ClutchFans Game Thread: Cavaliers @ Rockets 3/12/2017

That was a statement game and hands down the best win of the season imo. Warriors game took too long and we didn't play with this kind of hustle. It was a fiery game and Beverley, Nene & Harden took us home. Harden's decision making was excellent, he got guys going, attacked relentlessly and played some great defense. That block on Kyrie was amazing, too bad he got poked and fell on the floor, but still haha
Beverley defending Lebron and getting all those steals - statskeepers in Houston are far from homers with only 2 for Bev, he clearly had 4 and possibly more - and being disruptive as always. Nene was not all that great in the 1st half with all those misses, but totally redeemed himself in the 2nd half. MDA made some crucial substitutions as well.

Capela was solid, got some great rebounds as well as Anderson and of course our emotional leader Beverley. What a show!!! Ariza was solid too, attacked and got to the rim. The misses didn't get us down, so that shows resilience. Gordon got some good shots in and played with some nice effort on D. Lou tried to force some shots early in the 2nd, but finally hit a three off of that offensive rebound by Gordon and had a nice attack to the rim. Those forced in traffic shots and 1-on-1 threes he needs to limit. Dekker is not ready for prime time, but other than that, we won simply because we wanted it more. Rebounds, hustle on defense in the 2nd half and Harden riding us home.

We played far from perfect though and our defense was atrocious at times. In the 1st half we didn't play well on D, one example was Nene helping out, hustling but nobody rotated over to his man and it happened twice. However, we totally redeemed ourselves in the 2nd half and it seemed about simply working harder. I still saw the same switching defense and we gave their shooters way too much space partly because of that, so nothing out of this world changed strategically I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Cleveland played a solid game, but I'm always so surprised Lebron doesn't play better. He's so passive and shares some similarities with Harden in settling for shots and holding on to the ball too long.

Harden made a great case for MVP - outplayed Lebron - and Beverley needs to be on all 1st defense, but even if he isn't, I don't care. We going to battle in the play-offs and make teams worried.

P.S. Did you how so many players boxed out today, if only we showed that kind of effort every game.

 

According to Fran, switching and letting their shooters beat us was the actual plan so confirms no big changes I reckon:

 

Idk if it was because rick smith was in the house, our players was boxing out and locking down cavs/holding dem for ez rebounds. lol I saw some of our players weren't even contending for rebounds just holding the opposing players down.

 

Is this sarcasm or are you serious?

16 pts 6 rebs 2 assists pls tell me the last time an MVP won while doing so little?

During Dirk's MVP year he had 27 pts 9 rebs 3 assists and that year people said the only reason he won was because Mavs had the best team in the league.

Steph Curry:
24.9 pts 6.3 rebs 4.5 assists

LOL just give it to Steph Curry then, he gets more stats and actually has a better record than Kawhi. If your only argument is his team is better than the Cavs and Rockets shouldn't Curry win it again his team is no. 1! And they continue to be no 1 despite KD missing games due to injury.

 

Kawhi is averaging 26 PPG 5 RPG and 3.4 APG... I still think Harden is the MVP but your numbers are wrong

 

Im glad this place is FINALLY appreciating Bev. The last few years you guys have unfairly criticized this man

 

Hey... nope. Two, three good defensive possesions don't make it a good game defensively. Most part of time he was terrible. Rockets gotta stop fooling themselves, Harden needs to play defense more consistently if Houston wants to contend for a ring in the near future. Of course he can play good D if he wants, he just puts no effort most part of time.

 

Good win. We held Love and Korver to zero points. I think that was the he difference in the game.

 

This is a great stat. Closer look:

Rockets secured 20 of 28 offensive rebound chances
Rockets secured 32 of 47 defensive rebound chances
Cleveland 4 of 18 possible offensive rebounds
Cleveland 34 of 62 defensive rebound chances
​

So this was the perfect storm of great effort by the Rockets and slow motion effort by Cleveland.

 

No doubt they missed them, but any win over Lebron, Kyrie, and Thompson is impressive.

 

Two lovers of one Kardashian

 

Couldn't bring myself to read the comments during the game...but then after I was like wait, they didn't throw it away, they played great defense and just do what they do on offense and won. What did people complain about then?

EDIT: picked a random page at random. Literally first couple posts were about turnovers and defense.

Jesus Christ.

 

Missed the game since I was driving home, but I can't wait to watch the 2nd half on DVR tonight. Listening to Craig Ackerman on the radio, seems like we were really busting our asses out there.

 

I looked this up last week. That is the lowest APG of any non-center MVP winner in the history of the award. Something like only 6 centers had less. And it is the lowest of any MVP since Moses last won the award.

 

Harden wasn't that efficient scoring-wise, and yet I think this is one of his best performances of the season. Just made so many winning plays.

 

Haven't you heard HP? That 3 pointer by Leonard followed by a block on Harden to seal the game was the thing that will earn him the MVP award -- as per Mike Greenberg, Espn radio. Smh...

 

Oh, forget....David Robinson was one MVP since Moses that had less APG than Kawifi. So Kowhi would be first MVP of any position in 22 years and 2nd since Moses. I keep forgetting him because we all know that was Dream's MVP, and he had more APG than Kawli for 94 and 95

 

Great win, way to show up for a big game. Really wish we played like that more often, we had good D most of the game, valued our possessions, and made big plays and big shots when we needed them. We also got key stops when we needed them.

Also wanted to point out how great Harden was tonight. He was aggressive offensively, minimized the risky passes, and overall had good effort on defense. This is how he will have to play in the postseason for us to succeed.

 

Uhhh, just yesterday apparently. . .