ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Raptors 3/9/2018

I know James bumped knees but Rockets possible could've stolen this if he plays more than 33 minutes. That CP3-Joe Johnson line up wore out its welcome in the 4th. Harden comes back and scores instantly after a drough. But too little, too late.

 

I agree. He played ok, but this was the kind of game where we needed more than just 14 points and few this and thats from our 2nd star.

 

Yep....OR the Rockets are beatable on a tough schedule winning 17 in a row prior.....

Please, in a series the Rockets would beat any of the aforementioned teams

 

Harden takes the DEEP three to try and tie it at the buzzer

Chaos on the floor with 10 seconds left TOR vs HOU

The Beard and DeMar exchanging buckets

Harden with the Clutch 3!

 

Well- this really upsets me - not showing up in first Q, the turn overs, not guarding the 3, the poor play designed to tie at the end, too much reliance on Harden to bail us out with Hargod play and very few teammates hitting clutch shots other than Gordon.

On bright side- looking fwd to 3rd 14+ game winning streak this season! Would that be a first?

 

capela, tucker, and nene were absolutely horrid. they got murdered by toronto's bigs

lowry had the shooting performance of his life, while cp3 did not look his normal self

but the deciding factor in this game was pringles. rigid stubborn MF played joe johnson more than 16 minutes, during which our defense become swiss cheese as he got beat off the dribble time and time again. why??? why is this guy playing so many minutes, why is he playing any minutes in a game like this?? and why is harden playing only 33 minutes in such a big game? harden sat for more than 7 consecutive minutes between the 3rd and 4th quarters.

championship coaches like rudy, pop, pj, spo just to name a few, are all known for their flexibility and willingness to read a game and adjust. pringles singlehandedly cost us game 5 against SA and i fear the guy will again be simply his own worst enemy come playoff time

 

This was a great game at how TOR played us. They were on our shooters whole game and put pressure on the ballhandler to disrupt our rythm. This is a peek of one of the ways teams will play us in the playoffs, by taking away our 3s and force to contested drives. Im hopeful we can hve a good gameplan to counter this. I love how we fought back. Beard was phenomenal

 

WE WIN THE GAME IF ANDERSON PLAYS!

 

You can’t be the best team in the league when you are 0-2 against the THIRD best team in the league. No matter what the Rockets do from here...Toronto will always be able to say: “they can’t beat us”...and that really sucks my friends

 

I'm glad the streak is over. Rockets don't need to burn themselves out late in the season trying to keep it alive.

Now they can focus solely on playoff preparation.

 

He looked gas or tired.
Jalen said we would lose because it was 3 games in 4 nights, in another country players want to have fun and stay out or go out. And the travel too so that’s how Chris looked he looked tried or maybe caught the flu. The whole team looked out of it or not focus in the first half.

Still it we had a change and we fought back.

 

I'm still worried about CP3 in the playoffs. I don't trust him.

 

Luc gets that steal that Tucker didn't. One of Ariza/Tucker HAVE to be---


Oh what am I saying, D'Antoni never playing Luc the minutes the team needs.

 

I just can't see him getting much better. Ben Dubose interviewed that Jazz reporter right when the Rockets signed him and that Jazz reporter was trying hard to temper our expectations. He was very bullish on him being kind of washed up and almost a non-factor at this point of his career. I thought he was being bitter but he was just being impartial and fair. Let's hope to god he's not a factor that we have to rely on.

 

Yeah joe doesn’t need to see the court before green anymore screw seniority

 

Capela is getting too much blame. The guy was still very productive but just had some 'highlight' mistakes against him.

Eric Gordon deserves a lot more of the finger pointing. Went 5-14 and half his shots were 2's.

 

Good question, if it wasnt statistically it certainly PASSED the eye test of the worst quarter...man that was brutal

 

I’m not too sure about that anymore. JJ has shown nothing so far to indicate that he will be a factor in the playoffs. Would u really want him getting crucial minutes in the playoffs based off what you’ve seen?

 

I guess you can look at it like this:

Would you expect Lowry to have that type of shooting game again, coincidently coming in the same game we are terrible from downtown, and the Raps weren't playing exactly stellar D as much as we were missing makeable shots.

Then you've got to ask yourself if the above does happen again, do you think it could happen 4 out of 7 games?

I wouldn't hold much faith in that happening.

I wouldn't hold much faith that in the Playoffs (as much as I hate to say it that Houston doesn't take regular season games seriously) we allow that many forays to the rim as easily as we did either.

We weren't closing out the season without a loss, so I'm glad it came against the Raptors in a game when we clearly did not come out prepared (how that happens, I'm still not sure)

 

Raptors are a very good team. Props to them. Still wouldn't be surprised if they lost in the first round though.