'Houston’s shortcomings might have had more to do with mentality than pure talent'

More to do with coaching.

 

Harden is the coach.

DD

 

Yup, Warriors are very confident in what they do. They were just going through the motions for 3/4 of the game last night and the game was right there for the taking, that hurts the most and is definitely a mentality issue. The talent was there, just not the right mindset and confidence.

 

We need to scrap this ineffective (against GS) offensive philosophy where Harden dribbles the shot-clock out, heaves up a hero-shot, passes an ill-advised lob to Capela (what a waste of 90 million dollars) or passes it to someone with only 4 secs left and gives them little time to do anything. Also, this ISO-dominant basketball is sooooooooo boring to watch.

 

All layups + All three pointers = 0 finals

0 finals = 0 championships

 

It's really annoying when fans say Rockets need even more to compete. Naw man. Rockets had enough. Harden is just deficient mentally; his soul leaves his body when his legacy is on the line. I don't care about that stat line, when it time to win, he tells Clint to pass the ball to EGO.

I was tricked into thinking it finally clicked during that OT classic against GSW in the regular season. Harden won that game he had no business winning. Harden had multiple chances to take the series.

I don't care how many allstars GSW has, the series was still decided by a couple points. Rockets had enough. Greatness makes up the difference.

 

Mentally weak.........
it all started with the game 1 fiasco.
Got in their heads and doomed them.....

 

Should be 3-2 right now and we would have beat them in 6.

The league ****ed us game 1, and that ****ed the entire series for us.

 

Game 1 was absolutely rigged, if you disagree with this you're a Warriors fan, the rest of games have been pretty much perfect, one game in a best of seven series means a lot though.

 

Only after the Rockets complained about officiating. Ever since that first game, the refs even the bad ones were good.

 

I’m actually surprised this isn’t simply common knowledge at this point. It’s literally right in front of us. Collectively, as a team, and starting w Harden, we simply do not have the mental make up to finish.

We were talented enough to win 65 last yr. Talented enough to have the second best 2nd half this yr. Harden is talented enough to have just produced one of the greatest offensive seasons in history. We were good enough to be in every single game of this series, even winning 2 when gsw had KD. But all of a sudden, when it’s truly put up or shut up time, when you really need to rely on good decision making, good execution, and especially your MVP caliber player, this team, Harden especially, completely and totally collapses.

I know I’ve repeated this over and over again but that’s the ******* truth. I said the same last yr. I said the same thing after the spurs debacle. In a series as close as this, Harden, the guy who basically DEMANDED we lean on all damn season, committed more gaffes at critical times than anyone else.

Harden isn’t going anywhere, nor should he, but the notion that he can carry us on his shoulders is a fallacy based more on hope than reality. We need another star, a real tenacious type, and a new system that emphasizes Harden less. How we do that I have no clue. But that’s the only way we get there w this team.

 

Perfectly put. This would be perfect way to end a book about The Rockets playoff struggles.

 

thats the problem...
we need somebody who's not just trying to keep their job by not pissing off the stars - somebody who will actually coach the team - while not just allowing everybody to chuck 3's 24/7...

 

we're a team thats always looking for an angle or a shortcut - or an excuse....

as opposed to just doing the dirty work of boxing out and rebounding... running actual plays... working the ball around from early in the 24 looking for defensive lapses and opportunities...

 

I hear you, but the Rockets still failed to close out the 3 other games they lost. Can't blame the refs for that. If getting 1 game called very terribly can affect your will that badly then you didn't deserve to win.

 

Perhaps. But Rockets failed to seize the moment and played tentative in those 3 other losses down the stretch. You got to play to win. Warriors did that in those games.

 

"MIGHT"???? lol

 

I have always maintained that it's absolutely the coach's fault if the team has the wrong mentality and fails to live up to their talent level. In any sport.

So I think they're inseparable.

As for the article, it's another one of those obvious conclusions we've known about here for years. Oftentimes, I think we want to delude ourselves, but I don't know of too many here that would argue that, at any point in any season of the current era, the Rockets have felt like a team that really WANTED something.