ClutchFans Game Thread: Grizzlies @ Rockets 4/12/2013

Actually lost

 

Harden was pretty awesome after his and the team's atrocious start. Lin was getting buckets in drought and creating pretty well.

In any case, I doubt the game would of been close without Harden's intensity and him heating up from outside. Wish we would of started more calmly and stopped the early hole and TO's, though.

 

Is that Lin first time? Holy cow.

 

I won't have blamed Harden had he only missed the last two possessions. How about missing the last 4 possessions? I remember some big shot said one's got to know his limitation. If Harden continues to play like this, he is not going to be very helpful to the team no matter how great his personal stats look.

 

People are mostly arguing about the previous few possessions, not the last shot.

 

Yeah it's come that far. I see the same ppl bashing Harden/Mchale every chance they get, the same way the "LOH" do to Lin. There are a few trolls who are only here to hate on everyone. So stfu b.

 

OMG I can't get my mind off of this, damn you.

 

Lin fans, Memphis is an elite defensive ballclub. Moreover, their style of play forces the refs to call the game quite liberally. Not surprising that our offense bogged down. The people bashing Harden should realize that we were not going to have a free flowing game with Memphis in town. He did a marvelous job today, as did Lin when he sank those clutch 3's.

 

Yes, you were directly comparing a Harden jumper to a Lin jumper. Harden is a better shooter and player, is that even debatable?

Lin had hit two clutch shots. Does that mean he'll hit a third? James was 5/5 in the third so that meant he was going to hit his 6th right? Nope.

And your best player should take the most important shots, most of the time, yes. Harden made some poor decisions with the ball in the last few minutes but assuming anyone else on the team hits their jumper is a little ridiculous.

 

Man, you guys are way too defensive. I don't mind that Harden missed a good look. I want the ball in his hands at the end of the game, but they should be getting better possessions at the end of the game than they did tonight if they're going to progress as a team. They're young. They'll get better. I'll focus on the positive that they all hustled and played good defense. They all performed, for the most part, when the intensity was raised. That's a good sign.

 

Brutal last 4 possessions. In football its like calling 4 straight running plays and not gained a single yard.

 

Positives from the game:

- Seeing the Bev/Lin/Harden lineup some more. I like that lineup a lot more than one with a lotta Garcia/Delfino in it.

- Rox did a great job of fronting Gasol and ZBo at times. We don't have any really big bodies other than Asik so it's good to have other options to defend post players (I'm thinking Tim Duncan in a Spurs series here).

- Uhh TJones played well a bit I guess? He had 12 rebounds. That was talked about as one of his weaknesses but with his physical tools he should be a double double threat when he plays 30 minutes, and he's starting to round into form. This guy could be a long term rotation player for us if his shooting touch improves (or maybe without it if we can retool our offense a bit).

- Overall, Grizzlies did a masterful job of running the Rockets out of the paint and away from the 3 point line. Reminds me of the Pacers game from earlier. Rockets were just taking terrible shots and guess what, we shot 30%. Our defense was not too bad this game but our offense was worse than the Grizzlies below-average offense and it really hurt us. I'm not sure if it is a coaching or discipline problem but we have gotta run some better sets and we've got about 3 games to figure it out.

 

True. Especially, when the delta is 13 TOs...that's a lot of potential points.

 

Mike, you are being pedantic. What he's saying is logically correct.

 

its not about passing to Lin all the time or Harden jacking up shots...its about taking what the defense gives you...Harden had the switch he wanted... and blew right past Prince but didnt get the call and it led to a turnover...

Im actually super excited about the way our Rockets played defense down the stretch...

 

Kevin Love fixes everything

 

Personally I'm not so mad that he took the shot as opposed to the ball not moving enough, still it wasn't what cost us the game.

Most of the team shooting like crap on open shots and lay ups and Harden racking up 8 TO's combined with crappy reffing cost us the game.

And in spite of that we STILL almost won.

The Rockets will be fine. They won't be missing open 3 pointers and uncontested lay ups like that for an entire series. And hopefully Harden gets some of his more egregious TO's under control. 8 TO's is just way, way too much.

 

He's been hot and cold throughout the season. Still, it's his first game back since his illness, so he'll get a pass. Announcers were talking about how sickly he looked early on in the game anyway.

 

This is the first time I've watched a game from home and followed a game thread. It was almost as bad as the chronicle forums. Are they all like this?

 

Do not blame Harden for taking that shot, he was open, if he did anything but shoot I would even more pissed. Should he have made it? Absolutely, but you could tell that his feet were not in the ideal position when he shot it, and he was tired as hell. Now I don't think stamina is an excuse, but it's understandable.