ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Pacers 1/29/2017

Nobody is "just now" figuring out their offense. Teams know & have known.

They shoot threes, more threes, even MOAR threes, attack the paint/drive to the rim & look for the foul and did I mention shoot threes?

 

Once again another team shooting over 51%. 5 out of last 6 games teams are shooting high percentages against us.

 

well at least joomba is happy

 

That shows you what kind of defense (if any) we're playing...

 

i like it, we cruising, we want to avoid injuries theres no point to play hard when we cant go up or down in seeding

 

I wasn't really bothered by this loss. Last game in a long road trip and it looked like it. The defense has to get better though.

 

They aren't shooting well, but the defense is a bigger issue. When you play solid defense you can be cold most of the game and he 3 can get you back in it late. When you don't play good d it doesn't matter.

 

You're right, the road has been really really kind to us? That travel and staying it hotels sure helps these guys! The away facilities are so much better than the ones we're using when we're away. It's so kind of the opposition to treat us so kindly in our day to day lives. Time with the family sucks ass. I miss the hotels and the planes and the roads! The road is awesome because at home the only thing that matters is the attendance. Quit playing dumb.. it's unbecoming. You know there's a lot to being home other than a crowd.

 

joomba is incapable of being happy. His problem is that he cannot get over the fact that he has a giant vagina. His work here on Clutchfans has largely consisted of vaginal material, and I hate saying that word but he needs to get over his over sized vagina and deal with it.

 

Yep, good defense also leads to more easy baskets.

 

am I happy that the Rockets lost? no.

am I happy that Harden is playing like a total, incompetent dunce nowadays? surprisingly no, because that would mean another L for this team.

am I happy that the evidence just keeps piling up in my favor that something is wrong with Harden, especially during this month? sort of.

The difference between me and most people here is that I don't put the so-called 'best player' on a pedestal, and treat him like he can do no wrong. I'm actually the opposite in that I hold these elite players accountable to an even higher, more stringent standards, because they ought to be better, and the whole team's success hinges on them playing better.

 

joomba is probably not happy. I don't imagine joomba would say a thing if they were happy. Complaining is the specialty of the great joomba, not celebrating.

 

Would you be happier if you were wrong?

 

Just some free time haha.

It's so hilarious, everyone's totally disproven narrative coming out just when the Rockets hit this predictable unavoidable wall. As if all along we needed D-Mo or Harden sucked or these are a bunch of lazy instead of bad defenders. We are 35 and 16, well ahead of the Clippers, tied with the Cavs and closer to the Warriors than we are to the Nuggets. Our 2nd and 3rd best players are underwhelming to say the least. Corey Brewer plays for us regularly.

This has always been a poor defensively talented team being carried by James Harden. We are losing because we have played 15 games in 24 days, 10 of them on the road (including the last 5), 4 back to backs, 2 starters and our 6th man of the year alternating injuries in that stretch and Nene unable to go on back to backs. That's it. And if you watch the games, everything points to fatigue. The shots are short, the sets are slow, and the rotations are late. Expanding the rotation means playing KJ, Ennis, Brewer which is not really an option. We don't have great roster depth either. This is EXACTLY what a tired team looks like. They are the most tired team in the NBA so their production is bound to be erratic.

If they had won this game, it would have been one of the biggest wins of the season. Tough luck, the Pacers came to play and George caught Harden in a ditch. James Harden is still the best player in the league. We are 35 and 16, and we are 3.5 games ahead of the Clippers with the easiest schedule in the NBA to finish the season, and we have the #1 player on the planet. We are going to torch this league the rest of the way.

 

The Offense was not the biggest issue we lost these games. You can't expect to have perfect offense every game. Compare to those games during the winning streak, we lost our defense. We used to be #2 in the league for the defense and we are so far away from that recently.

 

Mike:

They played well, we played really bad. Looked & played like a tired team. Gotta get home & recover. We just didn't have it.

James missing shots?

He was looking for a way to get it done but no legs. Again, we depend on him so much. Philadelphia game ... It's caught up with different guys. We'll get back home.

Paul George defensively?

He's good. I wouldn't read much into it. James didn't have his legs. There's no formula to stop James Harden. He's tired. He couldn't get around.

Your defense?

No fight in the dog. We just didn't have it. It showed up everywhere. No pop on offense or defense. We were tired. We played like it. I don't have a whole lot more to say. We were tired. Wish I had something for you.

______________________________

But still played a 8 man rotation
Anderson: 35
Beverley: 33
Harden: 32
Harrell: 26
Dekker: 26
Gordon: 26
Ariza: 25
Capela: 22
---------------
Brewer: 7
Ennis-Brown-McDaniels: 3
Nene: DNP-Old

 

I would like to go back to December 2016 please

 

Yup, gotta hit long shots for the offense to work. If you don't hit them, pack the paint. Steals and rebounding in a packed paint makes life easy on defenses. Also, when you get the ball, it's more likely that the Rockets won't be able to get back before you start your offense so the defense looks non-existent. What fixes this? Hitting shots.

28% from long distance creates a problem on all phases of the game for us. We are not going to beat you with long 2's. We're not a team built to do that.

 

I like your optimism, I really hope this poor effort on the defensive end is due to fatigue. If we don't fix or put more effort on our paint defense we are going to struggle against even the weaker teams. I want this team to make a deep playoff run and not get knocked out in the first round.

 

I like Mike, hes' a GOATSOTP to me, he can say and do whatever he wants