ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Grizzlies 1/30/2025

Back to reality I am afraid haha. There are memories I made in the US that I still think about. Everywhere I went people were really nice, whether it was at arenas we went to or out and about

Do I miss Houston? Yeah I do, and my son even said he wants to live in Houston, but I think thats more because he was having fun everyday haha. I miss the food and the multicultural atmosphere. Also miss having parks with basketball rings. It just inst common here.

I actually have a really crazy story to tell. Just looking for some time to type it out.

 

Ha, yep. Kids will say the darndest things . Although that's cool that Houston made a good impression on you guys! Glad y'all had a good time.

Excellent. Looking forward to the crazy story someday in the Hangout

 

The story is rockets related

 

Ime did give the ball to Amen. But he failed to draw up any play to get him an open path to the basket.

 

He was trying to kill the clock

 

Amen should have used his otherworldly athleticism and shot making talent to go win it. ----> /s

Jalen was watching these guys fumble the bag all night and freeze him out just to clank. Its no wonder J was irate with Tari on that possession where he started to physically demand the ball and then he started to chuck a little at the end. When he's feeling it the guys around him try to play "what you can do I can do better" type ball and fk up all the momentum.

 

That one stung. But I can't be mad at it. To lose to a great team by 1 point at the end of an incredibly tough road trip? You just can't win them all in a league as tough as the NBA. It speaks to how great this team has been that I've started to expect them to win every night.

 

That YOLO 3 at the end of the 3rd did in fact matter in the end. Passed our toughest stretch with flying colors even with this loss. No Jabari and no Alpi against JJJ/Edey and still should've won. Need to go 8-4 next 12 games to meet the 40 before 20 rule.

Beyond the record and whatever else we do, Amen is going to be a superstar. Thanks to him being forced into the starting lineup, it's painfully obvious what he is at this point. That's the single most important thing.

 

Man, Kennard can shoot. Looks like the best pure shooter in basketball right now. JJ and Bane always eat us up, too. Came 1 point away from sweeping that really good team. I'm disappointed; but delighted how much improvement we've made this last two years. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't make any sort of trade. Patience is a virtue we maybe should cultivate. Go Rox.

 

When all else fails, Alpi is essential as a guy you can throw the ball to to get a bucket in a close game. It’s was clear last night we were missing his shot creation ability at the end. Fred is too small, Amen doesn’t have that big of a bag yet, and Jalen gets too careless.

 

Tough game, this is the kind of loss where you can see a lot of positives.

Hopefully we can learn from the few mistakes were done.
Biggest thing to adjust is lead management. We were up double digit in most of the games, and they all ended up close at the end.

Late game execution was another one from last night. I did not like the last play. Jalen should have a try at moments like that too.

 

awful last 2 minutes but not mad. let's use it as a learning moment. we had a great stretch of games and now i'm looking forward to getting Jabari back in the lineup. Our defense has been suffering without his switch ability.

 

Woke up…. pissed off about the loss last night.

 

The dude in the right mentioned something I have pointed out before.


Grizzles had a defender the entire game face guarding Green off ball, mostly Wells. They made a active decision to deny Green the ball at all costs and it frustrated him by taking a couple of bad shots out of frustration when he finally was able to get the ball. But you saw how every full court in bounds play he was always pressed and denied entry and it frustrated him.

I see other teams do this to Jalen to in terms of trying to prevent Green from getting the ball.

 

We were awful like the last 6 minutes. Didn't we only make 1 FG? So many blown chances. Adams missed a wide open dunk. Amen turned the ball over on a open fast break alley-oop. Jalen had so many boneheaded decisions and turnovers. Tari offensive goaltended Fred's layup that looked like it would've went in.

 

Freddy last shot was horrible.

 

Offense drought happens any time

 

NOT MAKING EXCUSES.....

But this was the end of a TAXING 4 game road trip! They played Cleveland, Boston, ATL on a b2b and a division rival that had 2 days off.

Should they have won? Yes! But I'm proud of this group. We got an All-Star in Sengun, Jalen and Amen as future stars, good pieces and a great Head coach!

 

I'm not really upset about this loss because I don't think we played badly or phoned it in, and because I kind of expected to lose. Really hard to beat a contending team four times in one season. I am kind of annoyed by the poor planning, execution, whatever toward the end of the game, but that's about it. I think that's where we really missed Alpi because he's such a key part of our normal halfcourt sets. Still think we could have done better than two FVV stepbacks though.

But yeah, despite Ja Morant being really, really good I honestly think missing both Alpi and Jabari hit us harder--certain posters don't understand how important those two have been to our defensive identity this season. Alpi is legitimately a solid defensive center now and the dropoff from him to Jock on both ends is enormous. Without Jabari as a small ball 5 option, it was just pretty bad minutes overall from the frontcourt.

 

The game was lost in the fourth quarter...sure the Rockets had a big league earlier in the game, but an 11 point lead is nothing nowadays. Tough loss, hopefully they can get some rest...looks like fatigue is starting to set in.

Way too many turnovers in the fourth quarter (per NBA stats: 5) which lead to 10 points off turnovers.

Too much ISO ball which made our offense very predictable and easy to defend. Every time Jalen touched to ball, the defense collapsed on him and he either jacked up a poor shot or turned the ball over. Same with FVV. I understand they were trying to target the Memphis weak defenders (Kennard and Aldama) but Memphis was helping off of Amen (saw him more around the 3point line and less around the hoop...especially in the 4th quarter).

Houston who typically can stay in front of their opponents were letting everyone get by and get to the hoop.