http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2014/03/motiejunas-draws-big-lithuanian-crowd-in-chicago/ maybe why beg was not able to bring his A game? “I told Pat, he’s nothing compared to me,” Motiejunas said. 'quote without context is, well, misleading'
I haven't read all the comments... But I did want to point out that ever since Hakeem has been back in the US and in his role with the Rockets, I see Dwight channeling Hakeem. He is doing lots of spin moves, attempting mini dream shakes, spinning and ending under the basket, etc. all with minimal success. Anyhow, I like that he is trying but the timing seems wrong. I believe if he keeps trying these move that he will be getting better at them; however, I think that he should wait until the off-season and the start of next season before he incorporates these fancy moves. It's a little frustrating to see.
The problem with this game is simple. The hot hand and active player played less minutes than the players who are stinking up the joint
I'm not sure that was McHale's reason for leaving the starters in. To me it looked like he was leaving them on court in purpose, to deal with their own doing, or something like that. Sort of "F it, if that's how you play - deal with it yourselves". Perhaps he thought they needed to feel the shame of the blowout to its full extent, and maybe it will lead them to man up and start fighting...
We can only hope he's thinking that far ahead... however, when we're tight in the play off seeding, it's a heck of a risk versus Going for the WIN. In my opinion, sitting them would have sent the same message. "Not ready to play? Fine, I'll put people who WANT to play on the floor.."
This loss isn't on McHale.... this loss is on the players. The Rockets started reading the headlines about how great they are. Until the Rockets bring it every night, they will get slapped around time to time. It has been a long time since the Rockets came out this flat, and to make it worse, it was a very close game at the half, and then they just gave up in the third quarter. Let us see how they respond, but what I was was just pathetic. The worst offender was Chandler Parsons, I saw absolutely no effort at all. Howard was bad (again), but he has done this through out his career and it is accounted for. Jones is what he is, a poor defender than is clueless on the court. What is the difference between 60 wins and 55 wins? Games like this one. McHale knows it, but you can only lead a horse to water..... and he knows that ultimately it is on the players.... win or lose.
To me, when you have a team that OBVIOUSLY is not giving effort, you have two choices. You either pull them really early and shame them..... or you make them deal with the mess they created, and don't give them an out. It isn't like McHale ran the starters into the ground, no one played over 30 minutes. I personally like him making them deal with the mess they made.
chandler taking a ***** ton of I-wonder-if-this-is-going-in midrange weird floaters and leaning jumpers with the basketball IQ of a toddler was awful.
I personally felt like Mchale kept the starters in too long, when they weren't doing ****. Bench them all, fire them up, and the fact that Lin was the only one that showed up yet he decides to not play him that much.
Agreed - especially about McHale holding players accountable. He should have benched them way earlier and let Lin control the tempo instead. Lin was actually getting the ball moving and scoring, if he was playing with the first unit, maybe he could have inspired some defense as well. Lin was trying to do everything. It was tough to watch though - when Rockets would hit a 3, the Bulls would hit one right back...Slow switching. Also about stubborness, why does he insist to allow Howard to keep getting the ball in the post when clearly it is not effective? This was one of the reasons why the lead for the bulls grew so huge too. McHale needs to know when to change things faster - he waits too long and before then it's too late and the game is out of reach.
What is this bullpoo about it being the player's fault, not McHale's. If McHale has no sway, let's do away with the coach position, we don't need them anyway. Sure, the players started off slow, but then make switches, call timeouts, try different rotations, bench people, do SOMETHING.
82 game season, some times it's just not going to be there. I have absolutely no worry with games like this because I don't think everyone has Jordan's inner burn, nor do they need it. Wait for the playoffs. Reg season is just too damn long - needs to be 62 to take seriously. For the players ANDFANS
Might have been mentioned earlier by someone else, but I think McHale left the starters in to let them suffer through their own doings. They had obviously given up and so instead of switching out guys that would compete, the let them embarrass themselves as a lesson. I hope everyone feels miserable and embarrassed so they can have a long hard look at themselves. Maybe the whole team was already looking ahead to the Miami rematch, instead of taking 1 game at a time. It's good to see Lin healed up, heated up, and playing to his standard level again. I'm thinking Dwight's back is funky. Everyone wants to point to a 3-4 game stretch of poor Offensive post performance from Dwight, but where were those guys when he looked like the best post offense guy in the NBA for like 2 months? Everyone was real quiet then, but like Skip Bayless, the second their is a hitch in someone's gitty-up, then out comes the "I told you so" crowd. We'll be fine. This loss was perfect for the team to get focused for Miami.
He DID do all that in the first half. But at some point, your starters have to show up and play. The bench can get you back into a game, but the Rockets don't have the kind of depth that can make up for such a pathetic display from their 5 supposedly best players. Not for the entire 48 minutes. Look at what happened last night. The starters allow the Bulls to get off to a 7 or 8 point lead right away. Then Lin and a few other bench guys like Garcia help them close to 33-32. Then a few minutes later the starters come back in and allow the Bulls to build the lead back up to 8 at the half. Then they come out in the 3rd quarter with the same sorry play and before you know it, the lead is pushed north of 20 points. This wasn't the Orlando game where the Rockets starters played a bad first half(save for Parsons) but were kept in it by the bench before getting it going in the 2nd half. The starters NEVER SHOWED UP! I can't think of a single good stretch any of them had during the 25-30 minutes they played. They shot a combined 29% for the game. 29 PERCENT! And that's including Dwight's 5-7. You could have Zombie Red Auerbach coaching this team and it won't matter if the starting lineup performs that poorly.
McHale should have left the bench on tbh. At least they could score and move the ball. Defensively...well - they showed more willingness to play defense let's say that. Harden was caught napping several times and he even blinked slowly and had the most sleepy look ever when camera zoomed in on him.
This. In those situations you just let the bench finish the game. If they start lagging, *then* you think about bringing the starters back in. However, when they're chipping away at the lead and the Starters look like crap in the 3rd, give the bench some leash and see if they can catch up and build a lead. Pops and Thibs would have subbed in the bench and just left them out there.
I wouldn't be surprised if McHale decides to do that should this sort of thing happen again. But I can't blame him for wanting to give the starters a chance to make up for their crappy first half play. They did that in the Orlando and Portland games. I think he just got blindsided(as did I) by how quickly they waved the white flag in the 3rd quarter.
