ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Blazers 12/12/2013

Entertaining game. The Rockets shot the poorly, and the ball seemed to bounce towards the Trailblazers all night, which resulted in a loss for the Rockets.

Some good things happened last night. Dwight had a good game, and the Rockets had very few turnovers. Rockets lost to a good team on their home court, so I don't see it as a bad loss. A win against the Warriors tonight would be impressive.

 

Harden shoots too much - He's too selfish; needs to get his teammates involved

Harden doesn't shoot enough - He needs to be more selfish


Oh Clutchfans...

 

You may have a very valid point.

 

Bev. did a good job on Lillard. This is true.

 

I thought Portland did a great job defending us, exposing our current weaknesses, and giving the rest of the league a blue print on how to beat us. Their perimeter D was simply off the charts. They ran us off the 3-point line all night long.

Offensively they exposed our softness in the paint. Dwight cannot (and should not have to) match up with Lamarcus when he is outside the paint. TJones was simply overmatched.

Which brings me to Jones. The bottom line is a lot of ballers can look good playing as the fourth option and secondary paint defender alongside Dwight, Harden, and Parsons, especially against mediocre to poor teams. But when you play the good teams the cracks start showing. Jones is not good enough, not experienced enough and not skilled enough to keep it going against the better teams. He's shown flashes of potential but that's all.

Offensively Jones is simply not enough of a floor spreader that we need on this team. The Blazers played him to drive and he drove repeatedly into traffic creating nothing but instead gumming up the offensive flow. And defensively he was not the answer in the middle when Dwight went out.

Just like last season with Omer, when Dwight goes to the bench we get torched. I repeat, you can get by with playing Jones against the lower echelon teams that may have only one quality big. But when we run into these teams who have 2 quality rotation bigs that can bring it at both ends we are going to struggle and Jones is going to look very non-difference making.

Granted if Asik comes in behind Dwight last night we probably win the game and TJones may have looked a lot better. And repeating again, when we play lower echelon teams Jones is going to look good and we can get by with him playing 5 when Dwight gots to the bench. But against the better teams with 2 our more quality rotation bigs we're gonna come up short.

We need a legit 7-footer that can defend and rebound backing up Dwight and we need a stronger, more experienced power forward that can fire up multiple 3's without hesitation and in volume when needed. Until Jones either gets enough confidence to jack that 3-ball when he catches and until he becomes a better, smarter defender against long bigs or we make a trade to get that second quality big we are going to struggle against the better teams and we are short of being a champion.

 

Wait...didn't Sampson have a good stint coaching the Rockets when McHale was out due to his daughter's death? I don't remember anyone complaining about his coaching then. I think the talk was of him possibly becoming a head coach for another team.

I also think Asik has lost a lot of his trade value. At the beginning of the season or in the off-season, he was worth more IMO. He hasn't done much of anything this season and almost seems like he belongs as a bench player.

 

Good post.

 

This is the kind of game where I'd like Harden to step up and take over big time like real stars do. No way should he be taking the same number of shots as Parsons despite Parsons having a poor shooting night.

 

What da heck is your point...????

 

I felt the same...jones was getting beat by lA..dont know if dwight shoulda switched....but we needed some outside offense and didnt even try brooks.

 

Sampson showed us that Coach McHale does have an impact on wins and losses. A positive one, in my opinion, at least where last night's game is concerned. Sampson had the rotations skewed. There wasn't a "flow" to his substitutions. Did Jeremy really need 15 minutes? I wish Lin could have played in the Orlando game and used it to shake the rust off. He just didn't look "right" last night. Bev could have played fewer minutes, so why not play Brooks? He's quick enough to create space, and shooting 46% from behind the arc. Sure, the Blazers are a surprisingly good team this season, and it was on their court, but when it was over I felt like it was a game we could have won.

 

Dude the only reason we lost that game last night is because Parsons played like hot steaming garbage and Harden didn't take over the game like he's supposed to do...

 

My kingdom for a horse named LaMarcus Aldridge!

 

Yes, those are the ONLY reasons. It had nothing to do with our bench contribution or lack of defensive rebounding or even that fact that we couldn't hit 3s

 

I'm not freaking about LMA going off on us last year.

Great players do that. Hot shooters do that.

LMA wasn't pushing us around, blowing by our guys or getting shots that weren't contested. All of the damage he did was from 13 feet and beyond. He just happened to make those shots.

That said, while the points don't bother me....the damage he did on the boards does. There were stretches of the game where Dwight and TJ were clearly getting outhustled. Effort/energy should never be in question (especially in TJ's case). Last night definitely exemplifies why we need another veteran in the mix. At least in my mind.

 

Have we played OKC, Miami or Indiana? We played the Clippers twice without Jones getting significant minutes. Jones put up 10 points 16 rebounds against the san antonio spurs in that win. Aldridge is a true allstar and Jones isn't that yet but the guy is still developing and is not a finish product. Gotta give him time and he still has yet to play against all the true contenders to make the point that he doesn't show up against the bigtime teams. The jury is still out on Portland wait till after allstar break.

 

I agree with everything, but I think think this is the first time the Rockets and Jones REALLY got tested. There's room for Jones to grow, hes only 21, he's going to get better. He didn't struggle against the Spurs or Dallas.

 

Bench players are bench players for a reason _ they can't always be depended on... If Parsons would have had a better shooting night or got the ball to Harden and Howard more _ it wouldn't have mattered what the bench did... And 3 pointers don't always fall _ and when they are not falling you have to find another way to score _ just like Portland did because they shot 29% from 3 point range...

No way Parsons can go 6-18 and play pis poor defense (worst than Harden's) and the bench gets the blame. Casspi and Garcia are career bench players and Lin is coming off of injury _ what is it you expect from them...???

 

I guess the gave the league a blue print on how the defeat the Pacers too huh.. bwhahahahaha

Man every team plays each other different. All because it worked for the Blazers last night doesnt mean its going to work for the Spurs or any other team.

Bwhahahahaha blue print

 

Portland was simply the better team last night. We need to just accept that fact