In your opinion King1, what are the positives of the team so far and what are the negatives. What would you like to see going forward for the next game? Just want to hear your feedback as you are mostly objective and unbiased.
I like Lin and have seen what he is capable of on his good days. I have defended him against unwarranted hate before. The reason it is a bad thread is because if you watched the play live or in motion rather than snapshots, you would see Lin racing up court with two Blazers trapoing him and Parsons wide open 12 feet in front of him calling for the damn ball. Had Lin passd to him, he had a clear path to the basket and the Rockets win via layup or free throws.
Wrong. Two Blazers had already retreated into transitional defense position. They are so far back on defense, you can't see them in the tv screen.
Look Lin made two mistakes: he should have immediately called a timeout and should have passed to Chandler. But there were obvious signs of trouble in this bang-bang play. He comes down with the ball, worried about getting trapped and decides to escape along the baseline. At that point he has Williams right behind him, Dwight setting a weak pick beside him, and Lillard approaching, attempting to steal the ball and fouling him in the process. It's that foul, clearly shown in the still photo, that slows him down ever so slightly to allow Williams to close the gap. Yes, Lin should have called a timeout. So should have McHale. But in the play that actually transpired on court, Lin was clearly fouled and should have been shooting two free throws. What's more a ref had a clear view of it. If there was a television camera view of the foul that captured the foul the way that still shot does, and it was played immediately on television, it would have completely altered the narrative about that play. The narrative would instead be: the refs blew a call.
This is the first time I see someone pointed out that calling timeout is not always the right thing to do in that situation. I don't get why everybody assumed that it should be an automatic timeout. We had the lead and had the ball. Calling timeout would stop the clock and let the opponent the opportunity to prepare well for the subsequent inbound play. McHale confirmed that he had told the players to call a timeout IF... That said, Lin was under pressure and should have just held the ball or called timeout to safely protect the possession. One thing I observe in Lin. He doesn't stop to think when he has the ball. He seems to have the urge to move immediately when he gets the ball. That's how he got that loose ball off the floor and to Daniels in Game 3's winning play. But that also makes him susceptible to making bad decisions in frantic situations.
Well, that would deservedly still be a large part of the narrative. But I think it would have become a double narrative.
obviously anything would have been better than what actually happened. i would have prefered a pass out to Parsons or somebody else. Saves us a TO in case we needed it and runs the clock.
i've defended lin on many occasions but this time i can't. murph said it best that of all people you should know and have in your mind as a pg all scenarios and what to do in those scenarios. murph basically was saying enough with the i'm sorry's and it's on me which is commendable but too much was at stake on this error. when he got the ball from out of bounds with all the people around him you would think that alone would have made him call timeout. on top of it he had another opportunity to redeem himself because for a brief second lin got the ball back and couldn't hang on to it..... either way i believe that whole chain of events turned the series because by having a lead odds were definitely in the rockets favor of closing out the game.
I heard a comment from someone (Mark Jackson?) talking about Lin playing in fifth gear all the time, and that knowing when to tone it down a bit was something he had to learn. Can't remember for sure who said it.
My mistake. So maybe they wouldn't have scored but the point was Parsons called for the ball cuz he was open and Lin was in trouble, not because he wanted a fast break.
Jason Kidd had mentioned that. That's the problem when he as a Knick, especially in PNR. The Rockets want him to be aggressive.
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Jason Kidd, he said that when he signed with the Knicks prior to Lin officially left for the Rockets. http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/sto...uce-veteran-additions-jason-kidd-marcus-camby
I think LIN did the right thing dribbling out of trouble to not get trapped. With a timeout remaining. So why didn’t McHale or ANYONE call one <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fGu7kGXAa-E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dDlCa4IoPvE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Only positives so far this series have been Howard and Daniels. I commend Bev for playing but he isn't himself and Lillard has been getting what he wants offensively. His misses aren't a result if quality D but rather how he plays. Harden has been atrocious. No effort on D and can't get anything to drop. I'm still of the belief that he is a star player but he needs to grow up a lot this off season. Parsons has also been disappointing. His D is non existent and he's been mostly invisible for the series. Lins has been..well...Lin. Had a huge OT and a game saving hustle play but outside of that his mental lapses put him right next to Harden as to why we are down 3-1. McHale needs to go. Good guy but poor in game manager. I don't have a perfect solution. I'd like to see more of Daniels on the floor but my guess is he gets no more than 20 minutes. I'd also like to see Harden give us a good game. He's long over due. I think we win game 5 but game 6 will be tough.
