ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 4/11/2014

yeah we are in the driver's seat with all the wheels keep falling down...

 

Yes! Team definitely misses Bev's leadership and heart.

 

I think dwight matters much more, his absence just happens to coincide with bev

 

Nope....even in the win column while Portland trails by one game in the loss column. We go 1-2 and they win their final 2, they win HCA.

 

I believe they will be back tomorrow. But it's no longer about shaking off the rust before the playoffs. They're coming back because we're in serious danger of dropping to 5th place.

 

51 f* king points to Corey f*king Brewer? Harden should spend his free time studying Battier tape instead of chasing strippers. Or at least six days a week *****!

 

To some extent, McHale should take the blame on this : switching guys on defense.

How about just let Lin guard his man, alright he will get burn to ash but at least the other 4 guys won't be totally playing out of sync.

We will never know if the last few games if the result will be different if McHale just let Lin got killed by other teams PG, but when it all failed, McHale needs to take lots of the blames.

 

Here's the deal. If we are diving all over the court and playing with energy and lose, that's one thing. But to see us playing with no energy and refusing to go for the 50/50 balls is INEXCUSABLE. I've seen this for 2 years now. It has not been a good situation. We are flirting with disaster IMO.

 

If the Rockets lose HCA, they'll be reeling heading into the playoffs. You think a team that dropped pivotal games(which were gimmes BTW) to Denver, Minnesota, and New Orleans is gonna have any confidence playing in Portland in the postseason? They'll lose the series. McHale will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt he's a horrible closer as a coach. And the organization will be at a crossroads where they'll have to think long and hard about whether it's worth risking another season on the guy.

 

Parsons was, and got destroyed (nobody here will say it because only Lin matters on this forum)

Harden and Parsons where getting out hustled= 14 on transition by Brewer

Garcia was trying, but was fouling to much(Ref's were treating Brewer like Jordan in the 4th)

 

Its easy to say than done when you are playing 42 and 46 mins for a west coast road trip with 3rd game in 3 different cities on 4 days.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Brewer also had a career-high six steals. Only Brewer, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Rick Barry had 50 with six steals in a game.</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/statuses/454821072316010496">April 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

They're just playing basketball, it's not like they're out there cutting down trees.

 

Lord Jesus, Rox made Brewer look like an all time great tonight.

 

This. I could accept an outlier game from Brewer, but he got going early just by being energetic, hustling and getting out & running. Rockets didn't come close to matching his effort.

 

According to McHale, they were indeed out there chopping woods.

 

Losses count the most. We have 1 fewer and own the tie breaker.

We're still in the driver's seat fellas.

 

Hustle was an issue, but the defense was a complete mess.

Bad shading/coordination on PnR defense. Confusion in transition. Lack of hustle running back on Defense. Poor boxing out. Lack of hustle on loose balls. Bigs out of position on rebounds.

Then you had Asik out early with fouls and no real center on the floor for long stretches.

So the question in my mind is whether this is fatigue, lack of focus, or poor pre-game planning from Sampson's departure. Sampson was the defensive coordinator, so knowing that McHale isn't an X's and O's head coach, who exactly has been handling the team defensive preparation these last few games?

I'm hoping this is just fatigue or lapse in focus, because if this is a systemic issue then we may truly be screwed.

 

Well, I watched most of Brewer's 51pts being scored on the play by play (missed the game). Correct me if I'm wrong but, It looked like for some freaking weird reason, McHale put Garcia, our oldest and probably slowest player on him - and never adjusted. Could be wrong but that's what it looked like on most of the replays.

It looks like we may have tried zone for a minute? Almost all of Brewer's points were layups off of either turnovers, broken plays or taking advantage of some incredibly bad transition D, especially in the 4th quarter. Would have been better putting someone like Covington on him possibly.

 

Jeez, does McHale even tell these guys to play an ounce of defense. I thought I read that McHale was a defensive minded coach when we hired him lol. Maybe I just have bad memory.