Hi McHale, Did you watch how spurs defeated the blazers?

Heck with McHale.... Did Morey watch the game?

But then again, I could picture Morey thinking, "They're shooting midrange shots? .... And winning by 25? .... WTF...."

 

And with yao and cato too.

 

So right. Our lack of pnr with our PGs didn't wear Lillard down. With the Spurs they ran pnr all game with Parker whereas we ran ISO all game with Harden & posts with Howard. Lillard was not hammered by physical picks at all in our playoff games. If we play him the same next year, he will kill us the same with buzzer beaters.

 

McFail doesn't deserve a good rest.

 

If Morey did indeed watch the game, he is insane for continuing on the path to failure.

There comes a point where you cut your losses, I know how important it is to him for being right all the time and how "Coaches don't make much of a difference..." , "Late game was all a coin flip..." but he will be costing the rockets dearly.

 

Oh, I miss to include Morey too. He needs to watch the Spurs too to see how bad his coaches are and what needs to be changed about the way the team play. If nothing is changed next year, poor defense, more ISO & more ISO, we will end up the same. Hey Morey, there are many good coaches out there if only to improve on our defense, JVG, Lionel Hollins, George Karl, and now Mark Jackson.

 

it's not about who has a superior PG. it's about what they're getting from their guards, and at this point, their main scoring guard, tony parker, is producing more, and playing more efficiently, than our main scoring guard, jame harden. if jame had played like parker (or better yet, played like himself), we wouldn't be having this conversation.

stop blaming bev. it's not his role to carry the scoring load for the guards.

 

Wow Lopez said that in an interview????? Gosh, can I just take a moment here to............

So humiliating! I wish every Rocket players (ahem Harden!) saw that!
That should give them something to ponder about.


I wish we have a coach who has at least 30% of Pop. That's not asking too much right? Just 30%. Mchale will sink this team no doubt about it! I was so excited with the possibility of acquiring another talented player like Love or Melo, but when there seems to be no right personnel to enact changes necessary to get these guys to play high caliber basketball, then really, what's the point?

I am not used to supporting teams with coaches who sucks. I've been a fan of spurs for a long time so I'm pretty much spoiled when it comes to proper basketball, elite games. For me to include Rockets though as a team to support, am I just setting myself for a ginormous disappointment every year?

 

Unless we trade for a new PG, the only chance we have to play more team ball is to start Lin next year and let him be the floor general, and to have pnr after pnr. Bev is a great ball pressure defender but not a playmaker. If we don't use Lin for playmaking as a starting PG, then Harden should change his way to do that to involve the team more. But unfortunately, his tendency is still ISO after ISO even though he is bricking. He has never proven to consistent play team ball. So unless we change coach who can reign in on the way the players play, Harden will do the same next year and we will exit in 1st round the same.

 

And the fingerpointing continues... releasing players from blame to fit the "fire mchale" narrative. They weren't mature enough to stay in their game, and weren't clicking well enough to overcome it. PnR? Howard doesn't care for it. Yeah, he should run with it, but we have too much selfishness on this team there and in other places as well. We run well as a free flowing offense, except.... when we don't. It's a system that suits us... except when it doesn't.

I agree that we didn't adjust well, and probably coach's "player's coach" mentality worked better in regular season than it did in the playoffs when defenses tightened up and kept us from running more often. I felt also we forced our half court offense rather than having it as an option when the ball got stopped in between running. I don't know if the blame for adjustment rests squarely on coach, or the players, but it's probably both. I agree the team needs to learn from this and mature, and probably have better endurance if they expect to keep a running game as their strength and hope to maintain that in the playoffs.

I am not saying we couldn't have a better coach or team, only that my glass is half full regarding these guys, and they deserve a chance to learn from this and do better. All this "So and so's inept and can't do this" blathering is just people wanting the outcome to fit their narrative.

How SA handled game1 isn't really all that relative, otherwise, and what I'm basically saying is "Man, this is one whiny bunch."

 

Popovich and staff could have coached the Rockets to a different result in the 1st round, I think it's safe to say.

Heck, McHale could have coached the Rockets to a different result in the 1st round just by changing a few strategies sooner or at all, and playing more bench players when the situations called for it.

 

Ouch.

I thought I was past the hurt. But I guess I'm not.

The thing is -- going at Lilard, running more pnrs, runnig more screens. Popovich is a great coach; but none of these tactics were big mysteries either. Everyone knew going in that Lillard was their James Harden on defense; that LMA would have trouble if guarded by a big man. What TF was McHale doing when other coaches were preparing for the 1st round??

/end of rant

 

And Steve Francis. Let's not forget that Francis at that point his career was regarded by many like Harden is today. Both had been in the league a while(Francis for 4 years, Harden for 5). Both were very talented offensive players. Both had bad habits of resorting to ISO heroball. And both were lazy on the defensive end. Yet somehow Van Gundy managed to get Francis to at least play team defense for the one year he coached him.

 

Rockets ran Pnr effectively for some of the games. They need to get better at it. Lillard played like crap and it was not because of Parker or the defense. Blazers are mental midgets right now after winning. Lets see what happens with the rest of the series and then the Mcfalers can start gloating. Until then, save the premature ejaculation for your wives.

 

They could also just look at a team that put an ever worse clinic on a better blazers squad in game 1. Just look at everyone hustle and move on both offense and defense

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zDuAl2vSXe0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

rockets may not be the spurs in terms of execution/pg, however, this doesn't excuse poor defensive schemes and lack of ball/player movement on offense.

for the 4th quarter, all the rockets did was iso harden and post dwight up. it happened all year and last year as far as iso harden goes.

yes, it's a coaching problem. it's a lack of structure that causes the players to be on separate pages.

 

Right, and we swept them because?

 

Spurs is a ego-less team, the best "team-ball" team in NBA despite "the big 3". We all know "it takes 5". Spurs is the prime example of that axiom. The MVP of this kind of teams is the coach, who possesses tremendous coaching and ego-management ability. Coaches like Pop does not require LBJ/MJ/Shaq to win championships. McHail will never achieve this in his life time.

 

That's depressing to watch. So much movement without the ball. And BTW, that was a pretty decent Blazers squad. Oden was a bust, but they had Roy before his knees gave out, Aldridge, Batum, Fernandez, Blake, and Outlaw. Yet the Rockets beat them without home court advantage, without T-Mac, and without Mutombo after I think Game 2.

 

and our starting PG is Patrick Beverley.