ClutchFans Game Thread: Warriors @ Rockets 3/17/2013

He gets to the free throw line a lot so that hides some of the attempt, but he doesn't seem to "wildly" chuck the ball like Ellis does. Harden's the #1 option so he's going to keep shooting whether he makes or misses...which is fine.

 

Beverley's definitely not the problem. It's our inability to sustain defensive pressure from get go that's killing us. Fixable, IMO.

 

Didn't get to watch the game, could some one summarise it briefly?

It seems Harden and Lin were the only players to bring their game tonight...

 

We screwed by Warriors ?!?

 

Wow what a weird game thread...we get blown out in a big game and still less than 90 pages...what's even weirder is people seem to be piling on harden instead of Lin and it's not just LOF's

anyways despite all of the criticism being thrown at Harden if D-Mo and Chandler each make 1 wide-open 3 and make 1 or 2 lay-ups/close-range shots we win this game...harden's D was bad but sometimes guys are just feeling it

 

We bricked everything in the first half. Then in the second half we made a decent comeback bringing it to winthin 5, but couldn't stop Clay and Steph who were shooting lights out.
For the night, Parsons was like 2/13, D-Mo 2/11, Garcia 0/2, Beverley 0/3, Robinson 0/2, Delfino missed his first 5-6 shots.
Just a bad night shooting, not too much to dwell on except the recent spate of games in which we didn't start locking down defensively till the second half.
On to the next game.

 

The game was probably lost because shots that usually fall, didn't. So, it's tough to blame anyone truth be told. But, the other big factor was the poor D all around. Steph and Clay lit into Lin and Harden, and our help d was weak as hell. Harden's hearing it, cuz many of his defensive lapses were of the WTF variety, whereas Lin just got worked by a zillion screens. Both need to bump up their ability to stop shooters, imo. Our guards played too much help d and should have been instructed to stick by their man more against a team like the Warriors.

Just one of those games, imo.

Just

 

I'll tell you what they probably do... They hook up that Playstation 3 and load up NBA 2K13 and run sets on how they will beat the Warriors second half... and then they get interviewed on why they lost, one will say: "BUT... in NBA 2K13, it said that we would win after we were down by exactly that much at halftime! Reporters: ????

 

When open shots do not fall, it is not something you frail about because it is not what you can control.

Problem is how the game is played, including game plan, smart execution, and effort.

It seems there is no game plan, many poor decisions were made on the court, and there is a lack of effort.

I am not sure the blaims on Harden is fair or not but he is THE STAR of this team. Concequently, if a game is played badly, he will be the 1st one to be scrutinized. McHale then Lin are the next targets.

 

The defense was awful. Curry and Thompson were getting whatever they wanted, all their favourite shots in their favourite places.

Harden's defense on Thompson was bad, that was plain for anyone who understands basketball to see. He was beat down the floor by Thompson for semi-fast break 3s too many times. Later, Harden got assigned to Jack, and looked a lot better. Harden's an All-star for sure, but Thompson's a good SG not an All-star and shouldn't be going off on what some people here claim is the "best SG in the NBA." Kobe, Wade, Manu in their 3rd years in the league were playing much better defense (any fan who watched ,Kobe, Wade, Manu will not deny this).

His much improved defense in the 3rd along with the rest of the Rockets' shows this team is capable of much more on that end. The Spurs can play lockdown defense even though they play fast paced, and so did the 09-10 Suns. I guess a difference is both of those teams had a lock down defender at the 3 spot, and the Rockets don't. So there's really no one to assign to a high scoring guard like Thompson or Curry.

Thompson/Curry going off wasn't all due to Harden/Lin's poor man-to-man D though. McHale had terrible defensive schemes going that had Harden/Lin help off way too much, drifting away from them giving them wide open shots. At moments in the 4th, when Delfino was guarding Bogut (a move that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever), Lin and Harden were forced to double down low. Then the perimeter defense just became non-existent. The Warriors commentators couldn't believe that the scheme was to have Delfino guard Bogut, and have Harden or Lin come off Thompson or Curry. Brutal to watch. With Parsons playing poorly the 4th quarter lineup should have been: Asik/Motiejunas/Delfino/Harden/Lin

When your team is jacking 3s in the first quarter and shooting below 20%, and this continues into the 2nd and you're falling behind by 20+ points, you need to do something else. I don't care what Morey's "efficiency" stats say, good teams have a Plan B. Great teams have multiple Plan Bs on offense when 3s aren't falling - and they play great D.

NBA Playoffs, teams aren't going to lose focus in the 3rd and let you go on a run. Today, Motiejunas should have gotten some looks down low. He wasn't making 3s, but he had a couple of good plays near the basket. Why let Parons continue bricking, when you could post D-Mo up to try and get 2 points on the board? There's no reason why McHale can't run more low-post plays for Montiejunas. David Lee is an atrocious defender.

There's going to be games in the playoffs where the Rockets don't shoot well. They'll need to play much better defense, and D-Mo has to at least get a few looks down low. 10 points on the low-block in the first half would have made a big difference in stopping Golden State's run tonight.

 

This is certainly a problem. Defensive pressure also equates more effort from our starters. If their backups can't sustain the game while the starters sit, it will force the starters to get more minutes. It's the same for the opponent, the more effort they put into defense, the less effort they can do for the offense.

 

This! I hope McHale run more offensive sets down low. Almost everything are coming from the top. Plays initiated down low is virtually non-existent except from the passes down low when Lin/Harden drives. This is especially bad during the playoffs.

 

Harden should not be guarding players who are good off the ball or coming off picks. He doesnt have the discipline to stop ball-watching.

 

Every player not performing is a problem. But, on a list of things to work on, more points from Beverley is not even close to the problem.

Things to address:

1) Defensive intensity from get go.
2) Better D from the PF position so the perimeter players can give less help. Better interior defense whenever Asik is sitting.
3) Better D overall from Harden.
4) Better defensive schemes and/or reiteration of where the help is gonna come from to stop penetration. I saw far too many instances of Lin shading Curry left just to have noone there!
5) Cutting down on turnovers by letting Lin initiate the offense more often. (yes, it's ironic considering that Lin is himself prone to dumb turnovers)
6) More consistency from Lin. (I say Lin over everyone else, because Lin actually influences the game so much that he needs to bring it more consistently)
7) Better in-game coaching. No sitting Lin and Asik so much.
8) Avoiding the iso-Harden/iso-Lin/iso-Parsons offense that we're prone to fall into every couple of games.
9) More consistency from D-Mo/Smith and more touches in the paint for D-Mo.
10) A better scoring punch from the bench outside of Delfino. Bev can do a better job of initiating the offense but I don't know if it's within his abilities..

Most of it is defensive and I hope that McHale/Sampson can shore up our weaknesses on that end better before the playoffs come.

 

The Rockets should use Harden like how Boston effectively used Ray Allen. Boston always had James Posey, Tony Allen or Avery Bradley to guard the other team's best perimeter scorer when things got out of hand. That, and when Rivers and KG finally reached Pierce, he became an above-average defender. So Allen was never on the court alone without an above-average to elite defender on the perimeter.

Harden doesn't have Kobe/Wade/Manu's defensive abilities. That's okay, very few SGs have the type of 2-way game that those 3 do. Which is why those 3 shooting guards are going to be in the Hall of Fame as the best of their generations. James Harden doesn't have to be on that level for the Rocket's to succeed. There have been a lot of All-star shooting guards throughout their careers who were only dominate on 1 side of the floor such as the aforementioned Ray Allen and Vince Carter.

But if this is going to be the way it is down the road, then the Rockets should really think about finding a Bradley/Posey/Tony Allen type of player. Even Kobe has Artest, Manu had Bowen, and Wade had Posey.

 

Our shots are pretty solid, save days like yesterday, so imo this is not the main issue. Yes, I would love to see D-Mo get more touches, but it's a bit too late in the game to make such an overt change in our offense just to accomodate a rookie and his potential.

For this year, it's all about locking down what we do best, which is to run, run, run, and to rain 3's at a high efficiency with iso-harden/Lin pnrs prinkled liberally. And of course, a reiteration of the need for defensive intensity before every game and every quarter!!

 

It isn't an overt change in the offense. We used to do that with Patt in the post who wasn't as good of a post player as D-mo. Isn't that hard to just give d-mo a few touches down low. Nobody is saying to switch up to a post up heavy offense. Just a few touches to get his rhythm going & bring his confidence up & then we can start pushing him out to the 3 point line.

 

I agree. And it will make our offense even more potent. And I also believe that D-Mo is not that far off, imo. He's ready and capable. Frankly speaking, barring any new major pick-ups in the summer, the person I would most like to see improved is D-Mo. Lin is on a good improvement curve, so I expect improvement. Same with Parsons. D-Mo is the key as our PF position is our weakest spot offensively and defensively. If he can build up strength to get rebounds, clog up the paint, get blocks, and reach is potential in the post (great potential, methinks), we'd be good to go.

But once again, this is not the main problem. It's our defense. The onus is on the coaches cuz our defensive capabilities, individually and from a physical stand-point, are quite solid.

 

I would love to see more touches in the post by D-Mo, but at the same time, I would much more want to see double the number of high pnrs for Lin and the 1-2 pnr executed as well.

 

When a team shoots 33%, 8 of 10 games, a team will lose. If Curry and Thompson shoot 11 (or 50%+ on) 3 pointers, more likely we will not win. Slow start against a playoff type team is the killer. I don't expect Rockets to have another 10 point quarter again.