ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Blazers 11/5/2013

That first 6 minutes stemed from combination of Asik and Howard locking down the paint(especially Asik) and Harden and Lin rotating on the blazers premeter shooters. Harden had a lot of closeout which he contested and forced the blazers 3pt shooters into misses. Complete opposite of the night before where he gambled on the pass and it gave the Clippers wide open looks.


Last night Harden played smart defense.I'm talking about the second quarter when lin had a 3 point play where he got the ball and sprinted in the open court and found hardenm with the bounce pass for the and 1 or the play where he pushed the ball and scored a coast to coast in the open court. There was also the play he found Dwight for the ally oop.That momentum we gained into halftime carried over into the 3rd quarter because we were full of beans and confidence.

 

We are number one in the west now with that win

 

Not going into the Lin - Beverley debate... am very happy to have a solid 3 guard rotation.

But will say one thing about Lin. He's maturing into a very capable two-way guard. Definitely has all the makings to be a 2nd / 3 rd star type player in the league.

 

yeah great team defense, no doubt, but props to Lin too

http://www.blazersedge.com/2013/11/5/5071730/gameday-thread-rockets-vs-blazers-second-half

http://www.blazersedge.com/2013/11/5/5070280/final-rockets-blazers

 

I'm liking them both. I honestly don't care which one of them starts as long as they both get plenty of minutes. Neither of them have any outstanding weaknesses, but each has different strengths.

 

That's a byproduct of having Bev on the team. Lin is improving via McHale and Bev. Competition may be nerve wracking and stressful at times but it is a great motivator and teacher. Bird said that he looked at the box scores in the newspaper every single game to see what Magic did.

 

Why he always saying he wants hes best 5 starting then?

 

I agree with you in wondering about the sources of motivation of some of the "fans". Without being a LOF, I find Lin an intelligent baller who fits the Rockets game style very well. He is a willing Rubio style passer, but much better driver and shooter than Rubio. Actually the only problem I have with Lin is his somewhat steep price tag. For clarification: I'm one of those fans who does not care who starts and who comes from the bench. The only thing that matters is the team and the W after the result (but I love the Rockets style).

 

give Jeremy the ball!!! I think he can also finish the game

 

After 5 games started, Lin's PG ranking is 15th.

Among Top 20 PGs,
-he takes the 2nd least shots(after Clalmers).
-His FG% is 1st with 53.3% (CP3 51.7%, CURRY 53.2%, Harden 51.2%)
-His 3PT% is 6th with 42.9%. (Harden 26.5%, Parson 16.7%, Garcia 46.7%, Casspi 46.2%)

 

Rubio is one of the best defensive pgs in the league, his natural affinity for angles seems to extend to both ends of the court. If he could shoot (i mean cp3/dwill level of shooting, not curry/irving transcendent), he could become the best pg in the nba.

 

Everyone should take a look at this.

http://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1pzjqv/interesting_pov_experience_from_a_fan_watching/

AB understands Lin's situation well. He is a nice guy!

 

why are people surprised? We saw what happened last year, Lillard lit Lin up, the next game he adjusted and shut Lillard down. Dont know why people keep saying Lin can't stay in front of these guards. Nobody stays in front of these guys the majority of the time, but you funnel them to other defenders and make them pass it up.

What gets Lin is guys like Cp3 who have all these shake and bake moves...but then again CP3 gets by everyone.

Great team win, onto the next.

 

Honestly we just sucked as a unit against the Clippers, massive foul trouble, lazy, poor 3 ball, Clippers got hot.

 

There may well be some truth to all this thing that's been passed around, and I think both Harden and Dwight are divas at times, but I would take with a grain of salt as the original poster of that story is a diehard LOF (I saw the original post on facebook and clicked on the poster's profile and it's all Lin pictures.

I think McHale has a good enough handle on the players and is doing his best to manage the psychology.

 

Pretty solid....assists are down which should be expected as the team runs less and more possessions that just go straight to the post. Rebounds down as Howard lowers everyone else's numbers. I think they said he's top 2 in the league in driving to the basket, which is probably one reason why turnovers are slightly up. The more you go inside the more times you'll lose the ball or get stripped. Overall, hard to see how people cannot be pleased at this point. He's maybe the 3rd or 4th option on offense. On defense, CP3 did what he usually does, but everyone else held in check pretty well, especially Kemba and Calderon.

 

AB was voluntarily seating the bench so that Lin can build into his momentum; even persuaded McHale to let Lin stay on

 

It's all about total energy and the allocation between scoring and D.

Lin was the top 20 defensive player when he was struggling at his offense in the first 1-2 months last season.
Later, his offense got better, but his D got worse.
Both of them declined since April.

It happens to many players who are first time to play 82 games.

Harden and Parsons also mention they felt tired.

It will happen to Bev. this season.

 

People are exaggerating this McHale 6th man fact too much. First off he's on the bench for Cedric Maxwell, an NBA Finals MVP! Let's be honest if the Rockets somehow win the championship, Bev will never will that.

That said yes McHale came off the bench for a few season early on, but once he hit his prime around 26,27 he started pretty much every game until he got older and his body started to break down in his 30's. People act like he was a guy that never started and was cool with it.

 

lol of course everyone's screaming at him. Parsons doesnt get the ball and screams at him....he passes it to him and now Howard's upset he doesnt get the ball.

Pretty obvious they wont yell at each other, he's the last guy left.