good that s all we need! cant wait for harden to shine and score 40 again! the guy is simply unbelievable! he is toying with ppl i never saw something like that
i noticed House is very very good at driving to the rim, however if its not a dunk he has trouble finishing.. he needs to work on that also i like hes jumpshot a lot its beautiful relaxed and i always have a feeling of itsgoiness
I know a great player can have a poor shooting night. But, how much of a statistical anomaly is it to go1 for 17. Is that like a 1 percent chance or 1 out of ten thousand for a shooter with his historical average? (I get there are variables -- just trying to get a feel).
Most great players don't take 17 three's when they are ice cold. They feed the guys who are hot. Making great decisions is part of being great, and doing the smartest thing to win in all circumstances will bring a team from contender level to championship level.
That is valid, but there comes a point where you’re hurting the team, especially when driving to the rim was working so well. He should have balanced it out more. I assume he will bounce back tonight against Memphis. We shall see.
haha yep technically it should be itsgoinginness but i saved the humanity few hundred years of shortening it through the use
Awful loss, just too many of these this season. Just straight up mailed it in on defense and clearly didn't take the Magic seriously. Still, were somehow in position to win the game and just gave it away. The defensive blame falls on everyone, but offensively Harden has to recognize when something isn't working and make necessary adjustments. Once you're 1/10 or 1/12, he clearly needed to switch it up and keep going to what was working, which was driving the ball and setting up his teammates. Instead, he just kept chucking. He didn't make his teammates better in the 2nd half and seemed to be focused on his stats. Too bad.
Honestly, I kind of felt this team "was behind" having these types of games now. Since the turnaround. Frustrating to see this clunker. Especially after the Magic beat Boston just the other night. We have seen these games before. Allow a team to "hang around" and then the Rockets hit a "cold shooting stretch" and then they bite you. Rockets should have won this game. Regardless of the lack of depth/injuries etc. But the "margin for error" is a lot less without personnel. And that margin caught them. Harden was due for a bad shooting night at some point. It is a shooting performance like that, that makes one fearful in the playoffs. That step back has to be rock solid in the playoffs. Can we count on it? We'll find out.
This is what I was saying early on. Before the game I was wondering if Dan Tony or anyone on the coaching staff would say to the team, "I know you guys. Better come out strong against this team. Don't pull that 'take a night off' thing." If it happened, it was like the one drop of water that helped form the Grand Canyon over the course of millions of years.
You're massively overrating Tucker's value on defense. He has a defensive rating of 113 and is anchoring one of the worst defenses in the league. Rockets with Tucker on the court: 109.4 DEFRTG Rockets with Tucker off the court: 109.0 DEFRTG Yes, we're somehow slightly better defensively with him off the court. Not a ringing endorsement of someone who's supposedly critical to the team's defense. For a starting PF, he's way below average with both rebound rate and shot block rate. He'd be great off the bench as a 3&D hustle/energy guy, but we were forced to start him last year after Anderson's injury and subsequent mental meltdown. It doesn't change that Tucker as a 35+ minute starter is inadequate. For what feels like 2 decades, PF is still our weakest link among our starting lineup. Just look at yesterday's game. Aaron Gordon clearly won that matchup.
I'll pass on seeing that kind of small again. It works when you have the personnel. Ennis, Clark, Tucker is a FAR CRY from Ariza, Moute, Tucker rotating on a dime and still providing scoring punch. Capela can't play 48 minutes a night. Nene can't play twice in one week. This is a recurring situation and someone else needs to be an option at the 5 other than forcing small ball lineups for long stretches.
Yeah it was pretty clear when everyone thought we would just be cruising to a win I was concerned. I said that when they had a 10 point lead and were clear better team and could score at will. This team for everything it has done unfortunately does have history of doing this
I love tucker and his play specially on defense. From watching he looks like one off the best defenders in the league but wow that stat is alarming
