ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Wizards 2/23/2013

A sick and confused Jeremy directs the offense. "Cole, come set a screen for Asik so he can shoot a 3"


That right hand still looks swollen


Carlos with his obligatory blocking foul per game


Beverly Thrills is always so happy, love this guy


Who we rooting for tomorrow? Dallas yes?

 

Poor Jeremy... He looks like a mess in those photos.

 

I think my mind just imploded, am I in an alternate dimension?

 

Lin played 26 minutes. McHale did not sit him?

 

just saw this on FB...''Lin was definitely sick. In fact, shortly before tipoff McHale went and put his hand on Lin's shoulder and asked him how he was feeling/if he was good to go and Jeremy nodded in the affirmative. At the half it looked like Jeremy was going to puke. He had his head covered up in a towel. He probably took some meds at halftime. I guess they needed him to give them at least some minutes tonight because besides Lin and Beverly, who else do they have right now to play PG?''

JEREMY LIN
"I’m not sure what it is. It’s a flu or cold or something … I should have played better. I could have helped the team out more than I did tonight. Now going to get back, get ready for the next one and move on.
We came in here, we wanted to get a win and we didn’t, so everyone’s going to be (disappointed), starting with me – obviously I didn’t do pretty much anything tonight."
On what changed in the second half:
“I think in the beginning they were helping a lot off the corners so we were able to hit looks. Guys were just able to get a lot of open shots and threes. But in the second half, they did more switching so they weren’t in rotation as much.”

everyone is disappointed to lose the game.im not making excuses for lin but i think the team should not play him tonight...
anyway,the game is over,time to move on to next game.

 

Yeah definitely. I mean I respect Lin for wanting to play even though he was clearly not ready to play. If I remember correctly he had all six of his assists by the first half

 

Love how fans would b**** about McHale taking Lin out whenever he struggled in past games. "WHY DOESN'T HE LET LIN PLAY THROUGH IT LIKE HE DOES HARDEN?!"

So tonight, while Lin and sick and is struggling, he tries to let him play through it and still limits his minutes. Now fans are like, "STUPID MCHALE, WHY DIDN'T HE BENCH LIN FOR THIS GAME?!? HE WANTED LIN TO LOOK BAD ON PURPOSE!!"

Yall are ridiculous.

 

You know, if Lin wasn't sick and he played so horribly tonight, I'd be among the first to jump on the bash-wagon, because I expect more from him.

Once Donuts improve his defense and bulk up a bit more, he'll be awesome.

 

I agree some fans went off the boundary and blamed on the wrong guy.
Just ignore them.

 

If the Rockets miss the playoffs, they can look back at this crucial loss and Sacramento.

 

And Toronto, New Orleans, both Portland games, Memphis, San Antonio OT, Denver, Miami, and Minnesota. All those games were "winnable" ... but ya know what?
The other team really wanted to win the game too, and they probably had more tools to win, like veteran players and bigger, more skilled big men inside, and don't forget better coaching ... oh yes, coaching really matters in basketball.

They won, we lost. It happens.

 

Hells yes. And it's going to be on ABC. HD here I come.

 

Man, our lack of depth is really revealed when any player, (especially a starter) gets sick.

 

Royce is the mouth

Royce seems to work well as the speaker of all.

 

not bad for someone who is sick.

 

4 of those asts were probably just swinging the ball to perimeter 3pt shooter. It was a turrible game no way to spin it.

 

14th pick here we come?

If its any consolation, 14th pick means we get to keep the pick. Which may mean one more trade asset to sign and trade for Dwight Howard.

 

I'm gonna put this loss on McHale, and I say that as someone who thinks he's done a great job this year. The answer to Nene-Okafor was not Asik-Delfino, it was Asik-Greg Smith. Small ball isn't the answer to everything. Given Smith's injury that made things more difficult, but McHale should have been smart enough from the get go to know that Delfino-Okafor wasn't gonna work. The only reason things weren't even worse was because the wiz were too stupid to exploit the mismatch in the first half. They foolishly settled or jump shots instead if going inside, but they made adjustments at halftime. I would have kept DMo in for the last few minutes of the game. At leat he's 7 feet tall. He got exposed on the defensive end tonight, but it would have been better than putting Delfino on him. Hell, bringing in Jones off the bench would have been better than putting Delfino on Okafor. Okafor saw the Delfino matchup and licked his chops. That was the difference in the game. Poor decision by McHale, granted he didn't have many good options, but it was a mistake none-the-less.

 

What do you expect, though? McHale is so predictable. Morey trades away PPat and Morris so that the young bigs can get more playing time, so McHale gives more minutes to... his precious 'veteran presence', Carlos Delfino.

Look, I like Delfino, but he's a bench wing who should not be starting and should never play the 4.

 

i agree w/ you and aruba, and i too would have liked to see terrence jones play a few minutes in the 1st half of both the nets and wizards games. giving him just a few minutes of burn would have allowed mchale to possibly insert him as a stopgap after losing smith to injury. but obviously throwing him into the fire in the 4thQ at washington was not a feasable option. i really wish there was more emphasis on in-game development of the young players. too many teams during even blowouts we've run the starters and main rotation players into the ground this season.

i will say that i was impressed with mchale in the nets game. he managed to keep the team focused and composed despite the horrendous officiating, and he should be commended for that.

against the wiz, he drew up a nice play to get harden open for the left side layup at the end of the game. but his (or his assistant's) gross error in using up all remaining timeouts before the final possession was inexcusable.