ClutchFans Game Thread: Sixers @ Rockets 10/30/2017

The only player that's winging it is Ryan Anderson.

-Cstyle42

 

A few thoughts from tonights game and the early part of the season:

1. I love the additions of Prince Luc and Tucker, but it now seems with them added that Ariza serves almost no purpose. All three of them can't play significant minutes bc they aren't good enough on offense. (Well they can but in a D'Antoni offense it's a terrible idea)

2. Ariza jacks up the most off balance, fad away, stupid shots ever. Set your feet and play normal basketball man. Did he somehow forget over the offseason?

3. Harden--STOP trying to bait for fouls near the end of games. It's getting pathetic and he's better than that. Try to make the shot and if you get fouled then terrific. (Also is anyone else worried that he doesn't look anywhere near as dominant to start this year? Just seems complacent to score 25 and then chill.)

4. Prince Luc at PG? Seriously D'Antoni.....

5. Not enough pick and rolls with Capela

6. Ryan Anderson... Is he playing basketball or throwing shot put? Tha Fuq.

7. Still don't understand releasing Canaan just four days after signing. We need another guard...

8. Starting to get really, REALLY annoyed with D'Antoni's 6 man rotations. Depth is a good thing especially in the regular season. USE IT!!!!

9. Eric Gordon.

10. **** loss, but I guess they owed us one after the other day. Not too impressed with the team so far but we got off to a slow start last year before taking off. I trust D'Antoni will figure it out.

 

We really need to shoot some mid range

 

Spurs playing without their best player

 

Spurs are always allowed excuses....if not ppl saying Pops was planning their 3-game losing streak all along...with his infinite wizardry

I mean, we're playing without Chris Paul.

 

Brother. I give Pops some credit since they whipped us without their best player last year in the playoffs ... AT HOME

 

So, no matter what the Spurs do this year, they still beat us last year. Is that it?

 

Ryan Anderson, 20mil hole that could've been used to pay for better role players.

 

Beasley and Nick Young folks. You can’t write his stuff.

 

Well that lost is the reason why we got Chris Paul.
I'm not saying we're not better than the Spurs, but I'm not dumb enough like a Harden Only Fan to judge how good we are so early in the year.

Didn't we lose to the SIXERS???????

 

What the hell?

This has rapidly becoming a 2 men show.......self reliant on threes, inconsistent D and again major minutes for couple of guys.

Without the 3pt shot falling we are a low and mediocre playoff contender not a top team.

This are the Sixers and Grizz on Halloween!

Spoiler

 

Cannot win with MDA and Harden doing what they are currently doing. Harden lost weight but looks far from his explosive and dominant self, even though he’s still very good.

MDA...at this point, what can we say..wish I could talk to this stubborn mule 1-on-1. If he keeps playing 8 guys, then might as well just relax and not care. Can we ever get a smart coach like Adelman again?

Ow yeah, forgot one thing: we cannot win with this simple one-dimensional offense. Need to use all areas of the floor!! This jacking up threes offense is just stupid, I don’t care what data lead to Morey’s theory. I will never believe this is the right way of playing basketball.

 

Not really too worried about the slow start, even the warriors already have 3 losses, I truly think once cp3 comes in the whole offense will change, guys remember the season starts after the all star break, we peaked way too early last year.

 

More Dec end. Nov end is in less than one month.

 

With all those Top picks they were getting and using, not a surprise at all.

 

Harden should focus on mastering that jumper it's really smooth. He's so skilled and talented.

 

This. I think teams have adjusted and are now playing to the fact we're not going to take midrange shots. The offense is looking very gimmicky


Also I think having Tucker, Luc & Ariza out at the same time serves no purpose. None of them are true scorers. The Rockets need a true scoring wing coming off the bench

 

"Figuring out" = decided not to call contact

 

Yet another awful performance, this is like the 5th game this year where we looked like the 15-16 team out there. Just no effort defensively most of the game, lazy offensive execution and bad decision making. Coaching staff has to do a better job plain and simple. Guys either aren't executing the defensive game plan or the defensive game plan sucks.

Harden's play especially this year has been pretty uninspiring. Seems like he's just going though the motions. To be fair, the refs are targeting him this year, but he can't let that affect his play. He's definitely regressed so far from last season.

Everyone else also sucks on offense seemingly. But I think the bigger culprit here is that they aren't executing and playing hard. Once they dig in and actually start playing with pace, decisiveness, and actually start trying on defense, the shots will fall. Can't just play lazy and expect to make jacked 3s.

Rockets really pissing me off here. All this talk about winning 60 games and they come out like this the first 8 games. We're lucky to be 5-3. Could have easily lost the Sacramento and first Philly game. The silver lining is that it's early in the season and they can turn it around. Hopefully they do soon.

 

Although teams are playing us a little more tightly, we still are getting plenty of open looks. The problem is that the players don't take them or are bricking. Although defensively we look great with Tucker/Mbah/Ariza we are struggling because we are playing those guys with Eric a lot of the time rather than Harden or Paul. It makes their job a lot more difficult playing with Eric because he isn't the creator that Harden or Paul are. The other issue is that they keep passing up open looks especially Mbah.

Someone needs to get on Mbahs case and make his ass shoot the open shot and stop hesitating so much. Our offense is not going to function if he keeps hesitating. Tucker needs to stick to the corners, he is not reliable from anywhere else on the court.

I would like a bit of mid range game mixed in from Harden/Gordon/Paul, but no one else should be taking mid range jumpers. They are simply not good enough.

We are struggling, but once our threes start falling we should be okay. If anything, the Rockets need to keep pushing the pace. To close out the quarter we really pushed the pace and we made a comeback. I don't feel that we are pushing the pace enough this season and we look much slower. I know we had a good half court offense last season just because of Hardens greatness, but we still have to look to score earlier.