I thought McHale did great today and I'm not just saying this. *One thing I liked a lot this game was when Pop was just about to employ the hack-a-dwight, he immediately called a timeout. He regrouped, calm Dwight down or did something to relax him. He made those free throws like it was 2 feet away. *He put in DmO to grab rebounds when it was key, he surrounded the line with a bunch of giants. Ofc McHale isn't anywhere close to Pop's level, but today, on this day, he was the better coach.
Honestly, Lin just had a great game - we haven't seen him pass the ball so well in quite some time. Why doesn't Lin play like this more often?
This is the 4th or 5th time McHale has done this against Popovich. If it is luck, he is really pressing his luck. I am not sure what it is about Pop's but McHale gets his and has a confidence against Pops that not many coaches have.
When the Rockets lose ---> Fire McHale When the Rockets go 3-0 vs. the defending Western Conference champs McHale had no influence. Right.
Sad to see the ridiculous double standard our fans lay on McHale. Can't even give the guy credit, when credit is due.
Small ball early in the second quarter was a nice move that got us playing really hard. Then putting back Dwight for excellent defense on Duncan and then pumped up the crowd was good too.
The hackahoward came too early. The Rockets built on that small lead. I think that was a mistake by Popovich.
I liked the substitution from TJones to D-Mo in the last minute. He knew Dwight might miss, so he put in our 7 footer. D-Mo ended up tipping Dwight's missed freethrow and it turned into another possession for us, with 1 minute left. Mchale deserves credit for small moves like that that go unnoticed.
Nah, I thought it was a good move, he was grabbing his own rebounds and working Tjones. Diaw played great
He doesn't get to play 44 mins a night and I don't think McHale outcoached Pop, aside from the one play where he subbed in Dmo and he got that sick rebound, which imo was just lucky. Rockets just wanted it more, + Spurs having a lot of their best guys out & Manu having to leave the court.
This and while Pop is somewhat declining in his coaching decisions, as was evident in last years finals that they should have won, he is still LIGHT YEARS a better coach than McHale is. I do give McHale credit for playing Lin as a PG a good portion of the game, although he should have played him only between 36 and 40 minutes since there is a game tomorrow night. And the DMo sub turned out to be a good thing. So basically, he did an okay job instead of making things worse as he does many times with his rotations and substitution patterns.
