Beverly doesn't play offense. Lin is better at creating for himself and others with the ball in his hands but Beverly helps the offense with offensive rebound which results in extra possessions and second chance points. He also gets stops which helps get our fast break game going. Nobody thinks he sucks and is the worse Rocket ever. People are so harsh on him as a bi-product of attention seeking, Lin fans who make Lin into some kind of victim. Focusing on his flaws is more about putting Lin fans in check rather than having a go at Lin. Lin's biggest problem is helping 1 pass away from the 3 point line, he does it way to often.
You're right, many players made bad decisions and mistakes, and just one or two less and the Rockets could have won. But What about playing Garcia at the at the end of the game? Garcia has pretty much sucked all year long and he was 1 for 6 at the point that Mchale put him in the game. Even Dmo was playing better than him, in 7 minutes Dmo had 5 rebounds, shot 2 for 5, and played pretty good D against Milsap. Terrence Jones or Casspi would have been a better choice than Garcia in my opinion. I understand wanting to have faith in your player but at some point you have to face reality about how the guy is playing.
Lack of leadership from the coaching staff and our superstars. The only true leader i see is prolly parsins, but he wont get listened to by DH and JH. In their minds, They are the superstars of houston not him.
I kind of got that impression as well. You know, it would be pretty hysterical if Parsons ends up leaving them after having enough of it.
Lin's comment on the last shot: Makes sense. I recall he was moving when he got the pass. Just caught it and had to shoot it from where he was because the defender, Korver, was closing out.
I agree with you about Lin fans getting carried away. I think his ability level is an above average point guard. Not an all star like LOF's think and not a bottom 25% player like LOH's think. He is still getting better, and the LOH's can cry about his D, but since his injury he has played very good D. Players make mistakes even Howard, and I consider him the best defender in the league. If you can get him playing offense like he did before the injury and keep playing D like he has since the injury, then you have a nice point guard. Beverley rebounds good for a pg but one thing you have to remember is that we are giving up some of our transition D when he does that, so it's not all on the positive side when he rebounds. I will be happy when Bev gets back but I would rather have Lin start, I think the Rockets have the most potential to be good with him in the game because he is the best pg at pushing the ball. If they continue to play like they have been I agree that it would be better for Lin to come off of the bench, but I think this is a coaching problem more than a player problem.
That's what Calvin Murphy said in the post game. He said it looked like the play was for Harden to take a quick two and that Lin was surprised to get the ball.
Lin was surprised that he got the ball. Doesnt that just show that there's no real plan other than give the ball to Harden and let him go to work? I don't know if that's what most teams with a superstar/scorer like Harden do, but there should have at least been some communication or something.
Totally agree. Lin played crappy but so did everyone else out there. His toe on the line didn't cost us the game anymore than any of those other plays mentioned above. Every play should have been called for Dwight to get the ball. He was obviously struggling to get open against Pero Antic??? Yes, he was getting doubled by other people too but come on, he's been getting doubled his whole career and still should've been able to work to get open more and the rest of the team should've been patient and just waited on him to get position. And if they were clearly going to double on him then rotate the ball around to the open man for a wide open shot. Instead, it seemed as if the Rockets were not patient enough to give Dwight time to establish position but just tried to force the ball into him over and over which resulted in turnovers. To me, McHale does have a say in that and is also not blameless.
I feel like a broken record repeating this, but I just don't understand the overall decline in FT shooting this season. Harden, Lin, Bev, and Parsons are all noticeably worse. Before tonight, AB was pretty much the only guy I didn't feel like I needed to watch from behind my hands at the line... but no more. ETA: I generally feel OK when Casspi steps up there, but he doesn't get there w/ sufficient frequency.
I hate watching a underachieving team. Seriously i enjoyed the 09-10 season when the best player we had was Brooks much better then this season.
Casspi, really? I cringed every time he goes up there. He shoots 66% career and 68% this season. Either way, poor charity % is always a bad thing in close games.
