The Rockets aren’t losing because they can’t compete. They’re losing because they can’t close. Houston has 9 losses this season. 8 came in clutch time. They’re 1–4 in overtime, with three OT losses in their last four games. The latest was familiar. A 14-point lead vanished in a 125–124 OT loss to Sacramento on a last-second Dennis Schröder three. Even with Kevin Durant, the same problems show up. Late possessions stall. One breakdown flips the game. The issue isn’t star power. It’s finishing. And until that changes, every late lead will feel fragile.
Most of those games shouldn’t even have gone to OT if the team had better managed their lead in RT. One solution would be to trade for a veteran PG.
You got to think, this is a big reason in back of there minds. We need someone really bad when the game slows down. Someone who can control the team, and get them in right position.
okay? Josh Okogie is a career 30% 3pt shooter. Amen is a 21% 3pt shooter. I'm going to wager that would be one of the worst shooting backcourts of all time.
It’s two things one ime is terrible at drawing up offensive plays and it seems the defense blows up their end of game and out of timeout plays on the regular. the other is they are very lackadaisical with the ball When they have a lead closing out the game. Sloppy turnovers lotta ball holding then rushed shots. The other team ups it intensity and rockets seem to ramp down. I really couldn’t tell you what causes that you would think after a couple bad losses like this that would change things but just keeps happening… I guess that’s on the coaching too
1st playoff ever.... Suns are just one spot below The Rockets without Durant and Green has only played one game. When Green gets back they will probably hop over us in the standings. Mistakes were made, now Stone has to find some way to get talent back he gave away....
And we’ve blown the suns out twice this year+ JG is literally useless you must’ve forgot he got swept by the nets last year
It's a combination of: Sloppy play. The Rockets are not taking care of the ball and defenses are putting a ton of ball pressure on both Amen and Reed. Those two guys, despite having good games, are struggling at the end of games. It shows because they are desperately trying to give the ball to KD. KD is committing some silly turnovers. The KD/Sengun PNR works well, the problem is that it becomes really predictable and teams start defending much better as things get down to the wire. Coaching. Ime does not call critical timeouts when absolutely necessary. He somehow believes that the team is going to create a good possession by catching the defense off guard. Sometimes it works (i.e. Sengun against the Bucks) sometimes it doesn't (i.e. Kings and Pelicans games). This has been happening throughout his tenure as a head coach. I don't understand why he rather have our guys figure it out rather than call a time out when it appears they aren't going to do **** with the ball. The other issue is inbounds plays. Ime is absolutely terrible at drawing up good plays. Over-reliance on iso-ball. It may work earlier in the game, but when things get tight, it really isn't working and it's making our team look like amateurs. I don't necessarily want to get older, but I really don't see a bunch of viable options for the Rockets. I know people don't believe CP3 has much left in the tank, but I think we can squeeze something out of him just to help us calm down at the end of games. The issues at the end of games is that the Rockets are rushed, they are panicking at the hard on ball pressure they are receiving, and they are relying way too much on KD and Sengun to hopefully bail them out during Clutch situations. Both of them are above average dribblers, but they are also both tall and much easier to get deflections on when you are pressuring them. If we can get CP3 to help us with managing end of game situations, I think we could potentially avoid a few more painful losses at the end of the season. Personally I rather have CP3 than Okogie or Jabari out there, so there is room in the line up for him while not taking out Reed. There could be issues with defense, but man, out problem is just taking care of the ball and slowing down the game to get a good shot when it really matters. I would prefer a much younger player, but not many options out there.
I thought KD was brought in to be our closer? Even without Fred we should be winning these games. Fred’s true value was being like another coach on the floor to lead the young guys. You can’t rely on KD for the same type of leadership.
The fact that you’d rather have CP3 at this age and state of his career than Jabari (who was drafted overall 3rd), is very embarrassing on the rockets coaching staff, showing they cannot develop any talent at all.
there is only one answer. Ime Udoka is a terrible bench coach and has no clue how to integrate Durant into this team.
This is exactly it, the Rockets get away from doing the things that got them the lead to begin with opting for stupid Iso garbage. This especially happens when the starters are in because they lack smart ball handlers and it's especially bad when scrubs like Jabari decide that it's his turn to cook.
