The Rockets mostly played down the stretch with Lin-Bev-Parsons-Harden-Howard while the Warriors went with their regular starters-- Curry-Thompson-Iggy-Lee-O'Neil. I am not sure how this is letting the Warriors dictate matchups. Letting the Warriors dictate matchups would be to go with a regular lineup to matchup with the Warriors 2 bigs. Instead, the Rockets had the 4 perimeter players out there and had Harden checking Lee (which he did a pretty job of, including stripping him with roughly 30 second left). Down the stretch, both teams played they think is their best lineup.
Mchale has done a fine job for the last 8 games. What bothered me tonight was why no mo dmo? Jones was clearly hot garbage tonight. If he doesn't hustle, he's useless because he's no stretch 4 by any means with that horrible shot. Another issue is, the team looked awfully ISO heavy in the final minutes of the 4th. Such ugly basketball when the hard shots aren't falling. They need to play more intelligent and Mchale needs to implement some sort of play.
The Warriors freed up Curry on a screen, Parsons was chasing Curry from behind, if he tried to intentionally foul, Curry could easily have thrown up a shot and made it an And-1. There really was not a chance to take the "foul to give."
I'd have to disagree. Playing Casspi at the 4 in crunch time was clearly meant by Mchale to draw David Lee (and his monster rim protection) out of the post. It resulted in nothing but missed 3's and offensive rebounds for the Warriors.
Casspi only entered the game in OT, and after Beverley fouled out. Both teams were struggling making shots tonight, the Rockets going small and creating space helped give Harden some room to work-- and rebound from a 5 point first half.
He played a good amount in the 4th as well. There's also the fact that Mchale could easily have put in T-Jones/Motiejunas in OT but he chose to go with Casspi instead.
have to disagree….i just re-watched the play and parsons was clearly in position to tie up both of curry's arms at his waist right after the ball was inbounded and he began moving towards the basket. parsons' right arm was right at curry's side and there would have been no chance for him to get the ball up.
fouling when up by 2 on the hopes that the guy doesn't put a shot when it's already 6 seconds left on the clock and opponent is looking for the first good shot, is both incredibly dangerous and gives little reward. It is the ultimate high-risk/low-reward play. That McHale did not try this very stupid play that no coach actually use is a testament to his smart coaching. Not bad coaching.
Here is the game flow for tonight: http://www.popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20140220&game=HOUGSW The Rockets got positive results from the smaller lineup with either Casspi or Parsons or Harden at PF in the 2nd half after falling behind by as many as 11 points in the third quarter. The lead was cut to 4 by the start of the 4th qtr, and the team tied up the game and even had a couple of late leads while playing small. The lineups with DMo was fine in the first half, but then he was on mostly when GSW had their bench group in.
counselor, the play being 'stupid' would be solely your opinion, which you are surely entitled to. however, let the record show that the game announcers mentioned before the play that houston had a foul to give and then also mentioned afterwards with surprise that houston had opted not to use that foul to give. this would clearly indicate that other coaches around the league are indeed 'actually using' this play..
I cannot in all my years of watching the Rockets seen a coach use this play up by 2 at the end of the game(not end of the quarter). Can you reference some great coaches and their use of this?
you never saw rudy do it? he also used to take the delay of game on the inbounds for the same reason -- to see what the offensive team was planning to run
Stop thinking in the past, the nba has changed so much in the last 3 years let alone since Rudy was our coach
To foul when you have a foul to give? We aren't talking about a foul when in penalty. This is common. That said, I'm not anti-McHale. I agree with you. pippendagimp is mistaken Curry took that pass right to the basket. You can't foul someone going to the basket, thinking the call will be on the court/no shots. You foul Curry on the move like that, he's going to the line as a 90% FT shooter, and possibly AND1. You are mistaken pippendagimp. McHale may very well have called for a foul, but we had no chance to foul Curry once he caught the inbounds. You can't foul someone without the ball, that's a technical.
the post replied to opened up with "in all my years of watching the Rockets" but even today, before 3 years, and 3 more years from now……there are/were/will be coaches in this league who actually think the game and make decisions and substitutions accordingly. just because we're currently stuck with a zombie fool on the bench does not mean every other team is as well. maybe because mchale's never admited to making any type of coaching mistake, his supporters also congregate in disbelief whenever one of them is pointed out. in any case, the poster meh considers what i call a mistake on mchale's part to be 'stupid', and that is your right as well. likewise, i consider a lot of mchale's coaching decisions to be stupid and i post that here. time will eventually reveal which of us is more correct.
when i look at the replay parsons is right there when curry receives the inbound pass and puts it on the floor. parsons had the opportunity to swipe down with his right arm on both of curry's arms at or right below his waist level. imo they would not have given curry any kind of continuation that far from the basket and curry wouldn't have been able to get his arms up high enough to give the appearance of a shot attempt…..this is what i see at least.
I thought the same thing when it happened. But after watching the replay, I realized Parson was trailing the play. It would have been to easy for Curry to toss the ball up toward the rim. Then you risk him making the shot and getting a free throw. I felt after he caught the ball the best thing to do was to rely on your defense, which Howard was there Curry just made a heck of a shot.
