When it comes down to it you have to blame the coach for letting Harden be a ball hog and not reigning him in. He allows him to play selfish ball. I've said it a thousand times, and I will continue to say it as long as James is running the show....."STOP TAKING SO MANY 3 POINT SHOTS!!!!!!!" He lost that game for us, plain and simple. The guy D'Antonio lets run the show gave that game away last night. There is no reason James should ever take 15 shots from behind the arc.......EVER! He is our WORST 3 pt shooter in the playoffs, yet thinks he can take twice as many shots as everyone else. James is only shooting .283 from behind the arc. Trevor was 3-8, Ryno 3-6 and Bev 5-7 last night, so why oh why oh why did James take 15 shots? I blame him and I blame the coach for not getting in his face and telling him to stop it!!! This is the James I can't stand to watch, and get sick of people defending. This is the James everyone shouts MVP about, yet kills us in important playoff games with his selfish and careless plays. This is the selfish James that stands there dribbling forever, and waits until the last second to take a 3 pt shot, and does it over and over. This is the James that stands there dribbling forever, takes a few steps, then throws it out to someone at the last second for them to rush a shot. This is the James that showed up last night, and continued to make terrible sloppy passes over and over again. Now is the time to get real, wake up and smell the coffee after a disgusting disappointing game we should have and could have won. People need to stop making excuses for James, and quit blaming everyone else. We are losing games because he takes so many 3 pt shots and has so many turnovers. This is not the time for throwing the ball away more times than the entire other team. Yes, James had 2 more turnovers than the entire Spurs team. James' 9 turnovers and 15 shots from behind the arc cost us the game, plain and simple. I bet if James was benched in the overtime we would have won the game. That's my opinion, but I am sure there will be people who will disagree. D'Antonio needs to reign in Harden and find a way to fix this mess or we are done. He can't let him keep playing selfish, slow, and careless ball. James isn't perfect. He is still young, still learning, and needs to be coached. He has a lot of great skills, but a lot of bad habits. He is young, and is still capable of breaking bad habits, learning from mistakes, and getting much better. He just needs to be reigned in, coached better, and benched more when he reverts to slow, sloppy selfish play. Maybe then we will have a chance in these playoffs. It will be an uphill battle now, but we are capable of doing this. If our guys can put in more effort towards the offensive rebounds it will help. There is no reason to have so many guys warming a bench the whole game.Heck, throw in some bench guys for couple minutes here and there to give our starters a couple minutes to rest, get coached on any needed changes, regroup, refresh, and come back in supercharged. If the coach can find a way to use our bench better we might have a chance. That's a lot of ifs, but I haven't given up hope. I'm not giving up yet, and I know we can do this. We can't go down without a fight. Go Rockets!!!!
I'm ok with a few of those dribble/3PA, but lets just stick to what works: MDA's offense. Every time we move away from it, we suffer. The one time Harden drove, kicked it to Bev, it worked. From the article I read yesterday: Keep running McHale/JBB's isolation "play", get the same results. Maybe Harden was tired, but so was everyone else. This is when champions step up.
Blames D'Antoni while telling people to stop making excuses for James. QUIT BLAMING Kevin & Mike! LOL at anyone who thinks McHale or D'Antoni can "reign in" Harden. Maybe Pop?
If he can't be coached then we should just trade him, use Bev or Gordon as point guard, and get another superstar at Center or Forward. James is still young, is not perfect, still makes mistakes, and is capable of actually getting better and being coached.
Pop hates perimeter ball-dominant type players. Kobe, Iverson, Harden, Wade, Westbrook, Melo... all these guys could never fit in with Pop's system. The only elite guys that would work well would be Butler, George, Anthony Davis, KAT, Leonard, Curry, maybe LeBron and KD... Basically guys who are cool with getting yelled at and not playing full quarters at a time because they're wants are inferior to the coach's. Harden would basically glued to 6th man status when he's unable to live up to Pop's defensive demands.
u make it sound so easy...there are only 3 or 4 players in the NBA that are better than Harden, the Rockets could go another decade without getting a player on his level
I wondered if the **** show we were watching down the stretch was MDA's plan - or James going rouge... I have to believe the latter... It's like I posted elsewhere... the organization shouldnt sell its soul to 1 player. harden is a tremendous talent - but he aint MJ, he aint Kobe and he aint LeBron - those are the only guys in recent history that should have the 'control' that James has... Kawhi doent run the Spurs, Curry and KD arent in charge in GS... We have basically given james the keys to the candy store... Bobby Brown played well the other night - but we all know he's on the roster bc of James (not the coach or GM)... James undoubtedly has input as to who gets on the floor... James decides who gets the ball (as he decided not to give it Howard previously...) Harden has the pull to get coaches fired... so how can a coach get in his face about D or pull him for lack of effort? It's James' team and if you arent willing to bow to him yer gone - D12, KJ, Josh.... so we get a bunch of guys who either pander to harden or are willing to swallow their tongue - which aint good. We need a team of guys pushing each other - not worrying about staying in james' good graces... In the end, i blame it on Morey... great at numbers - but zero understanding of people... First he had no appreciation for the need for quality coaching... He seemed to have no concept for team chemistry... Now, he probably doesnt even realize the monster he's created by coddling Harden and giving him such control... James is a very talented player - but he needs to be treated like a player - not the GM and not the coach... it's called undermining your coach - and it results in a disjointed mess... This crap would never happen under Pops... jus sayin...
Dantoni should have called timeout after this happened twice in a row. He should have told them to move the ball around then if harden still held on to the ball, then he would have to answer to his team mates. I'm pretty sure Gordon could have got open if he got to touch the ball
Dantoni should have called timeout after this happened twice in a row. He should have told them to move the ball around then if harden still held on to the ball, then he would have to answer to his team mates. I'm pretty sure Gordon could have got open if he got to touch the ball
I don't blame Dantonio for James' ball hogging, I blame him for being a dumb coach, the team went 2-7 from three in overtime, you wanna know how many two pointers they took, none. That mean Dantonio saw how bad they were shooting, saw how tired they were and instructed them to keep shooting. I understand a game like last night's was a game Nene would dominate but he's down and good coaches make adjustments. Aimlessly jacking up a shitload of threes is not an offensive philosophy
