ClutchFans Game Thread: Pistons @ Rockets 11/10/2012

Good win!
Nice to see Harden got some of his shooting touch back, still need to work on his iso TO.
Nice to see Lin/Asik being so productive in less than 28 min. Easily double double for them if more minutes.
Morris and Smith played great, hopefully they can get some burden off the starters.
Jones solid rookie debut.
Better ball movement and defense as a team, going the right direction.

Rockets keep hustlin, bring on the "Heat"!

 

He limited Asik's mins too...don't be overreacting...it's good for Lin, especially for his knees. He needs to rest more and look, he turn the ball over ZERO time.

 

PPT is a short version of Amare...

 

^ with much better 1on1 D.

 

I just checked the standings. Only in the SW division can you be .500 and ranked dead last. Crap!

 

Hope Greg Smith's minutes continue to increase. Aldrich had a couple of decent moves and ppl think he's automatic backup. He's a 7 foot stiff that can't protect the paint or rebound. Greg is more mobile, better defender, can rebound, post up, and makes good passes. And he's only 20!

 

Jonathan Feigen
@Jonathan_Feigen
Rockets look better when Lin plays point, Harden plays 2-guard. Imagine that. Lin w consecutive passes inside before Harden 3, Hou by 9.

 

And you're not going to get ANY minutes if you keep whining.

 

The Western Conference is a war-zone this year. That said, from the looks of it I'd pin the Rockets as being a 9th - 11th seed right now, unless McHale can fix up his offensive schemes and rotations.

 

Pretty sure somebody (maybe an Iowa State fan) just tweeted to ask him something like "Why aren't you playing? Are you injured?" and he just responded.

 

Couldn't agree with this more. Needs to be said over and over again.

 

Greg Smith is a beast. I'd love to see him back-up Asik as the defensive anchor and C. Hopefully Jones was just hungry for PT causing the erroneous bad shots he took tonight, because he should be the back-up PF and given playing time over Patterson when we're facing a big front-court like the Grizzlies who just bashed us inside and ate the glass.

 

That's a 'tweener tweet -- between passive and aggressive.

 

Undercover LOF.

 

Geraldd did it again. His Lin highlights are up for Detroit game.

 

the most impressive stats today : Asik 4/4 from FT

 

the first game i had to miss and TJones plays......................

 

Sampson explains this in the post-game interview:
http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/post-game-111012-kelvin-sampson

6m 20sec: "I thought that Will Bynum, the backup point guard for Detroit, I thought was a better matchup for Toney. Cuz Toney probably...the way we want to play... the pace... Toney naturally gets the the ball up faster than Jeremy. I think Jeremy is a better half-court point guard than Toney, but Toney's speed matches Bynum's speed. I don't know if I was worried about Jeremy's minutes as much as I liked that matchup."

 

Wow, if Sampson thinks Toney Doglas can play PG, then all the game announcers and reporters probably would disagree with him and I would seriously doubt his coaching abilities.

Isn't Sampson also the one who said

From last 3-4 games it's clear that giving Harden the free reign and let him play as much ISO and hero ball is not gonna work for this team.

I, for one, hope McHale returns ASAP.

 

Well, Sampson didn't actually say TD is a better PG than Lin. He said specifically that TD pushes the pace better. Sampson's statement is just incomprehensible since Lin has done a good job pushing the tempo; there have been more fast break and transition buckets with Lin handling the ball than any other player.

This season is going to be difficult for Lin. Even the stuff he does well is not recognized by Sampson and perhaps others on the coaching staff.