SA adjusted ... This game was lost in the first couple of minutes in the 4th First of all Lou Williams played pathetically. Secondly , Ryan Anderson ( good as he was the first half) cannot cover a smaller player . If SA is going to continue to play small ( with 1 big ) at the beginning of the 2nd and 4th then we need to adjust . This game showed Mike was not confident/ ready to put Dekker or Williams in . He cannot go to Ariza unless SA plays kawhi because Ariza needs all the juice he has and more to try and stay with him We've got to play an athlete at the 4 when SA goes small . This game was so close despite the refs probing our anal cavity . James, despite his horrific shooting had us within 5 at the begging on the 4th ... On the road at SA , you pray to be in that spot . As much as the : refs and Lou and James hurt us .... It was Mike not having an answer to Pop that buried us .
Checks Rockets personnel and staff list. Praises (insert holy deity here), @snowconeman22 is not on that list. #knowyourrole #bethefan #letcoachcoach
Maybe , but you saw exactly what happened in the 2nd and SA did the same thing . 4smalls and gasol . we only survived it then because we were hot . Frankly , lou played very poorly and that hurt us a lot , but our 3 guard needed another athlete out there , SA got multiple second chance points during that time becuase Ryan couldn't get to the ball quickly enough.
Lou and Trevor were absolutely dreadful tonight. It's a 7 game series for a reason though, can't knew jerk after one bad game. We were down only 5 till the end of the 3rd. The team just fell apart in the 4th.
You guys need to stop overreacting. The Rockets stole one game from the Spurs in their home, that's all they needed to do. Now they need to take care of their home games.
Sucks when we get outrebounded when Anderson plays the 5 though. those tap outs tonights were kiling us
Oh I know ; if you look in game thread I've been incredibly positive . But when one of our best units gets demolished like that it's a big problem . So far this playoffs , our 3 guard lineup has extended leads or gotten us back into games . In the second tonight they basically played even with the Spurs adjusted lineup and in the 4th they got shell shocked . I don't think it's unreasonable to think that we are going to have to counter what the Spurs are doing to them . Maybe some of it was just players having a bad game , I think Lou played awfully , but Lou alone playing better isn't going to fix that the Spurs played a more athletic unit than us then and were able to take advantage of it.
The game was close throughout three quarters. The problem was the Rockets didn't bring the same intensity in the 4th. They were keeping up with the Spurs despite the Spurs playing out of their minds. Not sure what the heck happened in the fourth. The only mistake I thought Dantoni made was not calling a timeout a lot faster. He also should of came back in with Harden immediately even if Harden was not having a good game. I don't think this loss means we have to make changes to the rotation. The Rockets just need to adjust their defense and try to make Kawhi to be a playmaker and not allow the Spurs to play their game.
I agree It was close ... And frankly their run was at least a little bit flukey ... D'antonio could call a TO becuase it happened so fast . That being said , that lineup has a weakness ( as does every lineup ever) that got exposed by SA's adjustment . If SA had gone on a run becuase we missed open shots and they drilled contested ones then I wouldn't be so concerned. I agree it would have been ballsy to change up the rotation in that spot, but it was clear in the first half that SA had done some good changes to nullify that line up a bit ... To come out like we did in the 4th ... Basically getting ambushed, is on Mike.
We are going to lose games - let's not go overboard here. I thought all things considered, we were very competitive until that stretch at the end there and that was despite Harden's poor shooting (honestly, settling for bad shots), some obvious ref bias, getting massively out-rebounded, and the Spurs hardly turning it over at all. I mean seriously - for the spurs, even with Kawhi nearly playing a perfect game, non shooters like Simmons & Parker(hasn't been good of late) hitting their shots, refs favoring the home team, winning the rebounding battle & 50/50 balls by a large margin(normally a death knell to 3pt shooting teams) the Rockets were still right in the game until the end when all the Spurs rallied around the emotions of losing Mr. Spur, Tony Parker. It's a good moral victory for San Antonio, but the fact is they will wake up tomorrow realizing they are screwed because Houston was right there neck and neck with them despite San Antonio out executing them most the game and NOW the Spurs go into game 3 without their 2nd best offensive player(Sorry Aldridge) and only other playmaker. No way Parker comes back next game the way his leg stayed pretty much motionless that whole time - I would say it's highly doubtful he comes back in this series at all. I wish Tony the best(so clearly I'm not Brent Barry), but his play in the playoffs is a big reason why they even got to this point and if he isn't able to go, the Spurs are going to have to dig deeper into a bench that is very untested.
The whole thing changed when Pop bring simmons (secret weapon) i think Simmons clearly took the game on his handa in the 4th qtr
It's the fact that Simmons is athletic and can both shoot and drive . In the first half they played kawhi at that spot , which would have been ok for us because we prolly would've played Trevor then . The problem arises when we have to have Anderson guarding ginobilli, Parker , mills , or Simmons . That's pretty much a sure two points becuase they can just blow right by him creating a 2 on 1
The game was already shifting out of reach when Simmons started to ball out. His energy just took their momentum further.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The difference was (1) Harden played terrible while (2) Kawhi was ridiculously inhuman. Even with that, it was a 5-point game after 3. IMO, Rockets are clearly better than the Spurs and the gap got bigger with TP going down. They have a decent chance to close this series out 4-1. But, after all, these are our beloved Rockets. It's in the franchise DNA to makes things as hard as possible. Spurs will likely win game 3 or 4. D'Antoni has been slow to call TOs all season. I just don't get it.
