ClutchFans Game Thread: Clippers @ Rockets 3/29/2014

This! Daryl shows up!!!!!! DD where you at

 

Clips playing the 4th game in 5 nights, and them being a worse team last year had a lot to do with that game.

 

Jones play well against poor teams but disappears against the top teams. It's going to be a major problem in the playoffs and a big reason why the Rockets can't beat teams like the Clippers and OKC b/c of the inconsistencies at the 1 and 4 spot. Major upgrades are needed along with the bench and coaching before the Rockets are real contenders.

 

RIP 60-win season

 

Can anybody provide Isaiah Canaan full highlights from last night?

 

It's possible McHale threw this game.

Sits Dwight. Takes Harden off the PG spot and goes away from the Pick and Roll. Fields that bizarre bench lineup that got behind by 10 points in the middle of the 2nd half. Surprised he didn't pick up two quick T's to get tossed.

The management wants to tread water in the standings so as to not move from the 4th spot.

 

that is a very good point.

 

if you think about it, an 11 point loss can be reconciled easily by 1 less bad TO, 1 more FG for any 3 players, 2 un-missed FTs, and 1 more defensive stop.

add in dwight and bev, and give jeremy lin a 3/9 shooting performance instead of a 1/9 shooting performance and you'd probably have something that is at least very close to a win.

if you look at the box score and then at the above conjecture, you can easily see that things aren't nearly as bad as they might initially seem.

 

IIRC it was also the end of a back to back after losing @ Memphis the night before, and 3rd game in 4 nights for us. But I think the big factor was that the Clips were being coached by Vinny Del Negro, and their offense didn't flow nearly as good as it does now. Vinny was basically their Coach McHale.

 

Crap game.. turnovers and defensive rebounding were our doom.
OKC and LAC exploit our weaknesses and limit our strengths.

 

You know you owned our butts last year too? These games against Houston are hardly a deciding factor. You guys can still be easily outed if you play the Spurs, OKC, or Memphis.

 

There is no way mchale plays chandler 40+ minutes if he is trying to throw a game.

 

Not beyond the realm of possibilities. Very unusual moves by management yesterday. Besides, we are very comfy sitting at the 4.

 

Reading all the negative stuff here and most of the game being analyzed by now, I would say that it was not such a bad game after all. The Rockets showed some dominance at large parts of the game and I really believe that the Rockets can win the Clippers in the playoffs.

As somebody said earlier and I was suggesting it also, I believe that in the present situation Harden should pick up the playmaker role and Garcia should actually play the SG. Both JLin and Harden love to have the ball, but Harden has a way better BB IQ than JLin. Therefore, he finds the open man better. JLin dribbels the ball way too much. You can see it when he starts to run in circles, but refuses to pass the ball. If he'd use the wing players, it would also benefit him because he would get the ball back in better situations than what he can create by himself.

Harden has a tendency for iso and his passes are sometimes error prone. However, he draws so much attention that he can really create for the open man. Maybe it is only my feeling, but Harden appears to play closer to the Rockets philosophy than JLin. In the beginning of the season we used to complain that Harden slows the game down with his iso's, but lately it seems that JLin does that. Not that he is slow, but the rest of the team does not seem to be expecting anything. They just stand and watch.

All in all, I'm not dissapointed at all. The Rockets played OK. If McHale uses the rest of the games before the playoffs to hammer it down to his players to move the ball, the Rockets can win teams like the Clippers in the playoffs. I would even expect them to do so.

 

Rockets playing B2B as well, 3rd game in 4 nights, and Clippers has a far better roster.

 

No it's probably Lin, he got 500/500 on his SAT MATH. No kidding!

 

So how did Isiah Canaan play defensively?

 

That's interesting considering the total score on the math portion is 800. Which incidentally, i have scored.

 

Your confusing your argument. You see, Harden's our best player and his job is too put us on his shoulders offensively most nights. In the process of doing this, he will see many terrible shooting nights. Jeremy Lin's a backup point guard with FAR less responsiblity, yet still among the worst turnover prone players I've ever seen. ALL HE HAS TO DO IS RUN THE DAMN OFFENSE! But it seems he can't even do that right. Please don't confuse the two

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Terrence Jones did not practice today either because he is sick.</p>&mdash; Jenny Dial Creech (@jennydialcreech) <a href="https://twitter.com/jennydialcreech/statuses/450684821031751680">March 31, 2014</a></blockquote>
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