Deckard knows a set-up post when he sees one. 1) Ask a question nobody can answer 2) Wait a few minutes 3) Answer it yourself with those brilliant thoughts you've been waiting to drop There's not an eye-roll big enough for Holic.
Truly frustrating. The optimist of me clearly recognizes the greatness of our offense and our ability to get to the rim so easily. To have so many possessions end at the rim is fantastic. The pessimist is upset because of missed opportunity. We make half of our missed layups in the first half and we are tied or leading at half, hopefully come out more engaged and zon d in the 3rd and make this a winnable game. It was deflating.
If i ever saw a team that was hesitant to shoot and take it to the hole, it was this one. I don't know if it was a confidence factor or if we just gave up but boy did they look like they had no idea what to do. D'antoni definitely looked like he got out coached again.
These weren't easy uncontested layups. These were acrobatic hoping for a lucky bounce against multiple defenders layups with the shot clock winding down. At first I thought it was deliberate in an attempt to get the GS bigs in foul trouble. Looney for example got a block on Ariza or Gordon going hard for a dunk in the first half. He also altered and contested many shots from both CP3 and Harden. Still, they got 3 fouls on Looney in the first quarter which I thought would open up the court more for them. I honestly would have preferred more heaves midrange and beyond the arc. I think it was a deliberate strategy by GS to encourage the Rockets to go for contested layups over 3 pointers. More than Harden or CP3 showing up, the Rockets are really dependent on EG going off as the 3rd major scoring option for at least 3 more games. He struggled mightily this game and was a bigger reason for the Rockets struggles then just saying the Rockets missed layups.
One thing I notice, and I just don't understand how the manage to do physically do this consistently, the Warriors form like a box around the lane when you drive; yet they still manage to run out on our shooters. When they stay in front of JH/CP this works, when we get those angles and beat them off the dribble it collapse enough for those guys on the perimeter to either get a good shot off or pump fake and drive creating all kinds of opportunity (as seen in that beautiful play in game 2). You could see it perfectly when they broke down Currys D on Harden in game 2. As soon as he dropped a foot, we attacked. Warriors seemed to have made it point of emphasis in this game to stay square and just contest the jumpers. How do we combat this in game 4? Attack early and go east to west first. What I mean is move it around the perimeter with screens and then penetrate. The Warriors seemed locked in on defense most when we started from the top of the key or just to the side. When harden is feeling the 3 and can just hit in front of the guy like he did against Draymond in game 2, it opens a lot, but when he isn't, I think moving it sideways first might help create those angles necessary to scramble the Warriors defense.
And he still gets 32 minutes while Clint sits and watches the small ball slop, turnovers, and lack of defense in the paint.
No. That's not the way I look at it. Capela is who Capela is. He's done about as good as a player with his limitations can do with the talent he's been given and within our player development system. Our organization has molded and developed him. We did not see fit to teach him to shoot the three ball and try to mold him into a 4/5 that could spread the floor. Instead we chose to work on making him stronger and focused almost exclusively on the intricacies of the roller in the pick-and-roll. And we did not see fit to trade Capela for another opportunity at something better. And we chose to sign Ryan Anderson to an $80 million deal so we could get the kind of floor spacing/shooting around Harden that we felt we needed and that he wanted to play the style of basketball he wanted to play. This coming after we failed as an organization during the Harden/Dwight era because Harden didn't want to pay Dwight 20 points a game to play defense and lock down the defensive paint and the boards for us. So we pushed this wide open floor spacing offense to the playoffs last year in the first season of MDA which many thought was a gigantic leap forward. Reality was we were still one game worse than the first season of Harden/Dwight. But how quickly we forget. So then in the playoffs last season our high-flying offense crashes and burns because......we only had one guy out there that could dribble and chew gum at the same time and we did not have any defensive paint defense at all. Those things were obvious before the playoffs started. They were obvious throughout the regular season. And those problems finally sealed our fate against the Spurs. Fast forward to this season, we finally got another great ball handler in the starting line-up and it's made a ton of difference. And we picked up more perimeter and interior defensive help in PJ and Luc. But, as I stated in January, we still ain't got enough. And with no margin for error or injury, as inevitably happens come May, we're dinged. Luc isn't right. He can't help us. Yet we need him so badly right now. And now Paul is lamed. And Anderson has a warped barrel on his rifle. So we're left with a very mediocre Capela and a very short PJ to man the defensive paint and also play offense against a team where we desperately need our big men to shoot the three to neutralize one of the greatest defenders of all time. The bottom line here is we ain't got enough. So you can blame it on circumstances. Or you can put it on Morey. He's the single person that bears the greatest responsibility for the roster. Maybe we can blame Melo here as well. Because he caved. We did have a deal for him for Anderson. And he caved and went to OKC after the Knicks enticed him with an open invite to finish his career as a Knick. Personally, I don't feel to blame anybody. It is what it is. I'm satisfied we tried our best. While I don't agree with some things Morey has done such as the Anderson signing and throwing away a whole season for Harden to chase Westbrook in the triple crown, babying Harden with personnel decisions, and I question some of our player development decisions, etc., I'm satisfied Morey has the best interest of the organization at heart and has logical reasoning for every decision he has made. And I'm also satisfied that Morey is one of the best in the business and has had to operate with some limitations imposed by Les in Les' constant win now and win at all cost (except the luxury tax) now edict. I've enjoyed the season. And while hopeful for an upset here against the Warriors, the realist in me knows we ain't got enough and even if totally healthy we did not have enough. So I'm happy to let this play out hoping and wishing and rooting for an upset miracle while realizing that's it's just not happening with this squad because we ain't got enough to work with on the defensive interior. We're still suffering from the loss of Dwight. We haven't replaced his defensive skills still. Even though we tried the patch job with Capela and PJ and Luc and Nene and even trading for Branden Wright while simultaneously going up against one of the greatest teams of all time. So I'm ok with everything. And have mostly been entertained by this group. However....the clock is ticking. The Warriors aren't going to get worse. But Utah and Boston and Philly and now Milwaukee are all on the rise. And our window with Harden/Paul isn't that long here with Paul's age. This summer we've got to fix our big man issues and we've got to increase our quality depth without making any mistakes. Or else we're in danger of locking ourselves into also-ran status for the entirely of Harden's Rocket career. We really need to get one of LeBron/George while also retaining Luc, replacing our loss of depth from an acquisition of a LeBron/George, and find a more definitive answer at the 5 with a player that can both shoot the three and defend bigs and smalls effectively and finish when needed. That's a lot to ask. But if anybody can do it, Morey can. I just hope he isn't blinded to Capela's limitations and signs him to a huge deal which further land-locks us into also-ran status. We simple cannot afford to pay Capela big dollars and have another negative trade value contract on the books.
And this is why it’s hard for the average fan to fully get behind this team. Far to often in the Harden era the team comes out and doesn’t even show up in games of this nature. That’s just inexcusable this time of year.
lack of downhill focus. They stepped out of bounds, they missed layups, they dribbled off their legs, and it's almost like they didn't recognize how they won the last game. Golden State didn't even play well. That was just another moment where the rockets disturbingly can't recognize emotional patters and break them. Harden can never seen to get out of self destruct mode when goes into it. And here the Rockets clearly didn't push the shot the clock when it seemed obvious to everyone they should. I'm going to coin a new phrase. Basketball emotional Intelligence. The Rockets need to learn it.
