James Harden Played Like the Best Player on the Court in Game 1!

to the posters saying harden let his man go too easily and missed capela for lobs -- part of the problem for each of those is that clint was being held (see karl malone bear hug) all night by donkey and couldn't play goalie on defense like he usually does or jump for the lob on offense

 

There were two crucial turnovers for Golden State .. . . .that were basically reversed

We were down 7 and the back court happens. . but it is not called .
Tucker gets a clean strip on KD and we are off to the races. . . but no late whistle

Had those not happened that way . . .we might be having a different convo today
(but I doubt it .. . .we won but Harden defense sucked would be the wave of the day)

Rocket River

 

I hate that there are the DONKEY RULES which allow Draymond do do what ever the f*ck he wants

Rocket River

 

Harden got his points, but his job is to create for others, in that, he did not do so well.

 

to people saying durant is just too good and GS is just too talented, how do they explain away the clear fact that donkey is officiated completely differently than any other player in the league? any other player would foul out in the first 6 minutes and/or get ejected for the crap he's permitted smh. add the fact that no other team in history had ever been allowed to run 100+ moving screens per game and there's no denying the league has manufactured a cash cow in the worrriers plain and simple.

 

Not sure why you say this.

Harden facilitated plenty of open looks, particularly from 3. The team just didn't hit the shots.

It is what it is.

 

That is also a large component, but way too many shot clocks were dribbled down in ISO before any move was made.

 

Yeah, probably. I'd agree with that.

 

Hard to create for 0-Fers

Rocket River

 

It is the cheating that I hate
If you are the best. . . you don't need all that

If I am playing THE BEST
If i take three steps its a travel
He takes three steps. . .well he gets that star call

Why must *I* be perfect . .. and he gets so much slack?????
With out the slack . .. . is he *really* the best?

Rocket River

 

He needs to stop with all the dribbling. Keep the ball moving so everyone can touch it on offense and move quickly to score or pass. He was phenomenal but we have to adjust the offense so everyone can attack or shoot the open shot.

 

On the ball turnstile. Off the ball napper. If he can’t play a lick of defense, we are doomed. His defense last night looked about as bad as it ever gets. I do believe he can and hope he will do better.

 

Yes. . Yes . . . let's make sure Anderson touches the ball so he can pump fake and pass it back

Rocket River

 

And it's hard for the 0-fers do to anything with the shot clock expiring when the ball gets to them.

 

I'm not talking about Anderson, hell everyone except him. We know Green, Paul, and Gordon can attack, Joe can post up, Capela gets lobs and so on. If Harden keeps dribbling 10 secs out of the shot clock everyone else just stands around and watches. Gotta get them going somehow or this will be a sweep.

 

Pass the ball 4 times before you shoot! 4 TIMES!

 

Hasn't really been much analysis of this, but I noted this would be a choice for the Rockets before the series started.

Either:

(i) continue to try and run the Harden/Capela PnR, knowing that it gets Draymond out on Harden and Draymond can actually defend him there...

OR

(ii) Go at Curry every time by running PnR with his man.

The Rockets chose the later. And to be fair to them, Curry SUCKED defensively as much if not more than Harden and it impacted his offensive game. But of course the Rockets still lost.

Their role players need to step up, but you have to consider that the rhythm was maybe off because the engine of the offense, the Harden-Capela PnR, was purposefully put aside in an effort to attack differently... and maybe that just permeated to the role players.

If I have one main gripe about MDA's offense and scheming on the whole, is that, DESPITE an offseason where he said they'd add wrinkles to what they figured out, they've done NONE of that. And despite a week or so to strategize, they basically just went with the attack Curry plan, which GSW knew about, and which intentionally goes away from Capela. Capela still played solid, but the Rockets dominate when they just have that extra gear and energy because Capela is dominating.

Now, I'm not an NBA coach. But it seems like it shouldn't be super hard. It requires exactly ONE off ball screen between Capela and Ariza for example. But MDA should have been able to implement other wrinkles.

Point being... have to figure out a way to get Harden-Capela PnR going.

 

@vlaurelio is happy!

 

i know you're sad because you miss the mavs and lamb

but shouldn't all true rockets fans be happy?

 

I would REALLY like to see Green Attack the basket more . . . .

Rocket River