ClutchFans Game Thread: Pacers @ Rockets 1/19/2015

We are so blessed to have a player like Harden. He's amazing. Nice game from Howard, too.

 

Make a mini run? Time for the beard.

 

stream went out before I could tell... So why did everybody crap on Josh Smith? What did he do?

 

No we wont. Brewer can fill right in, and Papa will have to play more minutes. I feel that Brewer was going to start eventually.

 

Good bounce back game. Pay back time Wed.!

 

Pretty sure he just got nailed in the sweet spot. He's not gonna miss time.

 

Of course Harden is freakin amazing but why did the opponent team come back so easily against the Rockets?

 

Harden with another super-saiyan performance. Dude is unbelievable.

Dwight looks like he has had a lot better body language lately and has been bringing "good Dwight" consistently for a few games. Meanwhile, Ariza continues to play stellar defense and D-Mo continues to do all the little things on offense and defense.

That being said, if we have to regularly depend on Harden to drop ~50 to beat scrub teams like the Pacers, we have issues.

The team defense has regressed a lot as a whole. Someone in the thread mentioned that a lot of team's are getting easy lay-ups against us before the defense is set. This is completely true. Our team does not get back in transition well enough.

Other than that, Beverley still looks meh. The need for a better PG gets more evident with each passing game.

Smith looks terrible. This is compounded by the fact that he basically takes the second most shots on the team a lot of times. I really don't want to see this knucklehead jump in the air with nowhere to go anymore. I really don't want to see him taking away shots from D-Mo and hell...anyone else.

Speaking of D-Mo. He's been having a bad stretch of games lately. He's rushing his shot and his post moves again and it's not working well for him. It's crazy though that even in this "slump" for him he's still putting up pretty good stats at 50% fg shooting.

 

Brewer was never going to start over Ariza. The defensive difference between the two is night and day.

Never got into the Brewer starting over Ariza movement. His role is perfect as it is now, come in and push the pace and get shots up.

 

Harden 45 points on 16 shots and Smith 6 points on 11 shots. Yikes.

 

Another Beard Bailout... That second unit was hot garbage tonight as opposed to a lot of other nights when they have held or extended leads weird...

Wish I had a lot of faith that we could go out and beat the Warriors next.

 

There's a reason why Josh Smith has never been an All-Star. It's because he isn't a star. He just takes star-like amount of shots.

 

Tell me again how Harden isn't the MVP? He literally carries us.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>James Harden's 33 2nd half points are most he's ever scored in a half in career. Prev: 31 vs. Portland on 12/22.</p>&mdash; Jenny Dial Creech (@jennydialcreech) <a href="https://twitter.com/jennydialcreech/status/557343340744556544">January 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Sure could have used that the other night (or maybe Wednesday vs. Golden State)

 

This is a lottery team without the Beard

 

I finally think people are starting to figure this out. We are not as talented add many think

 

Unfortunately, steph curry gets it because his team is amazing.

 

This is a championship contender with the bearded Pops/Phil/Karl

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Harden w/ 40 pts on 11-16 FG. His 4th 40-pt gm this season. Leads <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBA?src=hash">#NBA</a>. LeBron, Lillard, Klay T each w/ 2. 12 other players w/ 1 such game.</p>&mdash; Adam Wexler (@awexler) <a href="https://twitter.com/awexler/status/557339599337295874">January 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Rockets win! Beat Pacers 110-98 behind a season-high 45 points from James Harden. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBABallot?src=hash">#NBABallot</a> <a href="http://t.co/Y6Nqp4b2rb">pic.twitter.com/Y6Nqp4b2rb</a></p>&mdash; Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/557340622504202241">January 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Dwight Howard making free throws is becoming a thing. He has made 20-24 (83.3%) over the last 5 games.</p>&mdash; ClutchFans (@clutchfans) <a href="https://twitter.com/clutchfans/status/557311377837023232">January 19, 2015</a></blockquote>
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