I didn't see the team has sense of emergency. They always let POR come back. If Lin is really the problem, they should have won in OT without him.
What would happen if Lin was not subbed in? Offensive rebound by Portland and they score regardless? You never know.
I'm guessing his farewell press conference after this series is over is when he may finally admit his shortcomings as a head coach.
While I'm sure other players and the staff could have acted differently, it is still totally on Lin. If you disect any play up like that - you will find suboptimal actions be anyone. I don't think it applies in this case. Lin effed up pure and simple. I would not want him in the game in those situations anymore.
Lin's turnover was a pivotal mistake that ended up leading to an unnecessary OT in Game 4 that cost the Rockets the game, but I always like to take a step back and look at the bigger picture as well. The Rockets have had 10+ point leads in 3 out of the 4 games played in this series. In 2 of those games, they held the lead going into the fourth quarter. Why is it, then, that they always find themselves in a tight game down the stretch with a team that supposedly does not have the same level of talent (position for position) as the Rockets? If you want to play the numbers game, the Blazers have literally defied the odds in all three of their wins in the series (I might make an exception with Game 2). I blame the above squarely on the coaching staff. Calvin Murphy was bold enough to just say it outright: the Rockets simply do not play smart basketball down the stretch. And it's not something that can be a quick fix or an adjustment on the fly specifically for this series. It's about the little things, it's about preparing your players mentally, it's about putting an emphasis in EVERY single practice over the course of the year on playing fundamentally sound basketball...boxing out for rebounds, weak side rotations defensively, communicating with other players on the floor, limiting turnovers, and just instilling a mindset of a disciplined team. It was pretty obvious to me at the halfway point of the season that the Rockets lacked this. You can hide that fact over the course of the regular season when you have double digit leads on mediocre teams. In the playoffs, it's another matter. The difference between winning and losing comes down to which team can execute their offense/defense with the least amount of mistakes. The Rockets have lost that battle in the most profound way to the Blazers. THAT, in my opinion, is why we are really down 3-1 in this series.
Agreed. Dwight has been great. Bev is consistent - but lacks the intensity he had (im blaming his injury for this). Harden...probably most disappointing player in the series in terms of what is expected of him. Daniels - small sample size, but would def want to see what he can do. Honestly I couldn't understand they didn't run plays for him, instead it kept going to harden or in the post. baffling. Lin - as the story goes, been up and down with the 2 big TOs. But I guess on the bright side, at least I'm not a Pacer fan Good analysis King1, I wonder why you don't post more - probably because the board already has too much spam
of course bev and parsons had to guard a 20% 3 point shooter because with our luck his 3pt% goes to 100%. We have a lot of stupid players doing stupid things at the wrong time but only one will be the scapefrog.
What was not obvious is that after Lin grabbed the board, he was hacked by Lillard which made him hesitate and change the trajectory of the bounce. This allowed Williams enough time to come up for the slap.
From a high level view I agree with you 100%. Inconsistent play. Poor execution. Lack of focus. Late adjustments. Some of that is youth and things that can happen to a relatively newly assembled team. But I put the brunt if that on the coaching staff. Things just haven't seemed to click since Sampson left. I'd love to see a statistical breakdown of team and player performance since he left. I think that's the biggest change needed this off season.
Dude... Lin dribbled halfway down the baseline and up the sideline after that no call. I agree it looked like Lillard reached in but come on. That had zero to do with him getting his pocket picked.
Nice to see another photo of this. I had already posted the one from the Chronicle on two other threads. And if you look on the video and stop at the 15 second mark, you see that a ref had a clear view of this. It's pretty unbelievable he didn't make that call. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...lexander-seeks-to-drive-him-from-nba/#22624-2
Look, Lin made two mistakes: he should have called a timeout and, if not, he should have passed to Parsons. But Williams barely caught up to him. This foul surely slowed him down a fraction of a second. I really believe that without it, Lin would have had his back fully protecting the ball from Williams. Not saying there weren't two decision-making mistakes from Lin. But honestly, I don't think there was a ball-handling mistake: He was definitely fouled, and Williams' foot probably went over the line. His pocket wouldn't have been picked if the refs made the right calls.
Lin made a mistake, but the game wasn't lost then. Lin played like a hero in game 1 OT and nearly bailed out his team. Blame Harden and Parsons for being completely unable to hit shots down the stretch. Lin bailed out Harden in game 3 when Harden's TO could've led to a game-winning basket for Portland with the last possession of the game. Sure, Lin made a mistake and should be criticized as all players are criticized. But it's been a series of mistakes. Lin made a mistake and his teammates had ample opportunity to bail him out. That's what a team is for. And they failed. Blaming a single scapegoat is the stupid and cowardly way out.
If you watch the whole replay from that angle, Lin hesitates, the ball bounces funny and he lifts his body up. He only had 4 steps past Lillard when the ball gets hit from behind. If he had that extra split second, he easily could have gotten the ball to Chandler or changed the angle of his dribble to prevent Williams from getting to him. My point though was more that he gets whacked and the ref, who is RIGHT in front of them, doesn't make the right call....again.
Lin got his pocket picked because Lin is a dumbass, plain and simple. He was not thinking. If he was, he would call timeout. Also, Mo's foot was not over the line. There is proof of this in the other thread about Mo.
On that play, Lin had two defenders ready to trap him after grabbing the rebound. Any of them could've easily reached in and tied up the ball had he stopped to try and call a timeout, which would've possibly resulted in a jump ball. Lin mindset was just trying to clear the ball out of traffic. But it wasn't executed properly. Also Dwight was in a perfect position to set a pick on Mo Williams who was running after Lin, but he instead stepped aside and gave Williams a clear path. These are the little things that this team fails to do to support each other.
If Lin called a timeout and got tangled up, the worse that could happen would be a jump ball, unless Lin is too incompetent to even secure the ball properly. Even if that happened, it still would have been MUCH better than a TO by Lin. Lin was SUPPOSED to call a timeout immediately in that situation. The fact that his mindset seemed to state completely otherwise only serves to expose just how low his IQ is. I will say it again, Lin is an incredibly stupid player and I cannot wait until he is no longer on our precious team.
