ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Thunder 12/25/2017

Harden's off ball movement was pathetic (causing his teammates to make bad decisions because Harden wasn't getting around his defender), and didn't show any hustle in this game

no energy, no dog, no heart

only tried to draw cheap fouls the whole game

it's just an ugly basketball

 

I've been saying Harden is not an ideal number 1 player to lead a team to championship contention. His teams will be relevant no doubt, but not a major championship threat. When CP3 plays they are a good 1a and 1b and had been taking turns taking over the games. Just sucks CP3 is injury prone.

 

MDA is the worst coach on calling timeout at the right time.

(Perhaps he just doesnt know what to do, just like JB.)

 

I mean I understand the defensive is scrambling but okc to me is the best defensive team to Houston, you can’t just chuck up contested shots, desperate shots like that only down 3 with 50 seconds to go...

 

exactly, and people wanna blame the refs?

 

launching a 3 when u are down 3 with 50 seconds is kinda dumb. take the easy 2 and get back on defense knowing the ball is going to russ everytime.

 

It was a well called game unlike the Clippers game

 

This loss sucks just cuz losing three in a row (all to not-elite teams) sucks balls after the run we were on, but all things considered, I didn't hate what I saw. Thunder have been hot, and were always tough to beat at home, but we played them tight. Solid defense, especially considering two of our top three-ish defenders were still out. Thunder defense was tough, but we still put up well over 100, and Harden got it going a bit eventually. Blew a lot of good, open three-point looks... And the refs blew a critical foul on Harden's 3-pt attempt at the end, too. They really didn't want to call any fouls in crunch time today.

And if this is how the Thunder have been winning recently, color me unimpressed. This is basically the same as last year's team with a couple bigger names. Solid defensively, but on offense, still garbage. Nothing but defended, ISO, long-range 2s. They were just going in at a high enough rate to win today (and presumably in general lately). If Carmelo keep shooting like that, they're gonna be tough, but something tells me that's not gonna get it done come April.

 

Bill O'Brien esque.......

 

Another pathetic effort defensively. Gonna keep losing until that changes.

 

Yeah, they need to look at video and work on properly closing out games and manufacturing good shots. They will probably find themselves in these situations especially in the playoffs.

 

Besides the usual trash (Anderson and scrubs), Tucker’s defense has fallen off lately and he’s only providing 2-4pts per game. Not going to cut it!

 

The Rockets looked ordinary. Capella adds a lot though.

 

Where are the "oh the other team just got really hot, what can you do?" people?

 

Really missing what mabu and cp3 brings to us, we are fragile can't win with out our small parts. Especially when role players don't come out...

 

To all the people criticizing Harden's apparent "lack of energy" or movement it's obvious the guy has not looked the same since injuring his calf in Portland and then later his knee against the Jazz. And yet, he's still putting up ridiculous stats with CP3 out.

So yes, he's resorting more to some of his tricks (drawing fouls, passing, etc.) because he does not seem to have much explosiveness. In addition, his minutes have gone up with all the time LMAM, CP3, Capela, and Nene have missed. Harden definitely has a lazier style of basketball that he resorts to when he's low on energy and/or desire, but it's being magnified because of all of the injuries.

When he initially got injured, he relied on CP3 (that's why CP3 closed out a few games by himself). But when CP3 went out, all the load falls on him. Perhaps against subpar competition he can pull through at the end, but the elite defenders of OKC is probably too tall of a task in his injured condition, so I'll take the 29 pt and 14 ast he delivered today without complaints.

The Rockets played good basketball today, they executed well and did what they could offensively against a very good defense, but yes it would've been better if they were able to close it out.

Also, wtf was that Ariza 3 with 50 sec left???

 

lol now we're going on the road to face two tough Eastern teams in the Wizards and Celtics. We about to extend that losing streak to 5 games.

 

thats easy to say when you are the only playmaker for your team, and other guy eric gordon cant really dribble, and trevor ariza is just a stand still shooter. LIKE REALLY even lebrons bench is better than our starters.. yes the corpse of dwade is better than eric gordon, and jeff green on his best day when motivated can be more deadly than ariza because he can has a handle and can pass

Harden really has no help, like really imagine if capela didnt play tonight.. where are we gonna get his points from.. Nene( lol), Black(lol), Bobby Brown( smh). i mean our bench is pathetic..

make a trade for shabazz muhammad or something, and or sign mike james whio the suns just cut

 

Well you wont win many games as Briante Weber as your backup point guard. The guy is a huge liability on offense and defense

 

EG is always doing those stupid ass dribble moves followed by a turnover. He just needs to stop dribbling so much. He has tiny hands, the more he dribbles, the higher the chance of him turning it over. Our depth is so crap because of the CP3 trade. Morey really needs to dump Ryno's contract so we can add some depth to this team.