ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Grizzlies 1/14/2020

Spoiler

It's just one second
Just one minute
Just one quarter
Just one game
It's just the regular season.
It's fine.
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.
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Oh ****, we're the 6th seed & have to play the Clippers?!
"Well yeah, the refs made us lose in the first round vs. the Clippers! Refs fault!"

 

Paul missing no games is just not the norm. Look at his past history. For Paul not to break down before playoffs would be a miracle. It's the kind of miracle (or Houston curse) you can say would probably happen if we traded Mr. Game Time Decision Glass Man Fuller from the Texans.

I mean seriously, Fuller has missed over a third of the season the past 3 years, yet if we dont sign him after his rookie contract he might finally have his first injury free season. That's what happened with Kevin Johnson. He left Houston and was miraculously cured from Lame Duck disease. His last three years on the Texans he averaged 6 games a season, yet this year he played all 16 games for the Bills.

Let's hope come playoffs Westbrook proves more durable than Paul through the stretch. This team is screwed without him.

 

Im laughing but i dont understand this anymore than yall do.

 

Is Harden taking 37 shots selfish, smart, necessary, just plain ridiculous or what? There will be justifications for every answer. I have no doubt.

Let's compare the ball distribution of the top teams in the league in their last game for field goals taken by their top 5 players.

1) Bucks 17/10/9/9/9
2 Lakers 17/16/13/12/11
3. Celtics 17/13/11/9/9
4. Jazz 19/16/15/13/12
5. Heat. 15/15/12/10/7
6. Nuggets 14/12/9/9/9
7. Clippers. 18/16/13/8/7
8. Rockets. 37/19/12/7/7

Hmmmm. Maybe they are ahead of us for a reason. Could ball distribution actually mean something? The Harden Show might not be the answer to a Championship, but people do love seeing him shatter all kinds of records. He can be so fun to watch at times.

I can't help but wonder if you switched MDA and Harden with the star player and coach from any of those teams if the ball distribution and rankings would be exactly as the Rockets are now on whatever team they went to.

 

If i were the rockets i might consider trading capella for something and letting hardenstien take over capella role. The hawks are desperate to get somebody to go with trae young. The rockets just need more quality bodies.

 

Memphis have gone 13-6 since Morant returned from a back injury in early December. The Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz are the only NBA teams with more wins during that span

 

they have different teams and all those teams get production from the bench. We have the worst bench in the league. that is the problem

 

why do we suck?

 

It’s up to the coach and Harden to find best ways to win, that has basically been the Harden show for most of it. Cannot fault James since coach doesn’t trust many players so why should he?

Even with that Harden does distribute and tries to get guys going, so he actually trusts, however it’s not by design. I believe once we get a coach that can balance Harden iso and ball distribution, we can win.

 

ONE SIMPLE MOVE and we win this game
Switch the Minutes of HOUSE and HARTENSTEIN
and we win this game

If House only plays 4 minutes. . .we win this game!

Rocket River

 

Yep, but even when our bench is shooting well the story is the same. I find it weird, considering all the different players who have come and gone, that we could never manage to distribute the ball like other top teams.

 

Yep, I agree. So far, no coach has been able to stop the ISO.

 

It's too simple though...lol

 

We have no coach. We could be very good, but we have no coach. We have no scheme on either end of the court.

 

Maybe. I like the idea of using them together though. That would be defensive dominance at the rim.

 

At least when we had CP3 he wasn't taking nights off to rest. Russ not playing just has no meaning if it is driving Harden into the ground

 

In this golden opportunity of a wide open season where there is no clear and obvious favorite you'd think the Rockets would come out and seize this incredible opportunity to win a championship. Instead, they're frittering away the entire regular season and will be lucky to host one playoff series. They just can't be bothered to play hard on a consistent basis. It's disgusting. I feel like an idiot turning this **** on every night smh.

And it's clear that MDA is just mailing in the entire season since he knows he's a lame duck coach. Prob wants to retire after this season anyway. Tilman too cheap to allow Morey to meaningfully upgrade this joke of a roster. It hit me how bad this roster truly is last night.

It's incredible how much Capela has regressed definsively since the 2018 playoffs. Remember when he dominated Town and was stuffing Gobert multiple times in one possession? That's long gone.

House is just invisible out there a total zero. What happened to him? We desperately need to upgrade in that area 'cause McLemore doesn't bring enough to the table to be a starter.

This team fart around and win 50-something games and, if we're lucky, win a playoff series (not a given since the 2-5 seeds are essentially teams of the same caliber). Then get smoked by the Lakers second round. Congrats.

 

well we get the shots we want, we just don't make them as often as we should. We have one of the best offences. We don't need to play like other teams. also our players blow some easy shots at the rim

 

Defensively we have been around top 10 the last month. We will beat the Lakers, i'm confident of that. This roster will be a bit different come Playoff time i'm sure

 

I can't help wonder if you switched James and MDA with any of the star players and coach from any of those teams above us if the team they went to would suddenly reverse roles with where we are right now in rankings and ball distribution.