ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Nuggets 11/29/2023

Schedule loss, no way we were winning this game even with FVV. In my 20 years of watching, B2B in Denver is usually lights out 99% of the time unless we are an elite team lol.

They still competed and had a couple of open 3s gone down in the 4th it could have gotten interesting.

Obviously the Nuggets were making everything they threw up and got some very lucky bounces, nothing you can do about that. A little concerned about the lack of defensive rebounding though.

 

How do they learn? Try playing games without him? … like last night?

 

Looking at the Rockets stats from yesterday:

54% from the field
39% from 3 (16/41)
8 Turnovers

Recipe for winning 95% of the time. Issue is Denver had 3 turnovers and 5 more offensive rebounds in a game they shot 44% from 3 on 19 makes. Not sure what you can do about that.

 

I can tell you what we can do as fans.

Blame Jalen.

 

The defense on MPJ was horrible. We really missed FVV and Tate in this one. Jabari had an off night defensively for sure, but he is still making great strides most games.

 

95% of the posters here groaning couldn't even run a half a mile in Denver's altitude. Posters asking why we look flat on a b2b shorthanded after a tough competitive game the night before in Dallas. Good grief.

Some of ya'll need to touch grass.

 

Awesome... in a complete blowout that was never competitive.

Jalen Green did have a very good game on offense... but at what cost?

The Rockets have been one of the best defenses in the league but take FVV out and let Jalen run things and immediately the team loses all structure and becomes completely incompetent on defense.

Sure that optimized Jalen Green's offensive stats, but what is the goal? Are we looking to optimize Jalen Green's offensive stats or are we looking to be competitive and win some games?

 

Dead legs. They weren't running the shooters off the line as much. No one should ever have to go to Denver or SLC on the 2nd night of a B2B. Now that Denver is good its just suicide.

 

If you were to draw up a game that would be the hardest to win, B2B @ Denver would be at the top.

Never happy about a loss, but not bothered by it in the slightest.

 

Please stop with the mental gymnastics. Literally two games ago Green had a very good offensive game alongside FVV in which the Rockets held the Nuggets to under 100 points. The Rockets were never gonna win this game even with FVV. One of our young players played well, enjoy it.

 

I hate adjusting my expectations for this team. My body was ready for the beginning of this season to be a cluster**** while we tried to learn Ime's system during a tough schedule. Instead we are 8-8, so my mind adjusted that this team is actually a decent team and now I'm greedy and want more wins.

 

we could definitely use some size. Seems like an impossible task.

 

Yeah, I'm trying to remind myself that given our ridiculous schedule we'll probably be a little under .500 by mid-December, but unless we go on a huge losing streak *knock on wood* there's no reason why we can't finish the season .500 at least. Coming in I expected 32 wins which is a sizable 10 win increase.

 

It was fun. Now it’s time to aim for that lotto pick again.

 

We're looking to do both.

 

I'm not sure that's possible. You can't run a cohesive structured system and a completely unstructured "just let Jalen do whatever the hellhe feels like" system at the same time.

One is a winning way of playing, the other is how the Rockets tanked the last 2 seasons.

 

It was, but the dude is also 6’10” and some of his makes were basically heat checks. He got hot. Hard to beat the Nuggets when their third guy is shooting that well.

 

At the risk of sounding like a JG hater - I know he had a good game, but this is why he still is full of potential not yet realized (emphasis on not yet realized.) He HAS TO play like this in order to have a good game. He can't impact the game unless he gets hot like that. He did do a good job several times setting up the offense - several good passes for open shots that just didn't fall - but when the game is on the line, it's Alpi time. Give him the ball and let him go to work, and more often than not, he produces or takes/leads to a quality shot. JG is likely to take a bad stepback contested 3, turn the ball over or pass to unopen man with shot clock going down. I'm not saying he's trash or we should trade him (that's a trash take) but just pointing out he's still got a long way to go

Perhaps it's not fair to compare him against Alpi though - Alpi really is a revelation this year and it's so exciting as a fan. We have a real franchise cornerstone piece

 

lol

 

After the Kyrie BS call, NBA is not going to allow Nukkets to lose a home game to a bottom feeder the past few years. NBA needs the Nuggets than the advancing Rockets.