I knew the refs were irritating me, but really I was just annoyed at our inconsistent play and the droughts. I never looked at the boxscore. We made more shots and threes, but only had 13 FTs. They had 28?????? They missed 8 and still made 7 more than our team took all game. Two possession game. Weak af 5sec call deciding the fate of it. 13 to 28 FTs. Lose by 4.
The refs made it about them. We shouldn't be surprised they think they are the stars of the show. That being said, the Rox have to find something offensively that they can rely on when things start getting tough.
Said it before the game and after the game....if you ever see a line pulled the morning of or the night before a game....especially one where one team is clearly favored....expect shenanigans.
Team is garbage in end game situations. It is what it is but it’s not changing. Fred and Jalen are horrible. That’s the end of it.
The offense is as Sengun centric as it is because no one has stepped up and someone has to carry the load to some degree. The Rockets wanted to run the offense through Green but that has largely failed this year. I am not concerned about the Rockets making adjustments if they get Fox, he is 6th in the league in scoring, if he were to join the Rockets his usage would likely only go up. The Rockets are running their offense more through Sengun because it wasn't getting anywhere going through Green - they never wanted it to run through Sengun, so I am not worried. If the Rockets added Fox, he would get a greenlight to run the offense. Green wouldn't go in a deal for Fox unless it was this summer. I suspect Green would be better offensively with Fox, but a lot of it would be somewhat duplicative so I don't know that Green would remain a Rocket long term. Also, playing Green and Fox together defensively would be difficult. The more likely outcome would be the Rockets finding someone that could shoot well and defend to play off of Fox. Green has gotten a lot of chances with the Rockets - unless something changes and he starts playing better, he won't be long term on the Rockets. Their offense isn't going to be good until they have someone on the perimeter that wants to take shots and can score 25 points a night. On offense the Rockets have a bunch of role players.
The history repeats itself over and over again. Yesterday our starting backcourt combined shot 12/37 (32%) overall and 5/18 (27%) from 3s. If you have been following this team, this is a decent shooting night for them. Many sports commenters and youtubers outside Houston have been creating videos left and right pointing out this problem, only our coaches and our fans keep burying our heads into the sand. No question about it the refs let the Heat got away with a lot of fouls, but we were letting the refs to decide the game. No question Sengun once again got owned by Bam, but he played decent enough for us to win. We have to be reasonable. The fact is that we shot so poorly in the first half and was only down by 3, and we should be up by a healthy margin if we shot a little bit better - This game shouldn't even be this close. Last year FVV was shooting the lights out (38% from 3s), so he covered his and Jalen's deficiencies. Ime's offense would be fine only if our players could knock down open shots, but they couldn't. Ime has been trying to alter the substitution pattern recently, but it didn't work because our starting backcourt still played heavy minutes. Ime tried to give Amen more playing time by reducing Jabari's minutes, but Jabari wasn't the problem most of the time. We may need an offensive coach, honestly.
So last night me and my son attended our first rockets game. What chaos at the end what an experience to see that chaos in our first game. Won’t ever forget that. What an emotional rush that was at the start having supported this team from afar in Australia for over 30 years and actually being in the place they play. We were sitting in c108. An usher by the name of Ms. D really took care of us, she gave us tips on what to do. My son was able to give high fives to the team at the start of the game and get a free t shirt because of her tips. She also took some photos and where to stand for photos. She was really lovely and I am thankful to her to make our experience the best it could be. On to the game. Rockets are shooting too many jumpers for a team that isn’t good at it. The stats show it and I am sure other teams are happy if we are just shooting jumpers all game. Fred needs to shut it sometimes, there was still a chance even if for that 5 second call. Then it all descended into chaos. It was a good learning experience for Amen, if he is going to be a premier defender in the league he is going to have to learn to keep his cool against the best. Even if there is chippyness and physicalness in the game. Gotta lock in block out the noise. After he walked to the other end of the court to cool off I could clearly see his remorse and that he made a mistake. So I see hope he learns from this. Anyways what fun! I hope the next 5 games we attend the Rockets win and are just as fun.
“We don’t have that guy” confirmed. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/miami-heat-nba-updates-odds-20004457.php “We are struggling to score at the end. And so that’s something that needs to be solved.” In the fourth quarter, the Rockets had almost as many people ejected (five) as they had made field goals (six). Five Rockets and two Heat players were ejected over an 11-second span in the final minute of the game. Down the stretch, Heat defenders chased the Rockets underneath screens and crowded driving lanes. Adebayo, an NBA All-Defense player, locked down Şengün, who went 0-for-4 in the fourth quarter. Green was 0-for-3. The Rockets’ 18 points tied their fourth-quarter season low. Houston’s defense is holding opponents to 43.5% shooting in fourth quarters this season, the third-lowest percentage in the NBA, but the offense is shooting a league-worst 42.9%. “You’re searching for someone to kind of shoulder the load, I guess,” Udoka said. “You like to do it as a team, like we try to do all game, or you go with a hot hand at times. But teams aren’t going to allow you to just continue to go with what works. You have to find secondary options and that’s when, whether it’s Alperen in the post and finding the guys open, you got to make those shots, or other guys penetrating and setting their teammates up.”
Is Kidd “drawing up plays” for Luka? Is [insert LeBron coach here] drawing up plays for LeBron? Was that a great drawn up play by Chris Finch the other night for Ant? Maybe bring back MilkHair and all his great drawn up plays for Harden. Yeah, it is about “handing the ball” to your best player.
I'm expecting 3-5 games for Amen honestly. Hope he uses Herro's comments as motivation to work that much harder and come back even better after those couple of weeks.
NBA wonders why they have a ratings problem. Games like yesterday happen way too often when it's predetermined who should win based on officials. Literally ruined a good game by calling a weak 5 second call then compounds bis mistake by throwing Fred out. In a game we lost by 4 they shot 4 tech free throws at the end.... NBAs biggest problem is integrity.
This. The oft-mentioned "Sengun-centric offense" has been the default for every loss. I wonder why the sets are the same even when Sengun is on the bench. How can that be when Sengun is not even on the court? The real issue is the lack of shooters and, as much as I am a supporter of FVV, he has lately shown a tendency to jack up bad shots during critical moments in the close games. As a veteran, he has failed to properly manage the clock and instead of working to set up his teammates for open shots, he has had a tendency to take the shots himself. I think FVV has done a good job to start this phase of the Rockets build-up, but it might be time for the FO to start looking for an upgrade in the position going forward.
