ClutchFans Game Thread: Warriors @ Rockets 11/20/2022

You are the type of person that get stuck in life, worried about what others think, when if you took a couple steps back you would come back stronger.

Pride is in your way…

You rather the Rockets win 25-30 games and end up with horrible draft position…you are not a real fan

 

I been a Rockets fan since 1981 - all you Sengun fans crying in every thread after every game need to stfu.

 

I am a Rockets fan more than 30 years. Now continue to suck your pacifier crying baby. And stop talking to other people what they will say or not.

 

U are loser. Accept it.

 

@gfab-babyboi
Pay these dudes no mind lol.

 

Wasn't able to catch the game but looked like Smith popped off. What changed?

 

Was it just me who liked the lineup of:

Garuba
Jabari
Tari
KPJ
Green

 

we ran a play for him early which worked and boosted his confidence. Then he realized he’s taller than everyone and should start stroking it over everyone.

 

Tari and KJ led the team in +/- as usual last night vs Warriors.

+/- STATS FOR THE SEASON

Maybe if our goofy coach focused more on the 2 winning players instead of the 3 guys with the worst stats, maybe we would win more games. Just a thought...

 

Around the NBA, GSW and general NBA fans are celebrating Klay's 41 and Curry's 33.

Rockets became the team that Klay breaks his slump.

Not a good look for Silas and the Rockets.

 

The way they are playing they still win 20-23 IMO.

The schedule is going to get easier and young guys are at least competing.

 

That's the hope. There's 65 games left (82-17). To even match last year's gaunt 20 win record (we need 17 more wins). 17/65 is 26.1%. So we have to win one in every four games to even match last year's worst record in the league.

Hopefully the easier schedule helps because right now we're winning 17.6% of the games.

 

Meanwhile, GSW was celebrating and showboating like they just won the championship when all they did was struggle to beat the worst team in the league in an early regular season game. NBA fans in general have become so bandwagon that they let stuff like this pass but it's honestly pretty embarrassing how GSW carries themselves. For a team that has won as much as they've had, it's crazy how much they showboat and disrespect their opponent and the game so often.

I mean yea, I'm kinda being a sore loser.. but if this was baseball, you can bet that Steph or Klay would be getting beaned in the head with a heater the very next game.

 

Was painful scrolling through NBA reddit; multiple people posting the same damn Klay highlights video. Those threads popped up because it trended.

Yes the brain knows we're in a rebuild. Three years in; I'm just getting tired of the losing.

 

I wasn't as pissed off about this game as I should be, because I saw individual brilliance that saved it from being a complete and utter disaster. First the negatives then the positives.

Negative
1. Jalen Green - I don't care it's only his 2nd year, he's in a slump, maybe not 100% but his effort on defense is just not there. Too many mistakes for a supposed star in the making. We should have high expectations and he's just not doing the things on defense to offset the sloppiness and drives to the hole without realizing it's packed and no back-up plan when his first act is not going anywhere.
2. Alperen Sengun - WTF dude, you know they will set a screen on the perimeter player and still you sag and stand so far back that you cannot close out on their 3pt shooters. Glad Silas pulled his ass. And on offense he was not working the man, he seemed already determined what he was going to do too often and it lead to bad possessions. That one where he passed it into the 3rd row instead of just hitting KPJ who's our BEST 3PT SHOOTER!?!
3. Nix - did absolutely zero this game, made a very lazy wrap around pass or whatever that was and then proceeded to walk back instead of run for his life...and that one defensive possession where he just let Curry get a lay-up. Silas should've pulled him!
4. Gordon - dude, just sit out like Wall if you are going to bring that piss poor effort and keep waiting for refs to bail you out for being unable to keep your dribble alive or make a lay-up. Not seeing him pull a guy aside, initiate a circle to rally the team or anything like that.

5. Silas and company - I saw some fire, for once, but cannot just blame this on effort. Our defense on the perimeter needs serious work, but it's our offense where we still look a street ball team and a poor one at that. How do you not generate more shots for Jabari & KPJ? Can the latter get some catch and shoot threes for crying out loud?! And Gordon, can we stop playing that useless vet less? And for the love of God, can we get some cutting and movement? I watched the game with Warriors feed and they couldn't believe for a young team we were so slow. At one point we had Garuba
with the ball after a steal and only one guy kind of jogged out in front, the rest just stood there waiting for Garuba to pick who he would pass it to. Clearly we have no intention of being a fast-break team. And that's not even talking about our half-court offense.

6. Awareness - several plays you could see coming a mile away and way too many easy open shots for them could've been prevented if we had drilled them so our guys knew where to be. I cannot imagine this is all due to youth and messing up. There was tons of times where we loaded up on the strong side, where the ball was, and totally forgot about the weak side. On rebounds we kept staying like that, usually 3 or 4 guys looking at the ball from their positions while Warriors just swooped in and got the rebound. On offense it was just crying for someone to make a cut and move a few inches to an open spot, but no, we refused to move, had guys with confused looks on where to be and then just set one simple screen and then the guy with the ball took a shot. ISO ball needs to stop unless it's KPJ who can get us a bucket any time.

7. Crowd - emmmmmbaaarrraaaaassssiiiinnnnggggg!! Most I've heard our crowd all year and it was not for the home team. The people in the crowd should've taken that personally. I don't give a ****, **** Houston, go back to San Diego for all I care. Tired of looking at half empty seats and our fans being church mice.

Positive
1. KPJ - for a guy who might not have played, he came out with some fire, hit some tough floaters, threes, and brought that intensity on defense. At one point, when he got called for a silly foul, and you could lip read him saying "Come on [guys], let's ****ing go." There was also one possession where Jabari was jogging back, Green barely did anything yet was almost as close as KPJ around the half-court line and then KPJ hustled back and almost made them miss or give it up. He had his hands on a lot of balls and just did whatever he needed to to keep us close. I feel a lot more positive about him after this game to lead than Green to be honest.
2. Jabari Smith - damn did he finally show glimpses of the version we've been waiting to see, that we knew was there. Did you see his determination on some of his drives?! I was definitely not sure about his ability to do that, but he definitely showed it tonight. The only issue was our guys and coaches didn't capitalize on it, as usual...I'll end on a positive note, which is that on defense, did you see how disruptive he was with
3. Garuba - holy **** dude, Curry tried to embarrass him and ended up shooting very contested shots on several occasions. Garuba is just amazing with his feet and does not let up. Love how he moves and cannot be moved.
4. Tari - hustle, hustle, hustle. If he had made 1 or 2 more threes, he would've had his best game of the season. He was disruptive as hell, got 3 steals in the process and some of his boards and shots made would not have happened if he didn't have such a strong knack for where to be and will to put the ball in the basket.

5. Effort, hustle & no quitting - For all the individual mistakes, we made up for it with serious effort - goon squad lead the charge of course. And again, we didn't quit. Could've given up after that first quarter and those threes has demotivated even the most veteran teams throughout the years, so lots of kudos for that.

 

Jabari Smith is perfect example of dropping a brand new expensive fish in your aquarium. Keep in mind you already have some destructive Damsels and trigger fish. It’s hard to play with a bunch of guys all looking to get a paid.

 

Klay went off, but who was his main defender.

Spoiler

kpj

 

If only Stephen could see that the starting 5 has inconsistent energy and it needs one of the goons in there to ignite a fire (pun fully intended).

 

I think Tari, KMartin and Garuba's effort will be consistent while you have Green, KPJ, Sengün taking turns on your positive and negative lists night in night out. And Jabari of course.

 

it seems only when 16 games into the season, stubborn Silas finally began to make some adjustment, i.e. keeping Bari and Tari on the court at the same time, giving Tari, KJ and Uzi all three 20+min to play, minimizing nix's PT, but he still reluctant to sit EGo in final minutes and allow our young prospects learning to close the game, still reluctant to reward those second-string players who perform well. smh so mean.