[Fact Checker] Harden's 4th Q v Lakers. Were we stagnant?

It seemed to me to almost always be : 1 pass, shot. Not a lot of moving the ball to get a great look.

Also, Harden struggling to get separation this year? He had one drive that ended in a made layup. And another drive that drew a foul I think. Other than that he couldn't create anything on his drives. Even got blocked once. Settled for a couple threes that missed.

Used to ofen drive and finish or find a guy for a wide open corner 3. Harden used to be one of the top creators in creating corner 3s, that seems to be gone.

 

I feel like Gordon and Anderson each took at least 1 three during this period that probably wasn't within the flow of the offense

 

Not big on just focusing on what happened in the high-leverage situations. Personally, I put the loss about 80-90% on Ennis' 4 TOVs in 12 mins and Ryno/Nene's general inability to protect the paint. But I haven't had the heart to go back and re-watch, so I could be off base.

 

I have to wonder what D'Antoni sees in Ennis that warranted big time minutes.

 

While this stretch does show "the tired legs" with the missed layups, missed 3s and blocked shots, it should have never come to this, as we should have had a commanding lead this late in the game if MDA had managed the game properly. I'm not going to go into great detail here as I already did in the Rocket's vs Laker's thread, but you can never let any team stay that close at home in the NBA, or you are subject to losing no matter how much better you are than them. The ball bounces funny, along with whistles, when playing at home....especially on open night.

 

Lol for sure , I was just going off memory . Also I haven't watched the video yet .
But since you have have def watched maybe you can tell me whether my assumption/ memory was on or off .

 

Play 1: Harden drive and layup
Play 2: Pass to Anderson, Anderson drives and kicks it back to Harden, tries to drive but can't get past his man. Takes a bad 3 and misses.
Play 3: Harden dribbles it off Ariza's foot and they try calling a timeout. Can't remember if they gave us the timeout or if it was a violation
Play 4: Harden passes to Capela at the rim, blocked. 1 pass and shot
Play 5: Harden is denied the ball. Ariza passes to Anderson, who makes a long two. 1 pass and shot
Play 6: Gordon passes it up to Harden, Harden passes it to Capela running down the lane and he gets stripped. Turnover. This is one of those tough passes for a big man to handle.
Play 7: Run a play for Gordon and he gets fouled on a drive. 1 pass and shot
Play 8: Harden just dribbles at the 3pt line and airballs a 3
Play 9: Harden fouled in the backcourt by Nick Young. Free throws.
Play 10: Ariza gets a steal and dribbles it up. Harden not open, so he passes to a cutting Gordon who misses a layup. 1 pass and shot
Play 11: Harden fouled on a drive. Free throws.
Play 12: Harden dribbles for a while, drive past his man and gets blocked at the rim.
Play 13: Harden denied the ball. Ariza passes it to Gordon who dribbles a bit then misses a bad 3.
Play 14: They actually pass it more than once here. Harden tries to drive and passes it to Ariza, who tries to drive and finds Nene for a midrange jumper.
Play 15: Harden tries to drive, loses the ball. Turnover
Play 16: Inbounds play. Pass to Anderson at the top. Missed a 3 badly. 1 pass and shot.
Play 17: Harden dribbles it up and passes to Gordon in the corner, who shoots a 3 and misses. 1 pass and shot.

Outside of the free throws and one Harden layup, I struggle to call any of those great looks.

Now you can say some of those missed or blocked layups should have been made, but they were well guarded. They weren't wide open.

 

Well it was the first game and while you hate to have to figure it out in a real w/l scenario, sometimes you have to do that.
The bigger question is why they kept Ennis and cut Pablo, especially when you basically have no healthy PG on the roster.
You know Pablo's game exactly - there's no upside or downside, it is what it is.
With Ennis, it's a gamble, and given his career thus far, one would expect a lot of downside with the hope of that slowly diminishing and turning into mostly upside. That hope, IMO, is unfounded. Which is why they should have kept Pablo.

All that said, and all the back and forth over DM's performance as a GM. Look, I like the guy a lot. I think he runs the team as a GM the "smart" way, that should result in success. And I think he's been railroaded over and over again by Les on these coaching changes/searches. I absolutely think DM would have hired someone younger if not for Les (perhaps Silas, Jr., maybe made a strong run at Walton early, whatever).

But all that said, this is a complete broken record. PG, and PF. PG, and PG. PG, and PF. Yes, easier said then done. Yes, he "tries" to address it every year. Yes, he's struck out on some options there. Yes, he hasn't hit on those positions but he did get Harden!

But this is a guard/forward league now. You've got to have one great player in each group to even be remotely decent. In 14/15, the Rockets had Harden, and then got by because Ariza was playing great (for him), and DMo was playing great (for him), and PBev was playing admirably. So it was just the one great player, but really really good support after that. It didn't matter what Dwight did / didn't do, healthy or not. Last year, we saw the beginning of the Ariza decline (which continues), PBev was ok but declined defensively imo, and the PF spot was awful.

I can certainly microanalyze more. Better defense, rebounding would have won that game, bar none.

But on the whole, this remains a crappy roster. Anderson brings a great skill, but not a great skillset. Same with Gordon. Of the 4 guard/foward positions, filling three of them with Gordon, Ariza and Anderson is a recipe for crappiness. Only Harden will get them to a somewhat respectable level. If you replace Harden with Klay Thomson, or Kwahi Leonard, and MDA with Steve Kerr or Pop, its still a crappy team.

 

This was MDA's way of sticking it the FO for not keeping Pablo

 

My fact check tells me that in those possessions we could never get a hoop and then a hold and then another hoop and another hold.

 

I fell asleep in the 4th so I'm just now watching the highlights. I counted I think 4 or 5 missed layups, 3 by Clint. The Rockets have to finish stronger than that. No way we're winning anything if our big men are laying the ball up under the rim

 

Yeah it looks like they are running the offense but not making shots.

But is it really supposed to be almost no penetrating by Harden and no more than 1 pass? I counted 1 successful drive by Harden (2 if you count the block). And only 1 play where they passed it twice.

Nash used to probe the defense a lot. I understand harden isnt like that but he should keep penetrating

 

I count 3 where they can't get anything going so just shoot a 3 and also 3 turnovers (if the foot dribble was one).

 

Not so thinly veiled hack job on @KlutchQT ! Conspicuous shade thrown by @heypartner ! How am I going to fit all this beef in my freezer!?