Analysis the Pivot TO by LIN at Game 4

Agreed, but I think what pisses people off the most about Lin is that he tends to make the mistake at the worst possible time in the game. I'm not letting Harden or Parsons off the hook, but at least they have sucked consistently during the stretches that they have struggled. I hate to use this analogy, but Lin hate is almost Tony Romo-esque in some ways. If you have a decent game with limited turnovers for the entire game but then make the one critical mistake at the end of regulation, it's going to get a lot of attention and rightfully so.

 

He does seem to make a lot of mental errors in crunch time. At the same time, he did, I believe, have the highest TS% in crunch time (three minutes or less in a close game) of any Rocket. There is a typical trade off, with attacking to create high percentage shots leading to more turnovers.

I wish he would calm down a bit at crunch time, but the attacks on him have been a bit one-sided.

 

My issue is that SO MANY players have made mistakes. In game 3, Harden made a crucial TO that In game 4, Harden just let Batum easily blow by him and Batum could've scored a dagger lay-up. Moreover, Beverley (whom I really like) absolutely crushed any chance of Houston tying the game at the end when he tried to dribble through a Portland wall at halfcourt. There was ample time to get a decent shot off and tie the game.

Yet Lin recovered Harden's TO and Daniels nailed the gamewinner. Howard blocked Batum and bailed Harden out. Lin sort of bailed Beverley out by making a bad play earlier and attracting all the negative attention for himself.

My point is that it wasn't as if Lin scored an own-basket with 0.05 seconds remaining. He did make a serious error and nobody's denying that. But as Lin did for his teammates in prior games and as how other Rockets have been doing for one another, the Rockets had a lot of time to bail him out. And they couldn't. And for that, they should get blame too.

 

One way to interpret that is that he's burdened with more responsibility during crunch time, so he bears the risk of making more errors. A player like TJones isn't going to make any crunch time errors because he's not going to be handling the ball or setting up plays in the last minute of a game.

 

Let me explain the difference: in these two videos when time out was called, the ball handler was not in the process of turning the ball over to the other team.

 

The Celtics were about to turn it over by 8 second violation. He saw the team was in trouble. It was a heads up play by Doc.

If McHale saw his team was in trouble, and if he saw there was no fast break opportunity, he was standing right next to the ref and should have called time out before Lin got stripped.

 

This is the Orlando D12 which is great for us long term. Shows that his back issues in LA weren't overstated and we will still be getting prime years out of him. Hopefully our next coach uses him better then McHale does. I'd also like to see him put some legit effort into FT shooting. No reason he can't be 65% from the line.

On Bev, we all know he's hurt so like you I give him a pass.

Harden has been by far the most disappointing player in the series. If we are going to declare him the best SG guard in the league then he is expected to play like it. I've seen him play capable defense so I know he can do it. When your shot isn't falling you have to do other things to help the team win and he isn't even trying on D. I really hope he plays angry and makes things happen for the remainder of the series.

Daniels is a spot up shooter. In hindsight Mchale should have played him earlier but like they say it's 20/20.

With Lin it is what it is. Once you get over the initial emotion of being super pissed off you kind of realize that it isn't going to change. He will put you in position to win in OT one game and then make a mistake on the most basic play in another.

Yeah, that team is brutal. I've never seen a player (Hibbert) decline so quickly. I have to suspect there is something going on with that team that we will hear about in the offseason as the chemistry that was there last year is gone completely. These guys don't like each other.

I don't post much because I don't have the time and it's rare you can actually find a worthwhile discussion on the internet

 

It doesn't matter how much time is on the clock when you call a time out. Some of you Lin apologists have no regard for reality. You just say any old thing.

On the other hand, you cannot call a time out while you are in the process of dribbling through a defender and losing possession of the ball.