Make the trade for Gasol. Get some defensive stops, stop playing a bunch of 6’8 sfs out of position hoping harden goes for 60 to save you. Need real insurance.
This is where Chris Paul needs to get his playing legs back in a hurry. There's no way the double and triple teams would have worked so effectively if Paul was his usual self.
At halftime, EG was 3-4 FT and 3-4 3pts for 9 pts.. He had one three point shot, 2FGs and 1-2 FTs in the second half for 17pts.
I wish he could have done more but he was pretty clearly trying to not get hurt and do just enough. I don't blame him. I do blame Gordon and Tucker for going 0 for the last 23 minutes.
Defense was horrible and we bricked every 3 and layups in the second half. We got exposed again inside. Every game, the opposing team's big man is having Career night since Capela got injured. We need to get a back up Center/PF with size. Dedmon, Robin Lopez?
Did we resign Ariza tonight? Still could have won. There is no such thing as playing good unguarded 3 point defense.
We didn’t lose this games because of bad shooting and missed threes. That didn’t help but that’s not why we lost. We lost because we’re missinh Clint and couldn’t defend the post at all. They had 70+ points in the paint. We’re going to get out rebounded with Clint out. Hell we get out rebounded a lot even with Clint grabbing 15 rebounds a game. Although I do think having fareid in there when Clint sits will help in that department. If the rockets played D even just the last 6 min of the game like they did the last 2 min we prob squeak out a win. When we turn up the D it just boosts out our offense. Missed 3s suck but that’s basketball. James said it best we had no energy from the start even when we hit 8 threes in the first quarter we still only had a 7 point lead. U make 8 threes in a quarter if you even play any D you should have a 15+ point lead going into the 2nd quarter.
The 3 point shot can be volatile that is why it can create a big lead, win a game or with a succession of 3 point bricks lose a good lead and have a deficit. Which is where also getting lay ups whether drives, pick and rolls or lobs need to be mixed in more with the 3 point shot. Despite the missed 3s, the game against the Pelicans was mainly lost due to heavy dose of points (close 70 pts I guess) in the paint (especially lay ups) for the Pelicans. Without Capela, the Rockets struggle against Centers that can post , initiate the offense or who are aggressive on the offensive glass. Faried has been great for the Rockets Nene plays limited minutes but match ups against certain teams will be problematic with the Rockets being a smaller NBA team. In the Pelicans game only Nene and Faried are at or over 6'8" were in the rotation. The Rockets need another 4/5 or 3/4 that has some height or length to use in certain games to help. Credit to the Beard and Tucker who have been giving good post up defense. As usual Morey has something up of his sleeve so let us hope something happens soon. The Wolves have some veteran bench guys like Tolliver and Deng, also Green from the Grizzlies, Mirotic with Pelicans and Vonleh from the Knicks who are all 6'8" to 6' 10". Can't wait to see what Morey does on or before the trade deadlines. Rockets need to survive some tougher bigger line up teams in Denver and Utah.
Eh... The Rockets could have made 0 threes for the 2nd half. Zero reason let the PELICANS score 62 in the second half. 10 less points and the Rockets still win while building that wall... but nope.... In the previous Orlando game, the Rockets let them have 61 in the first half.. and then 37 in the entire second half. When you can't buy a three you have defense there to be your amour. The Rockets have forsaken defense this season.
I bet Harden regrets signing that 6 year extension when he saw how terrible CP3 is this year after signing that huge 40mil/year contract. I'm not saying Harden isn't completely without fault because he has come up small in key games in the playoffs but Morey has seriously failed him again and again when it came to surrounding him with at least 2 more all-stars. Why do I say at least 2 more stars? Because this is what the league has become now. Teams with even two legit stars won't beat the all-nba Warriors. I don't consider CP3 an all-star level player anymore after this season and Capela just isn't there yet. His ceiling is probably just a borderline star anyways. It's sad that we're just not simply good enough to compete with them this year. They were already stacked enough last year but adding Boogie for 5mil dollars is just ridiculous.
