He is being cautious coming off of quad injury. We would have seen a lot more dunks if he was healthy.
No we need westbrook. As much as i hate to say this we need him to be 100%. Look at Lebron and AD. The way they beat us was because we were not prepared to play at the pace they came at us with. They however could not sustain that. What we need is angry russel who wont settle for layups but dunk the ball instead. We need to take it another notch higher. Full head of steam both ends of the court. Be faster than them. Look at lebron huffing and puffing... we gotta beat their pace.
Common sense. The whole foundation of this team is built around having 2 unique superstars and all the mismatches and diversity that creates. They went 2-2 in the first round against a mediocre OKC team without Westbrook. They might be better for a half or a game without him, but they aren't winning 3 more series against the Lakers, Clippers, and Boston/Toronto without him. It's like people saying the Bucks should bench Giannis because they had a nice half without him yesterday.
Sitting him is not an option. Come on. 70 percent on him and 30 percent on the coach. His strength is his attacking ability when the defense has to guard the priemeter. He needs to be patient to pick the timing to attack. The bone headed drive through the traffic is not acceptable. On the other hand, you gotta channel his energy into stuff positive on the court. I was very frustrated to see coach just let him screw up the game by not taking him out in the early 4th. That was the time you sit him down and tell him calm down a little and play controlled. It’s like managing his emotions. This is on coach.
I don’t think he is 100 percent. But he is still very capable. It’s those turn overs and jacking up 3s that hurt us. That I don’t think has to do with him not being 100 percent. Him not being able to produce may still hurt us, but at least night we actually just needed him not to screw it up. We were very much in the game despite his negatives.
They are still going home. Giannis is not their problem. It’s the match up. You wish Giannis was the MVPee everyone said he was to take the game over. But he clearly isn’t. It’s the expectation.
I don't understand why this is so hard for coaches to do!!!! Why can us couch coaches see it And not them?? Rocket River
That was indeed so frustrating. Russ had 5 fouls and was playing out of control. In such an in-game unexpected circumstance, he still stuck to his normal rotation to play Russ through that period to lose the lead. There is a fine line between believing in what got us here and won us G1, and reconizing the situation and make quick decisions. Russ should have been sit to save him for the last a few minutes in the game, put Harden in early. Sure, that would screw up the normal rotation, but that was so obvious.
Probably so. And yet, if he's healthy for Game 5, they should and will run him out there again, because the alternative is insanely stupid.
He’s not going to flat out benched, or removed from the starting line up... come on. He could go 0-15 next game, and he will still be in the starting 5 for game 4. (But we will be down 1-2) That being said, I do expect D’Antoni to read the situation (which, it seems, he doesn’t do well). Remember back in 2015 vs the Clippers? Kevin McHale didn’t bring James back in, when the bench was making that ridiculous run in game 6 to get us back into the game. He went with the flow of the game, understanding that the group on the floor was playing significantly better (at the time) without Harden. The team wasn’t better without Harden, but in that instance, he kept him on the bench and went with the “hot hand”, so to say. The Rockets were playing better yesterday without Westbrook, so I wouldn’t have brought him back in so quickly in the 4th. Let it play out, see how the flow of the game is without him. The Rockets seemed in-sync offensively, and it felt like Westbrook was just on his own planet, in his own space. When Westbrook was back in the game, I almost hoped he would foul out, so the decision was taken out of couch’s hands.
I think Russ has PTSD from getting dunked on and repeatedly blocked by Lebron so he's a bit hesitant out there. Reduce the time their on the court together and increase Russ' minutes whenever Lebron is off the floor.
The problem with Russ is he's ALWAYS been a choker, low IQ player. We saw this in OKC. He chucks shots even though they are not falling. He turns the ball over by playing out of control. If you equate that to "passion" and "fire" then go for it. In playoffs, it's all about possession basketball. By playing out of control and not hitting your jump shots, you're not getting us any possessions. In fact, you're giving the opposing team many many opportunities.
he has to play. we arent going very far without him, but he has to be under control. we dont win game 7 against okc without him.
Don't be an idiot OP. If it weren't for Westbrook keeping us in Game 1, Rockets would be down 0-2 thanks to James Frauden.
Beginning to look like one expensive decoy...... Westbrick does not need to be camping out at the 3pt line. He needs to go to the rack and attack / dish it out. Those should be his only options... And stop with the boneheaded turnovers! Hopefully he makes the adjustments
my god harden is the most unfortunate superstar.... all his support stuff start playing inexplicably bad all the time, while other superstar supporting cast always have surprisingly great games like markief the other night
