ClutchFans Game Thread: Warriors @ Rockets 5/14/2018 (Western Conference Finals, Game 1)

To me, the glaring weakness is exposed again. The rockets must upgrade the 3 spot. I hope its LeBron, but it can be a combination . Ariza should be a 20 minute per game guy.

 

I tried to read this but it has the worst spacing since Kelvin Cato and Yao Ming played together

 

welp.

bad news:
-James scores does his typical great game 1 performance (that's the third straight game 1 of the playoffs that he's scored a ton and very efficiently), and we still lose by double digits
-KD looked unstoppable
-Steph played mediocre but they didn't need him to do great. I'm scared if/when he catches fire.
-The warriors just looked a lot more balanced on offense. I'm tired of hearing the whole "the rockets iso too much" when that's what we've always done, but there were a lot of looks that we didn't even explore that fit within our one-on-one offense.
-i dont know that our constant switching is inherently terrible. It's just that the matchups to begin with were very questionable, leading to a lot of cross matchups that were favorable for the warriors ... with harden getting exposed by EVERYONE and cp having to get destroyed by KD on the block. Basically, we got to find a better way to "hide" harden on defense, or he needs to step it up and stop playing defense like the D'Antoni suns teams did. Reminds me of Amare Stoudemire's approach to defense ...
-Even our better defensive players were losing guys on their rotations, especially that klay guy
-May seem small, but mbah a moute missing those two layups made me rethink if he's nervous or injured or what ... we need him so bad this series.

good news:
-our stars played pretty well tonight overall.
-despite how many open looks we gave up, we were still relatively in the game.
-klay thompson notoriously has ONE great game a series, and has relatively mediocre 14-20 pt games the rest of the series. He has his great game tonight, and if he hadn't, we probably would have been able to get the win. It'd be an anomaly for him to match what he did tonight ... But then again, our defense left him WIDE open so many times.
-eric Gordon was complete trash tonight. He hit some shots ... still not up to his own standards, but at least he was somewhat more efficient than he's been in his slump.
-Clint was kinda blah tonight at some parts but has shown some promise of his rim protection. Once our perimeter D tightens up and we make less mistakes, he may have good opportunity to showcase his rim protection more.

 

Is only one game. The series is far from over. The rockets will adjust and shots will start to fall and we will have a series again.

 

It was a great first half i thought outside KD we tamed their stars for the most part but you could see their overall defensive intensity gradually pickup in the second half and we did not respond in kind. We gift wrapped so many open looks for Klay from the three point line which he cashed in on 6 of them. This cant happen again in the future.



Unlike everyone jumping the gun i still feel confident because of the things we did not do well are all fixable.

 

That’s a good point... we came out like the Timberwolves trying to win just any game in desperation but we’re too good to need desperation. We’re good enough to win this on our own merits and quality. This Rockets team is legit. We just didn’t play like it tonight.

 

I remember the Phoenix system having more ball movement beside the Nash n Stat connection mainly because Nash was more of a pure shooter and not a scorer, he dribbled a lot too. Pace was lot faster too. Ain’t wrong about that part.



Stoudamire
Marion
Quentin
Joe Johnson

Diaw, Barbosa.....

All very athletic and fast in the past.

 

Watching 1st half of game...you can forget Ryno...not happening. Oh, he may hit an occasional 3 but his D is laughable and he's LAZY. Jimmy is our team but D is not there....and I love Jimmy. Crazy to put Jimmy on KD. EGO, PJ & Luc are HUGE disappointments. Our offense is stagnant...no motion...and GS boxes out on rebounds like you're supposed to. we have no cutters to the basket as Miller says.We must slow down KD even at the expense of Thompson and Curry IMO. Young firing up 3's on us as well.

 

0-1 when it actually matters

 

Yeah, I get so confused by that. It's like they forget they have those looks.

For instance, the first play of the game was a STS (screen the screener) where Ariza screened Harden's man and Capela screened Ariza's man and then ran to the basket. The Warriors tried to switch everything and ended up with two guys on Ariza and and nobody on Harden. Harden hit a wide open three by just walking to the spot.

Later in the game (third quarter), they ran a play where Nene had the ball. Paul came off a screen and grabbed the dribble handoff. While this was happening, Mbah a Moute set a flare screen for Gordon on the opposite side. Paul had the choice of the open drive or the pass to Gordon for the open 3. He chose Gordon for 3. Easy, wide open bucket.

I dont think they ever ran these again.

Also, if they are going to continue screening with Curry's man to get the switch I think they need to do it a lot sooner. Like almost as Harden is crossing half court with the ball.

If they switch it then it's Harden going downhill against Curry. I'll put my money on Harden. If they dont switch it then he has a decent lane to the basket. That's either a Harden layup or an alley oop to Capela.

 

Why are you writing like you’re about to turn in your 5th grade essay?

 

Calm down. We destroyed the Spurs last year in game 1. We'll win this in 6.

 

It's done guys, you are too much optimistic...Harden will never repeat a performance like this...Tucker, Ariza and MBAH (come on Luc!!! You blowout 2 layups and miss 2 wide open 3's...) have to step the F up...

DEFENSE: we are pretty shi*, they play perfect defense, we are not. That's all, you can't allow 119 points at home, you can't.

KD is unguardable, like the beard was tonight...but the have Klay who scored 28 playing an amazing game, Iguodala scored 11...seriously? How you can let Iguodala score 11 and Pj Tucker 1? Mbah a Moute 0 (ZERO) points, come on ....

IMO it's done. KD has ruined the NBA, there's no more competition ...we need LeBron to compete against this bitc***

 

Moron

 

Lots of panic sellers in this thread.

Capela should be guarding Durant, and more minutes to Ryno, and less to Tucker and Nene should be a Nono for the rest of the series.

 

I dun think they played that bad in the first half, they almost dominated 1st quarter.

They did not have it in the last quarters except Harden on O.

 

I need my knee jerk reaction. DID ROCKETS FORGET KLAY THOMPSON IS PART OF GSW and not a ref BECAUSE i swear most of his made shot NO ONE IS GUARDING HIM. Durant and harden will NEGATE each other offensively so does chris paul and curry. So it's up to the third and fourth even fifth scoring option to STEP UP. If HARDEN can score 40+ points on GSW defense then that means other players should and could SCORE their USUAL good numbers. It's weird because looking at the boxscore we attempted more shot than the warriors but i feel like rockets as a whole are kind of gun shy tonight. And why is harden defending KD? Come on. And ariza really?? 5 fouls in the first half? You're not a rookie man. You're SUPPOSED TO KNOW how to MANAGE your FOULS. GSW played their USUAL good offensive game but we are capable of OUTSCORING them. We scored 50 points in a quarter for christ sake and GSW aint special defensively i think they are just on the level of jazz when it comes to defense at their best and we weathered that. We are a GREAT offensive team the TEAM just needs to show up and stop being so TENTATIVE. You can't expect to sucker punch GSW in the first quarter then just suddenly let up and start to gets jittery when shots arent falling. The team that can defeat GSW 4 times in a seven game series is THERE I've seen it before it's not a ****ing fluke. You just need to DIG DEEP as a team. You have to show up at the same time.

 

my thoughts too

 

Harden got 40 pts still lose. I dont think rockets can win. There are no shooter on our bench. I suggest to sign lou Williams back