Morey will try to throw MDA under the bus, but I think they are both fired after the inevitable disappointment in the playoffs.
They played great. Hit every shot, even contested shots. Punched us in the mouth in the first Q. Rallied in the 2nd Q and then the bottom fell out. You play that hard to get back into the game, if we would have done that in the first Q, we might have been able to cruise on through. Eric wasn't able to go. Just not enough fire power. Couldn't make shots. Just didn't play very well. What happened to Eric? Just general soreness. ... They played better. Their freshness, athleticism overwhelmed us. Dead legs, couldn't make threes, just the little things.
He clearly wasn't as bad as everyone else if he got us from losing by 22 points down to 5 points in the first minute of the 3rd quarter. That was all him. He then got his teammates open much of the 3rd quarter but they kept bricking wide open shots. Being a leader is irrelevant if you're teammates can't make wide open shots. He was the only player out there who played well tonight. The only player who tried to make the difference. But because it's James Harden, he's as bad as everyone else. You know damn well if Westbrook put up Harden's stats tonight, you'd be praising him and putting the blame elsewhere. His game is not the problem.... and hasn't been the problem. The problem has always been pretty much what you seen tonight; his teammates missing wide open shots that he makes for them on most nights.
Some observations on this crappy game... When nobody can hit a shot except James Harden, it's hard to win--especially since our second and third best creators were out. Technically Gordon played a quarter but I'm not counting that. Covington still needs a little time to build offensive and defensive chemistry with the team. Yesterday he was getting by on BBALLIQ, but today you could see a little hesitance and slow rotations on D. That's fine, he was thrown straight into the fire after the trade. I'm 100% sure he'll be very effective in our system. Today was the sloppiest the Rockets played in a while. Still won the turnover battle, but it doesn't matter when you can't capitalize on the opponent's TOs. MAN the shooting was brutal today. Going from one of the best wins of the season to the worst loss doesn't feel great, especially when you watched the whole damn game. I'm pretty confident about this team's defensive potential. All the positives we observed yesterday still stand, though obviously today was a gigantic dump on the birthday cake sort of game. Just like yesterday was "just one game man, it doesn't mean anything" then I say the same goes for today's game. Utah will be a great test--Everyone's saying we have no chance against Gobert now without Capela. I believe that the Rockets will play with energy and passion.
I agree. When an opposing team shoots 85% in the first quarter, and the Rockets are down 20 at the end of that first quarter on a B&B, it is hard to play yourself back into the game. Just mark it in the loss column and move on.
I know it does. Those guys missing consistent wide open shots will always lead to fast break points. You've always got some excuse of why Harden's to blame for our losses. You say you don't hate the guy, but you clearly do. If you were to trade Harden, who would you trade him for? Because it seems you don't want him anywhere near our team. I'm really curious about this one.
I laughed at that bullshit you wrote. Do me a favor on Sunday watch how the other players on the team look way more motivated and energized on the court when it just them and Westbrook compared to when its just them and James. Why do you think that is??
I think Gobert will struggle against us. His perimeter defense isn't great. Him guarding a much faster and shorter guy will give him nightmares.
Dude, almost EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of your posts since you've joined has been ******** on something or another, or just being a general wet rag. If it's killing you so much to watch the Rockets, you're free to follow another team. Like maybe a team Joe Smith actually played for? You have 12 choices, none of them being a team you obviously don't even like.
It's like Jimmy Butler made it here after all... Get well, Gordon: nobody else can shoot the damned ball.
LOL I heard general soreness. Jonathan Feigen said "several soreness". People asking in response "Severe or several?"
Having more motivation doesn't make you miss a crap ton of wide open shots. The difference between tonight and the other night was the Suns hit pretty much every single shot in that first quarter and we gave them a 22 point lead.... and we also missed a crap ton of shots. We then came back due to Harden carrying. Then Harden's teammates missed 4 wide open 3pt shots back-to-back, which gave the Suns the momentum to give them a big lead again. It's as simple as that. Westbrook doesn't have to worry about a double team every single play. He was free to do whatever he wanted against the Lakers. Harden's double teaming made it easier for Westbrook. And this isn't a knock at Westbrook's performance. He was amazing. Very efficient. Just saying, Harden has it way more tougher than Westbrook does. There's a reason why teams double team Harden so much, because he's a lot more tougher to guard than Westbrook is. Take tonight for instance..... Harden completely turned a 22 point game into a 5 point in like 8 minutes because they weren't double teaming him. The Suns then quickly started double teaming Harden from the half court again because Harden was going off. My point is, if you allow Harden to do what he wanted like Westbrook did the other night, he's more than likely to drop 60 points on your head if he's hot.
I get that. I'd be pissed too if I'd wasted time watching this game. You're just usually more precise in your criticism, is all. Lord knows I've complained about MDA and his timeout allergy before, but it doesn't look like there's a lot he can do when his team was that inept at shooting 3s. Something like 16 percent if they weren't Harden. Rivers picked it up a little at the end. The pressure is off a little when they're down by 25...
So why has Russ been scoring like crazy even with Harden in the bench? You still didn’t answer my question about why guys seem more energized playing with Russ/ getting out and Running instead of James dribbble, dribble.
This I've seen as well it's happened often this year. I get that Harden unto himself is by far the most talented offensive player on this team by light years, but the way he slows the game down and allows defenses to set up and then that double which he still doesn't seem to move very quickly to defuse or break up is troubling. Tonight he did it many times, allowed himself to be caught just over the half court line and then had to chew up clock often to get the ball to a shooter and yes out shooters absolutely sucked tonight but I still say Harden has culpability here more so than not. He wasn't great on the defensive end at all, gave up several open 3s and was cheating off his man often ball watching. Yeah the Suns just blitzed us and no Russ (and Eg) hurt us for sure, but that game is going to serve as a really nice tutorial on how to blow this small ball strategy up I'm betting. Really awful game, coming on the back of a scrappy hard fought game that most of us probably thought we would lose, this was bizarre and deflating,
