[ClutchFans] As Rockets set to take on Thunder, James Harden must rediscover his mojo

I'm glad they got a break for a few days, as that can make a big difference. I hope mchale doesn't play him all 48 or close to it. Curious

 

I see the series going about like the season. Spectacular highs. crushing periods, eye popping moves and crazy stupid plays and almost enough.

4-2 Thunder. Go Baby Rockets !

 

Expect the worst (sweep). Anything more is a bonus.

 

We also need to be looking at how our coaches perform.

 

Terrific read, Clutch. Now we'll see just how they do.

 

I've read a lot of articles on this series. This is the best one, and it didn't even contain a quote from Jeremy Lin.

 

Thanks for sharing, Clutch
Nice read. Go ROCKETS #REDNation

 

Clutch was dead right about this, Harden was consistently missing open looks tonight that he was making earlier in the season. Huge part of why we lost.

 

A kind of rookie wall? Or overused by McHale?

 

anyone notice that almost ALL his shots are short?

That never used to happen.

 

he might have missed a couple good looks, but we lost by 29 POINTS. it wouldn't have made a significant impact on the outcome of the game

 

He clearly still needs to find that mojo, but it's also clear that he didn't have any help worth mentioning. Maybe we should send all the players opera glasses, with a note in each box saying, "Find your mojo!" If nothing else, they can use the damn things to look at birds after the series. I've got one in each fist they might discover if they keep playing like this.

 

Thabo Selfolosah is a part of the Thunder's big gun group?

Averages 17pts against the Rockets (in three games), and topped 17 points in the season three times.

 

That's a clear sign of not having lift on his legs.

It happened w/ Nuggets on a b2b. All his shots were short after 1st qtr.

Ever since his ankle injury, he hasn't been the same player. Maybe he has recovered from his injury but defeinitely not the same players while his efficiency has fallen off the cliff.

I miss his super efficient mojo games when he went 15 shots for 30+ points.

 

Didn't find the mojo last night...couldn't get shots to fall. He didn't get a damn bit of help though.

Just an all around bad effort last night from top to bottom.

 

Great article! My only concern is, depending on the way this series ends will set the tone for how we are perceived this offseason. The general population outside of Clutchfans, will grade the Rockets’ great season off of this series. The fact that Morey was able to mug OKC for Harden will be forgotten along with the overall great job our head coach has done considering the personal tragedy that could (probably has) have left him some major emotional and psychological scars. Coach Sampson did well covering as well. The rest of the coaching staff has also done a pretty good job with their talent development. I would say across the board all the young players on our roster took a step forward. Asik has emerged as one of the top defensive centers in the league, he was he was sitting on the bench last year! JLin has had to overcome a lot of scrutiny as the world woke up with a hangover from Linsanity and having to accept the reality that he’s young and human after all. He’s also had to redefine his game in the beginning of the season, not in the offseason. He had to learn how to play with another (superior) ball dominant guard in Harden. Parsons stepped up and became our second best player on the team. Harden is the stepped up and became the second best 2 guard in the league. Greg Smith… I mean where the heck did he, Anderson and Beverly come from?!? Talk about stepping up! We also have our three-headed rookie PFs who all showed a lot of promise. We had a great season overall!

This is why I am hoping we end up going 2-4 on the series. So we end with a positive note and all the personnel that’s made this season wonderful for us as longtime, diehard, fans get the recognition they truly deserve.

 

This. Harden wasn't the only reason we lost. If you watched the game - most of the offensive was just, dribble pass outside and then jack up a random 3 or long 2. I was so frustrated...there was no plays or dribble penetration. It could be that OKC defense was THAT good - and which is it, with Ibaka hanging around it's tough to go inside, but cmon, can't rely on outside shooting to bring you back in the game...have to change it up a bit as Morey said, variance. Everyone just played terrible as a team, even the coach. Lose as a team. I think next game the players will be motivated to play harder and play better.

 

Hey if we get ONE win that would be a positive, but I think that's a stretch. My prediction is, next game we play a little better but lose by 10. We get a close game at Home with either a win or loss. This team is just too inexperienced and you could really see how scared they were on defense and offense. Slow rotations, statuesque defense, and also very slow indecisive passing and shooting...so many things to improve as Lin said.

 

The month of april where Harden really struggled is the month where rockets shot there worst from deep. Think about it. Harden is fine I am not worried about him. He could average 0 points and 3 turnovers in the post season & I would be chill.

 

Very nice summary, Clutch.

Lots of things happened (and have been happening, unfortunately) to the Rockets (individually and collectively) for the past couple of months.

A lot of it has to do with being a very young team. A lot of it has to do with James Harden not being James Harden. A lot of it is Oklahoma City just being a very good team.

I always held that Jeremy Lin would have to shoulder the bulk of the offensive responsibility for the Rockets this season, and that was even after the Rockets acquired Harden. That one-two offensive punch that the Rockets consistently lack (or more precisely, the inside-outside offensive philosophy) could have perhaps been better served with Lin being the primary ballhandler/playmaker/decision-maker for the Rockets.

The draw-and-kick approach suits Lin a little bit better right now than it does Harden, from a team continuity standpoint, to me. It is difficult to accept because Harden is a better individual offensive player than Lin right now, but it stands to reason that, given the need to clear the interior of bigs defending the basket (and a need to NOT try to reinvent the wheel offensively with this team)...

...the better approach (not just now, but going forward into next season) may be to finally let Jeremy Lin be the player (in theory) that the Rockets signed away from New York.

Lin has adjusted very well to Harden's presence, and found ways to be relatively consistent over the course of the season. But sometimes, I think terms like "lead guard" tend to suggest a little bit of a conflict of interest among teammates and team goals.

It's not so much deference to one or the other that I think needs to happen, so much as it is a firm determination of who is going to do what for the club.

"Point" guard and "Two" guard are many times the same position (I never quite got the stigma associated with being a "combo guard"...except where decision-making is concerned), but I think (and have thought for some time) that the Rockets are currently constructed for Lin to handle the ball predominately, and for Harden to look to score in as many ways as possible.

I believe that Lin is probably a little bit better equipped to facilitate the offense than Harden is right now, on average.

As it was stated in an article in the Chronicle about Harden, the next major step for him will be the toughest, and that is to be a truly dominat player consistently on both ends of the floor. I don't think the Rockets will ever have a problem following Harden's lead.

Harden will have to decide how to get the team where he wants it to go, though.

But again, I think that would be much easier with Lin as the primary ball handler. I get the feeling that the team is still too enamored with standing and watching James Harden play one-on-one, so much so that there is very little movement from the other players (particularly the bigs you mentioned).

Offensive range is important, particularly from the frontcourt players in a draw-and-kick scheme. But I do think that Lin (if he were the initial ball-handler) would be able to get alot of those bigs at the four (either Greg Smith or Terrence Jones) to be a bit more conscious about moving without the ball TOWARD THE BASKET where they mght be a bit more effective in finishing layup and dunk attempts.

Just an observation, of course (and probably not a particularly good one), but there are more than a few leaks in the dam for the Rockets to plug up in this series.

Doesn't mean we all shouldn't still have some fun, though. The boys are way ahead of schedule anyway...!