Lowe: ...He's an underrated coach. If he were not Kevin McHale, if he were a coach with a more cerebral reputation, people would look at Houston's offense and say "That's a coach staying out of the way. He's not over complicating it. He's letting superstar talent be superstar talent" instead of "They don't run anything". The narrative would be different. Houston could use more stuff and could use another ball handler to have more stuff. Their offense has been hit or miss but they're a game away from the conference finals. I can't believe it but they're there.
I'm not raining on this incredible Rocket win, but there is truth to this. Seeing their misses for sure must have fueled us more. If this is a coaching effect of closing out on them faster than we had been earlier in the series, then great, let's do it again! If it's a fatigue issue for the Clippers, I hope that continues too! But they definitely had what looked like open, decently in-rhythm jumpshots available
I was wondering if their bench would come back to reality as the series wore on. Austin Rivers is not the player he was in Games 1, 3, and 4. I'm sorry, but everyone knows it, even Austin and Daddy. Crawford is streaky and has certainly lit up the Rockets in the past, but he's also had far more bad shooting nights than good in the postseason and dude is 35 years old. I don't know how reliable a 6th man he can be at this stage of his career. Big Baby looks hurt and worn down. And Spencer Hawes makes the occasional basket and then does nothing the rest of the time(kinda like T-Jones for us when he's having a bad game). Meanwhile, the Rockets bench cannot possibly continue to play as poorly as it had through the first 4 games. Smith(starting or not) can't be expected to play as well as he did vs the Mavs, but he's better than the scrub we saw earlier in the series. Same with Brewer. And now that McHale is back to trusting Capela in the backup center role in the last 2 games, he's contributing as well. If those 3 play as well as they're capable, there's no contest between the respective benches. And when that happens, Paul and Griffin are forced to log heavy minutes and are spent by the time the 4th quarter rolls around which is exactly what happened in Games 5 and 6.
I think the 4th quarter was great, and I hope they win the title, but I still think he should be replaced by a more disciplinarian x's and o's defensive coach. This team's defensive breakdowns have been in large part effort related (not his fault), but schematically have been wrong for much of the series. We'll see what happens the rest of the way. I don't think Dwight should guard Blake more (to prevent tiring himself out), but he needs to vacate the rim area more when DeAndre can just screen with abandon for Redick and Crawford. If either of those guys start hitting, you have to either strong show immediately on the high PnR and scramble on the back end, or have Dwight start off on Blake like in the 4th q of this last game.
Yes. This defensive sequence was absolutely beautiful. Source: http://uproxx.com/dimemag/2015/05/r...clippers-with-crunch-time-run-for-the-ages/2/
Yeah, I watched that on slow-mo replay like 5 times. Trevor was actually supposed to stay on Redick's hip, but Crawford moving screened Trevor. Actually, it was more of a 2-hand shove, but the refs missed it. That missed offensive foul caused Trevor to lose balance and forced him to shoot the gap, which Jordan made even harder with another screen. Credit Trevor big-time to recover enough to force Redick to pass on the corner 3. Once Redick repositioned, the mad scramble was on. Josh did a great job stepping out prevent the elbow 3 (Terry also helps and manages to get back to Paul on this). Then Trevor covered DeAndre for Josh. Dwight does a good job of hedging to stop CP3 penetration and recovering to force the tough layup attempt by Blake on the roll. And by then Josh and Ariza already quickly switched back, leaving Josh to protect the rim. Brewer even did a great job collapsing on DeAndre to prevent the offensive rebound, or at least foul. Brewer was doing that all 4th.
i guess the point of strategy and being an actual coach, is to do something that may seem unconventional and may not make sense in the hopes it works... for him have the balls to keep harden off the bench meant he evaluated his decisions properly and chose with more basketbal coaching intelligence than us.... THATS WHY HES THE COACH
Some fans just don't appreciate anything. Every time we win it's because the opponent was lacking something. Now I'm reading the Clippers bench is weak. But that bench outplayed our bench in games 3 and 4. In the Dallas series Parsons was out, Rondo quit and etc. I know Mchale isn't the best coach but last night and game 5 he outcoached Rivers period. He still makes mistakes but every coach does. Give the man props for making sure his team fights through all the adversity that we encountered.
How does the fact that the Clippers don't have a strong bench mean that people don't appreciate the win? The reason why some of you are always mad is because you assume someone is hating when they are just telling the truth. We are all Rockets fans here put the claws away.
Never, ever. Those who wished the Rockets to loose game 5 and then game 6 so they could build momentum in their hate campaign to fire McHale will forever see claws. They don't deserve one ounce of respect. The saddest fans weren't Clippers fans...they were the McHale haters.
Only Kevin McHale is capable of getting Josh Smith to play like Josh Smith thinks Josh Smith plays like. I believe.
Mad lol too comical. Assuming, no sir, you have talked down on Mchale since he became our coach. Now you're making up excuses for the Clippers, thinking that suppose to validate this nonsense you keep spewing. Man get real. We just witness one of the greats come backs in NBA history. So instead of arguing your mute point about McHale's coaching. How about you sit back and enjoy this historic run. Oh that weak bench helped send the mighty Spurs home fishing in the 1st round. Lol
There have been some really good posts in this thread in support of the coach... I'll add a few random thoughts as my 1 cent... would have been 2 cents but with inflation and all... heck, may not even be worth a penny. First off, I think the catch-phrase "x's and o's," is overblown.k Most of basketball is not Rocket science (pun noted) and no matter how much theory one may possess, a coach is limited by the personnel/players at his disposal. No NBA team has a single coach doing it all. They all have coaching staffs. There is usually more than enough x's and o's within that staff to discuss and decide on a a game plan. Then it is up to the players to do their best to implement the plan. Does anyone think for an instant that players would stand by idle if they thought their coach was giving them a bad game plan? Coaches who had NBA careers -- especially ones who were acknowledged by their peers as a great player (McHale being one of the 50 greatest players) will have as a starter with any group of players, respect for his career as a player. Respect is the foundation of positive player response to what a coach asks of his players. Admittedly, some players don't have the demeanor or communication skills to be successful head coaches. That can put a damper on the relationship for sure. But that is why the term "players coach," is very meaningful and not at all a derogatory characterization. The sense I get from McHale (and I felt the same from Rudy T) is that he genuinely loves the players, meets them on their level and lets them be themselves as much as possible within any game plan. They in turn, respect and love him/her back. I thought real genius in last night's Game 6 on McHale's part was not x's and o's. It was his comment to the team during one time out, "Hey guys, this is basketball which you've played most of your life and love. Relalx and have fun." That was equally as important as sensing when Harden needed a break. His sense was that the players were forcing too much and making mistakes and missing shots because of it. Only a player who loved the game and has been in their shoes could say that with the same import. And that is really the main job of a head coach -- sensing the game trend and what is going on inside the players on the floor. The x's and o's are discussed during practice before a game and specifically plays get called during timeouts. And most of the time you don't see staff coaches drawing up plays during timeouts, it's usually the head coach. And yes, coaches make mistakes in calling or drawing up plays. Ditto for plays that the coach yells out as the players run up and down the court. That is usually an on-the-fly critique of what needs to be done. No. x's and o's are really a much smaller part of a head coach's job. He is much more like a conductor of la symphony who knows what the piece being played should sound like and helps the orchestra to get on "his" page. And respect and love for the conductor will always bring out the best in the players in both cases. I've posted a couple of times that this group hasn't played together for even a whole season. And the number of lineup changes has been quite challenging. I would submit that the success the Rockets have had under those circumstances are mostly due to the environment engendered by coach McHale. We all can feel when someone genuinely cares for us. I don't think there is any better example of that dynamic than the response that McHale has gotten from Josh Smith. When McHale talks about players his face relaxes and he gets a smile on his face saying "what a great kid... I really like working with him. The loss of D-Mo for the playoffs has been quite huge, I think. Clint Capela may not even have been called up from D-league if D-Mo is playing. But the fact that he was and is getting minutes in important games in the playoffs shows just how well McHale senses his players' abilities but also how much trust he has and gets from players. When anyone gives that kind of respect to another person, that trust and caring is repaid by the effort it deserves. JVG was criticized for not giving "rookie" players, with promise, a chance at significant minutes to "develop." I'm not sure any other coach in the NBA would put a 19 year-old player, who had spent pretty much the whole season in the D-league into important games at the end of the season. Capela was overwhelmed and humiliated by his initial minutes of playing time with the team -- especially missing so many FTs consecutively. Then, to tell that same player during the playoffs, "Get ready, your in the rotation"... that interaction, given the context of Capela's experience is what inspires me and makes me understand McHale on a different level than just basketball knowlege, which he has despite what some believe. Les Alexander didn't make his decision to extend McHale's contract to 3 years on a whim or infatuation. I think we all sense that he is a very hands on owner in his own way -- not necessarily like Mark Cuban, but still caring as deeply. I think the performance of the team through all its injuries plus his observation that it was a question of getting the most from a bad hand was more than x's and o's. It was the special ability of a player whom Charles Barkley said was the toughest player he ever played against, to lead the players to "catch" his mentality and heart and love for basketball and how it should be played. For those who haven't read the Wiki entry about Kevin McHale, you'll find it at least interesting and informative, if not inspirational. You might also note some interesting playoff parallels that might portend.
