ClutchFans Game Thread: Pacers @ Rockets 3/27/2013

THAT'S IT !!! The NBA needs to outsource the job of referees to India....

 

From NBA.com:

QUOTABLE III: "[Harden] has all the weapons to get his own shot and create for others. If you make it tough for him early on, he's going to try to make it to where he can get his own still and get his numbers, and that kind of will take you out of the game. Tonight, that's what I tried to do."
-- George on his defensive gameplan against Harden.

Worked perfectly. Harden was extremely selfish tonight, but hey, at least he got his 22 and 8.

 

Ouch that is definitely not a compliment by Paul George. I would say it was taken out of context, but this isn't the NYDailynews.

 

Wow, George was candid.

 

Paul George does have a point though. But to be fair to Harden a lot of times he passes the ball only to get it back almost right away. And guys like Lin and Parsons have been afraid to shoot so there's really no one left they can rely on.

 

"Including Wednesday's dreadful 6-for-24 performance, Harden has nailed only 35.4 percent (28-for-79) of his field-goal attempts over his last five outings."

Seems like Harden's in another slump. He has been shooting poorly but has been bailed out by his ability to get to the line.

Maybe he's finally showing some wear from all the extended minutes McHale has played him this season.

 

Wrong, the Pacers' lead widened to 16pts at the end of 1st Q. That lead was further extended to 19pts with 9:53 left in the 2nd Q. Only then did the Rockets started their run.

 

clearly he should have gotten 18 and 12....

 

anybody else notice how lin came out firing in the beginning of the game. i think he took 2 or three shots, which is something he rarely does. was it his decision to be agressive or did the coaching staff give him the green light?

 

Thoughts on the game:

1. McHale left Greg Smith and Patrick Beverly too long in the game. Smith was outright bullied by Hibbert during their match-up. I'd rather some of those minutes go to D-Mo. Especially with Lin out and Beverly in, there's not a lot of scoring outside of Harden. Give D-Mo a few looks down low when Harden is shooting like garbage. 2 post-up plays for D-Mo as opposed to Smith tripping around. It wouldn't have been a bad decision.

2. Lin needs to score more and stop passing the ball off. Especially when Harden is shooting like garbage, Lin needs to step up. I don't know wtf he was thinking passing away so many times when he got to the hoop, or how he'll dribble the ball up and hand it to Harden, and just stand there in the corner. Beverly's outscoring him right now and with Lin's offensive capability, that shouldn't happen. Don't know wtf he was thinking, but he needs to take more shots.

3. There were too many instances of Harden trying to get calls. Nearing the end of the season, Refs are probably setting the tone for the playoffs. Stop jumping into people off shots, and make a real move, and score. Come playoff time he's not going to get near as many calls as he was earlier this season.

Some positives: The defense looked good in some spots. At least Paul George didn't go off, it would have been a blowout if he did. Paul George reminds me a lot of Jamal Mashburn in his prime. George and Monster Mash, their size and scoring ability - uncanny. If the Pacers can get Granger back in some capacity in the playoffs, they'll be deadly with him coming off the bench.

 

Oh, oh...Paul is pissed.


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Did you guys ever consider that it is not Lin choosing to be "passive" but maybe the coaching staff asked him to do this? I mean, I don't think we went all Harden ISO, scoring less than 90 points per game in the last few outings was an accident.

 

True, there's some randomness. That said, Roy started the season with a tear in wrist ligaments / weak shooting wrist. He's MUCH better now. And he's very good on those hooks near the rim right now, as he was for the most part last season. The key in defending him is not giving him that position. Hibbert isn't that hard to move. Many guards are able to move him so there's no excuse in that regard. He had generally good position last night.

 

you are way too sensitive. he's just talking about his team, and he's right. Pacers and Rockets aren't some kind of rivals.

 

My major disappointment last night: DMo's ref-assisted regression into utter suckitude.

 

actually, i think i could have misinterpreted your post. you replied to a Vogel quote, so i assumed you were discussing the Vogel quote. Now i think you might've been talking about Fegan - I can see your point if so.

 

McHale's way to Morey, my team, not yours.

 

I actually was a bit surprised the Rockets focused on George so much. I mean, Parsons played some great defense on him last night. But George has several sprained fingers on his shooting hand and it clearly affects his shooting, passing and dribbling. He's a pretty bad offensive player lately. They probably should've focused on Stephenson and Hibbert more once they saw that George is ineffective.

 

Men... Really? You take the anytime in the game that we start to reduce the lead of the others. from that moment on, we always outplayed the pacers... It's called a stationary point with a positive second order derivative in calculus if you smooth the scores... And you know a typical function will have many such stationary point...

 

Fixed