Clutchfans Game Thread: Rockets @ Thunder 8/24/2020 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 4)

At the close of the 3rd and close of the 4th Harden hurt us. He needs to trust his team more.

 

Harden! Harden! Harden!

 

I really like MDA, but his teams always seem to lack attention to detail

this team is too consistently dumb, especially in the clutch

people are talking about tired legs, but these dudes were shooting absolutely stupid threes

there was 1 possession in the 4th where Gordon dribbled down, and his stupid ass just shot a three before the rest of the team had even crossed halfcourt...he is a below 30% shooter...just insanely stupid

Harden content to force up deep threes from like 30 ft like he’s Lillard even tho he rarely makes threes from that range...they are always off the front of the rim

House taking bad threes

Harden dribbling down and passing it to Covington who immediately just launched a three with Adams right in his face and a lot of time left on the shot clock

all this stupidity while it’s a close game, the game is beginning to wind down, and possessions are starting to really matter

then we also have plays like Harden going to early while PJ is trying to set a screen, so PJ ends up committing an offensive foul

How many times have we seen this team start to lose their mind, and then MDA puts a stop to it? It never happens. They just continue playing stupid, and then we’re left hoping that the other team plays bad enough or we make enough of our idiotic shot attempts to pull out the win.

normally I like to sit back, relax, sip this tea, and only get heated when the refs are on some BS, but this game got to me...the stupidity was too much

 

There's a reason Russ and James are the highest scoring combo in the league! They are a great combo of skills.

 

when EG drove into the middle of the lane all out of control as usual, and then threw that horrible pass to PJ that ended up being a turnover, I seriously wanted to smash my TV

I think we were down by 1 at the time

Why is this dude always in a hurry and so out of control?

my hate for EG is to the point where every boneheaded thing he does makes me extremely annoyed, or in a game like today, extremely angry, even when the team is playing well

 

Interested to see how night and day our team will look when Russ comes back. Our offense is starting to look like the 2016-2017 season without him.

On the other side, again it all comes down to minimizing shroeder's effectiveness ... even if cp3 and shai have good games, it's shroeder who's scoring was keeping them within distance. We need covington and banged up tucker to not get blown by at the rate they have been.

And we can hope Donovan keeps playing adams more minutes ... I didn't think their version of small ball could compete with ours (even without russ), but it's definitely been producing more positives for them to have adams off the court. Every one of our guys were abusing adams on switches, especially green, gordon, and harden.

 

I can't stand Dort and Paul. They get away with too much compared to Tucker and James. May I add that OKC loves their cheap shots. They're dirty, but squeaky clean in the eyes of the refs. It gets old. Another game, another knee or two down low. I can't wait to finish this team off once and for all. Man, I hope Russ is ready to rumble, but can keep his cool and avoid the technicals.

 

You do realize that Westbrick has shot his team out of games many times before, right?

 

that play where there was a free backdoor cut to the basket that harden threw out of bounds was frustrating as well.

 

Isiah Thomas said something tonight that hit a note. He said he thinks the Rockets are trying to win proving their way to win, instead of just winning the game. He said they must prove they have to win by shooting the 3s, when they should win by letting the game dictate how to win especially in the fourth quarter. In the fourth, a two is as good because when the game ends you will have more points than 3pt attempts. We had 20 threes made for the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. How many times did Harden drive through the paint and pass off for a three instead of proceeding to the basket for a two. Maybe MDA should allow Harden to take the 2 instead of passing out. Maybe Thomas is right. Something to think about.....

 

Games every other night and a 6-8 man rotation will not work ...

 

Yeah, he has proven to have that potential in more traditional slow down playoff games too. But i think the added dynamic of his pushing the pace will alleviate the pressure from harden and potentially create more momentum for our other guys to get involved. Shrugs, we'll see. You could be right.

I also think the Thunder's version of small ball might get overwhelmed by a guy like Russ.

 

and that fullcourt pass to EG that got picked by Gallinari with 50 something seconds left

just so dumb...they don’t understand how to value possessions

this is a vet team, but sometimes they play like a clueless young squad full of 22 and 23 year olds

just reliving these events is making me get angry all over again

 

Just finished the game.

This is what I expected the series to be - very close if Westbrook isn't playing. Still, it is disappointing since we had the 2-0 lead to start. Oh well.

After we gave up the huge lead we gained after amazing shooting to start the 3rd, this felt like a loss incoming all 4th quarter.

PJ Tucker and Covington have been bad all series. Sucks, man. Sucks.

 

I wont even read these last 30 pages or so. Not in the mood.

I am going to watch the Yankees lose to TB (from the 20th). I need a sure thing good feeling from somewhere.

Those needing the same:

 

This. I said this early that Rockets are playing to prove Morey and MDA's 3pt scheme can work or their midges basketball can work, not championship.

 

This reads like so many threads over the years with same problems just different names.

 

This game caused an altercation in my house. Russ needs to save us. It’s that simple.

 

Pretty obvious that they were getting touch fouls in the 2nd half and we were getting nothing.
This allowed them to get physical and penalized us for trying to do the same

 

He made the right decision and trusted his teammate PJ when he drove and kicked to tucker for the corner 3 with a chance to tie the game very late. And guess what tucker missed.

After that miss it was ball game I believe it was 114-117 at the time when tucker missed.