Looks like I picked the wrong game to see live. One of the worst performances of the season by the Rockets. Nothing will be as pathetic as the New Orleans debacle, but this was pretty close considering it was a home game and the Suns are a weaker opponent than the Pelicans. No effort on defense until the 4th when it was too late since they'd already spotted Phoenix a 13 point lead. Lazy offense with bad passes, too many 3's, and an unbelievable number of blown layups(especially by Brewer). P-sspoor rebounding by D-Mo. And an unmotivated Harden. I just hope Smith is ok. We cannot afford to lose another big man given our horrible rebounding numbers lately. The good news is that Portland is racking up injuries too. They already lost Matthews and now Aldridge and Batum are banged up. So we could still hold onto the 3rd seed depending on what the Clippers and Spurs do over the next few weeks. Of course that assumes the Rockets don't have another game like this one.
Playing down to the opponents' level ... Only one explanation for the inconsistency: the rotation guys are tired and perhaps want to coast for the playoffs, esp. after they heard McHale said that rest is overrated. They took it upon themselves to rest on the court. Only problem is Suns will roll over and die.
Haven't beaten decent opponent since the Clippers game and that was only because Griffin was rusty and that they were missing Crawford.
Harden's shot is broken right now and it's been like that since the all star break. Hopefully this trend ends soon, I rather him get in a slump now than in the payoffs.
No harm in giving 8-10 minutes to McDaniels. He is an athletic defender if nothing else. If he can hold the fort, for a while, Harden might be able to catch his second wind.
I agree with the sentiment. One man cannot be depended on when it comes to putting his team in a home court advantage in the playoffs type situation...a top 5 record in the league at that. Much less a finals trip or a championship. Harden needs help. He has off games, but the dude is rolling out there with multiple guys injured/sitting on the bench. The Beard deserves some room for error, especially with the weight he's been pulling. We'll see what the playoffs bring.
i'm not gonna sit here and read endless pages of sky-is-falling types so pardon me if these things have been said: -i'd argue our "bigs" problem is probably more pressing than PG/playmaker. jones could have probably closed that five-point gap we had in the fourth, but alas. d-mo's rebounding is a huge, huge hole. we need our seven-footer to get more than THREE rebounds in a game, especially against a team that's not particularly big/intimidating in the paint like phoenix. -related, it's still stressful that offense halts if harden is having an off night. ariza and smith are our defensive specialists. bev is bev. d-mo has been a question mark for a month. brewer is the guy consistently doing it on offense, but we essentially can't have one guy (harden) doing it all for the starters and then another guy (brew) doing it for the second unit. we need more fluidity. tl, dr: tough loss, but not the end of the world. the memphis+portland stretch still hurt the most to me. if jones plays we probably win; if ariza sinks threes at opportune times we probably win. move on, and don't let the pacers intimidate us on monday. attack hibbert, find the holes in their offense, and make them pay. good bounce-back win opportunity.
Meh...Rockets would rather have Suns in the Playoffs than OKC or Pelicans. Can't understand why Harden was still sitting once we got within 5...??? Also, looks like Dwight might be back next game...
Assist of the night - Donatas Motiejunas Steal of the night - Corey Brewer Dunk of the night - Josh Smith Rockets lose, but we are in more than half highlights smh
I would not hold your breath on DMO getting much more than 3 rebounds. Dude is a finesse player. He needs to hit the weight room HARD to ever sniff being a power player. Hell, go look at Manute Bol's stat line. He was 7'7"
