ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Spurs 12/28/2014

those 2 J.Smoove jumpers near the end of the 4th killed us.

 

Culprit to me was defense tonight. We didn't do that well.

Would love to see us move away from taking so many three pointers.

 

Defense went downhill once Dwight came back.

DD

 

He has seemed so lethargic out there

 

What were we? 18/31 from the charity stripe?
That just kills me.

 

More like the death stripe. I'm sorry but our FT shooting stinks.

 

Yup, Dwight is not locked in..

 

i actually thought he was acceptable, though not great. harden seemed to revert to his lazy habits of not closing out or staying even close to his man on some possessions. but on the whole, none of our players really put forth much effort on D last nite.

 

Beverley included!! He was getting taken all night by Cory Joseph. He is supposed to be our floor general who gets paid to put in an effort almost exclusively on defense and his defense was lackluster. Look say what you want about Dragic or not Dragic, but some of the Beverley floor general decisions were really bad. This will happen against the better teams over and over again as it has even in some Rocket wins until we get a better floor general whom ever that may be and send PB to the bench where he is better suited.

 

How often will a team win when they turn the ball over 24 times and miss 13 free throws?

 

The free throws are bad enough, but when shot by Howard and Dorsey you can see that coming. Against the Spurs, Harden needs to play more off the ball but no one else on Houston can run the offense. While I see the turnovers per game going down with more chemistry, the count has been high all year.

 

This game was a kick to the groin, but Rockets future is bright.

Dwight's effort in setting picks is reminiscent of Harden's defensive effort previous years. Missing freethrows is one thing, but half arse effort is crazy. Fortunately refs aren't calling him for moving screens... yet. Playoff are different.

 

So far the league average turnover is 13.4 per game. Assuming 50% TS%, that's 10 (24-13.4) points down the sink due to the outrageous turnovers, not even considering the pitiful free throw misses.

If the team wants to make it all the way, they should not be sending out candies to the opponents here and there.

Obviously many on this forum have thought this one would be an easy W. I hope none of the Rockets were lethargic for the same reason. Unfortunate that what I've posted before the game in this thread has become true.

Then again, it's just one game. I hope they will learn from it.

 

We shouldn't feel too bad about this loss, we played so sloppy and some terrible shot selection. It was amazing we were even in this @ the end. Still I think McHale made a big mistake by not playing Canaan.

 

Corey Brewer is instantly becoming one of my favorite players.

 

Our talent level just seemed overwhelming in the game. Didnt result in a win because they aren't used to each other, but it seemed like our starting lineup with smoove was just coasting as still go easy buckets. SA seemed like they had to work really hard for their points when our starting lineup was in.

 

The amazing thing is we are doing this all based on talent actually, Brewery is not getting any plays called which he should've!

He was 6/7 on threes by the end of the third. Immediately had a fast break where he shot FTs and then forced a three. After that, didn't really get anything.

 

And we shot 49% from the field too, it still doesn't make up for the fact that there was no way we were going to overcome Smith, Terry, Ariza, and Beverly giving us next to no production. That's 3 starters and 1 key guy off the bench for us all year, going 6-30 for 17 points. If that number changes to just 9-30 we win the game.

We've won plenty of games not shooting well from the line, Harden at 89% is the only reason our numbers from the stripe even look remotely respectable. The officiating and flopping have got to stop, start calling a flop a defensive foul and watch it begin to disappear...

 

So many new guys this is somewhat expected. Guys need to know where they are supposed to be, get familiar with their new teammates, coach needs to figure out the rotation... This is going to take a little time. I was surprised we were able to beat Memphis. Incorporating one new player into the rotation is one thing but two (sort of three) will take time.

I've got nothing for the free throws other than Dwight and Dorsey suck. We can probably expect to miss a bunch all year.

 

Not too often, unless they're lucky. The incredible thing about yesterday is that despite the turnovers and missed free throws, we still had a chance of winning late in the game. Go figure.