This is his first season since coming back from Europe. He is much improved. Makes Favors a trade chip.
Rubio and the Jazz played great defense on Harden last night. Harden had to stick some jumpers late just to bring his efficiency up a bit but they watered him down and played the best defense on Harden of any team this season.
The jordan bulls routinely turned it on in the 3rd quarter and put teams away.... Hell how many times a couple of years ago did you fall asleep with Golden losing or in a close game only to wake up the next morning and find out they won by 15? This team knows that no team in this league can do what they can do for 48 mins.... that includes Golden State.....
The Grizzlies losses are a result of the schedule. Memphis started the season hot and the Rockets didn't hit their stride for a few weeks. But the losses to Philly and Toronto were legit. Especially the Raptors. They're quietly having a great season.
Grizz losses were still winnable games at the end before the collapses. Rockets were barely beaten by Philly. The only legit loss were the Raptors, IMO; Rockets weren't winning that game the way the refs were calling it.
Rockets haven’t been playing that well recently(not including Spurs game). They certainly know how to flip a switch for about a 3-5 minute stretch and destroy the unsuspecting team.
The Rockets did choke away that first loss to the Grizzlies. Probably doesn't happen with CP3 in the lineup. I disagree about Philly. The Rockets never seemed like they were gonna win that one. The Sixers were in control most of the game even though it was close. Besides, that one doesn't bother me too much since the Rockets basically stole the game in Philly a few days earlier. If I recall, that 2nd Grizzlies loss at Memphis was without EG and CP3. And it might've been on a B2B. So that one just wasn't in the cards.
The grizzlies are the absolute worst team to play at the beginning of the season because defense is always ahead of offenses to start... which the reason Memphis always starts out good.... but then offense and talent start to take over and now with that team they have now they just don't have any talent to sustain...
You think Rubio was bad last night and Capela was great? This was not a good win for us. MDA even said so. We were playing a team that was missing three of their rotation pieces including arguably the best paint defender on the planet and is just getting back two guys (Hood, Johnson) who have missed substantial time and are in no way meshed into the team like they will eventually be. And that bunch held us even for 3 quarters. Thankfully we had Chris Paul to pull this one out. The Jazz collapsed in the 4th quarter. They ran out of steam. To be expected when down in their rotation like that. They didn't get back on D, and Paul and EG roasted them. However,,,, Rubio played a great game on both ends. He's a great perimeter defender and gave Harden fits even though everybody wants to focus on one play where Harden beat him. Rubio and the Jazz played great perimeter defense, specifically on Harden. They watered down his efficiency. And up until he entered the game midway through the 4th with Paul already running throttle Harden was a -2. That speaks to how well Rubio and the Jazz bottled up Harden. Keep showing those little clips though that don't reflect the real story. Capela? Look, our interior defense was Charmin sssssoft last night. We gave up layup after layup. Go ahead and start at the box score and that nice 24/20 though. Don't mention Gobert. Don't mention we gave up 58 points in the paint on 43 paint possessions. We won! Blew them out! You knew what saved us defensively? We kept them off the free throw line. Which is a big story this season. We are doing a great job if keeping our opponent off the free throw line. Once again that's analytics. It's better to give up a layup than to commit a shooting foul in the low block or any foul in the bonus. We're doing great at that so far. Top ten in the league in opponent FTA/FGA. You know what saved us offensively? We wore down a short handed unit. They finally ran down in the fourth, didn't get back, and didn't cover the shooters like they had the first three quarters. They were simply out of gas. Do you think the Warriors are gonna run out of gas? Do you think we're gonna keep the Warriors off the FT line and gave a huge free throw disparity in our favor against them? That's why this wasn't a good win. All we did was run down an undermanned short handed team at the end. Up until that point they exposed our soft defensive interior. The Warriors will exploit it. Not to mention the Warriors are going to shut down our pick-and-roll efficiency. The Warriors are out there working rookie Jordan Bell into the rotation. By the end of the season he'll be ready. Oh, as to Rubio and the Jazz...when they get healthy and get the opportunity to mesh they're going to be even better defensively than they were last night for the first 3 quarters. And once they get Joe and Rodney spacing the floor their offense is going to be a lot better. The Jazz are a team we should not want to face in the playoffs if they get healthy because they are going to grind on both ends. And they still have potential to add a major piece at the deadline. I do not want to play them in the playoffs. I'd rather play Westbrook. I'd rather face any team besides the Jazz and Spurs before we get to the Warriors.
all you need to do is be ahead at the end of the game. You don't have a right to a win just because you are considered the favourite in a game. you actually have to get the job done and win it
Translation: Capela was garbage and the only player responsible for the porous interior defense, and Rubio was prime Lebron. Reality: Rubio was solid, played decent defense, and shot the ball well (especially for him). He was okay, decent, solid... Capela was very good, and was efficient at boxing out on defensive rebounds. His interior defense was good one on one, but he definitely got caught watching the ball and let back cuts to the basket. I guess you could put that on him 100%, but it wouldn't have hurt for the wing players to you know--GUARD their man. Whatever, we won by a mile so continue to b**** and push your stupid narratives. MDA wasn't going to go to the presser and gloat about it. It's literally his job to continue to push the players and to prevent complacency. I don't see why that's so difficult to understand. Btw remember a couple of weeks ago when you were ridiculous enough to point out that "at the time" Rubio had a higher TS% than Chris Paul?? Well at this time Paul's is 11% higher. Right...
