ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Hornets 1/9/2013

It was one game, nothing more. Yes it was the Hornets, but it was also the tail end of a back to back on the road. Every night in the NBA you see upsets.

Clutch made a good point concerning how the Hornets defended the paint. I do not believe the Rockets will keep scoring like they have the last month, teams will adjust. However I do not think that is what happened tonight. The Rockets had good looks from 25 feet out but missed more than they normally do, couple that with turnovers and you are ripe for letting a foe go on a run.

The Rockets have been hot, and at some point they will have to out effort their opponents. There just isn't enough talent on this team to roll out 55 wins and catch Memphis. We do not have a whole lot going on inside, and we won't keep shooting from the perimeter like we have.

Just making the playoffs this season will be a success. I expect Morey to be very active at the deadline in an effort to improve the 3-4. Going small is all fine and good now, but at some point you have to go big.

 

Outside shot was fine when they were getting open ones. Then they went tiny ball and virtually everything was well contested.

 

That's why I feel so sad...

 

One of those games - we didn't have a good rhythm and the Hornets have a defense that disrupts us. In the three games, the Rox have averaged 94 points - small sample, but that's much lower than our 107 ppg.

 

I don't think that our players can not do it more so that the coach preached to them not to do it. They were told to drive or kick out for the 3. Being that the mid range jumper are statistically inferior.

 

we need more offensive flexibility. When 3s are not falling and the opp team is packing the paint, we need to be able to hit mid range jumpers to gain rhythm and then move back out toe the 3. Hopefully we will be able to play more flexibility later on as this offense is very hit or miss.

 

McHale has been injecting more and more of that small ball crap in the last few games, and it had never worked well, but apparently McHale things it does just because the Rockets were able to squeeze out the win despite it.

There were some small ball stretches when the opposing team didn't sag off the poorly spaced perimeter or the Rockets has made some tough shots, but the 0-big small ball has never, not once, worked well, unless you want to count the few times when Morris was playing like a big being an interior target, unlike 2Pat where his man sags off and he backs up so the player guarding his spot-up buddy on the perimeter can guard him at the same time. But when Morris plays like a big you actually have 1 big. Somebody needs to tell 2Pat when he's the only big on the floor he has to play like an interior target.

It's even worse because on the defensive end the Rockets had to sag way off the NOH perimeter players because they couldn't defend the paint or grab a ******* rebound.

 

The Rockets are not going to start taking a lot of mid range jumpers. It goes against Finch's philosophy for offense. With proper ball movement a team cannot camp inside to defend and defend the three point line. The Rockets will live and die with penetration and 3's. if teams do saturate the paint the Rockets will take 40 3's a night if needed.

 

Just another learning experience for the team. Next.

 

Nice post.

My guess is that Lin would totally agree with the criticisms (at least the reasonable ones ). And he would definitely agree that it should be more on his head, because it is his responsibility as the floor general to right the ship when it is going in the wrong direction. He will learn and get better. I am sure we can't be any more hard on him, than he is already being on himself tonight.

 

I agree with your statement about the 3-4 position. However, I honestly think the team does have the equivalent talent to hang with every club, besides OKC, SA, and Clippers (haven't play them so it's still tough to tell). It's probably expected, without any major injuries, the current top three seeds will remain status quo. The Rockets does have a very legitimate chance of landing the 4th spot....obviously, you could have a meltdown and miss the playoffs completely.

 

When 3s are going in that is fine but when the are not, a made 2 is better than a missed 3. making closer shots also helps with the player's confidence to make 3s later on.

I am not saying tojust shoot mid range jumpers all day, but if the 3s are not falling, the team needs to be flexible and score where they can then regroup.

 

I am not really disagreeing with, only saying that Finch will not tell his guys to suddenly take mid range jumpers. Finch & Morey will have their guys keep taking 3's if the middle is saturated.

 

Yup. How far this young team goes will be a direct result of how well and consitent Harden and Lin plays. You can't be consistent every night in and out, though Harden's been walking that line. Hopefully, Lin will develop a more consistent game soon.

 

Rewatched one more time, found very interesting thing. almost every single time, NOH had someone set up screen for thier PG, made our PG just had to chase thier tail. and they then passrot drive to inside. But Lin or TD always faced to the defenders with no screen or lazy screen at most. so they had hard time to make any plays and pass without any threat.

With our 2 PGs or even 3 PGs at court at same time, must be extra work to whoever set screen for them. but without screen, it's really hard for any PG to run offense unlee you are harden.

 

Mid range jumpers are crap no matter how you cut it. You can get your rhythm shooting wide open 3s. You want layups and wide open 3s. People love to go "when the 3s aren't falling," but it's very very very very rare that you get a ton of wide open 3s in a game and they just don't fall. That certainly was not the case tonight. They weren't falling in the 4th because the 3 weren't open.

The 0-big small ball allowed NOH to triple-team the penetrator while the ball carrier still only had the option of making hard passes to 4 guarded targets. The failure was artificial, systematic, and entirely avoidable, which is what made the loss so disheartening.

 

From Andre.

I didn't think there would be any highlights on this game.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/esoM1pfgoAM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Final post tonight: we live by 3s died by 3s. That's it.

 

Hornets expose our weaknesses.

Namely that you attack the guards on D. Whenever Lin went towards the sideline they trapped him.

And they really clogged the paint. They also played both Harden & Lin very physically, and took away the fast breat.

They played amazing defense. They were going to make the Rockets beat them on semi-contested threes but not give up the points in the paint.

This is where a legit PF would make a massive difference.

 

Setting picks for Lin and Harden have been extremely effective, but going small ball for "maximum ROFLMAO spacing" they don't set screens. They did try to set some with 2Pat, but did you see what kind of bizarro world weird ass screen they were setting? Set a screen then roll away from the basket? WTF is that?

Oh, right, gotta have 4 dudes on the perimeter to provide maximum ROFLMAO spacing for penetration. Well, genius, newsflash, when you have 4 guys on the perimeter that's when they get to pack the ******* paint solid with impunity because they only need 2 guys to guard the 4 kickouts.