ClutchFans Game Thread: Grizzlies @ Rockets 12/22/2012

totally impressed with harden so far this season. i knew he was good, but i gotta say i've been pleasantly surprised with how lethal he is with the ball in his hands.

harden's game is LEGIT. love how he gets to the line. i couldn't be more pleased with his performance and demeanor.

most of all, he takes quality shots. none of this iso jump-shooting bs. loving this new rockets squad.

 

Can anyone give their synopsis of how Dmo did in the last 4 minutes? I see how he did in the box score, but in terms of offensive/defensive performance and team play? I'm in Dallas so I can only follow on the espn gamecast.

 

Excellent game, arguably our best game so far.

I really enjoyed our game plan tonight. We took an opponent in the 2nd leg of a back to back, and with 2 heavy big guys (M.Gasol and Randolph). On the other side we were coming from a 3 day rest, with a young team full of stamina, and With 2 very mobile bigs (Asik and Morris). So, I noticed the team taking advantage of that mismatch, and putting on a frenetic pace, all the time. The Grizzlies just couldn't handle that.

On top of that, our best defensive outing in the season. Both individually and as a team, on halfcourt and specially on transition, our D was solid tonight.

The bads:

- really, not much to point out. Perhaps, if I have to be picky, some individual bad shooting nights from Parsons and Lin (regarding outside shots) prevented is from being perfect.

The goods:

- Strategy: the run and gun strategy worked out perfectly tonight. Either because of the Grizzlies bigs not being quick enough, or them playing on a back to back, the fast pace Rockets put on this game just killed them.

- Defense: Several good things to point out. Our transition defense was adjusted, we positioned ourselves fast after a miss, and Asik (and Smith) being agile and quick is a key to make it possible to re-compose our D fast from the paint out. Also, our halfcourt D was terrific tonight. Either from fantastic individual performances (Parsons, Asik) and from a very nice help defense on PNRs, and on Randolph. We kept all their key players with low scores, rebounded well, and they scored mainly on iso situations or fast breaks. To have the pace we imprinted tonight, and keep them with a score under 100 is a nice accomplishment.

- Halfcourt offense: ok, there were hardly some of those, since we were fastbreaking all the time regardless the Grizzlies mage the basket or not! But, when we had to work on that, our halfcourt play was neat. Screens coming from everywhere, Harden to Lin, Morris and Asik to Harden or Lin, allowing multiple drives per possession, then, collapsing their D to end up in easy baskets to Asik, Smith from assists. Our halfcourt offense is starting to look like wolf pack attacking the prey from everywhere.

Consistency: this one was huge. We controlled the whole game from start to finish, not letting them gain momentum at any time.

Rotation: I thought tonight's rotation was perfect. Harden, Lin and Douglas were rotation each other, alway with either Harden or Lin on court. Asik and Smith, sharing time, as Morris, Chandler and Delfino. We were able to keep the pace, and our bench proved being deep and capable to keep up with the starters.

Rookies: nice to see them having some playing time. Machado's first bucket, DMo working hard on D. If we can always blowout the oppsing teams by the end of the 3rd, our rookies can play 8 minutes per game

Players:

Lin: very nice game, not being disturbed with the bad shots, kept being aggressive. The Grizzlies were doing a great job defending the PNR and cutting Lin's drives. They clearly were forcing Lin to shoot. So, he made all of his points from 3-point line, 1 jumpshot, some fastbreaks and a couple of fouls. But he kept shooting, and I think it was positive. Eventually it will fall more. On the other hand, Lin had 11 assists, and kept the ball moving well. On D, he was not gambling too much this time, and made the right choices on help defense, hustling Randolph and leading his player to our centers. As a floor general, A. As a scorer: B-

Harden: was really T. Allen guarding him? Harden pretty much made him look a lousy defender! 31 points, 8 ast in 30 minutes and resting the whole 4th. Kept his efficient self, and it looks like he needs half the balls to make the same point of everyone else. Nice to see him setting screens and moving more on offense, attracting his defender to inside the 3-point line in order to create space to Parsons and Lin. Also, he was doing a pretty nice job on D tonight.

Parsons: fantastic D on Rudy Gay. He really lock him down, and made him a non factor in this game. His shooting slump continues, however. But, as usual, his overall impact is very positive, and if he can keep nullifying the opposing best scorer, he will really make our playoff chances much greater.

Morris: We all were eager to see how he would handle Randolph. Well, he kept Randolph to 10 points (in a high paced game) and 10 rebounds, which is considerably bellow his averages, and scored 16 himself, opening the court with 3s and working hard on screens. Not a rebounding night, but keeping Randolph from rebounding also counts big. Morris is making a case to keep being a starter. Also, his quickness being a PF was key to our game plan tonight.

Asik: another double double. And in only 24 minutes. He kept Gasol under control, and was receiving dunk passes all night long. Good help defense tonight, and a very nice performance against two very good bigs.

TDouglas: always coming with a key shot that gives our team a boost, our make the opposing team lose momentum. He has come to be a very important part of our rotation of 3 PG/SG, wich is something I don't think any other team has. 3 players that can alternate themselves at point and also be scorers? That keeps the opposing defenses nuts.

Smith: again very efficient, again moving well off ball, again contributing to a win. I really think we are done looking for Centers. We have 2 young and very good centers, that can dominate this position for years to come.

Delfino: I was surprised tonight, and very pleased. His game tonight was built from his defense. He were solid on D, and then, stoped shooting 3's all the time, showing some drive and dish skills. The assists to Asik, the steal and dunk, and all the effort on perimeter defense were remarkable. Hope he can keep this versatile.

Rest of bench: they kept the 20+ point differential, and showed hunger. I was very pleased that they did not try to make a bunch of individual plays, but rather kept moving the ball, pressing on D, and keeping the pace up. It showed they are willing to prove that they can be part of the rotation, and also that the philosophy of playing team ball is embraced by everyone.

McHale: A+ for him tonight. He fixes the rotation problems, found a way to play our backcourt trio (Lin, Harden and Douglas) effectively, the defense looked good either on transition or halfcourt, and put our rookies to play. And, most of all, his game plan for the Grizzlies tonight was perfect. All of our starters outplayed their counterpart on Grizzlies. That is remarkable individual performance, but also shows a system where they can thrive.

Overall, we scored 120+ points on Grizzlies, the #1 defense on the NBA, and who were 20+ games keeping opposing teams under 100. We kept each one of their players with low scores, and we've become the #1 offense in NBA. So, this time, the #1 offense was way better than the #1 defense. And, besides that, we are fun to watch.

Hope we can prove ourselves consistent on the tough schedule ahead.

 

shuh, are you sure English isn't your first language? Your post puts most native speakers' posts to shame. Enjoyed reading it.

 

Thumb up, Good job dude

 

One thing I loved about this game. The Rockets were so blazing fire hot that I didn't think about Parsons offense one minute. His Defense was excellent. Every GM in the league wants or looks for a player of Parsons high BB IQ on their team. Champion teams always do.

 

Nice Post!

 

Better than previous outings, still look a bit lost. Coming along fine, I'd say, and will get better as he learns more defense. On offense he looks nice, and it cracks me up that he sometimes drifts along the 3pt line. Stretch center ftw.

 

Kevin McHale is a ok coach and still gets no respect.

 

Thanks PeppermintCandy and all you guys, I really like to write those game reviews, also because that makes the taste of a game linger a little bit more in my mind. So I end up enjoying a game more. Specially when the Rockets play like this night!

 

I would rep that post if I could... (also not quoting it because it's huge), well, huge, but a very enjoyable read!:grin:

 

I'm drunk.. Went to the game.. Have a couple stories.. Met Daryl.. Reconciled my love with rocketgirl.. Good night.. Details to come

 

McHale coached well today. I liked some of the adjustments he made. Played Harden off the ball a lot more, a few really pretty plays. Will look into the numbers later on today. Was good.

 

shuh,appreciate that you putting up time to write for our main players,thanks.

 

Harden: 31pts on 13 shots
Kobe: 34pts on 41 shots

LOLOL

 

So since my Thread starting privi has been taken away (childish) I'm going to state this in here...Mr. Every Night vs. Dwight Howard: Double Double watch....as of now Dwight has 16 and Asik has 12 on the season.... best five million morey spent in a while

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/double-doubles/sort/doubleDouble

OMER " MR. EVERY NIGHT " ASIK...no more big o

 

Thank you Shuh. I repped you. Really grateful.

 

I know this is obvious and has probably been mentioned already, but i got to say, the key to them winning the way they have in these past few games, IMO is Jeremy Lin. He looks as if he has found his groove again.

 

It seemed like McHale's gameplan was to take away the shots from Memphis' bigs. Randolph only had 8 shots and Gasol only had 7. There was a lot of double teaming of the Memphis bigs tonight too.

This made me think that Conley went off on Lin/Douglas. But that's not the case either.

Conley: 7/12, 16 pts, 6 ast, 1 rb, 2 stl, 1 to, 1 blk.
Lin: 5/12, 15 pts, 11 ast, 6 rb, 2 stl, 2 to, 1 blk.

If anything Lin had a much better night than Conley.

BTW, Lin's FG% now is .419. I knew he would be over 40%, but didn't think he would do it this soon given his slow start, but all those layups are doing wonders for his FG%.

After tonight's 4/13, Douglas' FG% is now .386. Last week it was .389. I wish TD was more selective with his shots. He's a career PG, so he should know how to pass the ball more.

Another interesting stat, Harden's efficiency should've dropped after joining Houston because he's playing starter minutes against starter defense. But so far he's been just as efficient as when he was on the bench on OKC.

Harden 2010-11: 16.4 PER, .598 TS%, .518 eFG%
Harden 2011-12: 21.1 PER, .660 TS%, .582 eFG%
Harden 2012-13: 22.1 PER, .591 TS%, .491 eFG%

 

yeah basically you replaced Kevin Martin with a rich man's KMart