Small ball is a gimmick and it does not equalize anything. Factor in increased levels of fatigue in the playoffs and any fool will see that small ball is a gimmick. Small ball has been a gimmick for years!
Team has stopped playing for one another. When that happens it's over. Either make the playoffs and get smashed in round 1 or don't make the playoffs and get clowned. They have tuned MDA out. This season just sucks.
Tucker's quote hints that there is some blame going around, some finger pointing, reminds me of something Westbrook said when we were sucking earlier in the year, something about egos, don't remember the exact quote though but it sounds similar.
We can talk about the offense and turnovers but nobody talks about the defense. We gave up 70+ in the first half to the Clipped and to bunt gave up 70 in the first half to Orlando. Any win games, and sure as hell cant get through the playoffs without a defense. Just think people are punishing our short team and we MDA refuses to play anyone that can defend the middle. Also, I’ve been a big Harden fan for years but his body language is horrible right now. Add the fact that he’s missing big on 3’s and it’s a recipe for losing.
Sure does and who would be the one player on this team whose ego would usurp the importance of the team ? Whoever it is I bet he knows exactly what needs to be done ... to fix this ****, or would he ?
I hate to think it is Harden but it has to be Harden. That's fine though. I mentioned in the game thread (this thread I guess), great players all have egos. Hakeem, Kobe, Jordan, Lebron...someone just has to reign the guy in and remind him the goal is to win games. Nothing else. It's either him or Westbrook and Westbrook never had being a bad teammate on his record. Say what you will about Russ, that's never been a complaint about him. Dudes move on from playing with him and that's the first thing they say is that he was an amazing teammate. Honestly, if I were to psychoanalyze this and I will because I can...but Harden started off this season doing something legendary. Looked like the dude was going to average 40ppg and I'm sure he knew that, other teams knew it, and they threw the kitchen sink to stop him. They got him out of his rhythm and suddenly he can't hit shots. Now his chucking starts hurting the team. This is around the first time where we started to suck. Russ said some cryptic ish about putting egos aside and I automatically assumed that Harden had to be told that his chucking wasn't helping...this is around the same time too that Russ just stopped taking threes, so it looked like something was hashed out. Suddenly here we are again. After it looked like they were starting to gel, suddenly, here we are. I'm not sure how, it was a f'n week ago we beat Boston and guys were hugging each other on the court and everyone looked so happy. I've never really seen such a bipolar team. Watch these mofos beat the Lakers next week after dropping these three winnable games.
Hardens last 4 games 39 percent from the floor and 29 percent from the 3. All those games equate to losses. This team goes as harden goes. Unfortunately he is not going very far right now. Be it fatigue or injuries. He is the key. The best player but when he is faltering so Is the team. I don’t buy the decline nonsense. He scored 50 points on this very same magic team in Orlando this season. It’s not decline
