If anyone blames one player for this loss they are unaware of how badly the entire team played. We have been playing poor BBall for many games at this point. They question is why. I enjoyed watching us play last year. I am barely motivated to watch this year, starting about 10 games ago, We are playing slow, non-creative basketball. Our assists are way down because we do not play as a true team, just individuals playing schoolyard basketball-beat your man one to one.
Houston threw this game away. Transitional defense was just terrible, Atlanta ran away with the fast breaks while Houston walked. As usual the offense seemed to be running through Harden, he is not ready to lead the team. He needs to NOT PASS but RECEIVE PASSES to do more spot up jumpers like Reggie Miller did and stop slowing the game down with his ISO and free throws. Who is Pero Antic??? And why couldn't Howard score 30++ and 15 rebounds against this unknown? Howard really need to show some leadership here and stop monkeying around with his freedom from the Lakers. Brooks did not get the job done at point guard with 1 assist, same with Lin. Understandable when you have Harden out there. Brooks threw a "bad" pass that should have been playbook stuff, but it was Howard who screwed up. Atlanta came better prepared to this game and it showed.
You don't happen to remember the time of the game where he "shrugged" his shoulder do you? Was that Wilkins that caught it?
You do know that we're better than last year right? I know it's only January but last year we were borderline 6th or 7th seed then the wheels came off during the last game against the Lakers when Howard was still on that team and we landed in 8th instead of 6th to play Denver when Igoudolol was still on that team. Do you see the irony or the pattern here? Boo hoo so what we collapse in the fourth with horrible play making but if I can take a positive from this game, our defense has been just a tad bit better.
Couple of points: The rockets stole the ludes I was saving for CF after loses like these. No way in hell does one player get the blame. We need more health, m******f*****
What really hurt us is the execution down the 4th quarter, that's pretty much it. We can't close out games and it's been like this last season. As for the opposing point guard, they got shut down. AB and LIN ate up everything the Hawks threw at them. It's the execution down the stretch that hurt us so please calm the nerves we're not elite but we're above average playoff team and it takes time.
AB and Lin at the same time... So tell me, what other stud in the Rockets stable should have been on the floor? Perhaps Brewer? Maybe Garcia?
Pero Antic was pretty good in europe. Hes deceptively good 3pt shooter for such a big guy, hes also very crafty with his moves.
Also Pero is Pat Bev's buddy. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...-antic-waiting-for-chance-to-face-off-in-nba/
I think thst's one of the things that lost us the game. We lost tonight mainly because too many guys made too many mistakes. I think Casspi usually plays very responsibly and makes good decisions under pressure. (Note that McHale DID get him in for the last 15 seconds...). He can also be a glue guy, and with Chandler out he should have been there for like 25 minutes IMHO. Playing Brewer & Garcia for 25 & 23 minutes, and playing rusty Greg Smith for 10 horrid-D minutes, while Casspi sees no court time whatsoever in the last 30 minutes?? What's the wisdom of that? I get the importance of a wider rotation, and giving the bench more confidence, but if that's the case - why not more DMo? (Being decent in his 7 minutes). I agree Brewer and DMo need the confidence building, but Cisco? Is he really lacking playing time? Minutes distribution... It gets so arbitrary lately... A sad game.
Damn the gamethread is such garbage. How about people focus on what the team can do better rather then one person. You all sound like a bunch of 12 years olds arguing about how to lose your virginity. And yes it's hilarious...
You can see how the Rockets really miss Parsons and Beverley. Those guys spend the entire game running and hustling. The offense will look much better when they return.
Execution down the stretch is an issue, but we have too many close games period. We should have comfortable leads more often and finish. Our lack of "easy" wins isn't just health because the same happened when we were healthier.
Oh, please. James passes out to perimeter shooters all the time. They have to be ready, and while Carl may be willing to give Jeremy a pass for having his foot way over the line, I am not. Flicking his eyes down to check the position of his feet was something he had time to do, something he should have done. Korver closing out on him? I've watched the play several times, and Lin could have glanced at his feet and then shot the ball. If it's a miss, I can live with that, but again, in that situation, you make damned sure you're ready to receive a pass from Harden, and you make damn sure you're shooting a trey, not a deuce. On to the next game, and hopefully something was learned from this debacle. It was an eminently winnable game, in my humble opinion, one of those games, and we've had a lot of them so far, that at the end of the season, when you are fighting for playoff seeding, you look back and wish you'd closed the damn thing out.
Looking at the standings is painful knowing what come have been. We almost have doubled the losses of 3 damn teams. Teams ahead of us have had worse injuries. Our conference record is 13-10!! We're living off playing the East. Rockets are headed for a weak 50-32 record with a 1st Round loss.
