ClutchFans Game Thread: Hornets @ Rockets 10/23/2024

Seeing Amen hit that first 3 was almost worth the loss. Boy ain't scared

Green actually looked like a man for the first time in his life

Season looks promising with Green, Sengun, and Amen

 

missed the game. did we win?

 

HAHAHA

 

The JVG era of Houston sports.

 

Folks, the outcome of this game is very easy to understand. The cause is not complicated, nor is it related to a particular player. Simply put, our 5 starters played 71% of the minutes and shot 21% from the floor. I haven't the energy to confirm it but I presume the shooting splits by half would look even worse. Charlotte packed the interior defensively in the second half, dared Houston to shoot from the perimeter, and limited our interior scoring and the advantages of our athleticism. If perimeter shooting does not improve, we will see this again and again.

 

Just watched the game. 13/43 30.2% Houston Chuckers LMAO

 

I thought you were exaggerating, but you're not too far off. They shot ~30%. You can't win like that. It's a miracle the game was close.

I assume Fred will get it going eventually. Dillon and Jabari cannot be zeroes out there. They can't afford it.

 

Is my math wrong? For the 5 starters I get 26/126. No biggie. Perhaps I miscounted.

 

LOL...yeah...math wrong!!! Thanks

 

Well, your point stands. They were god awful. Ime said he had to leave the starters in there longer because the game got close... They did not perform.

 

Jalen - Started chucking away and taking bad shots after his hot start. Lead could've been pushed to 20+ but Jalen missed like 6 or 7 straight shots and Hornets were able to cut their lead in half before halftime.

Sengun - Struggled after the Hornets coach adjusted and put Grant Williams on him. He wasn't able to power through Williams because of his low center of gravity. Williams also forced Sengun to defend him on the perimeter which led to less rebounds and made it easier for the Hornets to score inside.

FVV - Shot was off the entire game. Tried to force his own offense in the 4th quarter when he should've been setting up others.

Jabari - No show again. Can barely tell he's on the court per usual. His starting role should be at risk.

 

I honestly don't see his place in the rotation.

 

Rockets need to figure out what to do with FVV and Dillion Brooks.

 

https://www.thedreamshake.com/2024/...ommentID=ab6ae560-6424-4109-a8a2-b572a0a9803c

 

FVV is tradeable but Brooks isn't

 

If Sheppard was really that hurt he wouldn't play. Especially when they have other players who can play the position. All kinds of excuses for him.

 

We shot very, very bad from the perimeter. Like Mandrake stated, "If perimeter shooting does not improve, we will see this again and again." I don't expect this to happen very often - I don't expect the Team to shoot this bad at home - maybe ever again. The shots were good shots - if we make them at last years rate, we win going away. It does show my early season W/L prediction of 13-5/14-4 over the first 18 games to be overly optimistic.

 

Tari wasn’t looking like himself. Neither did Cam. Theyre usually more emerging energy. Cam was holding his leg after that terrible pass from Fred.

 

Morning after thoughts...I'm just posting

PGs
FVV - Just not a good shooting game, at all. Forced a lot of shots, didn't make any open shots, but what can you say he's the best PG we have right now.
Reed - People criticizing Reed for anything need to log off. It's his first game. Chill.

Wings
Jalen - Typical Jalen game filled with ups and downs. Got hot to start then shot himself cold then almost redeemed himself with some late big shots. He really needs to recognize when he's cold and get to the rim, try to get to the FT line, instead of just settling for threes. If Jalen can fix his shot selection he can go to the next level. That's not a given though, some players never fix it. Someone has to get through to him that you can't just chuck up shots. Pass the ball, cut, drive, if you missed your last three 3s maybe don't pull up for another?

Amen - Pretty good game, showed that maybe he's added to his bag some. Hit an open three, shot has shown signs of progressing. Everything else was expected, I think if anything he should have played more. Good things tend to happen when he plays. Also if he gets that floater down he's going to be really dangerous.

Cam - I mean...what do you want me to say? Barely played, barely had a positive if any impact. Feel's like he went through the motions. Clearly Reed and Amen and Tari are going to eat into his minutes and not sure he likes the idea of that but whatever.

Brooks - Quickly wearing out his welcome here. Randomly decides he's going to be the go to guy at times and while I still think he's a solid defender you have to ask if it is worth playing him over Amen or Tari at this point.

Tari - Solid outing for a guy that missed a lot of games. Wasn't on the boards as much as he used to be and wasn't the elite stopper either but its his first game and he should have played more if anything.

Bigs
Sengun - Had a really nice game, not sure what happened in the 2nd half. I guess Gregg Williams was getting to him? It's like he came out of the 2nd half with oil on his hands. Still, if you get this from Sengun every night he's an all-star or in that discussion. He's clearly the franchise player, had a terrible TO but eh it happens. Should have never been that close to begin with.

Jabari - I'm not has down on him as everyone else. Defensively he's there, people are missing how hard he works on that end, other than Tari no one else is flying around the court like him trying to contest shots and doesn't foul much. He was 40% from three. I really wish when Bari hits a three or two that the team would you know...try to see if he's hot instead of Jabari hitting two threes then never shooting one again in the game. Seems to happen every game now. People need to accept that he's not ever even the 3rd option on the floor no matter who he's on the floor with so I don't know how people are expecting him to have breakout offensive games.

Jock - Meh, he did what he was supposed to do which was give Sengun a rest. He's had better games though.

Coaching
Overall I feel like the team is there defensively most nights, they can get stops, the issue is they have no go to scoring sets or options. The NBA is a game of runs and even bad teams get hot sometimes no matter how well you play defense and at that time you have to hold them off and keep your scoreboard moving

Overall
We are 0-1, in the end it doesn't matter much. This early schedule was going to be difficult if we were 1-0 or 0-1. Rockets are simply going to have to beat playoff caliber teams over the next 9 games and find a way to go 4-6 or 5-5 in this stretch so they don't fall too far behind. If we finish like that no one is going to remember this game. Let's just hope the team responds well and they need to with Memphis and Ja coming up next.