ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Blazers 12/12/2013

Plain and simple.

We beat them in our 1st meeting this season.

I guess we gave everybody the BLUE PRINT on how to beat them in the Spurs.


bwhahahahaha

 

Actual gameflow...

http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20131212&game=HOUPOR

The game was essentially lost by the starters in the beginning of the 3rd quarter. They went down 9 points and dug the team a hole, the bench unit tried to dig them out but was basically near neutral by part way through the 4th when they were subbed out, then the Rockets starters essentially closed out the 4th as near neutral.

 

Did Dmo play last night?

 

No. The Rocket has more talent. Why they won is because they played team basketball. They don't care who score as soon as the person who is scoring has the highest percentage.

Rocket on the other hand, it is selfish basketball. ISO every shot. Absolutely no ball movement.

 

The starters erased that 9 point deficit when they made a run to close the 3rd out. Knotted up at 74, then the reserves dug us a 10 point hole to begin the 4th. So how is that on the starters again pimpn?

 

You might want to look a bit closer.

The line up who dug the hole at the beginning of the 3rd was Harden, Howard, Beverley, Parsons and Jones. All 5 starters.

The line up closing the 3rd was Lin, Harden, Howard, Casspi and a mix of Garcia/Parsons. So Harden/Howard + 3 of the 2nd unit players.

The line up at the beginning of the 4th Lin, Beverley, Casspi, Garcia and Jones. Beverley/Jones + 3 of the 2nd unit players.

Given that Harden/Howard is far more talent than Beverley/Jones it's not really that shocking that the 4th quarter beginning performance was worse than the end of the 3rd quarter.

However, the 5 starters as a unit ended up -8 for the 2nd half.

 

I hope the Rockets get Deng or Shumpert.

Let Harden play PG.

 

That lineup that's bolded cost us the game IMO, we got down 10 with that lineup.

You still had 3 of your starters in the game when we closed that lead at the end of the 3rd.

But I see what you are saying.

 

The difference was LMA and not being able to slow him down. For that, we need the player/s that the Asik trade can bring us.

Watched Harden's highlights and saw a couple of times, he made a strong move to his right. Hope he can develop that further so teams will not be able to overplay his left. Howard is also becoming more comfortable in the offense.

Let's continue being patient. The bench needs an upgrade and Parsons needs big-time rest though.

 

Omer, or his replacement could of made the difference. No one can defend LaMarcus. When TJo only gets 2 rebounds, we aren't going to win many games. Rockets win when TJo gets more than 4 rebounds, only 1 time did we lose when TJo gets less than 4 rebounds. TJo had a -26 for the game and he played like it. In a series, we still beat the Blazers because LMA maybe a beast, but the 25 rebounds is not a typical stat of his. If Parsons want to become an All-Star, he needs to score from the FT line, he had 0 FTs in the game. Losing a game like this should keep them grounded.

 

True that, also LMA had a career high in rebounds as well. Cant let that shi* happen.

 

So are you saying the bench didn't suck last night

 

Suck is a subjective term. They shot poorly compared to normal, however so did the Trail Blazers. So depending on how you define it you could say they sucked, didn't suck, or played ok.

However, you can say that they didn't cost us the game. The 5 man starting unit of Harden, Howard, Beverly, Jones and Parsons cost us the game at the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

 

How did you come up with the starters lost us the game in the beginning of the 3rd. bwhahahaha didnt we tie the game up at the end of the quarter.

 

There's 4 quarters in the game... They were getting killed in the first half when both Harden and Howard sat down after they came back...

 

Look carefully at the line ups.

We were basically tied entering the 3rd quarter.

Line up 1 : Harden/Howard/Parsons/Tjones/Beverley ... 8 point deficit (true starting line up)
Line up 2 : Howard/Harden/Lin/Casspi and Garcia/Parsons ... 7 point come back, (hybrid starter + Bench line up)
Line up 3 : Beverley/Tjones/Lin/Casspi/Parsons ... 8 point deficit (hybrid starters + bench line up)
Line up 4 : Harden/Howard/Parsons/Beverley/Tjones ... 4 point deficit (true starting line up)
Line up 5 : Harden/Howard/Parsons/Beverley/Casspi ... 5 point come back (Mostly starter line up, with Casspi vs Jones)

During the time that the Bench players were on the floor...

Lin : -1
Casspi : +7
Garcia : -1

The pure Starting line up was -12 in the second half (Harden/Parsons/Dwight/TJones/Beverley). Over the entire 48 minutes, this line up was -15.

The hybrid line ups were all good in the 2nd half except for the Lin/Beverley/Casspi/Parsons/Tjones line up which was -8.

Just looking at individual player +-, it's clear that Lin, Casspi and Garcia (the bench) did NOT cost us the game.

Looking at on the floor line ups, the worst by far was the pure starting 5 at -15, with the 2nd worst line up being the Lin/Beverley/Jones/Casspi/Parsons line up at -8.

In other words, our starting 5 (Beverley, Jones, Howard, TJones and Beverley) were the ones who lost the game, both in the 1st AND 2nd halves.

 

I was at the game, and this was the lineup that lost it for us. By the time Sampson finally put Howard/Harden/Parsons back in, the Blazers definitely had gained the momentum and kept it from that point on. Even when we fought back into it halfway through the 4th, you could sense that the Blazers knew they had this game.

I still don't understand why they kept pouring it into Dwight in the post when we were 10 points down with about a minute left. I kept waiting for Harden to assert himself down the stretch and get a couple of threes, but he never did.

 

Not having a back-up center lost us this one.

 

We just suck right now. Bad chemistry. Harden needs to not rely on getting foul calls and just aim to put the ball in the basket.

But hey, maybe if we had Kevin McHale it wouldve been a different game.

 

The game is about runs and momentum changes. Neither team had it going on in the 1st half but the Rockets were able to going into the half with the lead. We came out sluggish and the Blazers came out ready to play in the 3rd. The Rockets made a strong push ( made their run and momentum shift) and closed the 3rd out strong tying the game at 74.

Sampson started the 4th with his bench and Portland went on a 10-0 run ( momentum shift) . We tried to make a run of our own but Portland kept making shots.

You are indeed correct, every time those two sat down Portland made some of their runs.