Mac: Didn't move the ball. We missed a few shots. Part their D, part we didn't move the ball. Ball gotta pop and move. Give them credit. Took us out of our game. Couldn't sustain anything in 2nd half. We had coverage breakdowns, bigs weren't up tight enough to bother the PnR. Got stagnant with the ball. Dwight played well. All our bigs gotta play better. Dwight looked OK. They played better than we did. We didn't do our game plan well at certain times. A lot of mistakes. Some teams you can get away with it. Against that team, they make you pay. Out-hustled us all night long.
Regarding Mchale playing Terry on Parker, he really doesn't have much option either. Prig did not do much better on Parker too. if you believe Nick Johnson can do a better job, yes it could, but first of all, he can't shoot and he actually is not a good ball handler as Prig.
He had plenty of options man. Option 1: TRY Nick Johnson, just try it because JET was completely...completely ineffective. Parker was at a practice gym today. There has to be SOME resistance. No matter how great the other player is there has to be some push back. Option 2: Play Harden at Point and try a longer defender on him like Brewer/Ariza. It works some nights. Option 3: Hey...double him.
Man, I don't know about that. Yeah, I see picks, I see occassionally Harden is used as decoy, I see some weak side actions, pin downs, yes I see all of those. I see they run, and you may say we can live with that by taking that risk. But in the end, all of these feel like ... we are not going to win anything come playoff time. Some commentator alluded that McHale never struck him that he would be a good coach the other day, I forgot who, because he was never a vocal leader on the Celtics team. You need that leadership to cut crap out when Josh forces it, when Corey forces it, when James half azzing, not encouraging it instead. That's how I see. Now the Spurs have been playing good basketball. But do you really think we played well against OKC or the Mavs. The same shiatty stuff were on display throughout the season. The difference is we won sometimes, for sure loses to a good team like the Spurs.
Hit the 3 at 40% and decent assists and only 13 turnovers Just couldn't play a lick of defense it seems
Yeah, people need to chill about Terry playing over Johnson. Nick ain't gonna get many minutes cuz he can't shoot. If he ever develops a decent jumper, he'll work his way into the rotation. Now that being said, you can still defend against Parker. But you have to do it as a team.
With all due respect to Terry, he needs to be kept on the bench. Start Nick Johnson. He's young, athletic and is a keen defender. He can keep up with guys like Parker, Conley, Paul, etc. Pablo Picasso still has some juice left in in him and he is an ACTUAL PG. If you want to play a big who can't shoot FTs, at least play the one who can catch lobs and is seven feet tall. Johnson/Prigioni Harden Ariza/Brewer Jones/Smith Howard/Capela It may not be the best squad in the Southwest but damnit it'll give us a chance at least.
Man, such a frustrating loss. Had us losing this game anyway before the game, but to see us play so well most of the first half and then just implode and mail it in in the 2nd half was infuriating. We can't just get so damn rattled when the other team goes on a run, it's gonna happen in the playoffs. We simply stopped playing hard, I don't understand it. What the heck is wrong with TJones? Probably his worst game as a starter maybe even including last season. Terry and Brewer were also total no-shows today, c'mon guys the playoffs are about to start, everyone needs to play hard. Just a really disappointing effort. We're basically playing for HCA on Friday. Probably need to win out if we want a chance at the 2 seed.
Nick Johnson and KJ McDaniels had more fight than some of the starters. Papa seems still slow. Give Nick and KJ spot minutes going forward.
A theory on the key to teams that have post season success to those that don't: - hustling/playing on that full adrenaline rush Teams like the Spurs don't use that to win until later in the regular season and post-season which reflects in them "shifting up a gear". I.e. skills and fundamentals have the Spurs winning in the regular season, but adrenaline really kicks in and they focus for the last 1/4 of games and the playoffs. Teams like our Rockets win regular season games from season's beginning itself on the adrenaline rush. There's not enough 'non-rush' wins during the season that are entirely based on solid fundamentals (in terms of plays, player assignments, and spacing). It's a difficult thought to express, so putting it another way: Rockets try to play with a playoff mentality through the season, there's no edge left for them to implement in that last part of the season or playoffs That's the beauty of Popovich's coaching, and possibly even Doc Rivers' coaching Not sure how the Rockets can develop that attitude or change in their preparation
The same goes to KJ also, if he can just shoot at a normal rate or even slightly below average, he should at least get some playing time of late consider Brewer has been pretty bad lately. When you can not shoot, its a liability in this offense. When Harden drive, either he can finish it, or draw a foul, otherwise your responsibility is to catch and shoot and run back to defense.
Some teams can kick it into another gear... some teams can't. The 90's Rockets literally coasted in some regular season games, but decided to turn it on when it mattered. Hell, the 93 team that started 22-1 could have easily won 60 games, but they often got lackadaisical during the regular season. There's quite a few teams in league history that consistently have great regular seasons and have very little playoff success.... in all eras.
The Spurs have a rock solid foundation of fundamental team basketball on top of which to add that "adrenaline rush." The Rockets built their house on sand. You can't turn the dial to eleven when you don't have 1-8 on the dial.
We had 3 days off to prepare and look at how we played... that tells me all I need to know about Mchale and his gameplan.
