Thank you. I lost count after the first half but I think IT had only scored one bucket off Lin in that half (and was 2-9 at that point) and it seemed like he and Jimmer scored most of their buckets off of Brooks in the second half too. I do think that Jimmer scored 1 bucket off Lin though (his first one) which was a layup. But even then, Lin played a good solid game defensively and definitely played IT a ton better than Bev did last game.
wow. so many fail eye-testers. fortunately we can check all of the replays of IT and Jimmer's FGAs here. http://stats.nba.com/gameDetail.html?GameID=0021300464 click on the numbers and the video will show us what really happens clearly Lin did a good job limiting them, there is no need to play text wall games with the trolls. I dont know some of the guys here got eye sight problems or just outright lairs. hope it's the former.
It's shocking the amount of dishonesty Lin's detractors will resort to. But perhaps not as shocking as the inability or reluctance of fans who supposedly care only about the team to call them out on it. I wonder if Clutch would have the integrity and honesty to tweet how many actual points were scored by IT and Fredette against Lin vs how many they scored against Brooks or other players that guarded them? If an above poster is right and it was only 3/15 then that's a pretty strong defensive performance. It seems for many so called 'true fans' bashing Lin takes precedence over truth. And over the fact that he has played well defensively for the team and is therefore a better option as starting PG - FOR THE TEAM. I guess if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes reality. Hence the desperation and dishonesty by the likes of larva8, ijholmes, Roxtia et all to propagate the myth of Lin's defense being sub par. In the end this hurts the Rockets.
Stats so far this season support the notion that Lin's offense is much stronger than Bev's offense, and that Bev's defensive ability has been overrated while Lin's defensive ability has been underrated: Games so far this season where Bev played and Lin did not: Bev - 5 pts. (24min) vs. (Nets: Livingston (10min.) 0 pts., Tyshawan Taylor 16 pts.) Bev - 11 pts. (37 min) vs. (Spurs: Parker - 27 pts.) Bev - 8 pts. (38 min) vs. (Jazz: Burke - 21 pts.) Bev - 12 pts. (42 min) vs. (Suns: Dragic - 19 pts.) Bev - 6 pts. (33 min) vs. (Warriors: Curry - 22 pts.) Bev - 9 pts. (39 min) vs. (Magic: Afflalo - 16 pts.) Bev - 6 pts. (31 min) vs. (Kings: Thomas - 19 pts.) Bev - 15 pts. (34 min) vs. (Bulls: Augustin - 8 pts.) Bev - 8 pts. (30 min) vs. (Pacers: Hill - 12 pts.) Games so far this season where Lin played and Bev did not: Lin- 14 points (30 min) vs (Mavericks: Calderon-0 pt). Lin--20 point s(36 min vs (Jazz: Tinsley-0 pt) Lin--14 points (30 min) vs (Clippers: Paul-23 pts) Lin -20 points (37 min) vs (Mavericks: Calderon: 15 pts) Lin--13 points (34 min) vs (Spurs: Parker--6 pts) Lin--18 points (37 min) vs (Grizzlies: Conley--11 pts) Lin--10 points (34 min) vs (Pelican: Holiday--3 pts) Lin--6 points (24 min) vs (Thunder: Jackson--16 pts) Lin--14 points (34 min) vs (Kings: Thomas--17 pts)
The one 3-pointer that IT made in the 4th quarter, Lin tried to draw the charge, (I think) flopped and fell to the floor, leaving Thomas a wide open 3. Not necessarily bad defense, I've seen Manu Ginobili do it, and refs gave it to him 9/10 times. Not bad defense, just trying to sell a foul that wasn't really there, he will know better next time.
in fact I think IT did shoved him and it's an answer to Lin for the one in the first half that shoved IT down and get a easy jumper. refs not calling both is kinda fair. I think Lin learn that from CP3 in the clippers game, when he got shoved by CP3's elbow several times and had to give in space allowed a lay up. He is learning fast.
Lin should always have been a starter. He's a much better player than Beverley. The lengths that people will go to to claim Bev is some defensive difference maker is getting silly. There's really not that much of a difference. The truth is that Bev is reckless player. That's what people are responding to. He's not a disciplined defender. He actually gambles more than Lin. When he's not being reckless getting starter minutes, he's pretty invisible. In fact, that's the best thing you can say about him is that he's invisible and stays out of Harden and Dwight's way. The real negative of having Bev in the starting lineup is that it masks our real problem of having a terrible bench. Lin should start and we need to make moves to fix the backups.
The reason for Lin coming off the bench was never that Beverly is a better player than him. Actually I think it's the other way around. I think he was put on the bench because he is a leader and a way better player than Beverly and the Rockets clearly need that off the bench which I'm sure you agree. Mchale, Harden, Ginobli all came off the bench and Mchale is a Hall of Famer so I don't seem to understand why everyone is treating the 6th man role as a punishment when you can receive a trophy for it. There is no trophy for best starting point guard so clearly the league values the 6th man position, why clutchfans seems not to is the question.
As I said, it's masking the bigger problem. Bev doesn't need to play that many minutes. He contributes very little. At least AB gives you some 3 pt shooting. Start Lin, stagger the rotation so Harden or Lin is on the floor at all times. Look to improve the bench.
Why? So that Lin could play the 8 total minutes to start the 2nd and 4th quarters that Harden is on the bench for? Newsflash--the starting PG plays those minutes anyways because they're the first substitution in the 1st and 3rd quarters.
Lin comes in rested that's why and gets more minutes than Bev and finishes the fourth, it's not about who starts THAT'S WHAT A SIXTH MAN DOES. Your newsflash is wrong. Lin would also spell Harden.
The sixth man in basketball is a player who is not a starter but comes off the bench much more often than other reserves, often being the first player to be substituted in. The sixth man often plays minutes equal to or exceeding some of the starters and posts similar statistics. He is often a player who can play multiple positions, hence his utility in substituting often. For example, Kevin McHale, a famous sixth man who played for the Boston Celtics in the 1980s, variably played center and power forward. The presence of a good sixth man is often a sign of excellence. It usually means that a team has excellent depth, as the sixth man is usually more than talented enough to start for most teams.
Lin was averaging 32 minutes a game before he went down with multiple injuries last month. Not sure why you think just cause he was coming off the bench that he was only playing 16 minutes a game because he wasn't. Check the stats yourself on pretty much every NBA or sports website out there for proof. Lin was and will continue to be a big part of this team and play heavy minutes. He has been the past 2 seasons since acquired, and other than a handful of games that he sat in the 4th when the coach went with Beverley, I have no Freaking idea what Lin Fans are so damn whiny about. At least coming off the bench in a "super-sub" type of role, he is favored in the league to win one of the top awards every year as the 6th man of the year. As a starter he will continually be viewed as the mediocre to decent starter that he is. As a 6th man, he's a super-sub. If you are a Lin only fan wanting your fav player to get accolades and major national attention... 6th man of the year is your way to go. If you want Lin to dominate every game playing 48 minutes a night and scoring 30 PPG... he's going to be on a very, very bad team, or be in a rent-a-scorer situation such as the one Nate Robinson was in last year with the Bulls. The Rockets are as good of a situation as Lin is going to get to be able to get some recognition and be on a good team at the same time.
The Rockets benched him to give him a defined role. Help him find his groove without having to worry about deferring to the other starters as much early on. Gave him the opportunity to play his game more freely. When Lin got benched it was a promotion, not a demotion. As if James Harden wasn't as good as Sefolosha...
Just so it's 100% clear where the issues are with defense, I'm going to break down every single play where Isaiah Thomas was credited with an assist. Isaiah Thomas's 10 Assists 1. Thomas gets a screen on Lin. Jones does a fantastic job of running out to show defense on Thomas, breaks up the developing PNR. Lin has plenty of time to recover. Harden is blatantly ball-watching, McLemore drifts and is wide open, Thomas passes to him for an easy three. 2. Screen again. Jones goes out so early to break it up that Lin goes under easily and is waiting for Thomas when he finally gets past Jones. Harden is ball-watching again. McLemore cuts from the corner, Thomas passes to him for an easy alley-oop dunk. 3. Fast break pass, three-on-one, easy bucket. 4. Rudy Gay takes advantage of no one covering him on transition, breaks past everyone for an easy pass and two points. Lin actually pulled off his man on the perimeter to attempt to defend Gay on this play. 5. Thomas passes to Gay above the free-throw line. Gay just drives in and makes his shot. This is one of those "gimme" assists, because Thomas didn't do any actual work to get Gay open here. (Lin went off of Thomas to try to help defend Gay, but didn't really affect the play.) 6. They try a screen on Lin again. Doesn't work because Parsons does a good job of coming out again. (Noticing a pattern here with how the screen/PNR is being well-defended by the whole team?) Lin easily goes under and is waiting for Thomas again. In the interim, Thornton gets open for a three thanks to a "pick" from Cousins. I use quotation marks because it clearly wasn't a set play. All Thornton does is run around Jones, Gay, and Howard (who are clustered in the post), and then curl up from the corner to the wing. Cousins just happens to be in-between Harden and Thornton because Harden's defense was so lackadaisical that he got caught trying to move between Cousins and Thornton. I recommend everyone watch this play to see what I'm getting at. Thornton was actually open in the corner as well. Thomas could've passed to Cousins, who could've swung to Thornton in the corner for an even easier bucket. The only reason Thornton is open at all is because Harden refused to chase him down and stay next to him. Instead, he opted for the lazy defense and "watched" him rotate around the Jones/Gay/Howard cluster and only tried to get close to him once he realized Thornton was an easy pass away. This is fundamentally bad defense, because as I mentioned Thornton was two easy passes away from a wide-open three. Harden should have been on him the entire time, which would have meant that Thornton would not have been open at all. 7. Yet another screen. This time Jones comes out and is forced to stay on Thomas the whole time, as Lin gets bumped trying to go over Cousins (not sure if this was miscommunication or if Lin was gambling - he could've gone under easily as he did every single other time). Regardless, when Thomas drives Jones easily funnels him to Howard, Lin is still following behind, and Thomas runs through the paint with no shot with Jones still sticking to him like glue. What should've been a forced reset (giving each guy a chance to rotate back on the correct player) instead turns into an easy open bucket for Rudy Gay. Why? Because while Thomas was running through, for some reason Parsons thought he needed to help. Jones is already there to prevent a fancy reverse shot - there's no reason for Parsons to hedge towards him and lose his man in the corner, especially since his man is the only one open for an outlet pass. Gay smartly drifts to the wing to get open while Parsons hedges, and then makes the easy open shot. 8. Yet another failed screen. Parsons shows early, Lin easily goes under, Thomas comes out the other side with no open look. This time Harden loses his man again for no good reason other than blatant laziness. Thomas passes to Thornton as he's running over the top of the key, Lin sees that Thornton is wide open, so he switches to defend Thornton while Harden desperately tries to catch up. Lin actually does a decent job of defending here, getting between Thornton and an easy drive, forcing him to make an awkward jump hook/layup. Right after he makes this basket, you hear the following: "You know Harden is going to have to play some defense." 9. Watching all of these clips really makes me happy, because it's clear that, at least for this game, the Rockets have significantly improved their PNR defense. Once again, Thomas tries to get a screen from Gay going but it is shut down easily, with Lin and Parsons transitioning seamlessly. As Thomas drives, Lin is stuck in front of him and Howard is actually waiting behind. For some reason, Dwight is also standing in the paint waiting to defend the drive. Thomas passes to Cousins who is at the key and makes a long jump shot. The only reason Cousins is open in this case is because Howard correctly collapsed to the paint to defend the Thomas drive. Ideally what should have happened is that Parsons should have rotated to cover Cousins once it was clear that Gay wasn't going to be an option during Thomas's drive. But since Parsons's assignment is Gay, having him stick to his man like glue is not bad defense by any means. But the real fun part is if you watch this play closely, you'll see that McLemore is wide open on the other side of the court near the corner three, waiting for the outlet pass. Remember when I said that Harden was inexplicably waiting in the paint for Thomas to drive? That's because right before then, McLemore cut through the paint to the other side, and rather than stay on his man Harden decided that both Lin and Howard needed help defending Thomas even though it was clear that both were between him and the basket. If Thomas was paying attention to the other side of the court, instead of pulling up and dumping to Cousins for a long two-pointer he could've thrown it to McLemore for a wide-open three-pointer instead. 10. Cousins just plain beats Dwight on this one. Again, this was a "gimme" assist, as the PNR before this didn't do anything. Lin was still on Thomas and Howard was between Cousins and the basket after that action had finished. -------------------------------------------------------- So, Thomas goes 6 of 17 (35.3% FG%), including 1 of 4 for at the three. But that's not because of Lin's defense. Because, "It doesn't show how many easy shots the Kings got because the defense had to collapse to help Lin or rotate to help him when he got screened out all the time." Except out of Thomas's 10 assists, literally 0 are a result of "the defense collapsing because Lin lost his man". 7/10 had a pick set for Lin, and in 6/10 cases the defense executed perfectly and Lin was standing in front of Thomas after each play. In the one case where the pick stopped Lin, the resulting point was due to Parsons ball-watching and moving off of Gay, not because he had to do any special help to compensate for Lin getting picked (Jones had that job and did it perfectly). 2 of Thomas's assists were "gimmes" that had nothing to do with him. And the last is due to a fast-break pass for an easy bucket. So let's try this again. If Lin's man defense was good enough to hold his guy to below-average numbers for any NBA player, let alone one as good as Isaiah Thomas. Watching Thomas's assists clearly shows that those points were not a result of Lin getting stuck on picks or failing to stay in front of his man and needing help. So what's the deal with the people who want to blame him for the problems with the defense? You could've replaced Lin with Gary Payton in his prime, and the results would've been pretty much exactly the same. It wasn't Lin's fault that the perimeter defense kept getting beat. It wasn't Parsons's fault either, because his assignment was to stay on Rudy Gay like glue, and by and large he did that. (Gay made some ridiculous shots, which any team would be more than happy to have him attempt. In this case, they went in, but in most others they won't.) Defense is a team sport. From what I saw, there was only one guy who was consistently failing his assignment and breaking things down for everyone else. Anyone want to guess who that was? (Hint: Marcus Thornton is shooting 37.9% this year. He went 6 of 9 for 66.7%, including 3 of 5 from the three.)
You're both wasting your time. Trust me: this thread is pure LOF. I never understood the phenomena until recently. This thread underscores it. For example, I'll say, "Lin, Harden, and Brooks are horrific defenders. Bev is a peskier defender but not a playmaker; nevertheless, he's McHale's pet." Which criticizes, what, four players and a coach? And the flood of responses nevertheless goes like this: 1. "How dare you criticize Lin? He's a star!" 2. "Let's break down every play in an exhaustive and mind-numbing post where Isiah Thomas touched the ball and I will not only prove to you how Lin is great but also that the Magic Bullet Theory proves Oswald was the lone gunman!" 3. "Lin is like my brother. If you attack him, you attack me. And you do not want to go to war with me, because I have lots of other 'me's', and we all sat in Section 406 during the game."
Post says a lot about you. Not anyone else, you. The resentment that Lin has fans, exaggerations about the extreme ones that don't seem to be posting here that much anymore, and obsession about putting them in their place constantly is apparent in your posts where you can't even look at the improvements Lin has made to his game and say good, it's helping the Rockets. You've gone on and on and on about a game where Lin was not outplayed by the opposing PG, it's just their team won based more on plays by their center toward the end of the game where it was decided. Lin will have some bad games going forward and probably some monster ones where you'll hear the term "Linsanity". Take that as a whatever, he's beyond that time, he's with a different team and hopefully he'll play close to his capabilities and help the team win.
JeffB, a 1999er says you're wrong because Lin got blown by so many times only for the Kings to miss their shot, inexplicably. perhaps you two were watching different games. Perhaps one is lying or just blind, or one is both lying and blind. They say hate is blinding, if you know what I mean.
You see the trend here. Lin doubters can generalise all they want but cannot stand up to scrutiny. they contniue to look for bogeymen, and often refer to 'they' and add in a divisive term. If you want to call out a poster, call out the poster. no need to attack a whole bunch of 'theys'. It only weakens whatever argument (support for a position) that you had in the first place.
