ClutchFans Game Thread: Hawks @ Rockets 12/20/2014

Not concerned with the loss. Just one game in a long season.

1. Atlanta is a good team and I thought they played well.
2. The Rockets missed a ton of layups. I give Atlanta some credit for defending the basket, but we missed a lot of shots right at the basket.
3. I usually don't complain about officiating, but there were some strange calls.
4. Surprised to see Nick Johnson in the game, but I trust the coaching staff when it comes to the rotation. Maybe Canaan isn't 100% healthy, maybe the coaches are seeing something in practice from Johnson that we haven't seen in the games. But, I don't have a problem with any of it. We may need to get a good idea of what Johnson is capable of before the trade deadline.

 

He did quite well against a much bigger Marc Gasol too. D-Mo is not an elite player, but he can get better with experience.

 

That Kyle Korver three near the end that pretty much sealed the deal....watch that possession again. That was all Hardens fault. He stayed on the offensive end and complained, and when it went in you could see Ariza throwing a fit probably being pissed at his teammates.

 

The officials made some bad calls. We lost this game.
It's just one game. No big deal. But it is disappointing that when we are coming into the season Dwight talks about how he has to stop complaining about calls and just run back on D, and Harden says he has to lead by example, and then a game like this happens.
Do it every game. Play every minute you're on the floor. Those two are responsible for the rockets wins and the rockets losses. Championship teams don't take games off. They don't take plays off.

 

This is why I hate when people get on me cuz I complain when Dwight's smiling. I just don't think our Houston teams ever got it. Tmac lacked the same competitiveness. The reason Jordan broke down crying after winning the championship was because he worked so hard every day, every game, he put so much of his life into it, it was a release for all the hard work. Not many people get it, or they don't care enough. We need more players that do.

 

I'm kind of getting tired of Harden having to go full blown MJ in order for us to win.

 

A guy like Dragic would really help.

We really need another guy that can just go for 20 points and doesn't need Harden to help get him those points.

 

dwiths postups, ariza and harden chucking 3s, ariza attacking the basket arent elite as well yet we waste so many possesions each game on this rotten plays...and the one play where you are guaranteed a great chance for scoring is neglected...dmo postups... we would have never won in minesota overtime were it not for harden to get his 6th foul and thus were forced to go to dmo... nor we would have won in denver ot if we didnt had to go to dmo in the ot...

 

that guy is already on the roster yet we were not feeding him the ball...

 

Question is, whose decision is it for not going to DoMo in the low block? McHale? Morey?
Making him camp in the 3? He's no Dirk, he's not ryan anderson, he's not brad miller.

 

Same. He was getting hacked on his drives in the 4th, but they didnt call it.

 

He is spacing the floor when he does not have the ball. But I agree that they were wrong to stop going to d-mo post ups. He made most of them.

Imo, this should be the majority of the rockets offense. Pick and roll, look for mismatch, pick and roll, look for mismatch, post up. Play inside out. If they do that they win. harden is crafty with his bounce passes and alley oops, and we have guys like canaan and maybe terry who can shoot well coming off the screen.

 

Has anyone made a video exposing those call from last night yet?

Play Canaan and give him the green light to break down the defense and shot at will. Stop passing the ball with those sorry curls on the perimeter giving it to our front court players and expecting them to break down the defense....only really Harden and Canaan can do that so far.

Post and DOUBLE POST Howard and DMo until the other teams double them and then make them pay with uncontested kick outs for 3s, or cuts to the baskets for power dunks from anyone that can actually finish a strong power dunk. Brewer, are you ready yet?

 

would you care to?

 

Video producing or editing is not my thing, otherwise I really would take the time to do it. I believe that exposing the refs for such a horrible job is about the best we can do as fans to call more attention to the problem.

 

The uncontested layups early on were the worst thing last night (outside of the officiating). Schroeder is really fast and he has a quick first step too. Since all of the Hawks bigs can shoot there was no one down low to help every time Beverley or someone else was beat. Shelvin Mack is fast too. I think the Rockets played the Hawks too tight. Sefolosha , Mack and Schroeder should have been sagged off a lot more. I thought Canaan would have played better defense against Schroeder because he is quicker and can stay in front of him. Having Brewer last night would have really helped. He would have known how to cheat off of Thabo all game and to help cut off guys on the drive to the basket. I don't know why the Rockets didn't try the zone last night when Mack and Thabo were in. I would live with a few uncontested jumpers over those layup they were getting. Just make sure the crap shooters shoot them.

We would have gotten more steals this way playing the passing lanes and more of the Hawks possessions would have resulted in semi-contested Thabo three pointers or desperation shots if he decides to drive it in.

The Rockets let the Hawks kill them in transition (in the first half mainly) as well. Ariza let Korver cherry pick way too much. When guys are cherry picking like that it means you are either not being found when you are wide open, or you're not cutting and moving enough on offense and making them chase you around. Trevor is just standing in one spot while Korver is sagging off, and the moment his man or someone else shoots he sprints down the court. It is also because we have our best transition defender (Ariza), along with our other wings, camped in the corners. You want your best transition defender at the top of the arc. He is the one who gets back first and makes sure that cherry picking doesn't happen all game. He can do it from the corners as well, and but he must always know where his man is at.

Brewer will help a ton with this. Ariza can finally get some rest too.

 

Yeah, that's exactly what this team has turned ibto.

Maybe the many injuries prevent chemistry from forming , but other teams are putting together the pieces while we are disassembling th em. Shved and brewer help from intangibles perspective, but we really need to get aggressive with dragic since rondo was passed up. And I think rondos going to be HUGE for dallas because of how cerebral he is.

 

That was one of the most disappointing results this season.
To come back from 16 down to equal/hit the lead - I really thought we were going to go on with it until Terry got called for that travel.
But it's the defence (or lack of it) that killed us allowing too many easy points in the paint.
December was always a tough month - just glad we're getting players back.

 

Harden can't go into God mode every game to bail us out. We haven't been playing good basketball since the Sacramento game.

Howard needed more shots tonight, he was killing it and making his free throws.

Everyone else played sub-par, except maybe Terry.

It's too bad we are still so far from Jones getting back, we could really use his offense.

Our offense is terrible and needs to improve if we want to win a playoff series.

 

And that's the good news. Still plenty of time to get bodies back, make additional trades (IF that happens) and time to gel.