ClutchFans Game Thread: Spurs @ Rockets 5/7/2017 (Playoffs Round 2, Game 4)

Exactly!

 

Defense...extra effort with the closeouts tonight.

 

Anyone notice Harden wore a dress shirt to the arena tonight instead of a goofy ass shirt? Probably because of Bev's loss?

 

Gordon seems to have figured the Spurs out.

He seems to be able to get any shot he wants and get to the rim anytime he wants.

He's been impressive

 

Only thing i can think of is that he wanted to go out there to pay tribute to his grandfather. Surely the rockets wouldn't force him if he didn't want to talk.

 

He isn't a max player, hence the criticism. I do appreciate when he contributes though.

 

Calm down. It is only when he plays like crap which is too often.

 

Gordon is mature, his body language
shows confidence. Harden isn't quite there yet, but he is maturing.

 

Good team win.

1. I was glad to see the adjustment of Ariza setting the pick for Harden at the top of the key. That is a minor tweak, but it took Gasol out of the middle of these plays.

2. I think the "pace" really works for us with cross matchups. If Ariza is guarded by Aldrige at one end and covers Leonard at the other, when we collect a board we should have some interesting early opportunities. This matchup and some others really got us some good looks early. But we do only run for about 1 1/2 quarters.

3. Hats off to Clint Capela for scrapping it out in there. There are so many plays when he tries to come over and help, and he's forcibly held back by Gasol and Aldridge. Sometimes he's strong enough to break their grip and other times, not so much. Capela continues to figure all this hand jockeying out, and if he does I expect a breakout performance.

4. Players in their roles: I think Lou Williams looked more comfortable in this game than at any point all series, but he was still on 1-5 from 3.
Eric Gordon looked his best since the regular season. The same goes for Ryan Anderson, who had a solid all-around game.

5. Error free ball: The second half we only had 4 turnovers-- three of those were Spurs' steals + the one pass that Capela had in the paint and dropped).

 

Stephen A Smith just claimed Harden only played well against Spurs not named Kawhi.

Does anyone know where to find out how many points/assists James got while being guarded by Leonard? It didn't seem like it would be 0, just from the eye test. I thought Harden scored plenty on Kauai tonight?

 

We are better than the Spurs....PERIOD!

If the refs ever call a fair game, we will continue to blow them out.

We don't even have to shoot lights out from 3, we just have to hoist up our normal number and percentages, and without the refs help we will beat them by 15 plus points every game.

GREAT WIN ROCKETS! NOW LET'S GET THIS SERIES!

 

After this game, this series really feela like Grizzles vs Warriors in 2015. The Spurs can slow us down a little bit and execute, but the Rockets have too much to gameplan for and stop.

 

End of 1st Q, down 12 pts,

Popovich threw his players under the bus again to the sideline reporter. Blamed everything on them, no good word to Rockets, and took no blame.

 

Props to harden for playing a superstar caliber game tonight. Hope it continues!

 

He kind of reminds me of Jason Terry

 

Montrezl is somewhere smiling.

 

Have to say, I thought we were done. I thought Pop finally figured us out and we'd have another nightmare shooting night. That feeling when your team wins when you thought they wouldn't... hard to beat that.

I WISH I could be at Game 6. Regardless of the circumstance, that place is gonna be lit. It's either a "win or go home" situation or a "holy ****, we're 1 win away from another WCF date with the Warriors". Except this time we're not bringing a knife to a gun fight.

 

I'd have to look more carefully but I think Harden scored at least 2 of his 10 buckets with Kawhi as the "primary defender." He does beat lots of other people: Aldridge, Mills, Gasol, Simmons, etc. Early in the game, I think the Spurs wanted to match up Kawhi, but he could not rotate him over because he was after being guarded by Ariza on the other end. Running can take the Spurs out of their preferred matchups.

But Harden had a pretty strong performance against everyone tonight. He facilitated, got off shots, and dictated the pace of play. . . Brilliant. I'm not sure what game Stephen A Smith was watching, as Leonard was held to a quiet 16 on 14 shots. Maybe someone should give the game ball to Trevor Ariza who continues to bring it night after night (16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 0 turnovers). If we keep getting this level of play out of Ariza, we may make it to the Western Conference finals.