open.
I'm still pretty heated, so I'm surprised I read it all. I agree though. Clint Needs to play as much as possible. Missed layups sucked.
Lol.. Ariza was also making boneheaded b-ball decisions. You can’t have 4 fouls and try to take a 50/50 charge and then sit on the bench for damn near an hour. This was a game we should have won. We had back to back to back TOS and they took advantage.
