ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Cavaliers 1/5/2013

If Lin was getting big China votes, then he'd have Yao numbers (1 million plus). I doubt that's the case, that he's getting huge numbers there. Probably more than most players, sure, but not like what Yao would get.

 

I disagree.

Whiles the team should not rely on ISO, having a player who could ISO as effectively as Harden is a luxury most teams can't afford.

We have that luxury, so we should take advantage of it.

How many times did we see a Rocket miss open shots when the ball was given to them near the end of the game? I remember Harden giving a few of our players open 3s near the end of the game but they missed it.

You can run as many set plays as you want but it means nothing if players can't make the shot.

This is where great offensive players come in. Guys like Harden could score at will, and they are the most reliable players to go to when your team desperately need to score and control the clock.

 

I never said I wasn't sold on Kyrie. The kid can hoop. I just said that Irving's D is vile. And I also said that I wouldn't want a Kyrie Harden back court because it would be a sieve on the defensive end. Thanks for the shout out though.

 

Congrats Jeremy on your new career achievements:
-With 20 points tonight, you have 1001 career points
-You're the first NBA player from Harvard to break the 1000 career point mark (as far back as bball reference can tell)
-You're probably also the first to get a flop warning (even though you were headbutted)

 

That's right -- you weren't high on his defense. My bad. I didn't mean to mischaracterize what you said.

Happy to give the shout out!

 

It's not 600K fans, since it's not one person one vote.

 

Lol, love it. I think I'll make it my sig.

 

hey Paul.

 

What's up, man? I told you I was over here reading.

 

your msg woke me up to follow you here. enjoy your stay.

 

Every good team needs a player like Harden to give the ball to so they can go to work when needed. Noone disputes that. But the coach and Harden get iso happy and whether he makes it or not in that game, in the long run it will kill our offense. The offense should be spread to everyone so as to have great defensive energy and players can make shots when the ball comes to them. If Harden isos all day, he'll be the only one to be in rhythm while everyone will be cold when the ball eventually gets passed over to them. I don't know why you guys are disagreeing with this. Is it that you don't want Lin to get the ball cuz even if t was another pg who can distribute well, I'd say the same thing

 

LOL. I reckon not. It's not often that NBA.com just makes stuff up.

LOL. I have no idea how these people even come up with this nonsense. That was a flop? Are you people fogging serious? Let's give y'all a surprise headbutt to the nose and see if you don't involuntarily shut your eyes and snap your head back.

 

Anyway just finished watching the game. A few thoughts.

Great to see Lin bounce back from a poor game last night. Asking for consistency from him this early in his career would be delusional. I just want to see him bounce back in the next game after a poor outing. A fact that a lot of people don't realize is that Lin hasn't even played against every PG in the NBA yet (he hasn't faced CP3, Kemba & Curry etc). This is how new he is to everything. For those who didn't know Morey tweeted out a few weeks ago (Lots of ways 2look @start of @jlin7 career. Another1: only 7 plyrs since 90 have 8+ all-around gms of 20pts/5ast/2reb/2stl in 1st 45 starts). I think tonights game was another excellent all around game from Lin. His shooting was on tonight but otherwise he is a woeful shooter I am sure he will miss a bunch of 3's against LA. Lin was also really good on D tonight, Kyrie is a handful & off the top of my head Lin & Jrue were the two PG's that really impressed me on the defensive end in terms of defending Kyrie.

Harden was sloppy in the first half. It was like he wasn't even paying attention. Turning it over, not really anticipating passes & missing easy ones at the rim. But he stepped it up in the 4th big time was so much fun to watch. Hardens D is still woeful though. That play in transition where Lin & Harden were running the break was the most absurd thing ever. It seems like every game the two of them have a play where they are seriously just dicking around out there (cc: the alley oop attempt).

Parsons with another poor outing. His shots don't seem to be falling lately. But he has been doing other things really well. He really needs to work on his decision making, handles & transition game this off season. He has been asked to do a lot more on the offensive end this season. Anyway I love Chandler & I am not worried about him at all. Things will sort themselves out.

Also glad to see Morris really bounce back as well. I like Morris over Patt in the starting unit. Morris may have his off games where he can't buy a bucket but I really like Morris passing & his aggressiveness attacking the hoop. Defensively he isn't the best but we can always do a quick substitution & put in Patt. Greg & Patt were also really solid as well.

 

Why do so many of you Lin fans think everything is somehow against Lin? This has nothing to do with Lin.

The Rockets offense has been absolutely terrific in general the last 10+ games. We have won 11 of our last 14. We are currently number 1 in offense in the league. So the statement that "the coach and Harden get iso happy" is false.

He doesn't "ISO" all day, that's also just blatantly untrue. He runs a lot of PnR and creates a ton of openings for the team. I haven't seen a lot of situations throughout this hot streak where Harden repeatedly attempts to go 1 on 1.

Also, how could this team be number 1 in the league on offense if Harden is "killing the offense"? Harden has been averaging over 25 points a game and we have been winning most of our games lately, scoring at a ridiculously high rate. Obviously, Harden is doing something right.

 

The Rockets had six guys with 9 or more points. And the shots were pretty evenly distributed:

Harden: 17 shots (and 15 FTs!)
Lin: 13 shots
Patterson: 13 shots
Parsons: 9 shots
Morris: 8 shots
Delfino: 6 shots
Douglas: 5 shots
Smith: 5 shots
Asik: 3 shots

Yes, we have a definite go-to scorer (which is a good thing), but on the whole, the offense is quite balanced.

 

Agreed in part, but if I went iso or pnr with my big man for 4 mins off the clock (10 mins real time) without you touching the ball, you'd be shaky as well. Admittedly, I don't know how good your jumpshot is, bro . Especially a catch and shoot with a 6'6" acrobatic mofo jumping at you. I know when I don't get it for a spell, I always have to dribble a few times to feel the ball in my hands.

 

Nice

Good game summary, Roxxy. I thought J-Lin did a good job on Kyrie, also.

 

Except PnR isn't a bad play, it's a bread and butter play.

Steve Nash and Amare ran PnR all day back in the Suns.

McGrady and Yao had easily one of the deadliest PnR play in basketball. This team ran the McGrady/Yao PnR to death and nobody ever complained that they were "isoing".

Kobe and Gasol/Shaq also had a deadly PnR play.

PnR is an absolutely potent play when used by a potent scorer, especially in crunch time where time management is important.

Also, Harden gets the ball to the open player almost every time when he uses the PnR to draw the defensive attention. It's not true to assume he doesn't pass it.

Point is, the team is winning with what they are doing now, and the team has won a couple of games so far that they shouldn't have won because of Harden's Iso/PnR play.

 

No, don't get me me wrong. I love our distribution. And thats why our record is so good. Thats why the Lakers and Celtics were so tough. On any given night, Byron, Worthy, Kareem, or Magic would do their thing. Also, Harden is very unselfish and definitely should get the most attempts. But the fact of the matter is, I think we get iso happy once too often too early. Kobe is the uber example. It seems like he's carrying the team some nights and his teammates look like they can't shoot worth crap sometimes but I think that's partly/mostly Kobe and the coach's fault. He freezes everyone out and when thy do get the ball, they're so out if rhythm that they miss and casual fans think he needs more help when actually IMO Kobe needs to make his teammates better by passing it more to them to get them "feeling" it.

 

Looking at our past games, we are really blowing out the opposition. This team
is really good.