that was supposed to be the case when they played Cousins/Davis and Griffin/Jordan...if the Rockets are hitting their shots and focus on properly boxing out then they'll be fine
Harden-29ppg 11 apg 8 rpg Points a game created- 56ppg(47% of Harden's assist are 3 point makes) Kawahi-26ppg 3 apg 6rpg Points a game created- 33 ppg(25% of Kawahi's assist are 3 point makes) I don't understand the pundits. At the end of the night, Kawahi may save 5-7 points a game over Harden in regards to defense, but Harden is so astronomically better overall offensively that it covers up the defense. Not even close.
...in addition to Marc Gasol/Zbo. If the Rockets are hitting their average on 3s, they can beat anybody, no matter how big is the other team's ntline. That's the beauty of this system when you have multiple players that can shoot from deep. Our success is largely independent of size.
Tell ya one thing, I won't breathe easy till the final buzzer but we need to get this one. After releasing the gas pedal on them the last game I hope we're focused to start and finish this game. Take care of the ball, box out & team rebound and finally knock down our threes especially the open ones. As always...... GET THEM AND GET THEM HARD!!!!!
I think we've outrebounded SAS in every game we've played them this year. Our guards rebound big and that gives us an advantage. Our FG% was really bad against them in 2 games and was good in the third one. We typically have an advantage in fast break points, it looks like that helps us a lot (they don't have time to get set on defense). Harden usually has a poor shooting night, Ryan and others are sometimes good and sometimes bad. This year SAS has outscored us big in the first half of 2 of the 3 games. If we can keep it close at half (about 3 points) or even have a lead then that should help. This is the type of game that I get excited about think we'll win and make a statement. And then we don't. I don't expect us to win here, unfortunately. Like most games, if we hit 37% 3's or better then we should win. The problem is that we've shot 33, 15, and 31 percent 3's against SAS this year.
Not at all this year. He's well below his shooting and scoring averages in all three games. Also, I agree with ipaman's comment. Yep. This is also one of the reasons OKC destroyed SAS in three games straight. Remember the first two games when Aldridge had over 40pts. Well, that didn't phase Donovan. OKC even won the 2nd game when LMA went 15-21 and 41 points. He kept making Pops try to beat him with the Parker/Aldridge PnR. Hell, those 1st two games against us in the playoffs, when LMA was unconscious (well over 40 each game), we win if Harden has even an average shooting night.
This will be the game we unload on them. They have been squeaking by lesser teams lately while we have been beating up on quality competition. I think we give Pop and the Spurs a rude awakening tonight. We just need to hit our open shots. I saw a stat last time we played them, but we have shot well below our season average on open shots against the Spurs this year. We can call that good fortune. I like our chances of having a build up to the mean tonight. W.
Exactly! Hopefully with the addition of Lou we can rotate enough that the guys don't get too gassed, while we still have potential 3pt shooters in our rotation. We don't need James to be all tired in the last 4 minutes. Our guys need to hustle, hustle, move that ball around, and wear them down. I'm really nervous about this one, but can't wait to see our new lineups against our nemesis Spurs. Go Rockets!
Hope Harden crushes these fools tonight. ESPN b****es see that OKC is close to being locked in at the 7th seed and now they're hyping up Leonard.
or just do a single game purchase from League Pass: http://www.nba.com/leaguepass/?cid=...TW_030617&cid=nbacomsocial_fb_sf59795496#game
Harden is better, but it's not far at all. Firstly, the defensive player of the year will save more than the 5-7 points he takes away from the man he's guarding. He improves the team's defense too, and he exercises leadership on the defensive end which makes his teammates play better defense. In that regard, Kawhi is very similar to Duncan - he is a quiet leader, but the mother of all "leading by example" defensive players. Secondly, a player can be a negative defender, and while Harden is the MVP, he is certainly a negative defensive player. It's just that Harden's offense wins 40+ games even on the worst team in the league. That's how good he is offensively. It covers up for the fact that he is a negative defender. As a side note, this is what inverse homers fail to grasp. You can produce more wins than anyone else in the NBA even if you are not a good defender, as long as your offense is historic. One more thing you have to take into account is possessions. We average more possessions than the Spurs so every single point we score is a smaller % of our offensive output, and every single point Leonard takes from his opponent is a bigger % of their defensive output. For that reason, it's not fair to look roughly at what Harden is producing in raw offensive numbers and compare it to Leonard. I will also say it's important to note that +/- or PER is not a fair comparison either, because it disregards that each of these guys have 14 different teammates. No doubt Harden is the MVP but imo Leonard is definitely in Westbrook/Lebron/Durant territory when it comes to claiming 2nd place.
They also see that WB is likely to fall under 10 apg -- thereby killing their TripDub-made-for-tv-storyline. So now they'll reset their 2014-15 MVP narrative: "award goes to the best player (Kawhi) on the better team (Spurs, record-wise)." You'll hear buzz words (formerly attributed to B-side players, i.e. Klay Thompson) like "best 2-way player in the game" heaped on Kawhi Leonard. The chants will grow louder as the Spurs inch closer and closer to overtaking GSW. ESPN really, really dislikes Harden in Houston. (I'll just leave it there)
Great post. Really nothing to disagree with, but people fail to realize Kawahi is also helped by his system. I won't look in to the % of shots that Harden creates for himself as compared to Kawahi but I can assume that Harden does much more for himself based on the system he is in. His skill level is much higher.
