We deservedly bash Dantoni for his questionable coaching (when and how he actually coaches I’m not certain any longer) but his challenge of the FVF 3 point foul on Rivers that wasn’t, was his finest coaching move so far this season seriously though it probably saves the game for the Rockets.
Anyone have the link? I was watching through NBAtv and couldn’t stand the Raptors announcers and I missed it.
Good he saved the challenge at the end. I think VanVleet knew it too, he was talking and smiling to Rivers after they overturned it.
The NBA owed us and they knew it. So that call was going our way, all MDA needed was to challenge it!
f-ck out here man! That was the correct call. Even Fred was looking at Austin like he got away with one. The NBA owe the Rockets, but not on that call. The officiating in that Toronto game was atrocious.
Dantoni did two correct things that were out of the ordinary this game. Made correct challenge immediately instead of b****ing about the call and called a crucial timeout late in the game to stop the momentum and set the team on the right track. Like I said in the game thread, it was if Christmas came early.
Nobody cares about Jack, Lord, or his hair. Go back to PA. Root for the 76ers! So tired of non Rockets fan bashing our team on our site.
1+ month into the season, the biggest two learnings of the challenge system to me have been: (1) You are not super likely to be successful. This isn't a complete shock, because they want to protect themselves and read any wiggle room into the rules, but still you'd think with the benefit of replay, coaches would be generally challenging things more likely to be overturned (2) SAVE IT TILL THE LAST TWO MINUTES. This also might be obvious, but in fact the math probably says any time you have a clear challenge to eliminate, or get, 2 points, you should use it. But the reality, sadly for the NBA, is that the refs are SO BAD, that there is almost a certainty of some challenge-able call that will happen down the stretch of a game, and if you're still in it, that's when it will have the most impact.
The only challengeable call in last two minutes is a foul on your player. All other challengeable thingies become reviewable by refs in last 2 minutes...so, redundant. I’d save challenge for 4th Q, but I wouldn’t treat last 2 minutes as special when most thingies are reviewable, anyways. Also, you only have 2 timeouts in last minute, and you must have one to challenge, yet still be able to call end game timeouts. You might actually use your last of 2 timeouts to set up the play that you are alluding to as the glamour play to challenge...hence, you just ran out of timeout in order to run the play. Common example, if you are trying to comeback from deficit, are you going to be thinking of stopping the clock with timeouts (to advance the ball and call a play) as normal comeback strategy, or are you going to toss all the traditional strategy out the window, and preserve you comeback timeouts for a challenge of a foul on your player, that might never happen ... Example, in two possession game, you call a timeout to advance ball and run play. Successful, and you foul the inbounds to set up a series of foul, shot, foul, shot... If you want to preserve that last timeout for a challenge, well, be prepared to explain to whiny fans why you never called a timeout after those foul shots to advance ball and call a play, again.
I’ve been a Rockets fan since I lived in Houston back in the mid 70s as a kid, probably loooong before you were born I’m betting. I was actually complementing Dantoni for doing the correct thing this time around, because he’s not had a lot of success with his challenges thus far, I didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to be a Rockets fan since I now live in PA ? What a dumb response ...’
Like the person who said before, nice backhanded compliment. It's obvious you dont like Coach D. Get over it! Begrudgingly giving coach a compliment. Kind of like saying...well at least he did one thing right. OBTW, I've been watching since the seventies when I was an adult. I'm here in H Town rooting my team on. So there!
Lol, The majority of this board doesn’t like the Coach. That doesn’t make them “non Rockets fans” What terrible logic. This is a relatively tame thread about a coach who made a wise coaching decision
Majority of the board doesn't like coach. Really. Where are the facts? Do you have a poll? Just because you dont like him doesn't mean everybody doesn't like him. We don't all live in that little world of yours.
Congrats on your long term fandom , as far as not liking Dantoni I am lukewarm, he seems like a great guy and he certainly has had success with his offensive based schemes and has certainly helped turn James into possibly the best scorer of his era, all that said I’m not crazy about the fact that he’s very rigid about how he plays his starters crazy minutes, doesn’t do a great job of developing talent/rotations, has no real grasp of the defensive side of the ball, and doesn’t hold his stars in any way shape or form accountable when they play poorly. I WAS actually complimenting him for the challenge as I felt it was a bit momentum changer, but go ahead and affix your own narrative to my thoughts.