Coming into this series you might have thought the Rockets had to advantage in experience and past success. After all Dwight and Harden had been to the finals before. Plus Parsons had anedge on Batum and we have handled them well before. Lilliard's inexperience would hurt or Howard and Hardens success would shine. But not so. The Blazers have played with more poise and maturity than us. That's the bottom line. LaMarcus came ready to play. Years before he'd buy tickets for everyone to come see him play in Houston. Not this time. He gave his Mom 4 tickets and said bring who you want but don't involve me I got a game to play. He wanted no distractions and no hoopla. He came to town for business. All focus on the game. While Parsons is concerned more about letting everyone know he is better than Batum. This personifies inexperience and reality that you are not the best. The best never needs to say they are the best. While Batum responds, “He’s not going to say, ‘Nic is the best.’ I understand that, but we’ll see. We’ll see at the end. I don’t care about that.” That's the mature way to respond. And it's not just Parsons. His attitude is really a reflection of the team. Harden is great but he thinks he is greater than he is. And when he fails he doesn't take responsibility and walk to the podium and say "Hey I didn't perform well. I got to step up. Instead he fights with Blinebury. Immaturity. Howard is the vet and had a decent season but instead of just letting his play speak for itself he says he is the MVP of the league. Yeah it's great to think. I want him to think that just shutup and leave it on the floor. McHale struggles to coach and then blames it on the loss of Sampson. He barely gets out of his chair to coach and all he does when he does coach is say come on guys play harder and I don't know what else to do and they are hyperventilating. If the guys are hyperventilating it's because they are nervous and unsure how to handle this much more intense situation. Lin needs to quit hoping Bev is out so you can shine and Bev needs to pace himself. He is the Wolverine but he needs to keep his claws under control. An out of control Bev is not helping. As for you Asik he's doing fine but the twin towers is not working and he needs to sit more. With all of this McHale is supposed to be the cool head to steady the ship. He had a year to figure out what works best with this team and now in the playoffs he is trying the twin towers after it never worked in the season. His washing the deck and the ship is sinking. He's standing with the band singing the ast song of the night before the Titanic goes under. So yeah Parsons shutup and say no more. Batum embarrassed you because he came out to play and not talk. You may have more talent than him (that's debatable). But he got the most out of his talent and the most out of you. Don't embarrass yourself and shutup. McHale quit make excuses and start coaching. If you got lemons make lemonade. But don't just use 7 lemons you got more lemons than that and Garcia isn't one of them. I personally would like a little DMo in the lemonade. Howard get that it makes no sense to score 40 points if we lose. It's not on you like TMac use to believe. It's on the team, it's on everyone. Do what got us here. Run and move the ball and quit thinking the game is not going your way. The game is the game. Play the best you can every play as if it's the only play. This is the playoffs and you'll be sitting home watching them soon enough. Give it all you got now. And somebody slow down Aldridge at least a little bit.
good points, but it was pretty clear that the offense this team ran was fools gold from the beginning. The defense was always nonexistant, we just thought that the offense would be able to cover it up. Also, I hate it when people talk before a series. Ever since "Its all on me" I cringe at the time our players feel like they need to get a word in. Let your production on the court do the talking ..
I think you just have a mediocre coach and the lack of poise you see is probably a reflection of that. He's always been average.
While everything you said makes sense, but I'm afraid it won't matter much now, the Rockets tries to reinvent the wheel, play more of an inside game by going to Howard more, but that's not what brought them here. You can see the rest of the team were just standing around & watch. It's no accident that Harden had two bad games, he has never been that good in the half court offense, particularly off the ball. This team has to change the way it plays, if they want to win big. Small & fast ball seldom win much in the playoff.
They run plays and they know what will work. They trust each other and their system because that's how they play during the regular season. This is getting old. Last year against the Thunders too, we simply did not have enough poise because that free wheeling offense was taken away from us. This small ball free wheeling does not work. All McHale know is play harder. What are our guys supposed to do when there is no system? They had to be psychotic out there without a scintilla of poise. Poise ... our guys are opposite of that. At the end of the game, you can just tell they were mentally drained waiting to be finished off.
I like having the attitude of player for thinking he is the best at their position and I do think Chandler is better than Batum, but when I look at this rockets team I don't see anyone on the roster or the coaching staff capable of keeping guys in check. Dwight Howard at the age of 29 is kid trapped in huge body Harden at this point of his career think he is the best at his position and doesn't need to prove anything as for Mchale, well, I don't need to say anything When I look at our current situation it's obvious we are going to lose the series, but in the long run if we don't fire Mchale right after this season I do think it's going to be difficult to rebound next year with Mchale even if we acquire another star, I think it's really crucial to fire Mchale right after the playoffs and hire someone who preach about defense on the daily basis and have enough balls to bench his star players when they don't hustle or play defense.
You just can't combine individual postseason records of your stars and conclude the whole team is going to do accordingly well. Step up and win or go home. No shame in doing that.
Reflection of your coach. Winnig solves everything and all the mistakes are hidden or forgiven but it has always been there from day 1. In fact I think the bad seeds had been steadily growing under this coach.
I said this all year. Even during games, you could see the Rockets lose their composure when they'd lose a lead. They'd start getting flustered and playing out of control and force up bad shots and turn the ball over. No discipline. And the offense was a problem all season in my opinion. The Rockets would look average at best when the pace slowed and they played a half-court game. They only had success when they were able to run the floor. People look at their ppg and assume their offense is awesome... it's really not that great.
Fixed. (sigh) So down about the team right now I'm resorting to grammar ass**le-ry. Now that our j.v. coach and our no-plan no-play offense and our no-defense and our can't-take-the-heat-but-I'm-staying-in-the-kitchen star have put us in a 2-game hole, I'm kinda sorta...."down in the mouth". Hope these guys give us a win tonight. To do so would be a good sign, as it would require Harden to return from whatever planet he went to visit.
Game 1 worked wonders for the Blazers' confidence. But a decisive victory tonight would work wonders for the Rockets'. And hopefully crush thiers. We'll see how poised the Blazers are soon enough. The Rockets are killing with points in the paint and hopefully the three will start falling. This thing ain't over yet.
It's not about being more poised, its about preparedness and this is all on the coach... you can get by regular season without much preparedness but not in the playoffs... this is all on the coach... players normally respond better or play better if they have a sound game plan... it's just human nature...
Howard is the last person we should be criticizing this game. Really, with these statements, you should focus on Harden who: 1) plays garbage defence 2) did nothing while Howard was posting up out of selfishness. Aldridge hit a lot of tough shots and really lucky. Tip your hat; good D, better O.
