ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Bobcats 1/21/2013

On offense, he looked like he was just going through the motions and wasn't even executing properly (dumb travels and that travel on the hand off to Morris). He was still giving a good effort on defense, which makes it even weirder. He did get eventually frustrated when Kemba would made Lin go through Biyumbo screens multiple times on single possessions.

 

PPat played 8 minutes because Morris played very well.

Lin had several shots blocked if I remember correctly, but Biyombo blocked Harden 2-3 times as well.

Lin's defense was not good, he is not quick enough to stop Walker, but really it was a combination of poor team defense and Walker being hot. Beverley gave up 3's as well, but did seem to harass Walker slightly more.

Harden still cannot hit jumpers and had no spring under the basket. I do not think it is an issue of him going right, I think he is simply exhausted, same with Lin and Asik. I suspect that after Harden gets 3-4 days off you will see his shot improve. Teams also can focus on him when the other players are shooting poorly.

Harden did well in the 4th, but it was a grind it out game for everyone on Houston.

Douglas has asked why he is not getting minutes, I do not know what McHale told him, but Douglas is a pro and has kept it private.

 

12.2/6.1 is pretty far away from definitive evidence of "unable to coexist" considering they didn't have a training camp with Harden, lost their Head Coach for 5 weeks, have 13 new players, and have played a brutal schedule in January.

The argument isn't whether they can eventually co-exist, at least for me. The main argument is whether we're maximizing our chances at wins with the way McHale is using his players in terms of rotations, minutes, and offensive/defensive sets.

Once again Harden played 41 minutes and Parsons played 36 minutes. That's not sustainable, especially when they're playing a fast tempo and taking physical abuse driving to the basket as frequently as they do.

 

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=bh9z9pq

 

No I did. I still don't really see it.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>How badly did the Rockets need this win? Harden: "I feel like we just won the championship."</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/293480410065821696" data-datetime="2013-01-21T22:09:17+00:00">January 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

We'll beat the Nets.

 

That's your opinion, and the article I mentioned was also an opinion. Not that I agree or disagree, they did make some good points.

Btw, at any given time, when someone lists you as the greatest at certain position, it's a compliment regardless whether its true or not.

 

In fairness to Harden, but he has been shooting a lot during the losing streak, not as much before... so I am not ready to label him a ball hog (although I always worry when you have one great scorer on a bad team). Look at it like this, who else has consistently scored other than Harden? The whole team has shot poorly, and there is a strong correlation between Harden playing well and the Rockets playing well.

 

it dint matter who was guarding Kemba...from when Lin left in the 3rd and never came back, Walker still put up 13 of his points in a little more than a quarter. Rockets came back cause Harden woke up, got whistles and hit his ft's.

If Harden got the same calls vs Dallas, ROx would've won that game too.

 

People make too big of a deal going left. What matters for a point guard is being able to get to wherever you want on the floor. I see him repeatedly beat his man off the dribble, but the problem isn't his ball handling...it's his unwillingness to shoot (which on some part is coaching since we don't want to take long 2s) and the way defenses pack the paint against him since they know he cant shoot threes. This makes him extremely easy to guard... All they do is if Lin beats his guy off the dribble, have the center sit in the paint and have the other 4 people rotate to play the passing lanes. The reason why Harden is so good is because they have to constantly play up on him.

If you haven't noticed, Harden almost EXCLUSIVELY goes left. Why doesn't anyone complain about him always going left?

Again, it's all about being able to get to where you want to get to on the floor. Being able to drive left or right is pretty irrelevant if you can get to wherever you want on the floor.

 

i don't have confidence on him playing with harden. period. maybe we can bring him up from the bench, like someone said. at least, we have to do something either to get some value back by trading him or to make him be himself.

 

It's not like anyone was shooting well...Honestly, I'd rather have Harden take a bad shot than Morris/Patterson/whoever take a bad shot because at least Harden takes "Bad shots" at the rim which can result in free throws...example: Today

 

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=bh9z9pq

 

I think the law of average is coming back to the Rockets. Almost everyone was bricking during the losing streak as you indicated. I think that's why you call it a losing streak...total collapse of the team.

 

Him and Harden as the back court and our record indicates we are ahead of schedule, so I'm fine with it. It's hard to make any meaningful judgement given its only half a season.

If anything, Lin and Harden needs to run more PnRs.

 

It feels like Jeremy doesn't know the plays. He's playing like a broken car - stopping when he's supposed to start and starting when he's supposed to stop.

Pick N Rolls are easy. But whatever plays McHale has the Rockets running, Lin doesn't seem to get it. That's a possible explanation for why Lin turns the ball over a lot and doesn't want to drive and travels too much.

 

Agree with this 100%.

Also remember, the Rockets are running an offense which is missing key, necessary pieces.

On the defensive end the Rockets are VERY behind virtually every other NBA team when it comes to help defense, rotations, communication and boxing out. This is not a surprise when you consider that the team barely knows each other. At this point they are trying to learn on the run.

As I have said before, on this team it is very difficult to assess how good the individual defenders. For example, today Lin could have played closer to Walker and funneled him into the lane.... but he isnt going to do that, because he has no idea if anyone will be underneath or where Harden or Parsons will be on the court.

 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

PARTY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

 

lol, man, we were so desperate. Glad Harden got his mojo back later in the game. Hopefully that will give him confidence to carry us the next few games.