ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Nuggets 1/30/2013

repped. dear Clutch, you have the power to ban a user and lock a thread, that capacity subjects you to a more neutral stance.

 

Actually, looking at that it did make a little sense: Greg Smith was there for dips in point diff when he was subbed in during the 2nd and 3rd. McHale probably didn't trust Cole (I wouldn't) so he went small with a 'shooters' lineup hoping the offense can cover the defense. And it didn't work.

 

Harden is living in his own little world. He is not a good teammate. He doesn't like passing it to Parsons for some reason. I think it is because he wants to score the most points. Parsons would have scored 30 points tonight if Harden just gave him the ball when he is open. I agree with a lot of the people who say let Lin run the team. He can score and pass off the dribble. Likewise with Parsons. Harden just wants to get his points at any cost. Harden doesn't fit in when the rest of the team is playing well. It is either the team is playing well w/o Harden's involvement or Harden's a one man show. When the former is happening Harden just inevitably will be a rally killer with a bad play. What I am saying is Harden has little to no chemistry with the rest of the team because his ego seemingly won't allow Lin or Parsons to take the spotlight from him. It's hard to believe that the season is more than half over and we have yet to really see any Linsanity. By Linsanity, I mean Lin winning games because of his dominate play like he did in NY. We only see glimpses that he is capable of duplicating those performances, but because Harden is so selfish and protective of his own "status" or scared to allow Lin to shine to take a backseat every now and then, we never see Linsanity. You have to notice if a teammate is playing well then take a step back, something Harden never does. No matter who else is playing well, Harden's eyes are always on himself. I can't really criticize Douglas. He is still trying to come back to his previous form after being benched unfairly for 5 games.

 

I have felt the same. It seems to me he doesn't like a ball handler and he hasn't been using our PFs properly. I think he had hoped to have an easy job by letting Harden do everything.

 

well, just finished review the game.

Somehow I feel the most inconsistent person in Rox team is coach McHale. He would go totally team ball, and let Jeremy play PG most of the play one day, and then play ISO ball, and let anyone whose name is not Jeremy to run PG, and sit Lin early and sub in late.

It is like totally opposite philosophy and style of the game. And the changes are so fast, like one game this way, and the other game the other way. It makes me wonder whether McHale take a lottery to let his assitant coaches take turns to coach each game, and depends on which assistant coach is in duty, Rox team will play totally different style.

I just don't understand how come one coach would change his game style this frequent.

Could we have the McHale in Utah game for the whole season, please?

 

I genuinely believe that our team is talented, works hard, and has great energy, and that they will go in whichever direction McHale leads them toward. Furthermore, McHale's philosophy is perfect; run n gun, share, make the easy play or quick pass, every miss or make we should run, etc.
The problem is that he does not/ cannot/ will not see that Lin (it could be Dragic or any other good pg) should initiate the offense more as the best pg on the team. TD is fool's gold as whether or not he makes plays both offensively and defensively, the offense doesn't flow. It discourages leak outs in transition and leads more often than not to iso ball. As a show of contrast, Lin comes up the floor off a rebound with his head up looking to make a play; in contrast Dougie runs up the floor, granted quicker than Lin at times, but without a play forming as he comes up. Thus, if an obvious play is not available, he passes it off to Harden or Chandler to create. This puts too much burden on Harden or Chandler to create and we see the TOs we saw last night. TD playing extended minutes, in the pg slot, even when Lin is in, is itself damnable as a coach IMO.
There are other issues just as important than Lin getting more trust from his coaches, including defensive rebounding and interior D when Asik is sitting but until we get a "tougher" pf who can rebound and defend, the correct usage of Lin, and thereby Harden, is the biggest issue at hand. Lin's usage rate will be directly correlated with the ball being less "sticky" and as so many people are voicing out, let the pg play the point and the shooting guard shoot. I don't know what McHale and Sampson are seeing in their minds when they review tape to make them so wary of Lin and his mistakes out there. Do they really see only the dumb things Lin does magnified? If not, what then is the reason for playing TD so much? Even Beverley with his 10 minutes in the league has shown better promise in creating an offensive flow.

Btw, if PPat can start playing tougher D and start rebounding much better, the best pickup might be a tougher backup C. Our 4 and 5 spots need to be strengthened for us to do anything. So frustrating... sigh~

Go Rockets!!

 

Completely untrue. Harden is a great player and a great team player. I believe McHale's just using him out of position and forcing him to be the pg, sg, and th e "man". As we've seen, Harden when he picks his spots is elite in every sense of the word. When overused, we see TOs and iso ball. The blame is squarely on McHale.

 

Well the way I see it, you don't have an issue with LOFs. You have an issue with obnoxious and rude people in general. But you perpetuate the antagonism when you read some comments from fans of players and then after generalizing that all their fans are like that, you lash out at everyone who considers themselves a LOF (but who otherwise have not harassed anyone).

Certainly I could say the same about people who subscribe to Jeremy Lin's facebook fan page just to tell him he sucks (that's being polite). But it's important to know that those are obnoxious individuals who do not represent all Lin critics.

Just try to treat each individual on GARM on their own merit. There is no need to add fuel to the 'us vs them' fire that some people here have adopted.

 

Harden is a willing passer and his play making ability is amazing.
sometimes he forces too much but calling him selfish is just absurd.
and can we please stop bringing up Lin's NY days? different situation, different team, different role.

 

The problem was Mchale got out coached ,Karl went small ball and it took a 4 min. period for Mchale to sub in his small lineup with Ppat at C , which didnt work , with Ppat Defino and Harden together the defensive side of the game is going to fail

Denver's Lineup

PG Lawson
SG Miller
SF AI
PF Gallineri
C Faried

What Rox Lineup should have Been

PG Lin
SG Douglas
SF Harden
PF Parsons
C ASIK

Would have had 4 guys who can drive off of PNR , 3 Three Point shooters and 4 Defensive guyz, remember Miller had 6 points on Harden in the last 6 Min.

 

I watched a little bit and here were the key factors:


Asik needs to practice catching a baseball, so when he sees a basketball it becomes cake.

Mchale is a very nice guy but sometimes he needs to lit some fire under those asses that showed no energy. I expected him to yell at the piss poor effort.


Parsons, you drove to the basket, just lay the ball up. You are right there already! Hate seeing him pass that lay-up up for a three.

I didnt see many real screens set by Pat or Morris to free up Harden, therefore causing him to turn it over.

I'm not even mad when he turns it over cuz he does so much already.

We need to keep feeding the ball down low to Asik and Pat and see what we can form from there.

 

This was a winnable game then Gallinari and other guys started sinking 3s, which sunk the Rockets. I'm really puzzle that when Harden goes in, Lin isn't in yet. To develop progress they need to please more court time together. I feel McHale is still tinkering with the lineup, the season is only 2 months from being over. Disappointing until Lakers lost to the Suns.

 

The 3 guards rotation is not flexible.
It makes Mchale always bench Lin at 4-5mins remaining in 1Q and 3Q.

We need 1 more guard in the rotation, in case both Lin and Harden are hot in any Q, so they can play the whole Q and let 2 other guards to replace them for next 3-4mins.

 

uphill battle.

 

I miss the Lin/Douglas Backcourt

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/linspiredinca">linspiredinca</a> If anything, tied truly turned back in Rox favor when Asik returned at 6:16 mark. Yet some would rather return to the same</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296887430643085313">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/linspiredinca">linspiredinca</a> song and dance about McHale and Jeremy which I've heard, oh, just about after every single Rockets loss this season.</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296887602970255360">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>*tied = tide
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/luzyanglin">luzyanglin</a> I think much of it has to do with how team was playing. Like I said, Rox were in front by 8 w/ 1 minute left in 3rd. Douglas had</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296891051082391553">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/luzyanglin">luzyanglin</a> been big part of that with those back to back steals. Everything went south so quickly. And again, worth pointing out that even</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296891200470933504">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/luzyanglin">luzyanglin</a> once Jeremy returned, team was initially outscored 13-2. I'm fine with making argument Jeremy should have played more, but I</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296891413608685568">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/luzyanglin">luzyanglin</a> also see why McHale went direction he did. Remember, Jeremy had been pretty quiet for much of that game until exploding in 4Q.</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296891707155427328">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/luzyanglin">luzyanglin</a> And for what it's worth, I still think Asik's absence (even though I understand that, too) was the real killer. Rox are just a</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296891914848968704">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/luzyanglin">luzyanglin</a> flat out bad defensive team when he's not on the floor.</p>&mdash; Jason Friedman (@JasonCFriedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonCFriedman/status/296891969341378561">January 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

The whole team are not experienced, including our coaching staff.

Mchale must stop letting harden has the ball so much, so he can save energy to defend, reduce TOs and close game.

 

For whatever reason. I cant understand what is in Mchales mind. Jeremy is a hardworking guy who only loves to play Bball, a descent PG that can create a good play. Making Jlin sits in the bench for almost 1 Qtr and forcely brought him back in a dying minutes makes me wonder if Mchale is really on the right mind....

 

Winning streak rotation for the backcourt

Lin sits at 6:00 min mark in 1 Q Harden/Douglas close out 1Q

Lin/ Douglas start 2Q ,Harden sits at the start of the 2Q until 7:00 min mark

Lin/ Harden finish off last 7:00 min together

Lin sits at 5:00 min mark of 3Q Harden/Douglas end 3Q together

Lin/Douglas start 4Q , Harden comes in at 8:00 min. mark

Lin/ Harden close out the Game

Lin 36 min. per game
Harden 38 min. per game
Douglas 22 min per game

 

Very often, LIN doesn't start the game with hot hand.
He need time to warm up and read the D.

That's the way he similar to Tebow.

McHale should have faith on him.