Back to Back nights in Salt Lake City are dangerous. Mormons, Strip Clubs, Groupies all after our boy Reed Sheppard. @Jontro
Any team can beat any other team. It's rare with this kind of talent differential, but it happens. It was an obvious trap game being the second night of a B2B on their home court after embarrassing them the night before. I don't understand why the NBA schedules stuff like that though. All B2Bs should be eliminated entirely, IMO.
If you don't play adequate Defense and the opposition is shooting lights out at home with high altitude, it happens pretty often..... The Rockets are just too disciplined under Udoka, but it still happens. Lol, nope, it should be eliminated but not because it is a schedule conflict......but every team agrees to it not just the Rockets.
Owners and players like money such that 82 games isn't going away. Players like their vacation such that they aren't going to allow the 82 games to expand into their summer vacation. Personally, with the constraints of 82 games and not intruding on players' vacation time such that B2Bs have to happen, I would prefer if all B2Bs were in the same city.
I’m very aware, it’s not just on this site it’s pretty much Rockets fans in general on the internet and in person whenever we loss a game. But especially when we loss to a lesser team, which is why I made this post to get some to calm down. Unfortunately I know it won’t do much but it’s worth a shot lol
I’m speaking more so on Ime in general not just this game, but I will say that I agree with you about JD getting more minutes. I was in the game thread of the Rockets Reddit and was one of the main ones saying give JD some playing time near the end of the second and heading into the third quarter, with the way Reed was struggling on defense. I definitely think he could’ve brought some energy off of the bench on both ends with Tate. Also as much as I hate it, I think we definitely could’ve benefited from the double big line up of Alpi and Clint at certain points of this game when we we’re struggling getting rebounds and defending the paint. I also felt he stuck with zone a bit longer than he should’ve down the stretch. It was fine using it to get us back in the game but once the offense started to find itself mid way in the fourth and we gave up a few 3’s we should’ve went back to man to man IMO And you and I agree that’s why I’m not making such a big deal about this loss like some others. Tonight was more about Utah playing with pride and not allowing a repeat of what happened to them the previous night. I also think that extra day playing in that high altitude in Utah made guys like KD, Jabari, and Reed a bit more fatigue. At this point it is what it is, we need to move past it and look at the game ahead against Sacramento, and make sure we don’t drop a game against them like we did last season
It's true it's hard to beat the same team twice in back to back. However, If we imagine OKC in place of rockets, will OKC loose the 2nd game? I guess not. That's the gap of the team . (Mental strength).
If it makes anyone feel better, we're all fighting for the right to be slaughtered by OKC and the whistle, at some point of the playoffs, any damn way...
The reality is that this is a very good team, but OKC is just in a different stratosphere. We do not have an elite mega star on the squad, KD and Alpi are close, but I don't think you beat OKC unless we are gifted Luka, Wemby or Jokic for free without losing anyone else, that is how good OKC is. Even then, you'd need improvement from the coaching staff to put it together. Either that or two of our guys make giant leaps by playoffs and KD somehow turns the clock back for at least the OKC series.
