This will give me nightmares for years to come… This season reminds me of the year before our first Championship, with Blazers our Seattle. Hopefully this loss stings enough to make Harden & Howard more hungry than ever to dominate next season & win the title. Heart = Broken… But future looks bright, so...
Even if Harden switches he's not going to get there. Lillard is too fast. Here is a better question. Why was there a guy guarding the inbounder? It's not like Portland had time to pass it back to him. Also the Rockets had a foul to give. No 3pt shot should have ever even went up.
Looking at this, it seems Parsons got caught off-guard as Lillard just took off after the whistle. Parsons was expecting the group to bump around until someone moved. Instead Lillard just smokes the lot of em to get open.
First step speed. Parsons should not be the one to match Lilliard. Their reason rate just don't match each other
The second that pass was thrown in a direction, Jones should have closed in and Harden should have closed in. No time to pass and shoot. There should never be open looks like that with.9 seconds left.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Wow. RT <a href="https://twitter.com/thatwouldsuck">@thatwouldsuck</a>: Houston did the exact same thing on defense in their fifth game of the season, too. <a href="http://t.co/pcAaBu9Zbm">http://t.co/pcAaBu9Zbm</a> …</p>— Chris Herring (@HerringWSJ) <a href="https://twitter.com/HerringWSJ/statuses/462476100187467776">May 3, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Why is Jones bothering to gaurd the ball handler at all? Why is Jones stopping a 2-point pass and leave the 3-point area open? Why is parsons on Lillard?He obviously is too slow. Rockets didn't deserve this series. They showed a real lack of effort in the 3rd quarter this game and Harden only shooting 4 shots in the second half after going 8/11 in the first half is absurd. You do it to yourselves every time. Portland started dictating the pace in the 2nd half and we played right into their hands. They were happy going into the final minutes even, it looked like the Rockets were too. Only difference is the game is in Portland and the Rockets need to win. Pressure on us. Ball game. Last five minutes was all Dwight and he missed many FT's. Harden only 4 shots in the 2nd half.
