ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Pelicans 10/9/2016 in China (PRESEASON)

Some promising signs. Offense looks smooth, guys are confident and look like they trust D'antoni's philosophies.

Defense worries me. We are gonna get scored on badly.

 

Crazy how this society lives and dies by the label lol. Dont become a slave to the label kids.

 

The offense looks so much better.

 

We will not be a defensive team people, so please don't waste your time judging the defense. We will be a team that is tough to stop on offense and we hope to get key stops late in tough games to win. If we win 120-118 it's a win! We just gotta hope Clint continues to develop amd gets better at protecting the rim. He is still learning the game so he has room to improve. Keep knocking down 3s guys and we will have a chance against anybody.

 

Does anyone have a replay of the entire game?

 

Yeah and Davis didn't even play all that much in the second half. This will take some development before Houston becomes a 50 win team

 

I think this team would be a hell of a lot better If ALL of Brewers minutes went to our best defenders. KJ McDaniels, and perhaps even some more Montrezl. Get rid of Brewer...

 

Didn't get to watch the game. NBA League Pass blocked it.
Sounds like it was fun. AND we got a W.
At least we didn't go all the way to China and lose. LOL
Enjoyed the few highlights

 

So, we're playing them again on the 12th? I know the fans wouldn't like it, but I hope we limit the starters' minutes, including Gordon's. I wouldn't care so much about winning, especially since we won the 1st, but I hope Dan Tony plays more of the bench this time.

 

You can watch the broadcast of the entire game in Chinese here. http://www.zhibo8.cc/nba/2016/1009-huojian-luxiang.htm
Perfectly legal (at least in China). Have to wait a minute or two for all the Chinese commercials to finish for each quarter first. May also run into some buffering issues since it is being streamed from servers in China.

 

this team is not going far as i see, the starters just gave up way too many points easily to a bunch of scrubs, pelicans did not even play starters the whole 4th quarter and we are playing like all starters the last 6 minutes, we almost lost, that's very telling. When season starts, this team is going to get killed, definitely not a 50 win team, at best 45 wins

 

Harden's TOs:
1) 2pts bad pass out of bounds
2) 2 bad pass steal
3) 3 bad pass steal
4) 0 bad pass out of bounds
5) 2 bad pass steal
6) 2 bad pass steal
7) 0 bad pass out of bounds
8) 2 lost ball steal


Pelicans converted Harden's 8 TOs into 13 points


Harden's Steals:

Harden 1st steal - 3 pt shot Ariza
Harden 2nd steal - 3 pt shot Brewer

Rockets converted 6 points off Harden's 2 steals.


Harden Assists:

1) 2 Capela
2) 2 Capela
3) 3 Ariza
4) 2 Capela
5) 2 Nene
6) 3 McDaniels
7) 3 Gordon
8) 2 Nene
9) 3 Anderson
10) 2 Capela
11) 2 Brewer
12) 2 Brewer
13) 2 Anderson
14) 3 Gordon
15) 3 Gordon


36 points. Distributed to 7 players: Capela, Nene, Ariza, McDaniels, Brewer, Anderson, Gordon.


36 Points off of assists + 6 points off of steals - 13 points off of TOs =
+29 points for Harden regarding how many points he generates from assists & steals versus what he gives up with TOs.

And he scored 26 points.

And he drew 5 fouls....2 from Hill which definitely contributed to Hill being in foul trouble & ending with 5 fouls.
1) Hill 2 shots
2) Cunningham 3
3) Hill 2
4) Hield 3
5) Hield 2

 

Spoiler: Thoughts and observations on the Pelicans vs Rockets game

http://www.espn975.com/the-insider-observations-from-houston-rockets-vs-new-orleans-pelicans/

 

I noticed that the offense stalled in crunch time because once again Harden went in to hero ball. And surprise, surprise, we get two Gordon 3's after good and quick ball movement. We actually have the shooters this year, hopefully Harden trusts them

 

You realize that you criticized Harden hero ball, then commended 2 Gordon 3's that came from good ball movement and were assisted by Harden....all in the same sentence.

Here was every single offensive possession in the final 6 minutes when Harden came in:

Harden enters with 6 minutes left.
Game Tied 105-105

With the very 1st offensive possession in the game Harden assists Brewer for a 2 pt lay up.

With the 2nd offensive possession since entering the game, Harden assists, Anderson for a 2 pt jump shot.

With the 3rd offensive possession since entering the game, Harden makes a jump shot. 2 pts

Anderson misses a lay up

Harden misses a 3

Harden misses a 3

Harden assist Gordon 3 pts

Harden misses jump shot, gets rebound, drives and gets lay up blocked

Harden assist Gordon 3 pts

Harden alley oop, assisted 2 Free throw shots for Harrell. 1 pt

Harden drew a foul 2 pts

Harrell steals and dunks

​

He had 4 assists in the last 6 minutes. He nearly had 5 assists, but the 5th was an alley oop pass that sent Harrell to the line for chance at 2, which he got 1 of.

He assisted 36 pts last game. He has averaged 12 assists a game this preseason so far in 3 games. Gordon and Anderson are lighting it up with all the assisted open looks. My take away from the last 3 games definitely is not "Gee hopefully Harden will trust these shooters (and pass them the ball instead of going hero ball) "

I think it's important for us to call it fairly. Lord knows the national media bashes Harden enough every time he takes a shot for himself.

 

Honestly people fixating about scores are just dumb...this is the preseason game scores don't really matter. What's important is you look at chemistry, team morale, and if the plays and game plan work. Pelicans aren't exactly chopped liver, Anthony Davis is one of the best PFs in the league, Omer Asik is a solid defensive center and this game that Moore guy (who the F is this guy????) was on, aggressive on offense and was hitting open 3s consistently so they played better than they looked, normally I would expect a close loss if some no name had a career game so a comfortable win is a really good sign. Also Buddy Hield looks really good, it's like watching Harden Jr.

I was cautiously optimistic about the game but so far the Rockets are blowing me away. Mike D'Antoni had a rep for being egotistical, ignorant on offense and seemed to overplay his starters/6 guy rotation in PHX but he is doing amazing so far. Harden's PT has hovered at ~36mpg which is where it should really be, a defensive guy like KJ Mcdaniels is actually seeing a lot of burn and he seems to be showing a lot of trust in the bench. We'll see if he changes when the real games start but I hope he keeps this up, so far it seems like he really was the best hire for the job.

Nene and Capela are showing exactly how dangerous the Rox could've been if only Dwight accepted his limitations and became a PnR beast instead of wanting to emulate Shaq/Hakeem/Tim Duncan and score in the low post. Nene is playing like one of the best big men in the league, I'm just worried how long his health is gonna last but I'm gonna enjoy the ride as long as I can. Capela is definitely an all star in the making, you can't teach high bball IQ, fluid movement and fast hands which this guy has in spades. The athleticism is nice but we all know that won't last, if he keeps dunking everything he'll blow his knees out by 28 just ask Blake Griffin or Derrick Rose. The good news is he has one of the best role models in Nene, the dude doesn't get off the floor that much but is extremely effective, I'm sure having him around will improve Capela's game lot through osmosis.

Gordon seems to be the forgotten man in the offense, he ended up with a high pt total but it seems like he didn't get as much set up as other players, as a result I forget about him but I look at his score in the end and apparently he shot and scored a lot lol. Same thing with Nene I just hope he stays healthy.

The player I'm currently most impressed right now though is Ryan Anderson. I don't know what happened to him but so far Anderson is playing like literally the best stretch PF in the league right now. I've seen this happen at work, a dude who doesn't seem that good gets promoted and suddenly he becomes amazing, maybe in this case having a team believe in him enough to pay him big bucks gave him the confidence he needed to truly unleash his game. It's not just that he's shooting lights out, if you watch the game you see him hustling, taking contact and going straight at bigger and stronger guys like Anthony Davis this game or Porzingis last game. I even saw him take a charge from Lance Stephenson and get pumped when the offensive foul was called, wtf this is the same dude who looked like he took defensive lessons from Kyle Korver last year.

As for the bench looks like Pablo and Mcdaniels look good enough to get legit minutes, Brewer and Harrell are meh, they're not horrible but not exactly good either. Harrell might be good as end of the bench guy but Brewer honestly is making way too much for what he provides, I hope he plays better in the real games a veteran like him should produce more. I really do think we need Dmo though as insurance, it's ok now because everyone is healthy but if Nene or Anderson or Capela gets injured we're pretty much done.

Anyway as long the Rox are healthy this team will make noise this season, people forget but remember this is a new system with a new coach integrating 3 new guys into the team and even Harden is technically playing a new position/role. This is like the worst the rockets can get, health prevailing they will only get better and better.

 

I think you're missing my point, or I didn't do a well enough job of explaining myself. I was mainly just referring to crunch time. Those missed 3's by Harden were essentially bad shots and wasted possessions based on "hero-ball" where there was no ball movement. All I'm saying is move the ball or drive and kick, rather than dribble, dribble, dribble, step-back, contested three.

 

Ryno and Gordo combined 9/17 from 3.
I know it's only preseason, but I'll take that any day of the week.
Especially compared to our brickfest we had last year

 

Hey dark cloud.
If all you're gonna do is pout, then maybe you should read your own your signature

 

1st missed 3:
Ran it up
Thru the leg pass to Anderson at the 3 line within 4 seconds
Harden moves back to 3 line, Anderson pass back to Harden on the 3 line. Anderson screens out his man and Harden shoots a 3 at 17 on the shot clock. SSOL. 2 passes, movement and a screen. Not hero ball. Designed play, Anderson ran to basket to go for rebound

2nd missed 3:
Contested 3 bad shot on a broken play which was caused by a full court press.

Harden's missed jump shot & blocked layup:
Harden to Anderson, Anderson sets up Harden with good 1on1 post position against Antoine Moore. That's not a bad play. Gets his own rebound, runs a PnR with Harrell, splits the defenders for a lay up but Asik just made an excellent block. Not really hero ball there either.

These are simply not the "hero ball" stuff from the McHale ISO era. They just aren't.