ClutchFans Game Thread: Warriors @ Rockets 3/17/2013

Let me break it down into it's simplist terms.

Live by the jumpshot, die by the jumpshot.

DD

 

Not surprised at all. Typical let down game. Warriors just got completely embarrassed and we came off a nice win. In the NBA, on any given night, anyone can win. It's cliche, but true. The Warriors are still a talented playoff team, so they're capable of turning it around like that. The Heat or OKC may have been able to hold them off in the end of a game like that, but obviously we're less talented, so we get blown out.

Move on to the next one.

 

Well. Kind of worry about this coming Jazz game. They will be ready to revenge the previous loss to Rockets.

Our "4" players can not defend (most of the time) nor offend (Inconsistent) will really hurt our chance to win this coming game.

Our coaching are "sigh....".

No more long ISO minutes and picking up team defense from all players.

Good luck Rockets.

 

i remember many of you talking about how Beverly should be the starter over Lin, You guys remember that?

 

jazz is a good match up for rockets because their guards can't shoot and they don't move off the ball since their bigs are taking up a lot of space in there. last game, lin was playing free safety the whole time and caused a lot of issues for their bigs. when the ball did find its way to the guards, they couldn't make any shots.

i expect the same result.

 

Golden State was playing to win like it was a Playoff game ... which is what it amounts to, because this 1 game can determine Playoff seeding. Houston was playing like it was just another game they could win by showing up and playing man to man defense.

There was no rotation to contest shooters, which leads me to believe McHale would rather give up a wide open 3, than a layup or slam dunk for 2.

 

Last game Mo Williams was out. He'll be playing this time and he's a pretty good shooter.

 

I just hope this type of blown out won't affect our team morale and chemistry and spirals us into another losing streak. Got enough of that last year.

 

We got Harden bc of that losing streak.

 

Its crazy the last time Jones got playing time was when we were playing the Lakers in LA

 

Hopefully it does the opposite and acts as motivation (a la losing to the Suns then following that up with a blow out over them at home). Nothing would please me more than to see the loss ignite a fire under the teams belly and follow it up with a thumping of the Jazz.

 

Just wondering, is there anywhere online I can watch Calvin Murphy's postgame comments?

 

Didn't he sprain his thumb? Bad timing, for sure.

 

In the instances where the other teams field 3 perimeter players who can score, then you'd want Harden against the slowest one - Jarret Jack. He did above-average in the 3rd quarter against Jarret Jack when they were matched up. Harden was just burned by Klay Thompson.
Oddly of the 3 players, Jarret Jack is probably the best overall at creating his own shot. He's definitely the bulkiest but slowest of the three, so in those instances you try and hide Harden there hoping he doesn't have to chase a fast guy around screens. And yeah, Rockets don't need him to play Wade/Manu/Kobe level of lockdown D. But, in those instances, Harden should by all means "man up" and stay solid on defense.

They still do actually. The line-up format is virtually the same since in many NBA offenses the 2 and 3 are interchaneable. Where either the SG or SF is the focal point of the perimeter offense, with the defensive swingman fills the other slot. But the way the offense operates is the same.

Yeah, he's critical to their game. Opens up the floor like Jack does for David Lee. Gives someone Jefferson can dump the ball out to before the double comes.

Againt Utah, Houston's going to need great rebounding games from Asik, Greg Smith, Chandler and Montijunas. You know Asik is going to step up against Al Jefferson, but the other 3, you never know what they'll look like on the boards.

Will be great seeing D-Mo match up against Millsap and Favors though.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is, moving now through the end of the season and into the playoffs, I'm sure opposing team's have made the league aware of Harden's tendencies to initiate contact. They all know he leads the NBA in free throw attempts. And it's not a "he's so physically dominate people have no choice but to foul and everyone sees that" type of thing like when Tim Duncan, Shaq, Dwight or Yao has the ball down low.

Harden gets fouled, but it would be insanity to think he doesn't get a lot of calls his way when he initiates contact. Houston's played Golden State a few times now, so they've definitely sent tapes into the League Office about Harden.

The more we play teams 3 times or more, or when teams meet in the playoffs, expect Harden to drive to the hoop and not get near as many calls as he did early in the season. Because after every game in the playoff, every 50/50 call that sends Harden to the line, the league's getting a tape about that. So someone like D-Mo's really going to have to get at least a few touches down low to ensure some baskets.

 

Saw Harden do a lot of pointing at other guys to take his defensive assignment (very Westbrook-like - causes havoc on his own defense). Almost ALL of Houston's defensive breakdowns occur because of Harden even when the team hides him. Also asking 6'10" Parsons to chase Klay through screens is about the most r****ded thing I've seen - Klay's gone off against the Rox because of this in previous games - and it finally caught up to the team.

Sometimes shots just don't fall and this was clearly one of those games. But the spacing & offensive flow were way off - At one point in the 3rd, Rox score 2 consecutive times on DMo post-ups to break a dry spell. THEN NEVER GO BACK TO IT AGAIN. Instead DMo's chucking above the break 3's which he should never be in a position to take - McHale needs to fix this.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>. @<a href="https://twitter.com/chandlerparsons">chandlerparsons</a> tied for 6th in NBA w/ 57 corner 3s. Shooting 51.8% from there, 2nd only to Steph Curry among those who've taken min. 50.</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/313756771514736640">March 18, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Not sure this was posted already, but a good read:

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/03-18-13-jeremy-lin-shackeling-hurts-the-rockets-almost-treated-with-tim-tebow-disdain/

 

i hope mchale gets fired...that's all to it.

utilize your players the right way damn it. we can't keep experimenting with these games down the stretch.

FIX IT NOW.

 

I read it again , I think the reporter really nailed it:

The coaching staffs "never fully embraced" Lin.