Lin wasn't having a bad game. Players have bad quarters, but that's not an excuse to pull players in the 4th. When, time in and time out Lin has shown that he's clutch in the 4th quarter. he was 5-11 with like 13 point or something. AB was having a much worse game> where is your crique of AB hmM??
Dwight also played 38 Minutes. Plus we know he's a FT liability, due to his bad FT%> Lin has an 80% FT% he wouldn't be a liability to shoot FT
See that's just it... It was more than just his shooting... In the second half he was making mental mistakes, turning the ball over and his defense was just flat out bad.. You guys are just focusing on the scoring and not looking at the fact that Lin was like 2 different players out there tonight... T_Man
Lin was NOT having a bad game. In fact he had a great first half; and just so happened to botch a play or two in the third quarter. All things considered, I know of no other NBA coach who would bench a starter for the remainder of the game for a third-string sub, just because the starter missed a shot or two.
I'm referring to the couple of occasions he sat out most of the 4th because Asik was on the floor w/ the group that got us back in the game, and McHale said -- as he did tonight -- that he made that call b/c he felt the guys who got us back in the game deserved to close it out. People weren't furious then.
Bev hasn't proven he played better than Lin this year either. But I think McHale doesn't look at stats or look at how well Lin has been playing in the 4th quarter lately. He saw Lin do that boneheaded play in the 3rd and that was enough for him to bench Lin for the rest of the game.
3pt watch: I see that our top 2 players in 3pt % (AB & CP) both went 1/5 tonight... Looks grim, but then you notice how some other specialists in the league did tonight, and see: Stephan Curry with 1/7 Kyle Korver - 1/5 JR Smith - 1/8 Nick Young - 0/5 Trey Burke - 0/8 Jordan Crowford - 0/6 Jamal Crowford - 1/6 (Perhaps some of those are mostly specialists playing against us...) Pretty interesting, ... On the other hand - Shumpert made a sick 6/6 on us, so it's good we had Harden going 5/10... (with Jeremy, Omri & Cisco all 50% too)
Lin was 2 totally different players in this game... A very good player in the first half and a very bad player in the second half. As I stated earlier, you are only looking at the scoring and you have to look at his entire game the second half.. McHale left AB in because he was actually leading the team... Did AB make some dumb plays? YES... Was his shooting off? YES... But he was not making the consistent mental mistakes and he was playing better D than Lin TONIGHT. This was not a disrespect thing, it was a coach going with the player that was helping the most at that time... T_Man
that's crazy talk. Because, I've seen Harden and Parson do some bone-headed stuff. TO's, jacked up shots. lost passes. They still play. i'm buying that Lin was playing bad in the 3rd so he pulls him. That means he has the shortest leash in the world for a player that has actually proven that he's capapable of being clutch in the fourth. More likely, he just doesn't like Lin. He one of those LOH, McHale. But the Rockets support McHale, so what can you say Jeremy? I support the ROckets, but i don't think they are going to win without Lin at least taking over the helm of the PG role. Even then, winning the championship with Lin at PG is going to be very hard due to the top teams in the league that clearly seem better than the ROckets. I'd recommend trading Lin and Asik for a maybe a ROndo, if he's healthy.
IF can go a lot of ways, but the fact is the Rockets won.. So we should be rejoicing.. A win is a win, no matter if it's ugly or pretty... But the fact is, the conversations are not on the win, it's on why Lin didn't play in the 4th. T_Man
you guys make it sound like beno put up shrumpert numbers on lin. Giving up four points and a turnover should not negate lin's14 points that helped the team win. a benching is fine at that moment, but he should get the opportunity to redeem himself,which he tends to do in the 4th. If mchale could do that to harden when harden goes through the iso, turnover, nap on defence sequence, he'd have my vote for coach of the year.
Look at the overall stats. Lin was 5-11 with 14 points. Not bad. He also had 3 assists and 2 turnovers. He didn't even play a full second half. so that argument is flawed. AB? really? he was 1-8. He wasn't making an impact on this game at all. AB is not a better defender than Lin. That is absurd. especially when we saw Lin shut-down Tony Parker and Mike COnley and Jrue Holiday back to back to back. I'm not buying what your saying. It was absolutely personal thing against. Lin. There is no way AB would help the team more than LIN at this point in their careers. Maybe 3 years ago, you could have made that argument, but not now.
Well the story should be why the ROckets didn't pummel the trashy Knicks at Home by at least 10 points. A two point win , when the knicks were coming from an exausting win from SA would probalby be trouble for the KNicks. Instead, the Knicks had a chance to win this game. Absolutely concerning.
Players have bad quarters all the time. In his three years here, whenever has McHale benched a starter for a quarter-and-a-half in place of a third-string sub because the starter missed one or two shots and maybe missed a defensive assignment? Did McHale ever do that with Lowry, or Dragic, or KMart, or Beard????
