ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Grizzlies 3/20/2019

I correct myself, I think GG and House, and to a degree Austin Rivers are good players offensively when they are on.

Lately they have been more on than not Rivers aside but I will wait this one out in the playoffs.

 

The natural argument is that he didn't read the clock within the play. If his internal clock was working, he'd know that a rebound would have come after the buzzer.

Still.. it was a foul against him before the loose ball was available. Refs have always let that go and should've here too. Both ways.

 

@pippendagimp man.. DreamShook ain't wrong. We need positive fandom right now. This game was ****ed by refs, not players. I know we weren't perfect, but we showed up late. And what we did was good enough to win minus the refs. I feel like you're chicken littling a bit and that's fine, but don't forget to believe too. This team is awesome and it's going to roll in the postseason.

We're 3-1 against the champs.. we're alright. Health is our biggest enemy. Join the bright side homey. We have DD already and he's lockin' it down for doubters in his way. He does the only job we need in here. Let him do his thing and post on the positive side of life. You'll never regret it if we win it all. You can look back and know you were onboard.

 

i respect your stance (and your posts here on the whole) but i'm not interested in positive/negative fandom/fandumb bro. i have to call it like i see it. you just said yourself this game was F'd by the refs. and like i initially posted, deep down we all know this is exactly what will again happen at the most convenient moments of our series w/ GS. possibly in an even earlier round if silver just wants to avoid the nuissance/threat altogether. he's not making $$$ for the league off a HOU finals

and i stand by the rest of my initial post as well, which i had already stated here many times before and not just after a tough loss. aside from perhaps our last win at GS, harden has been carrying this franchise alone this season and i have never seen a player give so much more than he's gotten back from his front office and teammates. this guy has been playing hurt with multiple injuries throughout the year just to keep us afloat, and what the front office did in return is pathetically despicable. and even overlooking all his teammates' injuries, they have not consistently brought it this season when they were healthy. at all. and i've already explained that here as well. harden could have at least gotten another mvp out of his historic season with more help for just 5 more wins

and lastly, of course i'm not going to tolerate anyone (other than the mods) repeatedly questioning why i post here

 

Shumpert starting over House was just foolish! Rockets attitude last few games is just not good, coming out slow and not taking it seriously. I don’t get resting a healthy player for a full game, but that’s just me.

 

Any advanced stats to back up that Capela was better defensively?
He definitely has not been tough enough against the last 2 physical centers (Demarcus, Jonas), but I don't know about last year until the playoffs, where he was definitely huge. Consider he was playing a b2b yesterday too.

We have won 12 of the last 14, and we lost both by 1 and 2 points. Aside from that, the sensation is that when the team plays at his best, his ceiling is really high. We have blown out teams like Toronto or Boston in their buildings, that is something man. Normally you try your best at every playoff game. Our starting lineup will be more challenged defensively, on the other hand is more proper in the long run for Harden and Paul, since Gordon's presence removes some ISO pressure over Paul (where he has lost a step) and Harden (fresher for the end of games). We also have more physicality off the bench, remember last year we were bringing in just Gordon, Green and some Nene in the playoffs, with Luc injured. We're stil integrating pieces, learning about our roster, but depth in a playoff series should be a huge tactical advantage over last year. These games are important for D'Antoni.

I miss something more of Gary Clark, less lineups with 4 guards and more of him.
At this point, Rivers would be my backup PG (really like his defensive intensity and physicality) and Clark would play in a lot of matchups before Shump and even Green. We'll see.

 

i was clearly joking...

 

defensive rebound % ... 30.8 vs 26.5
steal % .....1.4 vs 1.0
block % ...... 5.7 vs 3.9
defensive win shares ...... 4.1 vs 2.2
defensive box plus/minus .... 2.9 vs 1.1

 

He is also a Memphis Homer
so a gigantic grain of salt is needed when he talking about the Grizz

Rocket River

 

Harden is a master at getting fouled, no doubt. The guy is the most unguardable player that I've ever seen. And yeah, the grizzlies certainly foul him too much.

 

I wanted the grizzlies to actually lose that game last night. No sense in winning it, but the grizzlies want to win it, I guess.

 

Hopefully the Rockets can lick their wounds and prepare to stick a spur in San Antonio’s ***

 

how is Valenciunas raping us under the basket yet folks told me 'its stupid to think Boogie gonna replicate his play' from our last meeting w GSW? Its less Boogie having a great night and more us lacking in interior defense. We have been terrored by Valenciunases, Nurkićes etc all year long

 

Boogie destroyed us the other night as well

 

Disagree. Marginal contact against Capela that refs will often let go. But Capela had his arm on top of JV’s arm. Harder for a ref to ignore that.

It was just a bad play by Capela on that key possession. It happens. On to the next game.

 

With those guys, it usually matters who gets the momentum 1st..... if Clint and James create confusion early Clint feasts.... if they are able to push Clint around early it’s usua gonna be a bad/avg night for Clint.....

I just ever recall Clint besting JV.... I know this because last year I went into the 1st game against Toronto thinking “Clint outruns ever center, he’s gonna slaughter JV”..... didn’t happen and as I watched the game it was clear that JV is just the guy for Clint.....

Everyone has that one guy...

 

Truth be told, we didn't deserve to win this game. We had a very bad 1st and 3rd quarter, we gave away too many free throws, and our points in the paint went from 22-20 for us at half-time to 54-36 to them at the end of the game.

The only reason we got back into it was because Harden went into MVP mode. He's literally the only clutch player we have in our team.

 

I went to bed at end of the 3rd, looks I missed the magic despite coming up short.

 

I'm not too concerned over the loss. We rested players who, even if they had played 10 minutes would have upped our score to a win. Gordon is our second leading scorer and one of our best 3 point shooters right now. I am not against rest, but puzzled over not resting the guys who need it most, like James and Paul. I will take a loss with our best guys out if it means getting or staying healthy for playoffs. Whether we are 3, 4, 5, or 6th seed shouldn't matter. But, we just don't want to get stupid and choke or rest our way into facing Denver or GSW round 1. Anyone else is just a warm up for the next round.