ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Warriors 12/10/2014

The multiple injuries are really hurting the team in several ways. One thing I noticed this game is the Rockets wing guys got really small at times trying to match some of GS's non-traditional units (which kind of include their starting unit since Green is a bit of a hybrid 4).

While Warriors have bigger guards and wings both starting (Barnes, Thompson) and coming off the bench (Iguodala, Livinhston), the Rockets' bench perimeter guys are basically Nick Johnsin and Jason Terry. When the Rockets went with Harden or Ariza at the 4 or when one of them sits, they end up with 2 or 3 guys at 6'3" and under on the court (Bev, Nick, Terry), which is not ideal to say the least in matching up.

Papanikolaou's absence is a reason for this, and also Garcia not playing and not playing well even when he is on the court. The team can really use another wing guy with size. Maybe Kirilenko if he has any juice left?

 

Then why don't they like the Rockets? We shoot more 3s and get more dunks ( when healthy)..... Ohhh I forgot, we don't play in the land full of debt called California. The kardashians don't live in our state. The rockets won't get any love unless we win a championship.

We got Imo the 3rd best player in the NBA who took a group of dleague players to a tie in GSW with 4 min Togo. He outplayed the splash brothers whose scored a combined 41 to his 34 and his shot better than them. We're was the so called 2 way player in klay? He's was getting burnt all day and falling all over the court trying to guard harden. I agree he tries hard but their defenses is good because bogut there wing defenders are not great just good.

 

I know what you meant, but be careful. Some guys around here will question your fanhood. It might be because they are in Cali like you said. I guess we will have to make some noise in the playoffs to see if things change. I doubt it. I think it's because people hate losing to some Houston whatever team that hasn't ever won anything in their minds.

The Warriors never won a championship and everyone loves them. Even when we won a championship we got dissed by everyone. Everyone still thinks we only won cuz Jordan retired. I guess you can say that about every single championship not won by Jordan including the years he played and didn't win.

 

Man i called it earlier, my biggest fear was Green or Barnes killing us, although leaving Speights for open jumpers time after time was probably the real killer. For such as short handed bunch tonight I thought we did well until the lack of a bench just gassed Bev, Harden, and Ariza. My only complaint is that Mcdoofus stayed with Terry in that small ball lineup for too long a period of time. Terry had been on a tear, but he sucked azz tonight...

 

I don't know what it is, but Speights always seems to play well against the Rockets whatever team he is on.

At least Klay can't shoot threes against us.

 

The team did a great job against splash bros, but the interior stuff did us in again just like the first game except it was Speights/Livingston and Barnes on the outside, not sure who was supposed to be guarding him, but that was where we missed KPaps defense big time. Had Harden, Bev, and Ariza not all played stupid minutes i think we win this one easy if we had only had some help from a KPap and Canaan sub set. Terry really sucked tonight on both ends of the floor though, first time he sucked a big one so gotta give him a mulligan, but I think he was the number one culprit in blowing it tonight...

 

LOL, anyone catch ESPN changing their caption on the game from "routing" the rockets to "outlasting" the rockets? I outlasting first and posted a big FU to ESPN calling them out on it then refreshed and they changed it. They might have some dude in the Philippines or India just reading all the posts. :grin:

 

Still says routing when i look at it...

 

Did not see the game, but very impressed we were even this close to winning this game. Harden, D-Mo, Ariza all seemed good from the box score. Don't know about the rest, but very short handed against supposedly the best team in the league. While I think they are good, we could easily beat them with a healthy team. Still, they are very deep and very dangerous with Bogut back. Hope to play them in the playoffs this year.

 

Because Warriors commentary team is not biased especially Jim Barnett, one of the best commentators in the whole NBA. Warriors had a bad shooting game and still found a way to win the game, much improved warriors squad than last season. GSW would have lost tonight's game if it were last season's team.

 

Better see all our deficiencies now so the FO can address it.

If GSW is celebrating now, the cautionary tale is the Pacers last year. Also got off to a hot start. Then went down pretty fast.

It's a marathon, not a sprint. I like our position now. We need reinforcements, yes. Esp. the bigs so it won't be a lay-up line when Dwight is out. If Capela can learn to shoot FTs, I say put him in for spot minutes.

 

Yeah Rockets don't match up well against the Clippers or Thunder. Example, just because the Rockets can beat the Spurs it doesn't mean the Clippers/Thunder are better than Spurs. It's more about match ups and the way teams play imo.

 

Just got back from my first ever live pro basketball game anywhere. My corner lower level seat was pretty sweet. It wasn't cheap even with a $50 ticketmaster coupon. What's really absurd, though, was $12 for a beer. I can't imaging how much more they'll charge when they move to San Francisco in a few years... The home crowd was bit flat early on, but absolutely electric near halftime and in the last 6 minutes. It's a bit of a bummer that so many players couldn't suit up (Dwight, Bogut, etc). A few thoughts:

(1) Harden>Curry>>>Thompson. And I am taking into account the fact that Harden was just having a better day than the splash bros. Until he got a spell against Nick Johnson (who belongs to the D-league if not for Canaan's injury) in the 4th qtr, Curry was essentially neutralized by Beverley. Harden, on the other hand, could not be stopped even though he was playing 1-on-5 with back spasm whenever we weren't posting up D-Mo. And it's not like he had slouch defenders on him either in Thompson and Iguodala. The beard absolutely passes the eye-test. Not just mine, but many Warriors fans', too. Thompson is a lights-out, LIGHTS-OUT shooter, but his ability to create shots for himself and teammates are very limited. Had Thompson and Harden swapped teams for this game, I'm not sure how any Rockets player could every get an open shot. It's laughable there is even a debate which of the two is the best 2-guard right now.

(2) Beverley is gamer. For the first 3.5 qtr, it was almost a wash between him and Curry. When Kerr put Curry in to start the 4th qtr (and Harden sat for the first 4 min), I thought the Warriors would open up an 8-12 point lead which would be too much for the shorthanded Rockets. But Curry really couldn't get it going until later in the qtr when Johnson was on him while Beverley rested.

(3) The Warriors are really deep. Even with Bogut and Lee out, they are 9-deep. When those two are back, they'll probably drop Ezeli and have a solid 10-men rotation. None of their current bench guys really scares me, but if Lee becomes their 6th man, that would be really sick. It's pretty creative of Kerr to do the Livingston-Iguodala-Barnes 2-3-4 for one spell in each half. This is a matchup nightmare on paper, but dealt limited damage because both Livingston and Iguodala have lost a step or two, and Barnes didn't seem interested to go into the post. Some of Kerr's play calling was exactly top-notch, though. E.g. their opening play in the 2nd half was an Ezeli post-up. Really?

(4) Draymond Green is a nice solid crafty player, but he's not worth $10M/year. He should realistically be an MLE player, but in this world where Parsons and Hayward are max players, I can see him cracking $10 mil AAV, which would be ridiculous. The Warriors should really go all in this season. They are probably losing either Lee or Iguodala, and possibly Green next year.

(5) The Rockets have decent depth. We were missing 5 of our top 10, yet we still went head-to-head with the hottest team in the league (admittedly missing their top two bigs). How we haven't lost more than 5 games is beyond me, even with the softer schedule. Hopefully we'll be back at or near full strength soon. I' can't wait to see how we fare against top Western competition then. Also, there is always a trade up in Morey's sleeves.

Go Rockets!

 

Good game by Harden and Dmo

lol @ the Warriors seriously team is overrated and just because they have the best record does NOT mean they are the best team.

Would love a 1st round matchup against them.

 

Actually, the Warriors have won a championship (admittedly, way back in the seventies).

 

I tend to think that the hate given to ESPN is generally ill founded or just jealousy on the part of Houston fans (let's face it, we have a chip on our shoulder). But this year I am really starting to see it as being well founded. The numerous digs on Harden's defense (they aren't watching our games) to this morning's by-line "Warriors rout Houston" (again, that game was anything but a "rout", i.e. they weren't watching), to the replacement of the Daily Dime with the Ten; all of these lead me to believe ESPN has just gotten lazy. I mean, they have seriously one of the most exciting jobs in the world, and they produce almost nothing of substance now.

Grantland would be smart to break away from them now and keep up the interesting and thoughtful work they do somewhere else.

 

I noticed that too when i read his comment but, those championships had nothing to do with this current squad so really, they haven't done anything yet.

 

So aren't we giving them any credit?

 

they're not much too handle with a short-handed team. just imagine when we get our whole team back and we clicking again. they will struggle.

 

As bad as I wanted to win last-night I'm not at all upset we wear down 5 key players and still almost pulled it out. I love the effort from us this year! Must win tonight though. Man the West is ridiculous this year