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

Harden is a real ball stopper sometimes. He's efficient and unstoppable at times, but the flow of the offense and team ball gets put out of whack with too much Harden ISO ball.

It's a double edged sword because it saves us at times like in the Minnesota game, but at other times it has killed us too.

 

Jonathan Feigen mentioned in a tweet last week that they were wearing the green stripe only until the Minnesota game (where the McHales are from).

 

Dude u guys need to chill on this harden Iso/hero ball crap. News flash if we had lebron James, Kobe Bryant or Kevin durant it would be the exact same. Hate to break it to u but that's how basketball is the best player always dominates the ball plus when ur beat player gets 30 every night on 50% shooting and 5 and 5 he can do what he wants. Plus he plays team ball so I dnt kno what U guys r talking about. All 16 wins start with him without him we r lucky to have 6.

 

Thanks for setting me straight.

 

I adore Asik but his struggle with catching/fumbling passes not only hurts our offense at times but also attributes to some of our backcourt's TO's.

 

We have to admit that, at this point, the Spurs are just a better team than us. 7 games out of 10, probably, we will lose to the Spurs. They have top 5 defense and offense (the only team in the NBA to be ellite on both), experience to close games, skillful bigs, terrific PG, drive, ball movement and 3 point range.

That causes the Spurs to be very good at any type of game you throw at them. They can compete with us in a fast transition game, and perhaps with more efficient FG%. As we saw tonight. We were 52,3% which is not bad at all, but they were 57,1%. They beat us on 3-point % and FT% also, and that gave them the edge.

The bads:

- 1st quarter play: we started all wrong. Letting them get their shots uncontested, and getting some bad shots ourselves. And I think it was mainly lack of focus and intensity on D. We were sloppy, not thinking nor moving the ball to get easy shots. Of course, we've been in a tough schedule, the 3rd game in 4 days, a road one against a tough team with beautiful ball movement. But even so, we gotta start the game with more care.

- Turnovers: we were quite sloppy tonight. Several turnovers (Lin, Harden and Parsons with 5 each) made the Spurs come against us with a transition game, and that made them to be always 1 step ahead of us. Repeatedly when we were closing the gap, a TO made the difference go back to 5+. Mentally we looked tired and perhaps that leaded to the high TOs. A mistake that we cannot make against the Spurs, because they really know how to convert a TO into points.

- FT%: 15-26 is a lot of FT missed. That alone could have made us win this one. Another indication that we were mentally tired.

- Iso plays: several times we forced the drives into their paint with no results. They have great help defense, their bigs know how to position, and Harden was not able to draw fouls, nor Lin was able to finish properly at the rim. The best option would have been to move more the ball, making the extra pass, in order to drive after their defense rotated a little bit and was off balance. To get the ball, stop, look at the defense, and then drive, only helped them to apply their gameplan, positioning well to stop it.

- Post play: that was almost non-existent from our side, and our centers were really outplayed by Duncan and Splitter. Asik got into foul trouble, Smith didn't have the same impact as usual and Aldrich, despite of having a bigger frame, was not competent enough.

The goods:

- FG%: we had an efficient night. They were just better. But we cannot deny that we had a good FG% (52,3%) and the offense scored 116 points even after a slow start.

- Lin, Harden Parsons stepping out: they all scored more than 20 points, had more than 5 assists and rebounded well. Too bad that they had also 5 turnovers each. Aside that, they were playing well, running the offense and keeping us close. Specially when the Spurs played with their bench, without Parker and Duncan.

- Heart: to keep it close, after the 1st quarter blow-out, in the 3rd game in 4 days, against a team of this calibre, showed quite a heart from our team. They really put some effort, and we saw they wanted to win it badly.

The players:

Lin: good game, despite some sloppy passes and a couple of drives when he was trapped under their bigs. But, overall, he was lucid, moving the ball, and we had the best performance when he was on court. I thought Lin was the best player from our side tonight. On D, is hard as hell to hold Parker, that's sure..

Harden: his drive and get fouled game was not working well tonight. San Antonio clearly came with a game plan on defense to stop it and several times they did. The positioned their two bigs under the basket, waiting for Harden to drive pass the guard. The were not moving out for help D, instead, they were just holding their ground 2 steps ahead of the basket. This made it easier to contest Harden's layup without fouling, because they were balanced, not moving, and had the wingspan advantage. Harden tried to force it tonight, perhaps out of frustration, and that caused our game to be stagnant when the ball came to him. Most of his points tonight were from midrange jumpers, instead of from layups and that caused his FG% to drop. Harden's D was not sharp tonight either, and Green had several good looks to shoot.

- Parsons: a good overall game, being aggressive on drives and scoring several times with layups. Nice to see he didn't settled for 3's, and tried to get to the rim more often this time. It worked, and he was bailing us out sometimes when the other guys were not having chances to score. On D, solid as usual. Our best player alongside Lin, tonight.

- Morris: he had another bad game. Missing his 3-pointers, and seeming without confidence. Some games ago, he was dribbling, crossing over, going to to the rim, shooting jumpers over his defender.... Now, the swagger is losta and he is just passing the ball.On D, didn’t bother Splitter too much.

- Asik: early foul trouble, but in the time he spent on court, he was severely outclassed by Duncan. Of course, Duncan is a fabulous player with a huge basketball IQ. Knowing that Asik’s strength inside the paint is very hard to beat, he positioned himself several times on top of the paint , baiting Asik to come out, get to him on the move, and thus making him commit fouls. Tim is a center with a solid midrange jumper, interior presence and the smarts to use it on his favour. Asik and Smith were schooled tonight.

- Bench: Not a fator tonight, neither positive or negative. Cook has a style os play that makes it look selfish and stops the ball movement. Perhaps not the best fit for the Rockets. Aldrich was used due to his size, and made a competent effort, but not impacting the game. Smith was not able to impose himself either. TDouglas had a competente game, shooting, playing hard. But, the main problem was Ginobili, who was unstopable.

- McHale: he tried to match Spurs’ bigs putting Aldrich on. Perhaps he could have insisted a little bit more with Smith, despite the foul trouble, and put a big to play PF insteadof Morris. On our offense, we hace to move the ball against the spurs. Our best game against them was the second, because of the ball movement. Harden’s iso plays seemed a little bit forced tonight, against a defense that had a game plan for his drives. So, the solution would be moving the ball and penetrating when the defense is off balance. Also, to Exchange transition baskets with the SPurs is not a good idea, since they tend to be more eficiente at that than us.

Overall, we’ve done more than I expected, considering the circumstances. We were clearly tired, mentally weak, and that led to several sloppy plays and iso attempts because we were not thinking fast enough to pass the ball well. Even so, we kept the game close, and we had a nice run in the 2nd, closing the gap. Losing this game is not shocking at all, and the only thing I really regret from tonight is that we could not rest our starters for tomorrow’s game. Other than that, I’m proud that the young Rockets could ball against the experienced and smart Spurs and really make it close.

 

Well, it's hard to single out Harden like that. You could do the same thing with Parsons as he sucked ass at guarding Ginobili. We don't play any defense, we have horrible defensive rotations. In a lot of games recently that has been covered up by extremely hot shooting (New York, Memphis, Chicago) and the other team playing awful (Minnesota) but with a team like the Spurs you aren't going to win unless you can get key stops, and we couldn't.

I think this is a bit of an exaggeration. That Utah game was a long time ago, recently who has gone off on Harden? Harden, like all other Rockets players, had a bad game defensively. Harden was absolutely carrying this team throught the first half/third quarter, so even if he is as bad defensively as you say, it's not like we'd be better off without him.

 

lol you give props to dougie for getting torched?

 

The Lin-Asik combination played Parker-Duncan quite well, but they were just on today hitting well above their season average on long 2s. Had the Rockets been allowed to continue with the same defensive job on Parker-Duncan, the Rockets probably would have won, as the law of averages would have probably caught up with them at some point. We never got a chance to find out, obviously, since they didn't have to continue shooting their long 2s with Uglas and Aldrich giving them free layups.

Uglas is a necessary evil because Machado sucks even worse, but those 17 minutes of Aldrich did not have to happen. When Alrich and Uglas share the court was when the defense completely collapsed for SAS layup drills. Even while Harden was still in with Aldrich-Uglas, the Rockets were already losing ground. The -13 point swing in that stretch of the Aldrich-Uglas combo spanned Harden-only, Lin-only, and Harden+Lin. It didn't matter who was on the court with them, that combo was uncarryable. The bleeding didn't stop until McHale finally came to his senses and took out Aldrich.

 

If there is a mismatch or an advantage with a 1 on 1, you lock that matchup, and exploit it. Instead of running some overly complicated set that might change the matchup, or burn clock and energy to get Harden open, they ISO. They need it for spacing, to create clear paths to the hole. Atleast that's how I see it.

What play do you think that is more efficient than this? I'm not too thrilled about seeing ISO used a lot- which isn't even a lot, if you take note of shot attempts/efficiency relative to other #1 options on other teams. Do you think he does this out of selfishness, or because we need the highest probability play we have at the moment?

 

I wouldn't use +/- to argue a point. That has some flaws.

 

He's had stone hands recently and had poor offensive showings twice in a row. I hope he picks it up; ever since the Chicago game it seems like he doesn't care.

 

Why does Lin play so well against an elite team like the Spurs but like crap against the Raptors and Calderon of all people?

 

The Toronto game, the coach basically didn't set any plays for Lin and relegated him. Ever since the other San Antonio game, when Lin scored 38, they allowed Lin to do pretty much anything.

 

No... They have Greg Popovich, we have Kevin McHale. Switch the coaches and this won't even be close.

 

So, thoughts on Kawaii Leonard? How does he compare to the two Röckëts draftees Parsons and Morris?

 

Harden and Parsons play 40+ min with OKC tomorrow. Tomorrow could get real ugly.

 

Yep, it's going to be TO city pt 2.

 

I like Kawhi Leonard quite a bit. Athletic with long arms and huge hands (almost on par with Smith's), quick, great D, and with good bball IQ. I'd probably rank him between Parsons (who shoots better than Leonard) and Morris (who seems less versatile than Leonard).

 

http://www.nba.com/spurs/video/2012/12/28/121228popmov-2339984
Postgame: Coach Pop (12/28/12 vs. The Rockets)
The Spurs' 4th Q defense saved us!

http://www.nba.com/spurs/video/2012/12/28/121228parkermov-2339992
Postgame: Tony Parker (12/28/12 vs. The Rockets)
on the Spurs' 4th Q defense & the Rockets' up-tempo pace

http://www.nba.com/spurs/video/2012/12/28/121228ginobilimov-2339995
Postgame: Manu Ginobili (12/28/12 vs. The Rockets)
on the Rockets' pace in 4th Q @1m08s