ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Thunder 12/29/2013

Yikes....that is even worser !!



DD

 

Lolz. That guy gets everything wrong.

 

Rockets 86
Thunder 117

Ball game.

 

Can't stick a 31 point loss on person.

 

LMAO

I was gonna type that. But I feel better putting it all on DMo

 

If someone asked me before the 4 game stretch that Rockets would be 3-1, i would have taken it straight away.....which is exactly what we got. Winning this one would have been a bonus, but not really upset, dust it off and move one

 

To be fair though...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Rockets are on a back-to-back and playing their fourth game in five nights. And they couldn't look more like it.</p>&mdash; Royce Young (@royceyoung) <a href="https://twitter.com/royceyoung/statuses/417467694640685058">December 30, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Harden = All Star generator

 

AB 24 min -1
Lin 24 min -29

ball game.

 

You guys are over-reacting. Breathe. We are not going to play OKC every night.

OKC is just a bad matchup for the Rockets:

1) They know Harden's game and have the guys to defend him. Sefolosha is long and if needed Durant can switch on him. Ibaka knows how to block him in the paint.

2) Perkins does a decent job of pushing Howard away from the rim and Ibaka times his help defense well.

That means Lin and parsons have to play HUGE for us to beat OKC consistently.

On offense, Durant can get anything he wants and if the OKC were draining their 3s lke they were tonight, they are not going to lose.

Couple all that with a dead tired team, a blowout was not surprising.

The BIG QUESTION....

Can we beat OKC in a 7 game series?

No, not if Westbrook comes backs to form. We are not going to be blown out every night. We will likely win two games in the series.

We absolutely need a third consistent playmaker against the Heat/Pacers/Thunder in the playoffs to beat them and we dont have it right now.

 

I think the Vipers tonight might have made a better showing than our tired Rockets LOL

Mercifully that game is over. IND, OKC, MIA, heck even DAL--we're not at that level yet.

 

3-1 on the week? Not bad.

 

Superstar make his teammates better. Not making his own stat better with iso play and ball hogging without playing any defense.

 

Lol so that's what 2-9 shooting without 25 free throws looks like

 

I womder why Lin likes to give start by giving instruction to his teammates ,,then dribble,, stumble,, and duh moment as usual

 

All the flack Perkins gets he shut down our $22 mill SUPERSTAR tonight, & I saw play after play when we shot 3s Howard didn't even bother trying to get position to get a rebound.

 

Would have been a great win, but probably needed a miracle against a top notch team. B2B with starters playing tons of minutes the day before, coming to a team with a 13-1 home record.....not going to happen easily. You look at the starters and the usual hops and speed just wasn't there.....game was pretty much decided in the first quarter. Without a solid bench, Houston is pretty much doomed.....when the starters can't do much you're toast.

 

But I guess we are on San Antonio's level then, right?

 

Because he's a freaking PG??

And nobody want to set pick for him.

Team Chemistry =)

 

Stop freaking out

1) 4th game in 5 nights.

2)
Look at Harden's minutes
DEC 28, 2013 HOU vs. NOP W 40
DEC 26, 2013 HOU vs. MEM W 44
DEC 25, 2013 HOU @ SAS W 42

Look at Lin's minutes - These are heavy for a guy who was Avging ~30 pre-injury and didn't really play for a month
DEC 28, 2013 HOU vs. NOP W 34
DEC 26, 2013 HOU vs. MEM W 37
DEC 25, 2013 HOU @ SAS W 34

Look at Parsons
DEC 28, 2013 HOU vs. NOP W 40
DEC 26, 2013 HOU vs. MEM W 44
DEC 25, 2013 HOU @ SAS W 40

Look at Howard - less extreme than other 3 but last night still 42
DEC 28, 2013 HOU vs. NOP W 42
DEC 26, 2013 HOU vs. MEM W 18
DEC 25, 2013 HOU @ SAS W 35

In Thunder's last 2 games (which were not back to backs), Durant had 40 min and 32 min. Ibaka had like 36 min and 27 min. In fact, none of their starters were over 40 min (30 min for the game before last) for their past few games except for Durant.

3) Intense schedules particularly affect Rockets because we like to push it. If Lin played 36 min or Parson played 40 min, it probably is more exhausting than most other players on other teams playing the same amount of time.

Takeaway here is McHale made the strategic move to drop this game when he realized his starters were tired. This makes all kinds of sense. Winning 81 games is not the goal here; getting to playoffs with a high seed while not injured is.