ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Nuggets 11/20/2019

We just saw tonight once teams double harden how poor others are at creat anything outside of Westi. This is why Gordon is so important

 

Miami loss was wake up call for the players

This loss is a wakeup call for Morey & MDA

 

This is a wakeup call for what exactly?

It's the 1st loss in 9 games vs a WC rival that's not a wake up that is expected since you can't win them all. They also only lost by 10 so that can be chalked up to variance.

Highly doubt MDA, Morey or anyone else will panic or wake up at this loss.

 

Nikola Jokic on James Harden's scoring



Mike Malone on Defensive Game Plan for Harden


Mike Malone compares James Harden to Michael Jordan

 

Really don’t understand why some of the other players not named harden or Westbrook can’t make a decision. How many times in that game did you see players standing around or passing ball right back to either one of the stars to make a decision. This issue has been hurting us for several years.

 

we should take that post , frame it and put it in the rafters

 

I mean don't you agree the bench needs more help?

And MDA needs to plan better for those late double teams on Harden?

 

Harden was 50% from the field if he was as assertive as he usually was they would have won. It might be because he is tired they've been having b2bs and 1 day off games for like 3 weeks now.

MDA played 11 guys and that's with EG out. Even if Morey somehow gets more help that dude has no spot on the bench.

Like I said Harden was shooting 50% from 3 so tbh the Nuggets double teams werent effective Harden just didnt want to shoot. That's not on MDA that's on Harden.

If there was a mistake MDA made it may be sticking with Chandler even if he was playing like ass he should give him a shorter leash and Harty more burn. But that's not really a big mistake I doubt that could have made up for the 10 pt diff.

 

any report on house's injury?

 

Not sure if JVG jinks us a bit. He was on Dan Patrick show last week, question came up on how to defend Harden. Couple points mentioned.

He cited Spurs' perimeter defense, never reach in to swipe the ball since Harden is strong and draws fouls. If James is hot on the 3's then live with it.

2nd was GSW, where they double team James much more than other teams. Denver was doing that tonight. They know Harden is a willing passer, so was also playing the passing lane. Sometimes teams save their strategies for playoffs, Denver was testing the water.

Game plan wise I like to see Rockets strategize and counter the double teams better. The other teams may be using it more in the next games.

Three players that can receive a pass out of the double team, defense can't cover all three, or they'll leave a guy under the basket. This contingent on the open guy able to score the open 3, or drive to score, or pass to the next open guy a defender comes.

Vary the pass out of double team (bounce pass than say a high lob pass).

Hand offs or double screens, give the defense some different looks.

Let Russ bring up the ball some.

 

Guess there was a reason why bookies had low odds of Denver winning at home.

 

Denver is a good team and I had a feeling we would lose, so there's no shame in doing so. Didn't watch, but 8 turnovers, no bench production, Westbrook not shooting well enough to warrant 22 shots probably tells the story. We need to practice more body movement, cuts and prepare guys to have to make a decision once they get the ball in a position to force the defense to make a decision, especially when Harden is double-teamed. Harden has been carrying us and we're overall not as talented so while we will have a 50-55 win season probably, this roster is deeply flawed and you cannot blame MDA or Harden or Westbrook. That's on Tilman and on Morey. Let's see how we do against the Clippers, but don't be shocked if we lose big. If we don't, that's already a win and if we win, that's very impressive given our shortcomings. We just have to realise there will be plenty of losses this year that you don't need to be upset about.

 

Surely that isn't how they are coached.

 

I didn't take away too many negatives from the loss. The game looks a lot different if the non-Harden Rockets shot even, say, 33% instead of 26% from three. The shot quality was fine, they just didn't go down.

The turnovers were the bigger issue but that didn't really seem like a chronic problem, more of a one-off caused by the always tough Denver road trip.

 

All the other Rockets not named Harden are out of shape

 

I think developing Clemons and Harteinstein is the smartest thing we can do right now. I want to see them both taking more shots. I would absolutely love him doing something radical like playing Harteinstein in Tucker's spot a couple times when he rests, along with Clint or Chandler. Now that would be fun. Lets us bring a double threat at the rim and let him develop his 3 pt shot. Who knows until we try it, especially against bigger lineups.

For a starter and a good 3 point shooter Tucker really needs to take more shots. Most of the other role players have been around a long time, and probably won't get a lot better.

 

i'm hoping that mike is just letting the vets lose their spot in the rotation and that he sees what we all see and is plain to see. Clemons is better than rivers. Hart is better than Chandler whenever we play a team that has a stretch five and is moving and setting screens a lot. Chandler is only useful when he can mainly just camp near the paint and guard a traditional big. he's also slow in transition. Hart was guarding jokic well and is a better help defender as a center. He can switch onto a guard or forward better. And yes, our defense is just that bad that we need all the help we can get. Chris clemons is our best perimeter defender regardless of his size, and one of our best spot up shooters.

I remember suggesting in preseason to start clemons and bring Russ off the bench and someone called me crazy. I would just roll with this, but again, its never happening. Westbrook's defense is just not good enough. He gets screened really easy and doesn't even try to go under the screen to stay on his man, which breaks down the defense and we're not quick enough to rotate. We need a great defender at the three period. Then move danuel house to the bench where he belongs. Yes, our perimeter defense is that bad where we are relying on House because we are fans and we are hoping that he can be it. He's a nice bench player.

Ben Mclemore is exposed once again. he's been doing this.

Indeed we need a stretch 5, so we might as well experiment and let hartenstein camp out in the corner like tucker.

 

With EG being out, we don't have anybody that can come in and get 20-25 points off the bench like a Lou Williams. Since we can't depend on cheap Tilman to open his purse, I'm all in on developing Clemons. I think he can be the dude that put up 15 points off the bench with relative ease if given the opportunity and PT.

 

That was just not a good effort overall from the Rockets tonight. And to top it off, looks like House is out again for awhile.