ClutchFans Game Thread: Nuggets @ Rockets 10/28/2015

That was one of the more frustrating Rockets games to watch in recent memory. It was hard to watch and I hope it's just a bump in the road but ugh

 

When the Rox lost tonight I figured half the board want to burn the team down and fire the Front office, how many years have you guys followed the rockets? Or any NBA basketball team in general? Don't you get tired of wanting to suicide every year after every loss? It doesn't matter if we lose the first 1, 3, 5 or even 10 games!

To be honest the only thing we're doing now is killing time. The season only starts after the deadline, that's when we see the true make up of the squad and the opponents. Just compare the team last year pre- and post- deadline, it's like night and day.

 

I guess they were partying last night?

 

I wonder what training Harden did during off season to make 50/40/90 ?

 

48.1% on 3pt shooting for Nuggets.

We played with 5 Stephen Curry?

 

stephanie made that with scub guarding him. ooh wait......

 

Well many of us including most NBA players disagree.

 

This was just awful, no sense of urgency and we played SOFT! I'm glad they did not call a thing for Harden and TJ, they were soft as tissue. As far Brewer & Ariza looking in mid-season form, where did that go? Defensively, we will never be a great team and I don't know what it is but open 3 after open 3 after open 3...the only guys I will not fault is Beverley & Harrell. Those 2 guys came to play, worked hard and mainly Beverley's hustle was infectious. Too bad McHale was up to his old ways. Not playing Thorton? Playing Terry when they were clearly faster and outplaying us, how was Terry going to help? Offensively, we didn't run a single thing other than pick and roll, pick and roll, pick and roll. Ty looked lost and telegraphed so many passes. There is no excuse to come out like this in the 1st game. Hate on the Warriors and Curry all you want, those guys never take nights off.

 

Ow yeah and boxing out is something that's still strange to a lot of our guys.

 

Way too trigger happy on threes as well. When we were down 4 points in the third and Beverley made that hustle play and we got some transition plays, what did we do? Yup, not attack the basket but go for the homerun play. Jacking up threes early in the shot clock over midrange 2s?

 

The 3point defence depends most of all in the number of 3s you let your opponent take.
"Defending the 3 pointer means avoiding the 3 pointer"

Here is the analysis on that :
http://nyloncalculus.com/2015/02/09/defending-the-three-pointer-mean-avoiding-three-pointer/

 

Also this on why Houston's defence last year was very lucky.

 

Just one game.

 

I'm so sick of all the kool aiders blabbering the "its just one game" ritual. If you don't see the bigger picture and the implications, you just don't know basketball.

After the appalling pre-season where there was not a single positive except Capela, where McHale had no defensive schemes, where the offense was all over the place, idiots blabbered its just pre-season.

Now after being beaten by scrubs at home and the same defense and offensive problems coming up and lack of team chemistry, you blabber it's just one game.

After GSW whoop our asses, you'll blabber it's just the defending champions.

Absolutely shameless. Call it what it is. It was a pathetic performance and the team was no where near ready. Coach looked as confused and puzzled as always. You take pre-season for granted and this is what happens.

Rockets somehow felt they could just roll into the season and take care of business. That is complacency and McHale should be held absolutely accountable for that. You can't just turn on the switch from being pathetic in pre-season to winning regular season games. Every single game matters in the tough WCF and that too at home against scrubs.

Last off-season there was a real focus. Everyone was talking about defense and they had two practices each day.

This year none of that. It's almost like the Rockets coaching staff expect us to reach the finals again just streamrolling through teams because we added Lawson.

 

Thin frontcourt, poor shooting, trying to figure out how to utilize Lawson and probably a degree of everybody buying into their own press about how good we should be.

Not a big concern, a punch in the mouth on opening night could do us some good.

 

Coming off a horrible texans loss, was hoping the Rockets could make us all happy again but they lose in embarrassing fashion. The you add that we are playing GSW on Friday. Man this could be a looong week. Oh yeah, the oilers are in town

 

The usual haters are out in force after game one. We are underdogs in the next three games, so it's likely to get a lot uglier around here in the next week.

Before the game McHale said because of injuries, the team just didn't get enough time together in the preseason. Adding Ty to the mix and not having Dwight and DMo just made everything difficult.

Of course the Rockets should have done better, no doubt about that. I'm sure the players would be the first to say that. But, it's just the first game of the season. Plenty of time to figure things out.

But, be warned. The next three games are going to be difficult to watch.

 

That was really disappointing.

It is just one game. I don't expect they're going to shoot that poorly going forward. They had bad games last year, too, and still managed to have a great season. Just sucks when it's opening night.

Have to work on closing out and rotating on defense. That was terrible last night.

Obviously we're a better team with Howard and D-Mo back. I'm not a Jones fan for a lot of reasons.

I like Brewer and Bev coming in together. Ton of energy there.

 

I was thinking something similar. A loss sucks, but if it adds a sense of urgency to our guys then it could be for the better.

Perhaps the worst thing that could have happened last night would be to play last like we did, then hit a barrage of 3s t the end to come back.

(Yes, I'm trying to stay positive.)

 

Mike Malone is a great coach. Ranadive is an idiot for letting him go.