When Rockets went 2 of 22 on 3 pointers, I turned game off. Almost as bad as game 7 against Warriors.
The players are at fault, but so is MDA. He is stubborn. Harden has many weapons in his armory. Stop relying only on the step back 3. I believe he is playing hurt, but he is under mental strain along with fatigue from facing physical defenses. Barkley pointed this out as a major issue for Harden and Westbrook in the playoffs. He said you can't win a NBA Championship with small ball. The key for Harden and to some extent with EG is to unlock their minds along with better physical health. Not having a athletic/strongly built 5 who can space the floor is a problem, but there is no solution to that. The Covington trade for Capela is a positive, since Clint had reached a plateau even when he wasn't injured. @BaselineFade @ApacheWarrior @D-rock @Deckard
I didn’t see the game but I was hoping Harden would attack the rim better than the previous two games. I understand he took a lot of shots with little success. The entire team had little success shooting 3’s in this game. At halftime the Clippers were shooting 44% from 3 while the Rockets were something like 9%. I would like to see how open those shots were. Did the Clippers overplay the 3 defensively? The game ended with the Clippers shooting something like 33% from 3 and Houston picked it up to 17% from 3. Looks like the Clippers best the Rockets at their own game by shooting 40 attempts to Houston 42 attempts. I disagree with Barkley, the Heat and Warriors have proven you can win with small ball. He gives way too much credit to guys like Muzgov, Bogut, JaVale McGee, Zaza Pachulia.......as if they are Shaq O’Neal. It’s been the PF’s giving teams the versatility to play small like Haslem, Tristan Thompson, Draymond Green that have helped teams win a championship in this new era and the rules as they are. Barkley still lives the era that has him relevant. ThevSpirs were the last team to win a championship with a relevant big man in Tim Duncan. But teams have learned how to defend the post since those days of big man glory. Finally DeMarre played (14 mins 9 points and was Houston’s highest plus 13) and Bruno (3 minutes and a plus 8). I’m sure it was garbage time, but these guys need to play more. Bruno is so long that he can be disruptive. Just needs to learn techniques of fronting players and our defensive rotations. Can’t wait until the playoffs for that. Guy gets 3 minutes each time and one block at least. This is why I said before they could start him if D’Antoni can get some confidence in him. Start him the first 5 minutes and set a defensive tone....probably get 2 or 3 blocks during that time. Get a lead because he can lob dunk from about anywhere with those long arms. And you don’t have to play him the rest of the game. Team can overcome any deficit that occurs in those first 5 minutes. It couldn’t be worse that what just happened vs the Clippers.
It didn’t appear that LAC were overly aggressive defensively but they have premier defenders now so it looks a little better and we had many open looks just brick after brick wasp by Harden, BMac and Ego. With all the lien lengthen they got a fair amount of outlet rebounds from missed 3s and had some easy transition stuff also beat the hell out of Ian with Trez and Zubac down low. It was a total embarrassment from about 3 mins onward ... juts awful
He is mentally weak compared to Westbrook. Westbrook is wired to go for the win. Harden is methodical. I He wilts when he gets frustrated.
A good post as usual, Apache. The 5 that I’m talking about is someone like Draymond, without the cheating and flopping. He is strong, athletic and he can shoot/ pass. Javale was a useful backup for 10-15 minutes with GSW. I feel Harden and EG have similar problems, as I mentioned above. Let’s see what will happen in the next three to four games. Harden is trying to shoot in order to get back in form. He should be driving and mixing it up. Ditto for Eric.
Harden is slightly more skilled than Westbrook, but he lacks his explosive speed. This causes him to slow down physically and mentally under pressure. Playing hurt is also hindering him.
all players have bad games.. Jordan had them, Kobe had them.. LeBron has them. Harden is no different. cant wait to until he has a 50+ game and all the haters are silenced once again
You forgot to mention Bron is the perfect swiss army knife type of big. They also had swift and versatile Bosh who could rebound and block shots.
