Anyways everyone was awful. I did not seem team chemistry. I did not see any plays set. At times the guys looked confused out there. Oh well. Hope we win the next game.
I had the same feeling that Harden had to be dipping close to 80% this year, but going into tonight he was at 84.7% vs last year when he was at 85.1%. For whatever reason it just feels like he is missing way more than last year. Brooks is shooting 3 points better than his career average. Parsons is down just a tad, 72.9% last year vs 72.1% this year. Lin is also down just a bit, 78.5% last year vs 77.8% this year. Bev is down 5 points. I really think it has just come down to timing of the misses that has really made it stand out. That and the fact that Howard has dragged our overall team percentage substantially. Just seems like we always miss.
Sheesh... I didn't realize it was that low. Looks like he's only attempted 66 this season, which I guess had him flying under my radar. Oh well -- into the doghouse he goes.
I think you might be right re: timing. We do seem to miss them at the most absolutely inopportune times.
To me it looks like the play was originally called to try to get Harden open to shoot the 3. Garcia inbounds to Casspi who pump fakes to Garcia twice to try to draw the D off of Harden (in retrospect it probably would've been better to give it to Garcia b/c he had an open look). The Harden has to come up to the ball but has 2 guys on him and with nowhere to go the play has broken down and he decides to just drives down the middle and get a quick two and then foul. But at the last minute he sees Lin out of the corner of his eye and makes a good pass over to Lin who he thinks is behind the 3.
^^ If that was indeed the play, I think Casspi made the correct call. Sadly, Garcia was likely open for a reason.
I'm questioning myself on what Rockets really need. Coach? Power Forward? Better bench? All of the above?
You can start with health. Our seven best players in no particular order are Harden, Howard, Jones, Parsons, Lin, Beverley, Asik. Three of them were not in action today and we still almost won on the road.
I love Jeremy as a person, but he is not starter-ready. No, he's not the sole reason we lost tonight, but he is definitely not the guard that is going to take us over the second-round hump. He's afraid of the big shot and crumbles under pressure. More than that, he needs the ball in his hands more than he should need it to be remotely successful. Opinions are subjective, but Aaron Brooks is the better starter for the team right now. JLin is stronger, but AB works better with our core guys and is at least a scoring threat and consistent penetrator. I want Jeremy to succeed, but every player his limitations, even James and Dwight. It's just unfortunate that you cannot depend on your starting PG to make bettter decisions when it counts the most. I'm not mad that Jeremy missed the shot. I'm frustrated that he wasn't ready to take the shot. That moment is telling of his mentality as a player. I'm hoping DM has something up his sleeve to find a way for Jeremy to be successful off the bench, or that JLin continues to develop quickly. I can name at least 15 guards right now that would mesh better with our team and have a killer instinct that Jeremy lacks. AND...Calvin Murphy is right. Dwight Howard needed the ball way more than he got it. We seem to forget that scoring, dominant big men are a luxury in this league. It's not like we have Greg Ostertag posting up in the paint. #Frustrated
Why aren't the Rockets good? They have the components, this is not Morey's fault. Harden could be a top 3 player in the league if he played defense, Howard could be the best center since Shaq if he demanded the ball more & was more aggressive on the offensive end, Lin & Bev could be the double headed monster (offense & defense) everyone was expecting them to be at the 1 if they weren't so inconsistent & if our bench just could make open shots..... We literally get MAYBE one of those IFS a game & it's just depressing. We have it, we just don't want the ring bad enough, whatever Harden or Parsons or Dwight says is just not true. Hakeem DIED for the ball in the last minute of a close game & it just seems like nobody on this team wants to take that shot. It's so sad. I actually think we were closer in the Yao/McGrady era because those mother****ers (despite their injuries) were not afraid to take the blame if they lost a close game. Those mother****ers had balls, not just Yao & Tracy but Novak & Batman & Rafer & Chuck & Carl & Bobby. They all hungered for a chance to win a game for the city of Houston. They were ****ing fearless. This team has no confidence, "our superstar & all stars" like ****ing around & trust me I get it it's cool... that they dance before the game & have cool hand shakes & make prank videos & take instagram pictures but they're not getting it done on the court. They're just not. Lebron would rather die on the court than watch his team lose, he doesn't give a **** about his stats, he changed his game. This team just needs so much mental improvement that it has me in disbelief. We all talk **** about Kobe but Kobe's a five time ****ing champion, he undoubtedly has that killer instinct which NONE of our players has. You're telling me you wouldn't be happy with just one of those FIVE rings Kobe has? It's suck to admit it but this team just doesn't have a wining mentality. It's something they need to develop & I truly do not have faith in this team to develop that. I'll always love the Rockets, I just wish they'd love us back, enough to win a trophy for this city again.
I don't know why mchale didn't just bench Lin in the 4th seeing how badly he played. It's not like he didn't do this before.
Exactly, Harden NEVER passes the ball in that situation .... he takes the last shot 99.9999 % of the time, so if he does pass it to you, you feel like you just won the lottery or saw a Loch Ness monster or something.
I agree. He was 1-7 tonight and barely hitting rim on a couple of shots. McHale wasn't fooling anyone with Garcia being the decoy on that one.
I don't care if Lin messed up on that situation, but what I do want to see from him is better mental toughness. There will be situations in the playoffs where in crunch time the other team will double team Harden and force him to give up the ball and this is where Lin needs to be mentally tough so that he can execute when he receives that pass.
That's because he was playing solid defense. Here's something that puzzle me, why doesn't our superstars take charge in the 4th quarter? Why was offense run through AB the whole 4th quarter? Did you not see how many times he messed up? Bev runs better offense then him.
It's not his fault completely, since we still would have to win in OT but he still needs to be a little more careful. He should have been expecting that pass since we were down by three and even if Harden made his layup it wouldn't have mattered.
