ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Spurs 12/28/2014

Disappointing loss.

 

I hate these types of loses just like every other fan here. But utlimately these are the type of loses that will make us stronger for the playoffs. We need to experience some of this adversity so that we can come together as a team and work out these issues before the playoffs.

I still think we are 1 player away from seriously competing/winning the championship this year with all the time we have left to gel. That player can be Dragic,(or hold your breath) CAANAN if given the opportunity, or another PG that Morey has up his sleeve.

 

Refs were so desperate to call those offensive fouls on Harden.

 

Fundamentals --> coaching / standards

 

It's like there is a secret memo out to reduce Harden's free throw attempts. Conspiracy to make sure he doesn't win MVB.

 

Criticizing is different than simply just saying he sucks. He does not suck. You can't expect him to hit every big shot. Even the greatest players turned the ball over in crunch time. It doesn't make him an idiot.

Bev got elbowed on a screen and he flopped (maybe he really got hurt, I don't know) and they didn't call it. Anytime Tiago made the slightest contact with Dwight he fell down and the refs rewarded it.

I know the NBA is not this soft, I watched the playoffs. The refs are just never consistent and like to pick on Howard.

 

Here's exactly what to make of this game:

 

F***. I could not watch the live stream without hearing the Spurs broadcasters. Rockets should have won this game; it was that close. If Harden is not executing, should have given the ball to D12.

Good they have another game today. Put this loss behind them. Stomp on them Wizards...

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Rockets shot 40 percent on uncontested shots tonight and watching the game, that matches up with what I’m seeing. Great ball movement</p>&mdash; Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/549438803543224320">December 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Tough one. Watching the game it seemed like we were better team but we kept kicking ourselves with silly mistakes.

Harden farted out decent stats, but didn't seem focused enough down the stretch, in the 4th quarter he didn't have the ball enough IMO, and the times he did have it he made lots of careless turnovers. He had a very quiet 28 points I should say.

Howard had a great game, and I thought he should have gotten a LOT more touches in the 2nd half, he had it rolling tonight.

Smith started the game very well, then completely self-destructed in like a two minute stretch in the 2nd quarter. Really weird turnovers, seemed to be unsure of himself and how he fit into the offense, trying to hard. In the 2nd half he seemed very discouraged and was basically invisible.

Tough shooting nights from Beverley and Terry, lots of open looks just couldn't knock them down. Hard to win when two of your best three point shooters have such terrible nights.

We played too sloppy tonight, still were in a good position early in the 4th, just fell apart.

 

That was our point guards, basically. We'll be alright.

 

We played some of our sloppiest ball of the season (I'm looking at you, Harden), couldn't hit the side of a barn (I'm looking at you, Bev, Josh, Jet & Ariza), and couldn't make FTs to save our lives (I'm looking at you, Dwight and Joey) -- after integrating a new starter with 72 hours and a single practice under his belt. And we lost by a whopping 4 points on the road. Sorry, but I'm not ready to jump out of a window just yet.

I know it's par for the course, but I hate how incredibly knee-jerky this place gets after every loss. Yes, it's disappointing and it sucks we probably won't go 74-8 the rest of the way. But Jesus. After all of the games he's won us almost singlehandedly, Harden sucks because he didn't have another clutch performance in him. After being our only consistent 3-point shooter for the first half of the season, Bev has a cold shooting night and should be traded. Not even 48 hours after being celebrated for powering us to the W in Memphis, the Josh Smith signing is an abysmal mistake because of all the long 2s and 3s people insist he took, even though the video box score is proof that isn't true. This squad is undeniably deeper and far more talented than it was just a week ago -- but no, let's not give them more than one practice before throwing them under a bus and backing it up over 'em -- just blow the whole thing up and tank for Okafor. We lost a game, after all!

Sheesh. Hopefully tomorrow is a better showing, but I'm willing to be patient and see if some of the inevitable kinks get worked out.

 

repped for optimism, this team is stacked with talent. And adding another talented piece such as Smith takes time to integrate into an offense starring two studs such as Harden and Dwight.

Come playoff time this game will just be an after thought. I have hope the Rockets will be a top three seed wrecking teams left and right.

 

I'm confused by this

 

I think we have all the talents, its just how to gel under certain situations with new players on the team and make the right plays. They will figure it out with time. Im sure they will come back better tmrw.

 

Based on his followup tweets, I think he was saying our ball movement got us a lot of open/uncontested looks -- we just weren't knocking them down.

 

Oh ok, got it thanks.

 

Ariza and Terry missed a lot of shots they ought to have hit. Their role on offense is to knock down open threes but they've been kinda crap at it lately from what I've seen. Ironically, Brewer was the only one hitting his open shots, but he cooled off in the 4th quarter, so...

 

+ Bev.

 

The Rockets won the Memphis game that they probably should have lost, and lost a game vs. the Spurs that they probably should have won. Both games were on the road against stud opponents so I call this a small victory.

One thing that must be understood about the Rockets is that they play a high variance game, because of all the 3's. When they miss a bunch of wide open ones, we lose normally, but the important thing is we got good looks and normally those fall. The officiating wasn't great but we should all know by now that we're not the most fortunate team in that dept.

Popovich really got us on Hack-a-Dorsey and he really is unplayable once teams start figuring out they can use that tactic once the Rockets are in the bonus. Fortunately the Mavs also have that same problem and I wouldn't be surprised to see Pop use that tactic at some point on Rondo.