A realistic view of what this loss means for the series

Hate to quote it. But it's better than starting a thread. Beuller? Anyone?

 

Defense Defense Defense
and stop the Turnovers Turnovers Turnovers

These killed us

Barnes gets 20??
Seriously?

Rocket River

 

Clippers had alot of Adrenaline left from the spurs series
and the Rockets were in sloth mode

Some of the turnovers were stupid and sloppy

Behind the back pass to no one???? come on

TJONES is lost .. . and played like a girl
I felt more confidence with Capela in there

In all honesty I'd like to see a Capela Howard Line up at some point maybe
Maybe Smith Capela and Howard. . . GO BIG!!!

Rocket River

 

I agree with you. They will play Paul if he's available and ready just to go up 2-0. There's really nothing that can be done since the Rox defense just plain suck at the moment. Ariza or Brewer is still not enough to slow the former MVP down.

 

They also knew by then that Curry was the MVP and the whole team was energized. If Harden was named MVP, I guarantee that the Rockets would have played energized. Not saying that is why they lost, just a factor.

 

Take the next 3 games and all is forgotten.
Can it be done? Yes if we don't play like crap/stupid

 

A mentally tougher team would have used that as bulletin board material to play motivated, not to play lazy and uninspired.

I don't think that's why we lost. We came out with the same lazy defense and careless turnovers that started in game 3 against Dallas. Rockets thought they would out-talent a Paul-less team and didn't respect their opponent. It was a shameful and embarrassing team effort on the court.

 

Realistic view? On clutchfans?

 

They weren't in "sloth mode" out of the gate. They were in undecisplined Greyhound mode. They were carelessly trying to run on everything. How can that be called "sloth mode?"

 

The reality is that we are not in a good place. The reality is that our chances for winning went from 50-50 to probably 1 in 10. We now face the reality that we got dominated at home by a team missing it's best player.

That's the kind of thing that can break the back of a team. They have all the confidence and swagger, and we are left as a wounded animal.

Can we turn it around? Sure, it's possible. But the realistic look is that the odds are against that happening.

 

That's a little dramatic, I think. We certainly took a hit last night, but the goal should just be to win Game 2, then split Game 3 and 4. If we're 2-2 after 4 games, I like our chances with home court.

It's not ideal, and winning a game in LA will be tough, but we've done it before. We'll see what happens.

 

I don't think they were in "sloth mode" either.

I know you don't believe in rust. To me, rust is a mental thing. The lack of focus and discipline out of the gate is a sign of rust, or whatever you want to call it. It shows that they were not in a prepared mental state of professional competitiveness on a high level. As McHale said in postgame, they were making junior high mistakes out there. They were less focused than when they played the Mavs.

Sure, inexperience probably played a role. One can argue that an experienced player knows how to keep mentally prepared during a long layoff.

 

Rust as in not having played against top competition for a while. That's exactly what caused those early turnovers.

 

We are + 6.5 pt favs for Game 2.

https://www.sportsbook.ag/sbk/sportsbook4/nba-playoffs-betting/nba-game-lines.sbk

We are, however, underdogs +150 to win the series. Clips are -175.

https://www.sportsbook.ag/sbk/sportsbook4/nba-playoffs-betting/nba-series-prices.sbk

Hate to rain on the drama parade, but, yeah.

Moreover (and, again) why will Chris Paul sit out? Where is the data which would support 6 days rest v 4 days rest for CP3 as being more valuable than having a chance to have the Rox down 2-0 and the series over?

This is all the talking heads on tv went on about yesterday (the biggest contrarian indicator of them all) and it seems to have just been adopted as fact around here.

 

Harden. For question 1.

And

HARDEN for question 2

 

No matter how you slice it, they were running like the Rockets do out of the gate. High energy.

I don't even see a mental state issue with it, other than they didn't realize that you can't do that type of running in the playoffs without a high-quality PG keeping everything disciplined.

It wasn't rust physically or mentally. It's more about who we are. We still won that 1st Q, and we had the energy and opportunity to win by even more. Saying it is rust out of the gate physically or mentally is a narrative that, at best, gives the Rockets and fans a convenient excuse.

Now, that second half ... that's sloth-y and mentally weak.

 

Vegas called it in folks. You dont fight like harden does all season long. And call it in first game of the semis. He wasnt getting any calls either.

 

Go ahead and make your excuses, if it helps you forget about this game. Nice narrative, I guess. Sorry, but I can't buy the "5 days off" homer excuse. Is that what CLE ans and Lebron are saying right now, too? I seriously hope our Coach and players aren't using that excuse for all those threading-the-needle passes on fastbreaks, dangerous skip passes in half court and not getting back in transition.

 

The biggest disappointment from last night was watching Harden wilt, and lose his fire as the game went on. Never at any point did he have the look of someone who was NOT going to let his team lose. Blake Griffin, Jamal Crawford, even ****ing Austin Rivers looked like guys who were not going to go down without a fight. Instead, we had Harden, Ariza, and Smith all opening up a big bag of quit when all the chips were on the table. This team needs to look themselves in the mirror and decide if they want to be champions.

 

"I told our guys we need to make sure we don't let this game beat us twice."