[2017] The After-Loss Ventilate and Ameliorate Thread

Mark it: 11/23/2016 - the worst the Rockets have played this year. (It's possible I'm forgetting something, already.)

 

Man, Harden's off-ball defense tonight was extraordinarily bad.

 

I swear....every year, there is "The Toronto Game"

Last season I felt like it was "The Denver Game(s)" where we were destroyed, as I sat courtside and watched Dwight joke with some Instagram models, James playing by himself, Trevor praying to Jesus and every Nugget fan yelling "DUI" when Ty had the ball.

Or there's that Indiana game where Monta beats us at the buzzer.


This year, so far, it's the Toronto game. 12 turnovers is awful, but hell, that's poor offense to force James to handle the rock that much. If we could do this cool little move called a pick and roll, and if we had a big outside of Ry who could hit a 14-footer, maybe James wouldn't be Tim Tebowing out there.

Mike needs to fix the energy quickly, teach James to keep his dribble or pass sooner and give Clint some range for Christmas. DM has his work cut out, too.

Toronto exposed a lot of our weaknesses, especially in the paint.

And, damn, somebody guard Corey Joseph next time. Put a hand in his face, you know, kind of like Shane used to do when we played defense.

That's what I want for Christmas (besides no mo cancer): DEFENSE.

 

Has Harden recently started secretly dating another Kardashian? It's the only explanation for his recent struggles...

 

I don't like how Beverley puts himself on the map by sometimes playing his best defense in last 10 seconds of a blowout. I swear "Beverley the defender" happened 50% because of injuring Westbrook while going 200% in a meaningless spot for no god damn reason. Even MDA was shouting at Patrick to **** off from Lowry in the last possession, but Beverley doesn't listen, he gotta remind everyone how "good" of a defender he is.

 

What worries me is that after 15 games, we only beat a .500 or above team twice (Spurs once and Blazers once).

We have a respectable record of 9-6 because we beat the teams we ought to beat. But we haven't been able to hang with the good teams.

 

One of the main things that stood out to me was Harden's failure to adapt to Toronto's defense. He kept trying to squeeze passes to the roll man when Toronto seemed to be prioritizing cutting that off. I think he should have looked to score more today given that Toronto was trying to eliminate Harden's playmaking (see: 12 turnovers OUCH). The Rockets also missed a ton of open three's tonight, especially early.

As with all Houston losses, this puts a ceiling on how happy I can be today. Please play better next game Rockets!

 

I thought teams were gonna start adjusting to what we were doing eventually. We need to counter that

 

There is no counter my friend

 

So when we going to run MDA's offense? All Harden still...

 

I'm not sure Harden will ever fully buy into any offensive system.

 

I think you are expecting too much. Our shortcomings are well known, and it is easy to exploit them.

 

Arrrrrrr F%&$ing S&%$ F%&$!!!
I feel better now. Thanks.

 

Actually I did not expect much of this team. But many posters have been raising their expectations. Harden is playing great. Gordon seems to have fit in his role quite well. Capela and Dekker show significant improvement--if only Anderson can start hitting his shots. We are sitting at a respectable 9-6 record. People are talking about us being a 50+-win team.

I think we are deluding ourselves if we think the Rockets are among the good teams. We are actually a middle-tier team destined for a low playoffs seed and a first round exit.

 

Exactly! Effort level was the difference. That's why our bench was semi-competitive despite an erratic offense, but our starters got torched. Low energy, low effort. I laughed when Bill said "It seems like the team already had their Thanksgiving dinners prior to this game."

Toronto was running us off the three point line, and waiting in the wings for dumps into the lane. 6-7 of Harden's turnovers had to be trying to feed Capela through 3 defenders.

On the other end, we weren't getting back in transition, collapsed towards the paint, and watched them drain long twos and threes over and over and over again.

PAINFUL game to watch. D'Antoni had to be exasperated after that effort.

 

A lot of those passes harden is making near the basket, he really needs to be scoring or

All teams will now start to cut these passes off.

We're gonna have to do something different, at least part of the time

 

I agree with you.