I highly doubt that the Spurs have a disadvantage playing an away game. Haven't you seen their road record. BTW, Spurs passing is awesome. They pass the ball so fast that it makes their opponents reactionary. If you notice, when the Spurs shoot the ball, most of the time the shooter is open regardless of who it is. The fact that the Rockets were in this game with Lin running the show, shows that team ball is better than iso ball. Similar to the Pistons game you talked about. They whooped the lakers with a bunch of nobodies.
Role players tend to play well at home while stars tend to be consistent on the road and home. Yes Spurs basketball is a thing of beauty to watch. The ball is consistently swung around and everyone sets screens for each other. They did get beat by the Thunder in the playoffs though.
OKC was shooting like mad in that 4 game stretch. You can't beat hot shooting, no matter how good your D is. But when OKC's shooting goes down, the better team wins, which was Miami. I believe that Spurs was the more talented team than OKC though. It's irrelevant however. It's in the books. Time to move on.
LOF new mantra, bash Harden propup lin. lol. No matter how much you bash Harden, he s far superior o lin.
Driving down the lane between defenders and scoring, yes Harden is better. Shooting the open 3, yes Harden is better. Scoring while raising everyone else's point totals, Lin is better.
Again, Harden pretty much won the Jazz ame with his playmaking. He was creating a ton of open looks.He got Chandler the shot that iced the game. He creates a ton of good shots for other off the pick and roll.
True. But would you rather have a Harden team that had a hard time with the Jazz, or would you rather have Lin give the Spurs a hard time? We should have actually won the game. I would rather see Lin handling the ball, and finding Harden when he's open. When Harden shoots an open shot, it's a good chance it would go in. Right now, Harden tries to shoot with a hand in his face or double team. Won't work. Look at the Spurs. When they shoot, they almost have no one with a hand in their faces.
None is saying Harden must be the primary ball player, if anything if you watch the games, Harden looks for Lin alot on the pass off, but Lin was playing Timid and was quick at handing off the ball. The problem isnt Harden or McHale, the problem was Lins defer type mindset. The Spurs game Lin finally had that hell for leather mindset and the first person off the bench giving Lin high fives was a certian James Harden .
There is a lot more to it than this. The offensive system is very interesting. The team likes to have a PG bring it up and swing it to Harden to start a pick and roll. Lin frequently goes to the corner for spacing purposes on the drive. In the Spurs game Lin was in the Harden role so that is why he thrived. That is the Rockets offense. New sets need to be implemented to switch things up but the Rockets haven't really had practice time to do this. Sets that specifically allow both players to be at there best together. Lin will never play like he did against the Spurs with Harden on the court but he doesn't need too. But he can still be a big offensive contributor. His timidness plays a factor but how he is being used in the offense is a big reason as to why he was less aggressive. There are a bunch of other factors that I don't want to elaborate on right now but are pretty obvious to anyone with some sense. And likely other factors at play that fans aren't even aware of. Just a thought.
I agree. In the current offense either Harden or Lin can take the leading role, not both at the same time. Lin is lost when Harden is on court as he is pushed away from the ball. Tony Parker was correct stating that he and Manu had similar issues initially until the roles were clarified. Lin must ´be the PG and Harden the shooting guard (ala Manu). That will work if implemented by the coaching staff.
Good point. I will get slammed for this but I think our record would be better with a traditional shooting guard who is not the primary ball handler.... someone like Kevin Martin. However there is no reason Harden can't play SG and Lin play PG. The coaches just need to stress it. Maybe they will see the light after the San Antonio (if they don't they are deaf, dumb and blind).
This concept is clear to anyone who with even a rudimentary knowledge of BBALL, yet somewhow this is alien to the coaching staff. Go figure.
For some reason McHale has a mental block about Lin. I don't know if the San Antonio game is enough to change it. He's probably mostly pissed that Lin waved off the pick the last play of regulation. Never mind the fact we would probably have been blown out without him. Maybe Les will get on his case.
