ClutchFans Game Thread: Spurs @ Rockets 12/20/2016

A typical moment for the Spurs it seems - need a shot make a shot.

Houston didn't deserve that with that great possession of defense.

Couple of things:

- The changes at the 6 minute mark shouldn't have been made in the midst of our lead expanding. The starters should've only come back in when they started losing it - they have fantastic momentum.

- Dekker shouldn't have come out of the game at the 6 minute mark, or at the very least he should've come back in. The more he plays the better he is on the court. Everything he does on the court leads to winning.

- I wish we would cut out the idea that as soon as we get the rebound we need to pass it to James ASAP to bring the ball up the floor. Ariza could've kept dribbling that instead of turning it over. It's actually happened a fair few times this season - another player rebounds and is so concerned about getting it to Harden a foot away from him they disregard the defenders resulting in a turnover.

- We looked SO, SO GOOD when we abandoned the 3 point shot or no shot theology and started going to the hoop. The were a couple of defining stretches in the game where we did that - and no surprise it's the stretches where we built the lead.

Definitely a painful loss considering we were up 10 close to the end. I won't say the Spurs pulled a Rockets vs Timberwolves on us - because it honestly seems like they just make big shots constantly.

Anyone who says the Rockets are bad at defense though clearly do not watch Rockets games, or they work for ESPN.

I have a couple of concerns for this team heading into the Playoffs, but defense isn't one of them. This unit - healthy - has shown they have a switch they can turn on on the defensive end. Of course, you'd much prefer they play like that all the time. But it is good to know this team is capable of scrapping with the big dogs of the NBA on a night we couldn't rely on the one thing we've relied on all season.

 

Losing streak imminent, the team is going to be deflated after they choked this game away

 

Rockets lost this game the Spurs didn't win it. Multiple times this game was in hand and the Rockets gave it away.

I think the Rockets might win by 10 if Capela was healthy

I think the Rockets are for real.

 

That was like 1 negative out of all the positives he did once he came back in.

 

Harden's gotta learn to stop trying to drive through 2 defenders. Especially against the Spurs. The refs will swallow their whistles against that team.

 

a lot of games gone OT tonight. why didnt we shoot a two and join the crew

 

Not sure but I guarantee you its not pretty.

 

They would have won anyway that's how good they playing this was more of Iso ball at the end that resulted in bad shoots and T. O.

 

I hate this loss
but . . . I am not going to kill the team.

They played very well.
I think this is a teachable moment
Time for MDA to come out and take some time on end of game situations
Also . . . I want him to learn to pull the trigger on a time out

Think . . . if at anytime . . .. he calls a time out
draw up a nice play
and
we win the game

instead he saves 2 time outs until we are down . .. . why?

Rocket River

 

Frustrating.

But it says a lot that we held our ground shooting really poorly, but defending well and scoring in other ways.

We threw the game away, but there were lot's of positives. We just missed shots we were making in the last 10 games.

Love Harden, but he has got to stop the "hold the ball for 23 seconds and shoot a contested 3".

 

And he won't. Again. He's too smart of a player to not understand this, it's just that he tries too much to win it by himself ala Kobe.

It really sucks because when he stops the ball all the other guys lose their rhythm and this overall helps other teams a lot, there's a reason if almost everytime we have a good lead playing well we lose it after James comes back, we just totally change the way we're playing.

Dekker was also playing a terrific game, not a fan of having him on the bench, he was running, switching and rebounding pretty well...Ryan was exposed again by Pop, they started EVERY single play involving him in a p&r...it's also true that if we're forced to play iso ball by James, it's always good to have Ryan out there, probably better than Sam, but still...

 

Harden cannot continue like this at the end of games if we're gonna win. We end up sacrificing on defense AND offense...

 

We were up 13 in the fourth? What the hell kind of melt down is that. You have the spurs down 13 you kill them. You don't fart around. For f sake. Yes. Just one regular season game. But since they already beat us here once we needed this one and we had it.

 

It was a mistake to sub Dekker who plays pretty good defense over Anderson. We weren't clutch in this game, they made all the shots that counted and we didn't. Giving away 13 pts mainly by Harden's iso-ball is going back to previous years. I'm sure we'll be streaking again playing more home cooking.

 

that Bart ennis guy was right The Rockets should have shot more mid range jumper's, he knew the Spurs we're going to take away the three since Capella and the pick and roll game was out of the picture

 

They're definitely missing something this year, but they are still well coached. If you play around w/ this team, it will come to bite you. They still have dangerous pieces.

 

Disagree. Just like the OKC game they lost, they know they gave the game away. They will be encouraged because they dictated how the game went. They just didn't execute.

 

It was more of a desperation 3 since the Spurs read the play practically perfectly.

 

Sucks to lose but great effort from the team. Harden kept us in the game, and imo lost us this game with his choices on offense and slow rotation on defense. It's ok, failure is a part of the journey, for Harden and for the team. We have to experience this. The Spurs taught us something tonight that will carry over. Their poise was incredible. The quickness and sharpness with which they ran their offense.

I didn't like the WAY we lost, but it's fine. Anyone on the board would have been ecstatic with a 10-1 record before the last 11 games. Harrell showed he can play big games with just a little more experience. Dekker showed that he doesn't back down in big games. We showed that we are not as useless as we thought without our 3pters. Defense was top notch. A lot of good things came out of the game.

I'm deflated and disappointed but trying to keep things in perspective. Instead of being at each others' necks, let's look at the bunches of positives.

 

And yet we had the lead and Harden careless ass turnovers cost us this game. Along with two blatantly missed calls calls by the refs.

That was not a charge by Ariza.
That was 3 seconds on Leonard