ClutchFans Game Thread: Pacers @ Rockets 3/27/2013

The starters definitely had a horrible 1Q, but in 3Q Lin had 3p/3a/2s in 8min but still got pulled for Beverley, who had scored only 2p on free throws with 0a/0s for 12 mins, before Lin was put back in. Yeah, so much for riding the hot hand...

 

no he meant Lakers 120-117

 

Hibbert and Stevenson just took a **** on whoever was guarding them tonight.

 

yep that is how MChale coaches. any starters will be pissed off. i would and i am not even playing:grin:

 

Yeah, after the substitutions started. McHale's substitutions helped us make up ground.

 

You are putting words into people's mouth, no, if you could read, that's not what he meant.

It is common sense that down 13 with 40 mins to go IS NOT THE GAME YET.

Dont argue with facts, you are humiliating yourself.

 

We have a talented playmaker in Lin who could have played more than he did tonight in place of Harden who played too many minutes and was obviously gassed towards the end. I don't understand why McHale doesn't use a Lin/Bev backcourt to change things up? It worked plenty well the last game. Basically you have McHale wearing out Harden and Parsons whereas a fresh Lin is on the bench who is capable of helping the team. Sigh...

 

This team is a a disaster now. McHale has no sub patterns. James Anderson should sub for Harden. Ten minutes. Something. Anything. Lin and Bev should get minutes together. I've been a bball fan for over twenty years, and never seen a failure of an NBA coach this bad.

 

oh yeah. ****!

 

lol i think that's the dude's freaking point

 

You're delusional.

Basketball is a game of runs. 13 point swings especially for a higher pace team like the Rockets happen with regularity. 13 points is 5 possessions.

We lost this game for several reasons.

-Hibbert exploited his match up against DMo early and was hitting shots.
-The Refs swallowed their whistles allowing Indiana to play their game and making it hard for the Rockets to play theirs (dribble drives to the basket).
-Harden was cold as heck. 22 and 8, but 22 points on 24 shots. That's less than 1 point per possession.
-Parsons couldn't make a bucket. 5/14 for 11 points.
-We got out rebounded 36-27.
-Dmo couldn't hit a basket (0/2) and fouled like crazy (4 pf's in 13 mins played)

As for Lin losing the game, that is ridiculous. 3/6 shooting, 8 points, 4 assists, 2 steals, 4 TO's on 20 mins. Not a solid game, but pretty far from terrible.

On a night of sub-par performances from most of the team for most of the night, Lin was far from the worst on the team or amongst the starters.

 

Ok Knicks fan whatever.

 

What's he going to do to impact the game? ...fire up a few missed 3's ?

 

Don't post here anymore r****d. Why do you think a game is 48 minutes and not 5. You don't "lose"a game in the first five minutes...SMH

 

Here's my opinion..I put it out there and its fair game to all other people's opinions..what's important is i get it out there and it's 100% right to me..in my opinion, we deserve not just a better head coach, but a better coaching staff next season!

 

I know West is the starter, but that's not the point because Hansborough and Pendergrass were the players today...and Robinson was winning his matchup with both of them...

Yet Robinson gets like 5 minutes if that in the 2nd half. I'm just saying, that him and Smith as a front court played well. I don't understand why McHale went small when the Pacers 3 point defense is so good any ways...it didn't work now and it wasn't going to work.

McHale does this all year, when he gets desperate he goes small because he thinks "More 3s" will win it.

 

This is the team's MO especially in the fourth. Hero ball is the least effective type of basketball.

 

I actually thought this was a better game than the last one against the Spurs, and was more “playoff like”. It was a bigger test for coaching in terms of adjustments, and it was a bigger test for the starting lineup in terms of mentality and attitude. And the physicality could be a glimpse for this young team into what playoff ball could be like. Harden and Lin were really being banged up out there.

Harden and Lin were both being defended well Pacers’ throughout, but the guards were actually a wash in this game. I thought the biggest weakness again for Houston was the starting 4spot, on both ends of the court, especially in the 1st quarter when Houston dug themselves that giant hole. Also, defending Hibbert was a huge task, especially when Indy was hitting their shots early and pounding the paint. So basically the Pacers’ 4&5 spots thumped Houston early and hard.

I thought the adjustments were good by Houston in the 2nd quarter (and again at the beginning of the 4th), with the much fresher Smith, TRob, and Beverley in for Asik, TRob, and Lin. If anything, playing these three all those minutes with Harden at point forced the Pacers out of their defensive strategy just enough for Houston to hang in. BUT, again I thought coaching kept Lin out too long, especially in the 4th quarter. The argument can be made that Beverley was doing good on defense, but the team was really not making any significant ground. Sometimes against good defense teams, you need to counter that with offense. They need to get Lin back into the rotation earlier, and specifically give him the green light to play his game. Again he looked like he started getting warmed up offensively, but it was again too little too late. Coaching needs to change this. Too much firepower is being wasted by relegating Lin to corners.

Very glad to see Smith’s numbers tonight, something he’s very capable of.

 

Harden just leaves Stevenson wide open...

 

Bench Harden....i think they should trade him....lets seem who could we trade him for....how about melo....yea melo...