ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Celtics 2/29/2020

Yes.

 

What do you think harping on Hardens playstyle accomplishes?

Especially saying the same inaccurate stuff over years, what is your endgame?

You know what people think about Harden so why keep beating that horse?

 

What do you accomplish by posting on a basketball team fan message board?

 

LOL this the the game thread

 

He doesnt understand that you have a negative IQ when it comes to basketball.

When they realize how ignorant you are they will be kinder.

Are you relieved after coming out of the closet?

 

his endgame is for Lin to make his return to the rockets as its ultimate savior

or Harden to be traded for Lowry and parts or a similar package

 

This is a fan message board, therefore only the most objectively reasoned claims are welcomed. There must be no difference of opinion.

 

Shrug therapy, chapel and Joyce Meyer: How the Rockets left Boston with a win and a championship lesson

BOSTON — If the Rockets needed another reminder—besides the crisp New England air— that they were 2,000 miles away from home, they didn’t need to stray much farther from where they were already sitting.

The visitors’ locker room in the bowels of TD Garden has a bit of an old-school, classic feel to it.

It’s very different from the sleek, modernized style of their locker room back home.

Back in Houston, a bright ticker runs around the room displaying advanced stats for the team and its players. In the center of the room, four large screens form one giant one, where players can watch the film of their opponent in a macro view, aside from the individual scouting reports done on iPads. It’s an ergonomic aura, specifically designed for a team that runs on efficiency.

Here in Boston, there is no flashing ticker display and there are no advanced stats. Aside from Robert Covington who sat by his locker, deeply engrossed in the game film on his iPad, there wasn’t much going on at the moment.

The only pregame instructions in that room weren’t even that visible from a distance. A single piece of paper was taped to the wall closest to the bathroom, which also happened to be nearest to Russell Westbrook’s locker.

On it was a timely reminder that chapel was to be held for Houston 60 minutes prior to tipoff. Under it read a single line: Try some shrug therapy. All are welcome.

It’s not a common term used in the modern lexicon—Austin Rivers and Eric Gordon had no idea what the phrase meant upon initially hearing it. Shrug therapy is a term originally found in a Christian devotional book published in 2011 titled Love out Loud: 365 Devotions for Loving God, Loving Yourself and Loving Others.

The author, Joyce Meyer, an American Christian author and biblical teacher from St. Louis, Missouri, wrote this book and many others like it since embarking on her ministry path in 1985. Meyer founded her own company, Joyce Meyer Ministries, in efforts to connect with millions of people with Christianity and Jesus Christ.

Shrug therapy acknowledges that there are certain aspects in life that you can control, just as there are those you can’t control, for example, another person’s opinion. Shrug therapy deals with taking an uncomfortable or unfavorable situation and using it for the betterment of yourself. Rather than wallowing in self-pity or guilt, it’s about being proactive and taking control of a situation. Shrug your shoulders and fold, or shrug your shoulders and roll up your sleeves.

With 6 minutes and 58 seconds remaining in the first half, the veteran Rockets found themselves in an unfavorable situation—both in the macro and micro sense—and had a decision to make.

A Tatum three had just put the Celtics up 17, in front of a roaring, raucous crowd in a game and atmosphere that had suddenly become playoff-like. But aside from the battle that Houston was currently in, there were other situations that needed to be addressed, besides putting point back on the board.

As previously stated, a huge part of shrug therapy involved understanding things that were out of your control. One such thing was where Houston was in the current Western Conference standings.

Winning 38 out of a possible 58 games was good, and definitely would have been considered great for some teams around the league, but it wasn’t good enough for the Rockets. From the middle of October until now, at least according to them, there were more than a handful of games that can be considered ones they threw away.

Whether it was underestimating an opponent on a given night, or overestimating their own abilities in other circumstances, wins were left on the table. A ‘bad loss’ here and there is certainly understandable in the context of an eight-month season—injuries, outlier performances are two reasons for such. But acquire one too many of these in a campaign, and you find yourself fourth instead of battling at the top. As it stands, fourth out of 15 is still admirable, especially when you delve into the fierce competitiveness that the Western Conference brings on a nightly basis.

Of course, there’s understandable envy for teams like the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers who have healthy gaps at the tops of their respective conferences and have played at a high level for months. But by late February heading into March, and soon April, there’s no solace to be taken in that. No point in kicking yourself over games that are long gone.

Much like the bigger picture in their rearview mirror, they had to deal with a deficit that was flirting with implosion. Having observed hundreds of NBA games over the years, there’s an unspoken range of 10-15 points which tends to teeter on the line of a game that’s within reach and one that’s slipping away. At 17 points, it was starting to lean towards the latter.

There was a time, early in Houston’s season or even in years past, where a deficit of this magnitude would have been curtains for the team. They would have mailed it in, lived to fight another day.

But this team, this veteran group of people once considered misfits elsewhere, decided to fight. It’s important, not just for one game, but for the immediate future that they remain even-keeled in times like this. Houston never let that gap get bigger than 17, despite playing some sloppy offensive basketball—their 45 points the fewest in half this season—instead of leaning on some key defensive stands to keep the game within reason. Westbrook and Covington got back-to-back deflections when Boston wanted to turn on the jets in the open floor. Harden, who touched earth after a surprising crossover from Marcus Smart came back down the floor to hit a stepback 3.

There were a number of things that needed to be fixed in the second half—energy, hitting shots, and rhythm—but heading into halftime down 11 might have been a blessing in disguise.

“I thought the energy at first was not very good,” D’Antoni said following Houston’s 111-110 win. “Whether they were cold or tired or a couple of days up without a rhythm. I don’t know.”

The third quarter, which saw Houston outscore the Celtics 36 to 22, was a recommitment to everything this team has preached and tried to build in recent weeks. First and foremost, there was a renewed attention to Jayson Tatum, the phenomenal young forward and newest superstar of the Eastern Conference. Covington and Tucker’s minutes coincided with Tatum’s and Jaylen Brown’s, but there was a different physicality present. Houston wanted to make it as difficult as possible for Tatum, who’s bag of tricks remains deep and wide.

It was defense leading to offense, the oldest phrase in the book of basketball but the most honest. It was drive and kick from Houston’s three guards—Harden, Westbrook, and Gordon. Westbrook’s dish to Jeff Green for a triple put Houston up two, but more importantly, gave the TD Garden crowd and Celtics bench a reminder: this team wasn’t going anywhere. When Tatum dipped into his bag and wowed the crowd, Westbrook would go right back at whoever was under the basket. A Tatum fastbreak, one that would have surely ended in an emphatic jam 12 minutes earlier was met with several Rockets who gave everything they had to keep up with the quick wing.

The fourth and final quarter was more of the same, albeit a heightened sense of urgency. Houston’s shooting completely abandoned them—missing 10 of 11 threes and 13 of their 18 shots overall, but their defense didn’t. Their uber aggressive, switching defense kept their hopes alive. It’s an underlying skill of small ball that D’Antoni, that Boston completely abandoned their pick-and-roll offense, their bread, and butter, and succumbed to the isolation sickness. The Warriors found themselves in a similar trap in the Western Conference Finals two years ago, the indirect birth of this style and reason for its return.

“They have a lot of sets” Westbrook said. “A lot of plays and they’re very well-coached. I thought we did a good job disrupting them at the start of the second half, it kind of helped us change the gameplan a little bit and that helped us out.”

 

Houston brought energy plays, something they might not have been able to do a month ago. Tucker defended like he was 25 years old, the combination of him and Covington resemblant of an All-Defense duo. Tatum had few successful moments against either of them during the course of the game, but together, there was no chance. A spin move from the young Celtic was met with four arms, two stocky, two lanky. Danuel House had a huge putback dunk in a time the game hung in the balance. Westbrook had arguably the dunk of the night, and Houston’s season, darting in from the wing to complete an emphatic one-hander, screaming to the high heavens as he hung from the rim.

“I go get the ball,” Westbrook said. “That’s all I do. And obviously high enough to be able to dunk it. A big play for us late in the game.”

Despite being undersized, Tucker and Covington controlled the glass for large portions of the game. Tucker, putting his body on the line to give Houston extra possessions time and time again, and Covington using his IQ to put himself in opportune positions to seal defensive possessions. Between the two, 29 rebounds were corralled, with 6 of them offensive for Tucker, outrebounding the duo of Tatum and Daniel Theis.

“That’s my job, man,” Tucker told The Athletic. “Doing whatever it takes to win. These guys know that’s what I do. That’s what I’m always going to do. Every little thing that it takes for us to win, I’m going to do every single night.”

There was a chance for an emotional letdown after not sealing off the game in regulation and allowing Brown a wide-open three to send the game to overtime, but their defense refused to let those thoughts creep into their heads. Boston didn’t score the final 2:49 of overtime, finding it impossible to break free from Houston’s defensive clutches. By the time the final buzzer had sounded, there was no animosity on either side. Harden and Smart embraced, as did multiple players on both sides. Tucker and Tatum shared a long hug in the middle of the floor, a sign of mutual respect for a worthy opponent, and a hope that they would somehow meet again a few months from now.

“True winning team, man,” Tucker told The Athletic. “Honestly it’s just us becoming us. Getting towards the end of the season, each game means more. We’re finding our niche—how we’re going to play. We’ve got a veteran group back again now, we brought in some key pieces—guys that can help. And now, it’s big boy basketball now. It’s big boy basketball.”

“We needed it,” Harden said. “Everything isn’t going to be pretty. You have to find other ways to win when you are not making shots. We did that tonight.

Kendrick Perkins, his gigantic 6’10 frame, and his black backpack sauntered into the locker room and headed straight for the corner.

Russell Westbrook was putting the finishing touches on his postgame outfit, but he was still apparently in game mode. Perkins joked that he was still capable of knocking people over, much like his days banging down low for the Celtics and Thunder.

“****, I would have jumped right over you,” Westbrook said with a smirk on his face.

Jeff Green, whose locker was right next to Westbrook’s was elated at the sight of his good friend and former teammate. Between the three of them, they discussed Perkins’ new media lifestyle and his upcoming travel schedule along with catching up on basketball. Perkins wanted to show Westbrook and Green a video of basketball on an obvious tier below NBA-level competition, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell from their reactions to a call.

“They called an offensive foul?” Westbrook said in disbelief. Perkins simply nodded his head and brought the phone closer.

“That’s bullshit!” Westbrook said laughing to himself.

A few minutes later, Harden emerged and sat down by his locker.

“Wassup J?” Perkins said as he moved in his direction.

“Wassup witcha’ boyyyyy?” Harden said, excited to see an old face.

For a moment in time, they didn’t have to worry about catching the Clippers or Nuggets, or even worry about getting on the team bus to make the trip to New York. For a moment, they could just be the 2011 Thunder again. Thabo Sefolosha was outside at the moment, but he was there in spirit.

That was the lone season all five of them were on the team at the same time, but it was nothing short of magical. Their championship bid ended at the hands of Dallas that year, who went on to take down LeBron and the Big 3, but their time together, alongside with Kevin Durant, was always a case of potential and something cut short.

Among the group that stood there together in the corner of the Celtics’ locker room, only Perkins had championship experience. There was some irony present, as the Rockets prepared to leave a building in TD Garden and a city in Boston that held so much championship pedigree, something this crop is striving desperately for. In some ways, while they’re much older, wiser, and well-traveled, they’re also similar to those young, hungry Thunder teams so many years ago.

But that doesn’t mean that their journey will ultimately end in the same bitterness as it did back then, falling short of glory. There’s been something like a mental shift in Houston, whether it was due to Covington’s arrival or before is unclear. But what is clear is there’s a sense of togetherness and spirit.

“We just continue to build,” Rivers told The Athletic. “Because we’re switching right now, it makes us have to communicate and talk to each other, which has formed into us building a bond and chemistry. I think our chemistry..we’re honest with each other. If someone’s playing bad, we call them out, [if you’re] not playing hard, we’re just very honest and open with each other. This is the most communication I’ve seen since I’ve been here in Houston. I said that the other night too. So we just gotta keep it up.”

“The mentality should be like that all the time,” Tucker added. “I don’t know when it switched. I think now all of us are playing well together and starting to turn it up. The All-Star break is always a pivotal moment. We’re in fourth, but we feel like we gave away about ten games this year that we could have, and should have won. It’s trying to get that back, position ourselves, and be in the best position to go into the playoffs.”

 

You should really ask that question of yourself.

 

Lol at the hate