ClutchFans Game Thread: Thunder @ Rockets 12/29/2012

I agree. Parsons did not have a good game tonight (along with Lin and Harden) but in regards to all 3 of them, I mainly only see complaints about Lin. If a player didn't play well tonight, he should be a part of the discussion as well.

I know this team is young and inexperienced. I'm not buying the tired excuse though. These guys are young, they're not Paul Pierce, no energy old.

 

I don't think Lin is singling Cole out or picking on him. Without a reliable perimeter shots, Lin's O would heavily rely on attacking the basket via PnR, and he couldn't do that without Cole. I mean we've seen how Lin plays PnR to perfection with Greg Smith, and Asik sets a mean screen for him (and always rolls to the rim). Not saying yelling at your teammate is the smart thing to do, but I can see how Lin would be frustrated.

 

I missed a lot of the game. Why did Omer only play 21 minutes?

 

Cole was a better defensive matchup.

 

Cole Aldrich went beast mode.

 

For those that hate +/- like me. I want to introduce a new stat to you (not technically new but no one uses it), Game Score (GmSc). It's something invented by John Hollinger and you can find the definition/formula of it here (http://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html).

You'll find Game Score makes much more sense than +/- for figuring out who contributing the most to the team on a particular night. Basketball-reference is the only site that uses it and sadly they don't update till the next morning. Plus the make it really obtuse to find all the Game Scores for all the players in a game since it's not included in the box score, only on the player page.

Anyway, I manually (by manually I mean wrote a script) calculated all the Game Scores for the Rockets players tonight.

10 is average.
40 is outstanding (very few players reach this plateau).

Marcus Morris, PF 16.6
Chandler Parsons, SF 4.5
Omer Asik, C 1.8
Jeremy Lin, PG 2.2
James Harden, SG 14.2
BENCH
Greg Smith, PF 5.4
Donatas Motiejunas, PF -3.5
Patrick Patterson, PF -2.9
Cole Aldrich, C -5.2
Scott Machado, PG 0.7
Toney Douglas, PG 13.4
Daequan Cook, SG -4.5

For fun, here's OKC:

Serge Ibaka, PF 7.4
Kevin Durant, SF 15.1
Kendrick Perkins, C 6.3
Russell Westbrook, PG 20.7
Thabo Sefolosha, SG 13.5
BENCH
Nick Collison, PF 13.9
Hasheem Thabeet, C 2
Eric Maynor, PG -2.1
Reggie Jackson, PG 2.9
Kevin Martin, SG 9.1
Jeremy Lamb, SG 1.7

All data from ESPN box scores.

Depending on how well this is receive, I'll keep doing it after each game.

 

Look at the great spacing of OKC players. It is no wonder we got blown out. It's not just one or two players committed on defense, but the whole team.

If we ever want to get to the finals, we need to understand that shots don't always fall and you need to be able to fall back on a defensive system. This will need time to develop.

 

I don't know. Still trying to figure it out.

 

Good thing about Lin's 3s is that you hope it doesn't stay at the quarter mark.....perhaps nothing but up?

 

(a) Resting him retroactively for last night's game.

(b) Questionable coaching.

(c) #HardenDrawsFoul

 

I know that's not what happened.

Thanks LC for your response too.

 

What a hurrrrabull game...just off the top of my head....

Lin: Sloppy passes leading to too many TOs. Should have stuck to the easier plays. Usual problems from downtown. Not calling for more screens. Going under the pick a bit too much.
Harden: Sometimes tried to do too much resulting in too many TOs. Poor rotations on defense as usual.
Parsons: Sloppy passes. Poor rotation on D sometimes. Took some questionable quick shots instead of going for a play.
Omer: Slow help defense. Stupid fouls.
Cole: Once again looked lost. Made stupid fouls. Very poor defense in general. Poor effort on the boards.
Douglas: Too many blown layups and even a dunk. Did not try to run enough plays.
Mook: Only positive in this game.
Pat: Because of his injury, he looked slow and tired. Shot was off.
Delfino: DNP because of his buddy Ginobli taking him out to eat and he got food poisoning....speechless

 

pretty much that and the thunder is a tough team to beat even if we play our best ball.

 

Is that what happened? I was wondering how he contracted food poisoning on the road.

 

yes that's what the announcers said ...

 

Thanks... how did the announcers learn about Manu..lol.. and why wasn't Manu food-poisoned??

 

I'm assuming they heard about it through the coaching staff grapevine....as for Manu maybe he ate something else lol

 

Are you serious? How interesting

I can't be the only one picturing Manu like,


"Eat, Carlos, eat"

 

Haha yes, I'm dead serious. That's exactly how I pictured Manu too. ROFL

 

lol... Manu has more hair