Exactly. Also Harden is only a human and can't play the whole game plus there is another team on the court. Other teams also fight back and try to comeback to the game. A good team never would give up and would take every single chance. It happens to everyone. Rockets are not the only ones who lose the leads. Otherwise the games would be over by the first quarter and would be boring as hell.
Its called the refs let them back in the game. No point arguing this. You gotta be a moron not to be able to see all these bad calls. They make it close so that suns fans will continue to go to games and seem somewhat entertaining. Thats why there are 82 games!
No doubt this is the biggest factor, but we were playing much better defense even in the absence of Howard in the earlier part of the season. Without that, we can't do much of anything as a team.
There was a pretty indepth piece in how the biggest mistake a team can make when leading by 10 to 12 or so midway through the game is to change their offense and give up on 3 pointers etc for a more defensive playstyle. So yeah it is on Mchale, and he's right Probably the best example of this is the Spurs, where Pop goes out of his way to make sure the team is playing the "Spurs" way regardless of variations in the scoreboard The reason elite teams are more likely to come back is because duh, part of being an elite team is you're actually good at basketball. I'm not even sure how to measure a statement that essentially boils down to claiming that we're more likely to lose to an elite team and that's the coaches fault.
It's callled NBA talent. It why these players get millions of dollars, to be competitive. It's was makes watch games so engaging because of the "drama" factor
Well, there is a reason why Harden is an MVP candidate. The team is lost without his presence. It's frustrating, but they have to hold on for dear life when Harden exits. They literally don't have another guard that can create for themselves or the team. My solution? Feature D-MO. Get him more touches in the post.
It is not really the playmaker issue, it is that we gave too many inconsistent shooters. We only have two guys who are offensively competent - so we struggle at times when they are missing. Our roster is unbalanced. DD
We had this problem last year too. Lack of scoring options is the easy answer. The team also lacks direction/purpose on offense when Harden sits and sometimes even when he is out there and getting pressured hard. There's no true point guard that can help the team stay on task, keep calm, focus. No one to set the pace or maintain the tempo. Yes Josh Smith can create, but he cant run an offense.
I didn't think of it this way. I think this is a solid answer. Definitely a step up from "BECAUSE IT'S THE NBA, BONEHEAD." Repped.
Hopefully the Thunder can pass the Suns before the tread deadline and cause enough panic that they decide to stop pursuing the unattainable dream of playoff success and trade their short-term assets.
The Suns are fighting for their playoff lives. If they'd been able to keep up their intensity of the 3rd throughout the game, they probably beat a lot of good teams. But it's just not possible, you eventually have to play good basketball, not just hard basketball.
Our defense right now is atrocious, Dmo gets 6,000 fouls trying to cover the PnR, Pat and James can't stop guards from penetrating.
Flow and ebb are the part of any NBA game, especially between 2 good teams. Offense goes on lulls as shots are missed. Defense sags when players become too lax. Opposing team has their pride stung and plays with renewed vigor. There are a variety of reasons, but IT HAPPENS IN ANY GAME TO ANY TEAM.
There's certainly an offensive deficiency when they don't have James on the floor. They need to keep driving to the bucket, instead of retreating to beyond the arc. I wish they'd use Pap as a point-forward to facilitate plays for the second unit. Or maybe Smith. Both those guys have pretty good court vision. Let Terry shoot threes, and, for God's sake, stop having Brewer stop shooting threes (he's coming back down to his normal low average), and have him slash to basket. He's our best for that when Harden's on the bench. Also, while I imagine the guys get tired, they just so frequently lose the killer instinct when they get a lead that takes them on successful runs. I'd probably tell my players to play as if they're always down and trying to catch up, even if they're up by 30. The best coaches out there make their players go for the throat after they've "injured" their opponent. The Rockets always use the classic movie trope of walking away when their enemy is at their mercy. Personally, and I'm dead serious about this, if I were Les or Morey, I'd hire Belichick to come in and give the players an extended talk about this. I know we're talking about different sports, but the Patriots DO NOT LET UP no matter how seriously they're winning. If the Rockets played with the mindset to obliterate their opponents, they'd do it.
Watching games is infuriating because they frequently blow 12-18 point leads. Now on the plus side, they end up winning more often than not. But I get to the point now that when they build a big lead I'm just waiting for them to go cold and blow it.
Yea great teams never give up big runs. I mean could you imagine if the Warriors were outscored by 17 pts in the first quarter to the Mavs?... oh wait
