Damn I clicked on the wrong one -- I was opting for embarrassed him. McHale put the right personnel for the people that Pops put on the floor. I am not a McHale fan or hater but I can say that he did a terrific job yesterday. His subs were right on. Pops strategy and game plan was off balance because of the match ups and players that McHale choose to put on the floor. Both teams had injured players as well -- so that is not an excuse. Also, Pop is an overall better coach, but all great players and coaches have an adversary that have their number. McHale with this personnel may be it...
Really? No. McHale didn't outcoach anyone, especially Pop. Dwight made his free throws and we were able to get a cushion on the lead that way. That's it. Dwight Howard made his freethrows and hack-a-Dwight wasn't effective this time. However, as we've seen, it's worked plenty of times for teams to get back in the game. I'm sorry, but some of you give McHale too much credit. Credit he doesn't deserve. I do think he did a nice job by going to Dwight consistently and keeping him out there. He also made a good sub with AB, but that's expected. Every one of us on this board would sub AB in at some point. Great win by the Rockets. Pop is still a far superior coach.
Lin had a decent game. It was nothing spectacular, so I don't think anyone should be going apeshi^ over it. He played 44 minutes to achieve those stats, in case you didn't know. Pat was just as effective in 30 minutes, especially rebounding and defensive intensity. Look, no one hates Jeremy. No one loves Pat more than Jeremy. We love our point guards, but we can also see who is playing better and has more talent in certain areas. It's all subjective until you go by stats, which even then, can be skewed. For many of us, based on his play and stats, Pat Bev is more efficient than Jeremy Lin, in this offense and in general as a player. I'm glad Jeremy had a decent game and was able to play some more with Harden out. It's one game though.
Not at all, too many injuries for Spurs to overcome! I saw multiple backdoor layups by the Spurs and a number of missed shots due to players having to play extended minutes by the Spurs. Let's see how great McFail coaching staff is tonight in a back to back against the team that punks us continously! The MAV's!! Dirk is giggling right now, because he and LMA give us the business.
Not to be churlish after a great win, but.... And Sacramento. Twice. And Utah. And Philadelphia. And the Lakers. And other blown leads (and losses)... ...to Dallas. Twice. ...to OKC (of historical proportions). ...to the Clippers at home (but I'll exclude this one, because blowing a lead will happen from time to time; and LAC is a good team). The team gets up for good teams (most of the time), and plays down to bad teams. I'm sure McHale points out to the players not to do this, but it's obviously falling on deaf ears. Not every loss is because of McHale. Not every win is because of McHale. But let's not pretend he's a good coach. If DH12 hadn't been hitting free throws last night, this thread might not even exist anyway.
I am sorry but it is a two way street. The man is literally blamed for every bad play, turnover, shot, etc. Unless you are in the fire McHale thread asking for people to be reasonable and setting realistic expectations for the coach, then I don't want to hear the excuses. If he gets blamed for every loss, then he gets credit for every win.
3-0 is luck? All Pop could think of was HackAHoward strategy and it failed again. that's not good coaching.
Okay, let's not pretend. He's a good coach. Not as good as Pop generally, but he did a better job than Pop last night. Dwight hit his free throws as well as he usually does. Hack-a-Dwight works when he has a less than average night.
They had a chance to win before hack a Dwight. It went from 2 points to 7 to 9 very quickly. Very amateur of Pop. Has he not heard that making one is all Dwight needs to do? He should have fouled Jesus last year and they would have an extra championship. I can coach Timmy and be a great coach too. The time is coming for both to retire. Timmy, one of the greatest ever, nothing but respect to that SOB's basketball game. Pop on the other hand, whatever.
I think Popovich was exposed in last year's Finals as a good coach blessed with great players - especially Duncan. He couldn't coach average players to greatness and hasn't. His coaching is what I'd pinpoint as being the reason they lost last year's Finals. He didn't foul to put the Heat on the line in Gm 6. in regulation - instead letting them tie the game at Heat's home with a Ray Allen 3 (ie. don't ever let Ray Allen have a chance to tie a game with a 3 - he will do it); but Pop maintains that 'we don't do that' - foul when up 3. And on that same play he sat his best rebounder, paint packer and HOF captain so no Duncan was on the court to secure a rebound; big no-no. In Gm. 7 he sagged off of Lebron James and let James shoot 3 pointers all day - even when James was getting hot from behind the arc, Pop did not change the strategy. Pop's rigidity cost them the Ch'ip, imo. We saw some of the stubborn/rigidness from Pop last night in the form of Hack a Dwight.
I agree that McHale definitely gets more flak than he deserves, but he didn't exactly outcoach Pop; it was more of Pop making the questionable decision to continue the Hack-a-Dwight despite the fact Dwight was hitting his free throws. McHale deserves credit when it's due (like last night -- besides the questionable game plan to start the game, he made some good in-game adjustments) but also deserves the blame for his many questionable decisions so far this season (i.e. running his star players into the ground). The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. He's not a bad coach, but he's also not a good coach -- just an average, very unspectacular coach.
