So Anyone else think we tanked vs Phoenix on purpose?

hell no. we wanted to win but the Suns were better prepared and we were playing a back to back.

 

Does anyone have an explanation for Asik playing 14 minutes? Anyone?

 

These guys agree.

 

Nope, the guys are too young, they all have future contracts to worry about. Every game is a potential to increase (or decrease) your stats....

 

You can plausibly deny that we tanked the game. You can plausibly deny that we "played to lose" the game.

But you cannot plausibly deny that we did not "play to win" the game. If we were "playing to win" the game, Asik is in there going down the stretch....period.

There is NO big matchup that Asik should not be playing against if we are trying to win the game. We don't have another big capable of "matching up" better than him. And there has been no explanations from the Rockets about Asik being injured, etc. Sure Scola was going off. Scola goes off. When he's hitting the 17 footer ain't nothing can be done with him. You don't go to TJones or Greg Smith and think somehow you've found a better matchup for Scola than Asik.

Morey on twitter complaining about rebounding differential. Really??? Asik with 7 boards in 14 minutes. Extrapolate that. LOL Do you think I'm stupid?

And another thing.........even the most pedestrian of fans could tell that Harden was just loping through that game. No intensity. No burn.

At the very least it appears we really didn't care to win the game because we don't care who we play. At the worst, you can make a case that we really don't want Denver and were willing to risk going against OKC to avoid Denver. In my opinion, this makes sense. I don't want to play Denver either. They're tough plus that elevation takes it out of you. I'd rather play the Spurs or the Clippers. And...low and behold Clippers still a possibility, but very, very slim.

In my opinion, all the pertinent minds (Morey, McHale, Harden) prefer to play San Antonio. There's no way they prefer to play OKC. And there's no explanation for McHale's rotations and Harden's lackadasical performance Monday night. They're hoping to pull it out of the bag tonight against LA. They knew if they played hard and won that game against PHX that they were risking injury and they were most likely locking themselves into 6 and a series with Denver.

The bottom teams all know that the vulnerable teams in the top 5 are the Clippers and the Spurs. The Spurs are somewhat vulnerable because of their age and injuries. The Clippers are vulnerable because they have obvious weaknesses that can be easily exploited. None of these bottom tier playoff teams (Lakers, Rox, GS, Utah) want to play OKC, Denver, or Memphis in the first round.

 

There is an explanation, and it's already been posted in this thread. He wasn't 100% after bumping knees with Scola it was obvious. He put the sleeve on and he had a noticeable limp.

 

because it was attractive financially for NBA?- Harden vs former OKC mates? in return stern perhaps has promised some concessions -perhaps more fouls for harden or not being too strict in applying all the CBA rules when Rockets will make new acquisitions in future...

 

Goes along with what I just said. Not going to risk injury.

No explanation for Asik either.

 

CONSPIRACY!!!

 

its not consipiracy it's business... good business...

 

this thread is criminal.

 

I have 100 percent faith that the Rockets win today. If you're a Rockets player wouldn't you want to play an older Spurs team as opposed to Denver in altitude? Stay in state and play the Spurs.

 

Didn't we already do enough "business" when we signed Lin?

 

Never mind, edited a brain fart.

 

Yeah they lost on purpose because a win against Lakers is guaranteed tonight if not we "lost on purpose" to face freaking OKC.

 

because after he bumped knees he went 0-11 and missed 5 free throws. besides morey doesn't tank

 

I don't see the point at all. Risking facing Thunder to avoid Nuggets doesn't make sense at all.

 

Didn't seem like a team trying to lose.

Asik couldn't cover Scola's mid-range, so Asik sat. With Asik on the bench, Goran penetrated at will, and our rebounding nosedived. Add in Harden having a bad game, plus we were playing a back-to-back away game, and you get a loss to the worst team in the west.

If Scola isn't hitting everything in sight, we win.
If Goran doesnt run through our defense like water, we win.
If Harden doesn't get hurt, we probably win.
If its not a back to back, we win.

If there's anything we've learned about this team, it's that when Asik sits, our defense disappears. Scola playing the 5 forced us to sit our defense, and it all unwound from there.

I'm convinced that if we win tonight, it will be because of Asik.

 

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You forgot to add. If Harden don't plays PG, we win.