First off, there are bound to be a few games like this every year for most teams. But this was a really disappointing loss nonetheless. Rockets have lots of maturing to do. We are getting better throughout the season, but very fixable issues still remain with this team. I was perplexed by Harden's lack of aggressiveness this game, and Howard's turnovers are getting out of control. Parsons seemingly gave no effort. And to top it off, OKC and MIA are almost sure losses on this trip, so the Rockets had a golden opportunity to get a win on this road trip and blew it. The Rockets are not as good as they think they are.
Looked like pickup ball vs the bulls.. and the bulls were shooting lights out, especially DJ Augustine.
Coming into this road trip I think everybody knew that the Bulls game would be difficult to win... We're of course the underdogs for the Miami game as well.
It's okay to give the starters a chance to come back and make up for the first half, but McHale did not call any timeouts to stop the onslaught of 3pointers that the Bulls made very quickly, nor call a time out to tell the starters to stop jacking up 3s for no reason. I'm not saying starters can't have a bad game, but when they all collectively do, it's up to the coach to control the flow of the game and ensure the game can be still manageable. If the starters didn't look like they want to play...why play them? Just let the bench do their thing. They wanted to play more so play them instead. The starters were too busy moping about their performance. i remember in mic'ed up, McHale said, "I don't want to hear anymore my bads" McHale's coaching has improved lately in terms of putting in the right rotations and giving people a chance to play, but I find that sometimes he either is too quick to give up on a solution that is currently working (Garcia shooting well or Lin having a good game) or he leaves players in too long that are not playing well at all (Dwight in the post, Chandler hoisting up random shots)
If there's a silver lining to this, it's that it was a good (playoff) test of sorts for the Rox Thibodeaux (sp?) as you probably know, was an understudy of JVG. (Yes, THAT JVG). Defense and grind down their opponents. Keep the score under 100 pts. Lock down D most every possession. Ugly basketball to watch. But can be very effective, as seen yesterday, and implemented very well by the Bulls sans Rose. The Rox may well see this sort of D again. Esp. now that it's on tape, on file, for everyone to see "just how did those Bulls shut Houston down?" In the West, I can see the Thunder, just as in the most recent matchup, take another page from this to add to their halfcourt preference. Same, with Golden State and even San Antonio. In the East, the Pacers on a better night could be taking a page from the Bulls playbook too. Anyways, long story short, imho, if the basic Rox, run and gun plan isn't working, they need to find either (a) new ways to push the tempo to better suit their style or (b) actually develop better half court sets, which require discipline, esp. through Howard as their first option. That and keep favoring the pick and roll btw Harden and Howard. And perhaps even Chandler and Howard. The percentages favor these matchups. If only the Rox would use them even more. The latter will ask more of both Beverly and Lin to make smarter decisions, esp. if they realize that each change in possession is not favoring them to break or push. The former, I'm less sure about, esp with a very defensively minded team (i.e. the Bulls), that hustles to get back on D, and also have a legit center (i.e. Noah)/shotblocker. I actually think the Rox can hang with teams like the Bulls that are primarily half court oriented and don't avg nearly as many points as the Rox. That is a true test imho. If the Rox can find new ways to win a grind it out game that is 100 pts or less. It happened yesterday and it'll happen in the playoffs too. And short of benching the starters, I'd rather see the whole squad adapt. See Howard rise to the occasion. And show a new, versatile side of the Rox that may be required against the likes of GS and SA. My two cents. theSAGE
The Rockets have not lost a lot of games in 2014. But when they have, the starters have almost always come out really sluggish in the 1st Q, and apart from the Orlando game, the starters have usually remained sluggish and that's caused the losses (or they came back too late). See Clippers and Warriors losses. To best of my recollection, Orlando game is sole exception, where the starters came out strong at beginning of 3rd q after looking bad in the first half. In the Portland game, Rockets were behind by 7 at the half, and behind by 16 at the 6:20 mark of the 3rd Q, when a couple of members of bench, including Lin, subbed in. And it was the mix of the starters and the bench that produced a lift in the team's play. Note how similar that time is to the 6:26 mark of the 3rd q during the Bulls game, when Lin subbed in at for TJones. When the lead was 24. One game when Lin was subbed in earlier was the Cavaliers game, when Lin came back in at the 8:36 mark replacing Parsons. (Like in the Bulls game, and the Blazers game, the Rockets bench had managed to bring the team back from a deficit in the first half of those games.) The Rockets won that Cavs game. It's easy to criticize from hind sight. And making in game calls is a difficult and pressure filled task. Still, one of the single glaring weaknesses that has to be apparent to the coaching staff is that sometimes the Rockets' offense seems to stall. Like in that 19 point OKC half. Like last night. It stalls beyond anything that makes sense given the amount of talent they have. And when they stall, the offense seems to stall in predictably similar ways. The disjointed thing that happens, where each of the starters' games seem to breaks down at once. It is this similarity that makes it hard to believe that this is a phenomenon that can be attributed entirely to lack of individual intensity or effort. It feels like something in the system, or the way the group of players are playing together. The ball movement and offense feels jerky and out of rhythm. But remember, this is not in a many games, just in some few isolated games. So it is not a cause for any major changes, such as changing the starting line up. Still it is a problem that recurs, and the danger is that it occurs during the playoffs. I don't know the solution. But at least a starting point for looking for an answer seems to lie with the bench. Because we have seen how the infusion of DMo or Lin into a game, can sometimes change the dynamic of the starters, and get the starters playing with more intensity and fluidity. So try different mixes and combinations, implement them earlier when it seems like this problem is cropping up again. But at least have a strategy for trying to deal with the problem when it comes up. Don't wait until 6:20 of the 3rd Q when the lead has ballooned beyond what is reasonable possibly to make up, before trying to implement a solution.
I like to watch the team which blew out the Bulls in Christmas Day last year. You can come to whatever conclusion why we didn't play that way again this year. Didn't the coaches watch the tape how they played the Bulls last year? If the starters didn't produce, nor they seemed interested to play hard, McHale should have put in Lin & the bench earlier to create the kind of beautiful ball sharing & movement we had seen last year. When the post ups and ISOs don't work, coaches should make the adjustment sooner. Like I said many times before, Bev as the starting pg without good offensive skill and playmaking is a liability against good defensive teams. When the defense is tough and the stars got shut down, the other starters have to step in and contribute in offense. No way we can win against tough playoff bound defensive teams with Bev starting. It is 4 against 5 in offense and we have zero chance. It sucks to be blown away this year by a team which we won by blow out last year.
I didn't watch the first half due to work but I kept updated with the box scores. My eyes almost popped out when I saw all the starters, except Dwight, were shooting poorly so naturally I put it down to one of those bad luck shooting games. I was happy enough with the half time score so I rushed home expecting to watch a Rockets come back win. What I saw in the 3rd quarter is what everyone saw in the first 2 quarters plus worse! It was totally disgusting. I didn't bother to watch the 4th quarter and went out shopping with my Mrs. Boy she was happy!
Yeah, tough choice. Leave the starters in and teach them a bitter lesson or put in the bench and stand a chance (albeit slight) of actually winning the game. I know what _I_ would choose. Hang the lesson and go for the win.
This. You go for the win. I think you get the SAME message to your starters... don't show up, I'll put in someone who WILL show up. AND you're not throwing away a game when you're in a super tight play off race. Would the bench have gotten us back in it? Probably not... especially from 15 points down. However, given the bench was playing well I would like to have seen the bench *rewarded* and give them the CHANCE to win the game. It isn't just about teaching the starters the lesson to not "suck it up"... it's about sending the message to the bench that if they play hard and play well, they'll get more trust and time on the floor. I still think it's a fail in terms of coaching decisions.
Does anyone know where all the close up action recorded from under the baskets came from? We didn't see that footage on TNT. Thought it might have been recorded by a fan, but it looks professional to me.
eh, tnt has some weird fan thing where u can watch online from free, but it's some weird camera angle, IIRC.
True dat but we bust them across the head for 100+ down here in Houston. We just didn't have it last night. Damn near everybody but Lin didn't show up.
Oh, that makes sense. The cameramen under the baskets are always recording, but the producers hardly ever use the footage on TV unless it's a replay of a spectacular play.
I dont think we'll be seeing the Bulls anymore this year, but if we do, it means we made it to the finals lo..
The knee jerk Dwight Howard hate posts are beyond horrid. He's a Rocket and needs our support. I told people, when they consider it the big picture, it's really McHale's coaching that's the problem with this team. Time to fire and hire anybody else available...
