You are intentionally obscuring his point. Will the Lin fans shut up already about "Harden's D***?" Never! Harden fans understand that his defense is often horrible but he carries the team on offense. How have we gotten this far? Parsons, Lin, Jones etc. are not as important to the team as Howard and Harden. It's like saying "the Thunder can't make the finals without Westbrook and Durant playing well." Without Howard and Harden we are screwed. Accept it. Their usage is way higher than anyone else's and we don't have a quality bench that could replace them like San Antonio. We all know that for "the team" to play well the rest of the players cannot suck. However--no, everyone does not have to make their shots to contribute. Let's look at Lin's #'s from the All-Star break forward: <PRE> First ▾ Last G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS GmSc 2014-02-19 28 8 25.7 3.8 9.1 .413 1.2 3.2 .382 2.7 3.1 .862 0.8 2.0 2.8 3.6 0.9 0.3 2.1 2.4 11.4 8.0 </PRE> As you can see Lin sucked at the end of the season and we still went 18-10. Not to mention that we were without Howard and Beverley for most of those games.
I wasn't talking about specifically about Lin, I'm talking about the team in general. Winning as a team is more than just talking about Lin. You are focusing on the wrong things here.
The thread is called "Jeremy Lin Stepping Up In The Playoffs." You made a comment about "everyone stepping up" after mentioning Parsons, Lin and Jones and proceeded to make this unnecessary comment: So--here's the mind blowing part--if your post was about how everyone needs to play well then why did you end it with Harden's defense? You are focusing on the wrong things here.
There's a difference between simply stating that Lin has effectively missed the last 2 playoffs due to injuries, and blaming him for that. Blaming players for being injury prone is stupid anyway, unless they're out of shape or refuse to stretch or something.
Fair enough - the comment I posted was out of context in terms of talking about Lin. That statement still holds true. Everyone needs to play well and I just wanted to point that Harden needs to step on D as well. What is wrong with that? Anyway I will stop here since it is not about Lin.
I thought Lin played reasonably well as well, esp relative to the team. Sometimes, my friend, you have to give credit where credit is due. Doesnt make you a LOF.
Harden's defense is very important. He have to play at least some decent level of defense, if not playoff level (everyone up their defense in the playoff). 2 stars playing up to their avg or more is important, but it's NOTHING when compare more players playing well. Look at Portland, their two stars went nuts and they barely won while our two stars were bad to ok. Here is another example, one that you might be familiar with. http://www.clutchfans.net/game_boxscore.cfm?gameID=2768 It's a team game afterall.
More like "No Pinto Beans for you Baby, Just Texas Barbeque.." status when he finds some manly action in his cell block.
JLin's surprising clutch-ness in overtime in Game 1: 1 offensive rebound 1 defensive rebound 3 made shots (one an and-1) 1 foul 1 missed shot Dwight scored 2 points to start OT. The rest of the Rockets OT points came from FTs, 4 from Howard and 1 from Garcia.
lmao you have to be on the court to "step up" or u just step on a spectator's seat. and you have to touch the ball to make a different. all i could say is incompetent guys prevent it and they even dont know they themselvs r incompetent.
lin had some controversial plays in the playoffs especially game 4, but the team still had a chance of pulling out that game in OT with both stars playing in OT. I just randomly thought about the 2 games the rockets WON during this series and was lin the reason why we won those 2 games ?? GAME 3 – harden TO lin dives on ground to save ball then gets it to daniels. Could’ve easy been a TO and blazer take last shot to win. GAME 5 – lins performance was the reason we won that game, even blazers players and brooks said after the game they didn’t have an answer for lin. And blamed the lost on him getting off that game when the benchhad to play GAME 4/1- we can blame lin for game 4 but that game could be replaced with game 1 how he came off bench gave us a spark and put the team on his back in OT but howard missed freethrows & harden had an off night. Harden showed up game 6 – but we lost Howard played great all series especially game 6 & 2 but we lost those games and didnt lead to a win. Parson – had hot starts and halfs throughout the series but none lead to a rockets win LIN – how did we win when he had good games ????
It's a mystery, but Lin's play usually involves teammates more and offense flows better. Harden and Howard do more ISO's and you even rarely see PNR from those two in playoff. In hindsight, Sticking with Lin in end of game 4 and 6 would probably be better, given that he often makes winning play or redemption play in clutch time. Knicks was winning with him despite hgh TO's... just like you live with wild plays from WB sometimes.
Lin stepping up in the playoffs. Regular season 28.9 mins, 12.5 pts, .446%, .358 3p%, 4.1 assists, 2.6 rebs, 2.5 to's, 1 steal Playoffs 29.5 mins, 11.3 pts, .410%, .217 3p%, 4.3 assists, 3.7 rebds, 2.2 to's, .5 steals
I understand his numbers went down. But im talking about wins and why they happened. Howards numbers went up but that didnt actually lead to wins. He took over in the post game 2 like we havent saw since dream was here but we lost. When lin took over game 5 we won. Im just really trying to figure out how does this happen.
If you're going to give Lin credit for any wins, you damn well better give him credit for our losses. He called a STUPID time out down one possession with 30 seconds left in Game 2 and then of course the game 4 turn over at the end of the game, among many other bone headed plays he made. We left him in the game too long. He has a skill set, and that skill set is best suited in the first 3.5 qtrs, when he can play loose and fast. When the game slows down, J Lin disappears. I have no issue bringing him back, I love him off the bench. However, he HAS to improve his shooting consistency. No better time to work on it than the off season.