Could be the lack of us having a backup center with asik and smith out for so long. Which hurts our team defense, & howard having to play a lot of mins
We've had one lengthy winning streak all season and that came in late November when the Rockets were playing their best ball. December was terrible(at least based on the relatively easy schedule). What concerns me is that even when the Rockets win lately, they struggle to pull out close games against crappy teams at home. Just a few weeks ago, they were blowing out nearly everyone at Toyota Center, even really good teams like the Warriors. And I don't think injuries are a valid excuse. They've had Asik either MIA or playing lackadaisical for most of the season. Greg Smith has been out with knee issues almost all year. Patrick Beverley and Jeremy Lin haven't had many games where they were both active and able to play. And Harden and Parsons have been dealing with lingering foot and back issues respectively all year. Yet the Rockets weren't playing this poorly(at least at home) in late November/early December.
Dwight is doing his job, and for way more minutes than should be asked of him. If anything, guys on the perimeter need to step it up and stop depending on Dwight to stop their assignments when they blow past them and into the paint.
I'm not losing my sh-t. I'm just concerned that the Rockets are losing games because of the same issues that have plagued them all season and I don't see anything being done about it. Injuries are an issue, but that can be said for most of the Western Conference teams. The Thunder, Clippers, and Warriors have all had major injuries to star players this season. Yet every one of those teams is ahead of us in the standings. The reason we're struggling is not because of injuries. Hell, we actually have a very good record in games that Harden has missed. It's because we're not a good defensive team, our 3-point shooting has been bad the last month, and we don't take bad ballclubs seriously which leads to lackluster starts resulting in either inexcusable losses or close wins requiring big minutes from our starters.
What exactly do you expect to be done about it? So missing 2 of our 3 best defensive players due to injuries which causes our defense to suffer is not an injury issue but rather some other issue? Rehabbing is being done about it. Moving Beverley into the starting lineup was done about it. What would you like to do about our 3 point shooting? We are shooting open shots, we are getting good looks. The shots are just not falling. What would you recommend we do about that exactly? Do you believe that the Rockets are not practicing their shots enough? What would you do about us not hitting our threes? There is no such thing as an inexcusable loss. We have a target on our backs right now because we are the "it" team. Every scrub on every team is going to be gunning for us. Are we losing to teams we should beat? Yes. Are we beating teams we shouldn't? Yes.
LOL... 2 teams you mentioned ahead of us are ahead by 1/2 game. If you're so concerned by that insurmountable lead, then you are losing your sh**. You mention harden, but what's our record without Parsons? Dwight is the ONLY player to play every game. You want a reason for inconsistency? How about that? Everybody said give Dwight 20 games to gel with his teammates.. He's barely gotten that sporadically throughout the season! I haven't seen anything that suggests the clippers or the warriors are definitely getting a better seed than us so relax
Then you're saying golden state isn't a decent team because their record without Iggy wasn't good. The thunders winning percentage with and without Westbrook is vastly different. It's like people here don't look at numbers and just complain about the rockets
Same could be Said last Year when Asik sat, again Rox D was top 5 lvl when Asik played and in halfcourt around 1st 2snd,now we go out and get Dwight and we get worse than last Year also remember Asik only played 30 Minutes a Night . D12 isn't 12mill better than Asik,That Money could be spend on other positions,but hey That is Just me
Italin rocket- I agree but let’s just try to give it some time, and see what happens when everyone gets healthy. as a season ticket holder it’s kind of frustrating because they went up like $400 this year from what we were paying 2012-2013 season. Up $500 from 2011-2012 season so the teams office also was excepting better results from the previously season evidently not only the fans, we also received a letter form les stating how expectations & excitement will be up this year because of HOWARD. As of now were #6th SEED just like we were this time last year. But like I said as a big fan I would’ve done things different this summer we were on a good path last year & to have alot of cap space and still have the same record it can make you question somethings. But I’m willing to give this sometime and see what morey gets for asik, and see what the team looks like after trades when their healthy after allstar break, going into the playoffs.
If your contention is that we need more depth in order to shore up our defense, then Asik needs to either play or Morey needs to bite the bullet and move the guy for the best deal possible. Because right now, we have the guy sitting at home collecting paychecks and contributing absolutely nothing(and no, I don't buy for a second that he's still injured). Beverley is injured. Nothing can be done about that except to wait. But that doesn't excuse the lack of effort from the remaining players. We know Chandler Parsons can play defense. He proved it his rookie season. So why is his defense so inconsistent this season(and last year for that matter)? Why is Harden allowed to give minimal effort out there? There are lots of things that can be done to improve 3-point shooting. Instituting a more diverse offense than one that relies so heavily on ISOs would be a good place to start. When Harden dribbles out the clock for 22 seconds and then dishes to a teammate on the perimeter who's forced to jack up a desperation shot, odds are that ain't going in. When the players move without the ball and it gets dished around several times to someone who's open and has his feet set, it's much more likely that 3-pointer will fall. There most definitely IS such a thing as an inexcusable loss. Getting blown out in Sacramento and losing to them at home. That's inexcusable. Getting demolished in Utah is inexcusable. Failing to secure that game in Philly was inexcusable. Blowing an 18-point 2nd half lead in Dallas was inexcusable. These were either games where the Rockets didn't show up mentally from the opening tip or where the coaching staff never made any adjustments. And no offense to the Rockets, but they are not an "it" team. The Heat. That's an "it" team. The Thunder, the Spurs, even the Pacers now. That's a team that others get up to play. You know why? Cuz it actually means something when you beat them. It doesn't mean squat when someone beats the Rockets because it's already happened 13 times this season. Hell, the crappy Kings only have 10 wins all year and 2 of them are against Houston.
Ugh. I have to (begrudgingly) agree with this. I think scrub teams may have been anxious to prove something by beating us at the start of the season, but we have been thoroughly exposed as non-contenders at this point. I don't think other teams fear us or care that much anymore, honestly. ETA: Except maybe the Spurs and Warriors, who do have something to prove where we are concerned.
Actually, I feel like the only team we are beating that we "shouldn't" has been the Spurs. All the other contending teams have whipped us bad.
Asik is injured. He is not refusing to play. If you want to be frustrated about something that is not true, that is on you. The Harden defensive effort thing is starting to get out of control. People now believe that Harden plays no defense ever which just flat out isn't true. Could it be better, sure. Is it the awful, I never move at all gif that LOF's posted ad nauseum, no. If a guy scores 35/7/5 and you come out harping on his defensive, then you need jump down the throat of every defensive guy not having a tremendous offensive game. That is a double standard. The shots we are taking are open, they just aren't going in. A different offense isn't going to change that because we are already getting open shots. At some point it is on the players to hit their shots. Again, the last second dishes to 3 point shooters happens maybe 1 or 2 times a game. Trying to put blame on Harden for that is silly. If a loss is inexcusable to you than I just feel sorry for you because you are going to be miserable all season long and for the rest of the Rockets tenure. Good teams always lose to bad teams. It happens, its part of the game. Why don't you go look at the Miami Heat when they first got together. They lost to a ton of bad teams. It takes time for everything to come together. LOL, we are absolutely an it team. There is a reason we have 25+ nationally televised games. Teams want to go on national TV and beat us because it makes them look not as ****ty. They are absolutely going to put forth maximum effort against us whereas when we were the Lowry/Scola team, no one gave a ****.
I have to somewhat sit back and laugh at how for more than half the things the two of you are arguing about, it is all subjective or completely based on one's own bias or opinion...yet both of you are so fervent in your beliefs. No BLUE is the best color! NO RED IS! Is Asik injured or being a sourpuss? Probably injured, but hard to say given how he did choose to sit out those couple of games earlier on when he wasn't injured. He clearly is willing to do it -- is he doing it again? More info may be needed as teams LOVE smokescreens. And what is considered an inexcusable loss? What is considered an IT team? We'll be here all night before someone nails down those subjective terms.
