Great win. 1) Spurs had the best home record in the league and 2) Rockets were short-handed (more than SA) Rockets with the comfortable victory.
A regular season game against a short handed Spurs team is not indicative of whether we are better than them. They will be much better come playoff time.
Yeah I agree. They're not easy shots for people to hit consistently. He's mastered a lot of options from it. However, if he's off for a game, opponents let him skip and do their average contests, hoping he'll miss. When he's on, they play him differently, allowing all of his options to be very dangerous in their eyes, resulting in gambles/swipes that miss and leave him more uncontested on his gather like we saw today. Aldridge's hands were wayyyy to harden's right on his contest. And ginobli backpedaled on harden's shimmy right afraid of the drive, giving up the pullup that harden turned into a 4pter. It's just my observation that on the few games harden does struggle (especially when he had to carry so much last year), defenders are more prone to give him that extra space and do their average contests, hoping he'll miss, while on the games he's on, they have to struggle to guard it all.
Defense was great in the first half and the stars brought it home in the second. Great contributions across the board even Ryno wasn’t useless!
Kawhi hasn't really been a rotation player for them this season. The 34-19 Spurs were just missing Gay from their regular rotation this season. Rockets were missing Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza. who are regulars.
Ryan had a really solid game in all aspects of his play to night. IF he played like he did tonight every night we would be wondering way he is not an all star. Yes his play was that good tonight. His stats don’t show his extra effort and energy he was playing with tonight — he was a difference maker.
on another note, i really liked how harden mixed up his shot chart. he was taking the midrange that they were giving him, and hitting at a high rate. When he's setting up his midrange game, I feel like it opens u all of his strengths.
yeah Harden ain't perfect. But don't have to whine at his every missed shot or turnover. Because for every missed shot or turnover, he makes up with 5 points by himself or thru assists. Harden produces most points, highest usage, a very frantic pace - his turnovers (still relatively low) are a result of that. It's like saying you love Troy Williams' on-court decision making because he never makes mistakes. Of the 5 players you mentioned, Harden has the edge in on-court decision making this year.
I give him credit he played a solid game you saying if he averaged 13 points, 3 3's a game you be wondering why Ryno's not an all-star? you know PG is not an all-star right? all-star player >>>> solid player
It's hard to keep track of all the games this season where Harden has hit a clutch step back 3 to ice a game. Off the the top of my head..Blazers, Pellies, Warriors, Magic, Spurs...their is definitely more. A compilation would be real cool.
