ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Hornets 10/24/2012 (PRESEASON)

This...

 

I call it hope and a prayer. I tend to agree with tkrieger. Lin said the regular season is when everything counts so hoping he lets loose on both sides of the court.

 

Oh, my bad. I should have known you were talking about his form even though you didn't mention it. Yes it's true he sticks out his elbow a bit and his jumpshot is not textbook (and thats not what they're aiming for). That being said, his awkward shot worked for him really well last year. it didn't stop him from making tough shots and hitting 3's over Dirk etc. And towards the end of his run his shots were really splashing down.

 

With the exception of his last game when he had 12 assists, his play highly resembles the pre-Linsanity Lin. This is what he looked like in meaningless garbage time minutes before he became a starter in NY. The only difference is that he's now playing big minutes... and consequently racking up UGLY looking stats. Instead of being 0 for 3 or 0 for 4 shooting, he's now 1 for 8 or 1 for 10 shooting. This is not just one preseason game, it's now 5 straight preseason games in which he has not hit a jumpshot!

 

This is outright hate. Lin will shut you up.

 

lets hope that he will get the splashing going again

 

Delfino has earned a spot, especially with his veteran time. he's in this rotation betch ya.

The Rockets played stretches of really good defense tonight. That's what created the space of 17 points, which was enough to almost cruise home on. Hitting 3's on the road, I like that.

Lin was in there for much of the best sustained defense, that's what i'll give him tonight.

Interesting team to me, teams can be effective as a collection of unique talent sets in unique players. That's what I see right now in the 2012-2013 Rockets.

And i expect McHale will play for every win he can get. So super tanking? Not so much.

 

rockets are very bad with their lottery picks anyway lol

 

Lin in 5 games: 9-45 FG, 0-10 3Pt. That's just purely atrocious. I don't want to hear any of this "hope" BS. He better get it going soon.

 

Holy smokes. Lot's of psychoanalysis going on, on this thread this is madness. A lot of excuses & rationalization going on as well as some hating and trolling. Some people expected it to be the Jeremy Lin show or something and if you did your bugging that was never going to happen. And I like that Lin is deferring & just focusing on managing the offense and playing defense. If he is the end all and be all of the offense teams can easily defend that. Look at Parker in the playoffs. It needs to be a balanced scoring attack can't be all on one guys shoulders. He just needs to get his outside shot going more for his teammates than himself so that he can keep the defense honest, cut down his TO's (they were pretty good so far in pre-season) & keep directing the offense.

 

Austin Rivers sticks out his elbow more than Lin.

 

I don't think Lin has lost his confidence (but agree it may seem that way). He's a very grounded guy. Even during his twice-cut, bench-warming days he never lost confidence in his ability to play. And it's not due to lack of hard work either. He supposedly trained 6hrs/day, 6days/week this offseason.

I don't know what it is. If I were to take a guess I'd say the knee is mentally bothering him and that he's trying too hard to do everything (set up K-Mart, penetrate the paint, make sure his knee can take contact, orchestrate the offense, run the play... everything).

 

Yo, 9/45 for 20% shooting is no joke.... That's beyond bad... That's a number that'll get you benched.

So much for his making the all star team.

 

thats why he suck too.

 

yes so true my friend. But when one is finally saturated with enough lousy draft picks, then Bundling can begin. And with each successive Bundle, eventually you can Bundle yourself to the top! hats off to you bad draft choices!

Go Rockets! Go Coach! Yeah I like the guy.

 

agreed

 

Personally, I'm not sweating it at this point in terms of Lin for a few reasons.

1) His defense has been VERY good this pre-season.
2) He's directing the offense VERY well. He didn't get a ton of assists this game, but if you rewind and look at how many WIDE open shots he got his team mates who then MISSED, he's missing at least 3-4 assists from his stat line. Also, he gets no assist credit for relay touch passes that he initiates.

... and most importantly....

3) Lin's team mates from Harvard have said in interviews that Lin doesn't really play well when games don't matter. Drills and exhibition games he would often look average or even awful. Similarly, when a lead is large, he loses focus. However, when playing an opponent in a game that MEANS something, he mentally jumps a level. It's why he's such a big 4th quarter player. The tougher it gets and the more it matters, the better he gets.

So, I'm focussing on the weak areas that he's improved, and will reserve judgement until the regular season.

If 10 or 20 games in we're still seeing a pattern of poor play, then I'll start worrying.

On a side note, the refs really weren't calling fouls on him at all. He got practically mauled in the paint multiple times without a single whistle. That's not going to happen that often in the regular season. At least, it shouldn't except against the ref favorites.

 

Everyone slumps.

Harden is shooting 24% in the preseason and just had a 2-17 game last night but everyone knows the guy can shoot.

I highly doubt Lin will shoot this badly for long. I do think his knee is playing into it somewhat. Most players when coming back from injury take a while to get back to form.

Carmelo, Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, etc. all were off for a while after coming back from being hurt.

 

Response

Seriously, I will be happy when he breaks double digit in points. No f**king way he's averaging 16 points per game like some whacko people were expecting. I seriously doubt he will have more than 5 games in which he will break 20 points. I expect him to average per game 8 ~ 10 points and 8 assists per game, 3 TOs, 2 steals. These are not bad numbers folks. I know people are saying preseason games are meaningless. Of course, they are meaningless in a sense that these games do not count, but nevertheless, they show player's strengths and weaknesses, and I am almost positive Lin will have trouble scoring.

 

I'd say that he lost his confidence in his shooting game. That happens when you can't buy a basket. I don't think it's the knees at all. It happens. Shots come and go. He just needs to find it while keeping the team winning.