You know what would be nice? If McHale would give the team a play to end a quarter/half. But I guess we're doing fine with Chandler stumbling on his ass and James and Jeremy losing the handle on failed ISO attempts. Marcus Morris: 1 of 7, 2 sorry ass rebounds and a nice TO to top it off. I thought Jeremy was eh okay, just meh. He tried to attack but their defense was too much. Some frustrating layups he kept missing, his shot looked ok so of course he barely used it, gotdammit Jeremy Quite frankly I expected worse, like we've seen he's been poopoo on back2backs LOL why was Miami constantly double teaming him? are they not aware Linsanity is over?
Having Anderson instead of Parsons in the end was puzzling, but the main problem was still the same old strategic failure that plague us. They went back to the r****ded iso ball and away from screening for Harden/Lin the entire game. Don't even try to tell me that was on the players. It's so consistent it was obviously a coaching decision. Harden made three difficult shots, got a foul, and a TO off the r****ded iso ball in the end, but it was fool's gold. Those were low percentage shots and he is not going to make those consistently at a high clip. Nobody does, not LeBron, not Durant, not Harden. I mean, it's been consistent across the season. When we go away from screening for the guards playing r****ded iso ball, we are only a decent team. I have no idea why the coaching staff is so in love with it. Harden can sometimes go off playing r****ded iso ball, but everybody on the Rockets do substantially worse doing it, including Harden, even though his game suffers the least from it. When we don't play r****ded iso ball, we regularly blow out good teams. How much more consistently poor stretches is it going to take before we permanently stop playing the r****ded iso ball?
Momentum is great and it does help but you can't use that as an excuse to win or lose games, shots don't go in at times and teams move on to the next ones.
Oh come on guys, b2b loss to the heat in Miami has to be at least some what expected. I think they were playing serious with us too from pre-game talks and the defensive intensity, not one of those bored heat not trying games (although Bosh wasn't playing). - James Harden showed exactly why he's a super star, pretty much single handedly keeping us in the game. I can only imagine what he'll be like in a few years. Wow. - Jeremy Lin's game wasn't as terrible as some of the posts are making it seem (he's had far worse games this season against more sub par teams.) I personally think games against Miami are a great chance for him to grow and learn how to deal with these lock down double team defence which we will for sure see in the playoff. - Asik played a very nice game as well, one rebound short of the 15 streak - Thought that Parsons should have went in the game in the final minutes... but I guess Anderson has been playing great before the final stretch... hopefully he can keep it up. I'm not even upset about this at all. I thought we did well against the defending champs under b2b. The team is still young and as long as they keep on improving there are no complaints
Harden didn't go isolation until late in the game. In fact, we were playing very good team ball throughout the entire game, but when our team couldn't make anything Harden took over.
I agree about Lin tonight, it was confidence to me. Most of his missed shots today were good looks at layups that he usually makes at a good percentage. It could just be tired legs, but I'd put it on confidence, like you said, you can tell by his composure. I think the day he plays well against this Heat team will be a big step for him. And Harden, he was just beast tonight, nothing to say.
Rockets are now 27-24. They are now 0-8 against Miami (2), SA (3), OKC (2), LAC (1). They can't beat the elite teams (top 4 winningest team) but do well against everyone else.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>NBA's top 4: SA, OKC, MIA, LAC. <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Rockets">#Rockets</a> 0-8 vs them. IMO Den is 5th best. HOU 0-3 vs Den. HOU 27-13 vs rest & 13-4 vs other playoff teams.</p>— Adam Wexler (@awexler) <a href="https://twitter.com/awexler/status/299358926690975744" data-datetime="2013-02-06T21:28:24+00:00">February 6, 2013</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I feel like McHale tries hard to be innovative and seem like a mad scientist coach, but really is a dumbass who can't get his rotations right.
But last year he had the whole msg crowd behind him and he was full of confidence with that game in the middle of the linsanity period. This year, Heat are not the only team that has tried to stifle him with pressure defense and he has risen above it. Lin's game is highly factored by his confidence, as you can see during the season, there is night and day difference between bad and good games. Lin needs to believe he belongs in the NBA and that he CAN match it with the best of them. This is what most rookies go through hence the inconsistent play in there first year. Lin just needs time to believe in himself.
After Harden was shooting the lights out from 3, WHAT does he do?! Just ball hogs and drives to lane causing an offensive foul when there were 4 players closing in on him, Lin WAS WIDE OPEN FOR 3 in the corner...Harden and anderson caused stupid TO's in the last 2 mins HE WASNT ALLOWING ANYONE TO STEP UP! Lin barely got any touches in the 2nd half... the 2nd half the rox reverted back to harden offense directed by Mcfail and mcfail's idiotic rotations. Lin MUST be trusted no matter what, to run the offense NOT harden..We could have won, the Heat are not playing dominate bball as of late in case you guys forget that
At least two pretty close games against Miami. The outcome tonight might be different, if we hosted the game tonight.
Anderson, being not playing with the starter much, clearly lacked the kind of chemistry that is needed to win close games. There was a fast break play with 3minutes left and he was driving to the paint, with JLin right beside him waiting at the 3pts line. He didn't pass, instead he run into Chalmers and caused a turnover. But overall, he played well tonight!
