I say Brooks outcoached himself. 1. That hack-a-Asik move was extremely bad. 2. Without Westbrook, they cannot outpace Rockets at small ball. They need to exploit their size advantage somehow.
Knee jerking reaction! People just dont realize how lucky Rockets were in Game 5. Everything went our way! Kmart shot like a scrub. If he had shot his average %, Thunder wouldve won. Harden shot the lights out from 3's. If he shot his average, Thunder wouldve won. Durant shot like a scrub from 3's and had a terrible 4th. If he shot his average from beyond the arc, Thunder wouldve won. Brooks did NOT miss those open shots; his players did! If both teams had their average shooting night, Rockets are out fishing by now!
Luck is a part of it. Houston had more luck last night but it's not like OKC didn't have any luck. The Rockets managed to beat OKC in game 4 when OKC shot 44% from the 3 point line. Durant had the lucky bounce 3 pointer in the game before. And then there was the uncalled holding by Perkins. Even last night, the fact that teams didn't shoot their usual % wasn't entirely or a matter of luck. It's coaching and execution also. "Small ball," in particular, has made a difference. Given that games 2, 3 and 4 were all close and OKC won 2 of those, it's hard to say that the cause of HOU's two victories were luck.
Apparently KuKu wants to give no credit to the defense we ran where it took the ball out of Kevin Durants hands so he could get limited touches. But ya Kuku, you know better, the coaches deserve no credit for that ****... Go **** yourself and your negative ****
What are you doing on CFs Scottie? Don't you have a series to lose. Better hit the drawing board again.
An unborn fetus could outcoach Brooks. He is one of the worst coaches in the league along with VDN. That being said he did a good job.
The game woouldve never come down to hack a turk if they hadn't missed most of their open 3's. We made ours. Everything had to go right for us to win at OKC, and it did. It's really unjustify to critisize Brooks. Thunder are specifically built around two superstars. The rest of the team comprised of role players and defensive specialists. If they had lost RW during the season, he mightve adjusted well in time for the playoffs. Presti might've acquired other players for PO run. Yes, it was dumb luck for us that RW0 was injured at the beginning of this series. KD played great for 3 Qs but he needed to be super great to carry the rest of the team. He had to carry RW0 role of PG and set up his teammates well for many open shots. Fortunately for us, they bricked most of their open shots. Garcia, Bev, and AB stepped up big time and made crucial baskets every time Thunder made a run and shifted the momentum back to us and quieted the crowd. Thunder role players didn't step up, especially KMart, who bricked his first 9 shots. KMart absolutely killed Thunder when his team was struggling for offense. Thunder needed KMart the most and he was obscenely putrid last night. I would like to know what choice did Brooks have when KMart kept bricking his shots? Lamb??
No. McHale didn't rotate DMO, Robinson, etc. There was a rotation already in place when the playoffs started. I called that Garcia would be in the playoff rotation several weeks ago, in posts, when McHale said some guys who deserved minutes were playing behind inexperienced guys. And Brooks came in normally, after a PG went down. This post about "trial and error" has no evidence behind it. On the other hand, I have just offered some support for the existence of a rotation.
Brooks is bad. His team is a jump-shooting team without much post plays. Last year finals, Brooks was so stupid to keep Perkins at starting line for each game, this year, he is doing the same stupid thing again and again. Right now McHale is better than Brooks for sure. McHale may become a better coach after this playoff run, to be honest, he is learning as a playoff coach since he is never in the playoff before as a coach.
It was really dumb of Brooks to keep going with Hack-a-Turk when Asik is a 56% FT shooter. Our offense at that point was terrible also. OKC might have had a chance if they just kept playing.
I think the media hoopla over this tactic is ridiculous. If it had worked everyone would be on board. It didn't even fail THAT badly, it got them a ton of extra possessions that they just failed to convert. Yes, as a Rockets fan I was not worried by the tactic at any point. Yeah, mathematically it's not a good move unless they shoot below 52%. But to hail it as him saying he has no ideas is really, really silly. It was simply a gamble that giving up any chance at transition was worth it to get an extra couple halfcourt possessions.
How many times has another team employed this strategy against us this year? They don't do it because it just isn't a sound game plan against us. We cough the ball up and throw up stupid shots more than almost anyone when we have the lead in the 4th. This is probably attributable to us being the youngest team in the league, so why would you do this when we have a proclivity to slip up on our own? If McHale had done this with the same results, I wouldn't even be on the GARM for the next couple days because it would be so bad. The double standard that people have set up for other coaches vs. our own is staggering at times.
IIRC, game thread, when the lead went from 10 to 6, many people were literally screaming for McHale to take Asik out after he missed a couple of FT's.
Look at all the people who quoted me. Knee jerking again! Rockets reverted back the their old selves in Game 6. We did well for a couple of games, played out of our minds, but the that devil called Laws of Average finally caught up to us.
Not in this series. Brooks frankly isn't a better coach than Brooks. McHale figured out fast that playing small and ignoring Ibaka was ok. Brooks finally figured out playing Collison big minutes at 5 would shut down the pick and roll in game 6
