ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Spurs 12/28/2012

I wanted to post sooner but I was too busy crying...on the inside anyway.

Whatever, I still love how the team still gave it their all til the end and refused to back down even though they were missing Magic Delfino and once again had the refs pulling some BS calls when we got the momentum, sigh* so is the life on the road games.


The Bad: Defense When Harden actually stays in front of his man his defense is pretty good but when he doesn't, my goodness he is not even near by. I gotta go watch the beginning of the game again and see where Harden was when he kept losing Green who got like 5 consecutive open threes.

Asik's stone hands

So true, on a pass he fumbled out of bounds from Harden, James was like lol

Turnovers though the billion turnovers at the end were from pure exhaustion which worries me a little.


When you take away some of the turnovers (from BS offensive fouls) our backcourt still had a heck of a game! Lin bounced back from his ugly Minnesota game. Harden gonna harden, anywhere, anytime.

 

lol With Asik you pretty much have to hit him right on target and put him in an easy position to score or it's not even worth passing it to him at all down low.

 

Geez, more snide ass remarks.

Once people get it, that the Rockets seem to be thriving running/mimicking D'Antoni 7 sec system, then STAT isn't such a bad choice.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>“Tim and Tony were unbelievable tonight. The main thing is that we beat another great team that has been rolling." - MANU GINOBILI</p>&mdash; San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) <a href="https://twitter.com/spurs/status/284900334722232321" data-datetime="2012-12-29T05:55:07+00:00">December 29, 2012</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

(I hope I did the Twitter embedding correctly. My apology in advance if it doesn't display correctly...)

Manu Ginobili referred to us as "another great team". Coming from the Spurs, that's quite a compliment.

 

Highlights:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Aj2ve1ThbFE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Even last year, when he was being utilized correctly, he put up decent numbers.

Amare Stoudemire
Season Age Tm Lg G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
2002-03 20 PHO NBA 82 71 31.3 4.8 10.1 .472 0.0 0.1 .200 3.9 5.9 .661 3.0 5.7 8.8 1.0 0.8 1.1 2.3 3.3 13.5
2003-04 21 PHO NBA 55 53 36.8 7.5 15.7 .475 0.0 0.1 .200 5.6 7.9 .713 2.9 6.2 9.0 1.4 1.2 1.6 3.2 3.4 20.6
2004-05 22 PHO NBA 80 80 36.1 9.3 16.7 .559 0.0 0.2 .188 7.3 9.9 .733 2.7 6.2 8.9 1.6 1.0 1.6 2.4 3.5 26.0
2005-06 23 PHO NBA 3 3 16.7 3.0 9.0 .333 0.0 0.3 .000 2.7 3.0 .889 2.0 3.3 5.3 0.7 0.3 1.0 0.3 1.3 8.7
2006-07 24 PHO NBA 82 78 32.8 7.4 12.9 .575 0.0 0.0 .000 5.6 7.1 .781 2.7 6.9 9.6 1.0 1.0 1.3 2.8 3.6 20.4
2007-08 25 PHO NBA 79 79 33.9 9.0 15.3 .590 0.1 0.4 .161 7.0 8.7 .805 2.3 6.8 9.1 1.5 0.8 2.1 2.2 3.7 25.2
2008-09 26 PHO NBA 53 53 36.8 7.6 14.1 .539 0.1 0.1 .429 6.1 7.3 .835 2.2 5.9 8.1 2.0 0.9 1.1 2.8 3.1 21.4
2009-10 27 PHO NBA 82 82 34.6 8.6 15.4 .557 0.0 0.1 .167 5.9 7.7 .771 2.8 6.1 8.9 1.0 0.6 1.0 2.6 3.4 23.1
2010-11 28 NYK NBA 78 78 36.8 9.5 19.0 .502 0.1 0.3 .435 6.1 7.7 .792 2.5 5.6 8.2 2.6 0.9 1.9 3.2 3.5 25.3
2011-12 29 NYK NBA 47 47 32.8 6.7 13.9 .483 0.1 0.4 .238 4.0 5.2 .765 2.3 5.6 7.8 1.1 0.8 1.0 2.4 2.9 17.5

 

I can see why you would think that the way that you do. After all, Lin thrived in D'Antoni's PG oriented system and it might work very well for Harden as well, but ignoring the offensive philosophies for sec, the main problem with Amare is his money and his health. He's missed a lot of time both last year and this year and he's owed 55.5M over the next 2.5 years. There's just no way to make that work without the Knicks eating a huge portion of the contract and they wouldn't do a such a trade because: A. They are contenders, B. They don't want to pay a player to play for another team. Plus the Rockets would have to give up at least one PF prospect for the Knicks to eat the salary. And again, 55.5M is a huge gamble for someone that has struggled to say healthy.

While I do think, salary aside, Amare would be obvious upgrade over our current PF rotations, there are many other options that would cost less with less risk.

 

He's 55mil of damaged goods. Not worth it in the slightest.

 

This may work if the Knicks pay 100 percent of his salary and take back nothing in return.

And give us some future first-rounders. And maybe Shumpert.

 

Absolutely, taking the FULL contract would be dumb. But it seemed like the Knicks might be willing/desperate to get rid of him, so they may be willing to pay half his contract. Trade Morris in the deal. At that point, it might be worthwhile.

One thing tho, Knicks might still be sore about how Rockets poached Lin last year. But Felton is doing a decent job so I can't see them still angry.

 

You don't get it. His contract is over 20mil, and uninsured for his knees. His eyes and back are also a problem. He plays terrible defense, doesn't even box out.

Sure, he's a good signing for under 5mil or sth like that, but he comes with the worst contract in the NBA.

 

STAT is a good/decent player, without a doubt. However, he just turned 30 and lost a bit of his explosiveness, is injury prone with knees so bad that they are not insurable, and doesn't play defense. Definitely not someone worth paying $65M for the next 3 years.

If the Knicks are willing to foot $55M of his salary, I wouldn't mind us taking him at $3M/year. :grin:

 

Horrible defense too. See how he directs Duncan to set a great screen on Lin and then clears the way for Parker..

 

You're missing the point, it isn't an excuse, it's the reality.

Young teams generally do NOT play as well as the Rockets do, but it doesn't change the fact that it's the youngest team in the NBA, with 13 new players, playing in a new system, under a new coach.

They are exceptional in some ways and not so exceptional in others.

As for the Spurs scoring 120, we have to remember that the Spurs offense is one of the best in the NBA. They're a well oiled machine with one of the best coaches in the NBA. They tear up opponent defenses all the time... top ranked defenses that are FAR more experienced, loaded with veterans and top tier defensive players.

Defense is one of the LAST things that players and teams develop, both individually and as a unit.

We STILL put 116 on the SPURS... the championship contending Spurs, the top 10 rated Defense Spurs.

So yes, it DOES count both ways... complaining that the defense isn't great yet is fair, but it's unfair considering how far ahead of the curve the REST of the team performance is relative to other teams at their point of development.

That said, it doesn't mean that the Rockets don't have a long way to go, but if you think that the Rockets are going to be a shut down defensive team after TWO months, 13 new players, and a roster of 23 and 24 year olds, I don't know what to say.

This team has shown TONS of up side and flashes of brilliance.

And Defense wasn't why we lost (though better defense would have helped). Ice cold shooting in the 4th, Harden with a 5th foul in the 3rd, Asik sitting early in foul trouble, super hot shooting by the Spurs in the 1st, tons of missed free throws and dodgy officiating ALL could have made this game a win.

3rd game in a 4/5 against a Championship contending team ON THE ROAD. That's a helluva performance.

And yes, Harden, Parsons and Lin had 5 TO's each, however they also had the most possessions by far.

Here's another way to look at it... Parson/Lin/Harden scored 78/116 points (67.2%), 20/27 assists (74.1%), and had 15/24 TO's (62.5%). Given their usage, it wasn't way out of whack. And this doesn't even begin to talk about some of the very dodgy officiating calls.

Yes, the TO's were high, but we have to remember that we took 86 shots and had 24 TO's. The Spurs took 77 and had 19 TO's. When the pace is that high TO's go up on a per game basis. Still higher than normal, but it wasn't like they had horrible games by any stretch.

The Spurs shot 50.0% from 3 (12/24). We shot 34.4% (11/32). They shot 57.1% overall (44/77). We shot 52.3% (45/86). Make more 3's, we win. Make more 2's, of the Spurs miss more shots and we win.

We shot 57.5% FT's (15/26). The Spurs shot 91.7% (22/24). Make more FT's and we win.

We out-rebounded them, we out assisted them, we got more possessions and shot attempts. They did get more 4 more blocks, and 3 more steals, in the end what killed us is they hit shots like crazy and we didn't.

So yes, our defense can improve. However, defense takes time. Offense usually takes time, but our offense is crazy good for what we could rightfully expect.

That's a pretty nice luxury to have... seriously good offense is something many teams NEVER achieve.

 

I just posted practically the same thing... you beat me to it... lol.

 

Give it a rest! Doesn't matter if they pay Morey 50 mil to take him, still counts as over 20 mil against the cap, which is all that matters.

 

No way, Shump is gonna be a potent elite defender on that squad. They would never give him up.

Man, people must think Amare is really washed up now.

 

I don't think he's washed up. just extremely overpaid and injury prone and old.

 

That pretty much sums it up.

 

Lin actually played Parker well. As soon as Lin went off the floor in the 1st quarter, Spurs started running plays for Parker and he beats TD in everyway you can imagine.