ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 12/26/2012

Nothing better I like watching after surgery than seeing rockets highlights of a come from behind win on the road against a good team on the 2nd game of a back to back w harden coming thru in the clutch on sportscenter. Now that's a mouthful.

 

What he said.

Run and gun 'em.

 

Excellent analysis shuh! Thanks You should start a blog and at least collect these posts there too!

 

Kevin Love is having a bad season, possibly due to hand injury he's shooting 36/24 fg/3p. Which is fine by me I saw him try to post up Asik once or twice which was just hilarious...even if he managed to back him down, what would he do? (Other than get blocked)

 

Agreed. He was driving to pass and he gets in trouble when it closes. When he drives to a spot or to score, he's much better. Once he's caused them to close on him, then he should distribute.

And generally, it's always the passers fault. That's a good rule to live by and how the NBA judges turnovers.

 

Wow... Kevin Love is a joke!!

 

I don't follow the Timberwolves and missed this game, but man, judging from the highlights they're some hideous looking mofos.

Rockets are such a handsome team.

 

Dirk Nowitzki and Jamal Crawford both have high arc and they are great shooters.

 

Hmm, this was one of the few games I watched in full, very entertaining game. Some observations I had:

*Seems our team this year is trying to become PHX 2.0 during the Nash era, we wanted to have 4 shooters at all times, even when it meant sliding Parsons to the 4 and having Delfino play the 3. This kind of offense is easy to set up, and it opens the lane for Harden/Lin/Parsons PNRs. If you're hitting your shots, this kind of offense is unstoppable, I don't think there's any defense that can cover it effectively, because if they stop packing the paint to guard the perimeter you can drive inside for And-1s.

*Unfortunately though, when the shots started clanking in the 2nd quarter only Parsons, Asik and Harden were willing to dig deep and drive inside. TD, Lin and MM were content to continue shooting from outside. This has got to change, we were lucky everyone on the Wolves except Williams, Sved and Barrea were off, otherwise we wouldn't have won.

*Lin should learn aggressiveness from TD. At the beginning of the game he was going into Linsane mode driving inside and dishing some really nice passes, unfortunately (maybe due to fatigue?) his teammates weren't able to catch most of them. After that Lin stopped trying to get the ball and just passively waited at the perimeter. In contrast, TD had some really horrible botched plays, throughout the game, but it didn't stop him from flailing his arms and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. The guy was full of energy, and as a result of that he got more PT mainly because he was always trying to make something happen.

*Greg Smith is pretty much the same, he started out aggressive but then took a nasty hit on a dunk attempt and stopped trying to bang inside. Well he's only 21 so I guess he gets a pass.

*CD has no conscience, he'll shoot no matter what. He did, however have some nice plays which resulted in some deflections and his steal at the end of the game sealed the deal.

*This team has some real chemistry, even though the game was ugly and players turned it over a lot, I didn't notice any finger pointing going on. Contrast it to the Miami-OKC game in which the Thunder (esp. WB) seemed to implode and start shouting at each other at every mistake.

*Harden's a superstar, knows when to take over and close out opponents. The team needs to improve on man-to-man d though, Barea and Sved were able to go off because Lin/Harden/CD were such horrible defenders, most of the Twolves shots were uncontested, they just missed a crap ton of open shots. When their man goes off a screen a switch needs to happen, instead Lin/Harden/CD just stood there and watched an opponent take an open shot. TD was the only guy who tried to stay on his man at times, unfortunately hard screens kept knocking him away lol.

*Love really needs to shut himself down, dude's way too injured to be playing. He also seems like he's ready for a change, if you look at his face there is no emotion whatsover when the game was so tight. There was a time he knelt down trying to get the ball then took 2-3 mins to get back up, I think he also has some knee problems he needs to sort out apart from his hand. Harden also came up to him after the game, embraced him and shook his hand before going to the locker room, I hope he's selling him on how good H-town is lol.

 

I have a serious question. I watched today's game on a chinese channel and when they analyse the game they suggested that the reason why Jlin has not been performing well in b2b games is because he's asian....(the announcers are chinese themselves) Obviously I dont agree with it because it seems to me that Asians are pretty good at long-distance swimming & race so stamina should not be a problem. But since I havent follow NBA as long as many posters here, so I just wanna know some vet's opinions. Did this happen to YAO? What other reasons could contribute to sub-par performance in b2b games?

 

^^ What?? Lol

Last year he did very well, with D'Antoni playing him heavy minutes, and condensed season.

This was before his knee surgery though. His knee probably affects him on b2bs, I'm guessing. Or he just had a bad game, that happens.

 

I really, really loved this post. I learned a few things and found it quite informative. Keep it up!

 

Ugly game, great win, Harden showing in the 4th why he's a max player, doing just what was needed by taking over the game

btw, can someone post a screenshot of ho chen first intervention during the game (with the tweets), it was my 15 seconds of glory and i couldnt see it because league pass was with the wolves tv crew (yes its useless ^^)

 

No point having Delthreeno on the court if you're not going to give him the green light to shoot.

 

Freaking Lin always with the foot on the line with the long 2!!!!!

 

As I said it was just an observation, I wasn't saying whether it was bad or good. The guy doesn't even seem to care if his shot goes in or not, as long he could put it up. He has no facial expression even when he put the dagger 3, after the game I looked his stats and found out he chucked 12 three pointers the whole game.

I think a guy like him is necessary on the squad because the starting lineup has no volume scorers apart from Harden. Parsons is an opportunistic scorer and Lin's more focused on setting others up with his drives than scoring. If we had a star PF like Love or Bosh this wouldn't be a problem, but as it is we need Delfino and TD to chuck up shots esp. when Harden takes a breather. However, once we get serious about contending we'd probably need to upgrade from CD, he's too 1 dimensional esp. when he's just a streaky shooter, he needs to be like Barea and start taking it to the hole once in a while.

 

Our back-court can be one dangerous twosome to tango with... If you shut off one of them/ the other can go off and put up 30+points... This is why I think The Rockets are going to be contenders in the years to come... You wanna shut down Lin/ then you best put all your defenders on Harden.. You shut off Harden, then that's where Lin gonna start beastin.... That is until we face a team like Miami/OKC...

 

If the NBA was serious about flopping, you would have Barrea for at least one which would be his second offence and a fine + Rubio for two flops so immediate fine. Who else?

 

Rubio was flopping like one of those inflatable puppets you see in front of those car dealerships/ it was ridiculous...

 

Your question sounds sincere and well-intended but doesn't seem right for the GARM. Why don't you post it at other forums here like NBA Dish or BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion?

I'm curious though. Since the comment was made by the Chinese announcers, I'm wondering if you asked some of your Chinese or Asian friends about their thoughts on it? I'm saying this because that's what I'd do first.

all the best,