Well then why the hell didn't you just play td the entire frigging game then? Why start the supposedly inferior defender? Oh you need lin because he's a better offensive player? What, we don't need to effing score in ot? Theres no excuse for this crap. If td is that good that he's in the entire ot, THEN BENCH LIN AND START TD NEXT GAME. Incompetence....just sheer incompetence.
I disagree. You missed the other wide-open 3 that Lillard barely missed that Tony Douglas gave him during that inexplicable late-4th Douglas-for-Lin sub for a few plays Sampson made that killed the Rockets'. It wasn't just in OT that Sampson f*** his team. I have no idea WTF he has against Lin and frankly I don't care, but Sampson needs to quit it seriously. Lillard vs Lin 3/9 0 assist Lillard vs Douglas 6/9 5 assists No one got torched? No sir, Douglas got torched, but you know, 67% 5 assists is a "slightly better matchup" than 33% 0 assist. Okay, Mr. Sampson, chew out Lin for his "poor defense" getting "torched" by Lillard's 3/9 shooting and 0 assist and go with Douglas. Whatever. You don't even remotely need to be a LOF to be pissed at this joke of coaching blindness we just saw.
Cmon now Lin is a hard nosed defender with quick hands, but there's more to defense than just having quick hands and getting steals. Douglas puts on ball pressure the second the opposing PG gets the ball. He makes the PG work for every dribble/step they take. Throw out all the numbers (from 8 games this season) and just watch Tony D play D and then watch Lin. There's a big difference. How do you think Tony D has lasted this long in the league? It's certainly not his offense.
Douglas isn't a bad defender. If Lin was getting torched, which he was, then play someone who doesn't turn the ball over the second the pressure is on.
ALL STAR: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z7KsuyQb-1Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I really don't think it's about LOFs this time. It's a bad decision by Sampson and fans have the right to mad about it. TD is not a better defender. Lin and TD have different defensive habits - sometimes it works for TD, sometimes it works for Lin. It's situational. But let's pretend that TD is indeed a better defender, Lin should still be in the game during OT. Otherwise who do we go for offense, it's predictable - James Harden of course. The team relies too heavily on Harden to do it all on offense and that's not gonna work. He'll need to share the load with the team and Lin should be sharing a huge load of that.
Playing defense ultimately comes down to allowing as little points scored as possible. Your "eye test" might favor Tony Dougass's hand waving like chicken defense, but Lin's defense is superior in every possible way no matter how you look at it. He not only allow less points, he forces more turnover leading to more transitional buckets.
Please just stop... read toro's stat. Stats don't lie. It's not only the steals, but if after reading that and you still deny it. Then there's no help to your ignorance. You mind as well say someone who scores 25+ a game is not good at Offence.
There is so much more to defense than man to man. THis is a common misconception that many fans fall victim to & you are one of them. Douglas is a poor defender overall. Numbers, the eye test, common sense back this up. And Lin was not getting torched by Dame, Lin did a great job defending him. Dame went off against struglas.
Nah. Defensive players who can shoot the three are always good NBA journey men. He'll be around because of his skills. Lin could learn a thing or two from Dougie.
A decent post. I'll reply. At first glance it didn't make much sense. But I don't know what went on in huddles, timeouts, gameplans. The game is far bigger than what I see on league pass. I have to believe the coaches have the best interest of the team in heart when making decisions. This team needs every single win it can get. So I guess I don't know. But a lot of posters are quick to throw the coaching staff under the bus. We have a brand new backcourt, and center. The players are kids. Fire the coaches? With a brand new team? That happens to be fun as hell to watch? Go back to the ESPN boards. But if you believe that coach Sampson had an agenda by not playing Lin in OT. In my opinion: 1. You have an alliance to a party other than the Rockets as a whole. 2. I would advise temperance. This season got exciting on opening week. I feel lucky. But things are still being figured out. 3. It's the Houston freaking Rockets. We've been through WAY worse. Stay strong.
If you want to talk this season's stats, talk about how Lin played against Rodney Stuckey 2 out of 8 games so far. Rodney Stuckey is shooting 28% from the field this year.
he scores 25+ sometimes but then has nights where he shoots airballs when he's wide open. Stop acting like this guy is special.
This guy is trolling like no tomorrow. Just add him to your ignore list and move on, it's what I did.