I've supported McHale pretty much all year, but I thought he failed at his job in game 1. It was more than obvious going in the series that the Rockets had to start small to have a chance. Starting Greg Smith was an awful move. There's obviously a good chance the Rockets lose that game anyway and if Westbrook didn't get hurt it wouldn't have mattered, as the series most likely would have been over by now, but now it may come down to this. But, yes, McHale obviously has out-coached Brooks this series. The Rockets coaching staff have done a fine job all year, really. Expect for game 1.
McHale going small and putting Bev in the starting 5 changed the series. Not to stir up anything but I'd feel more comfortable if Lin didn't return because that takes away our quickness advantage w/ Bev & Brooks
play nick collison more. he always scores easily while he's on the floor, i don't know why he isn't getting more minutes. an ibaka+collison frontcourt would really hurt us
If Scotty Brooks just perma-bench Perkins and play Nick Collison, Rockets would be in trouble. Perkins brought no offense to a team who are in dire need of offense. He can make plays in the post (unlike Perkins / Ibaka), rebound, defend, and pass. Hush hush...
One of my favorite moments of last nights game was the "wired up" segment they showed of Brooks in the huddle. He was just barking single words, something like "run. defend. go. do it. do it." and looked completely befuddled and hopeless. The Thunder might still win this series, but it won't be because of Scott Brooks.
First of all Thank the basketball gods that Asik kept his composer and nailed his free throws. That said, if he had missed them... Brooks would be lauded as a genius coach that won the game with his technical expertise. Funny how the media will skew reality to benefit themselves. Rockets played a hell of a game and won. Those are facts.
Start Kevin Martin over Thabo Sefalosha, Harden is gonna burn both of them ... so why not get more scoring from K-Mart? Collison starting over Perkins is a no-brainer. Attack Asik, run pick n' roll, to get him into foul trouble early. Rockets don't have any defensive big man on the bench to take his place. If they are going to Hack-A-Sik ... do it earlier in the game, like in the final minute of each quarter. Omer can get hot from the charity stripe, if he goes to the line consistently.
If the other team loses, it's because their coach somehow sucks worse than ours. If our team loses, it's because our coach obviously sucks worse than theirs... ClutchFans modus operandi in a nut shell.
Game 5 stats Kevin Martin: FG: 1-10 3-pt: 0-5 Sefolosha: FG: 3-8 3-pt: 3-6 both have their off and on games, but it's not a given who will be the better scorer any given night. sefolosha at least plays defense
Not putting my expectation up. I'm happy that we got 2 games from them. If we get the next game at home, pressure will be on OKC. I've been expecting a 4-0 sweep. This is already exceeded my expectation. I still think next game will be 40%/60% favoring OKC. Rockets are too dependent on 3pt shooting and Harden's performance. If we can rain some 3s, we are in good shape.
Brooks is one of the bottom 5 worst coaches in the league. It isn't hard to outcoach a guy who insists on playing old man Fisher heavy minutes.
The scary thing is the fact that K mart can drop 1/10 one night.. and than 8/10 the next. The plays and the coaching have been outstanding for McHale, I hope Scott Brooks continues to choke.
No meltdown here. We all know that our team is on borrowed time and we have already exceeded expectations.
brooks team is built around 2 players so not easy to just change and durant cant just jump in to dominate just yet give him some time
he does dominate. scoring 40+ points at an insane efficiency is totally dominating he just isn't getting any help. even if lebron dominates, he still needs his teammates to play effective basketball to win games
