ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Nuggets 1/30/2013

harden played 42 minutes, he wasn't exhausted. this is the nba, no excuses. I'm sure harden was giving his best 100% in the game.

i mean playing 42 minutes with a great defender on ya', in the number 1 ranked pace wouldn't slow anyone right?

I can't blame this loss on kevin mchale. nuggets were able to outscore the rockets. gallinari was on fire and he made some tough shots.

 

You're definitely accurate in regards to the defense, but how can you say Lin didn't make a difference in that run. Yes, defensively, he may not have made a difference, but offensively he did. Late in the 3rd and the first half of the 4th was basically the downfall, and that was due to a combination of really poor defense with dumbarse fouls and just stupid offense where TO's and ISO ball among the entire team ran rampant. And yes, when Lin stepped back on the court Lawson drained a painful 3 which extended the lead to 11, but he also airballed one right after, then a charge drawn by Lin, then the 7 point run by Houston which reduced the lead to 6.

The point is, the substitution error, not just on Lin, but also Asik, and even Harden imo, took the Rockets out of the game even more.

 

I disagree that Lin didn't start playing well until we were alredy down 14.

He played very solid before he sit down in 3rd quarter, and the team was doing well.

And yes, as Clutch pointed out, when Lin entered in 4th, the game score was only at 86:88, but at that time Nuggets had all the momentum because of bad plays when Lin was out.

Would you rather try to stop a downhill car, or hold a still car?

Maybe, just maybe the Coach should have get Lin in a little bit earlier, since he already had a long rest.

 

Exactly. It's the momentum we lost when we had only Douglas there unable to play-making for the team and our offense was stagnant for that stretch of time that caused our loss basically, that's why even McHale himself said it's a 'self-inflicted' loss.

Some veterans don't understand once you lost your momentum and give the opposing team the chance to breath and back to their rhythm, then it's hard to change the tide anymore. Even when you start to make the subs, once the opposing team is in the rhythm, it's hard to stop them.

 

Lol at the board. You have a usually calm and collected torocan and clutch go at each other.

The TOs were bad, but both teams were about even. Gallarni got super hot with his 27pts at home. Putting Lin in earlier or later, makes no difference if Asik is tired.

 

The whole "Lin didn't play enough argument," "McHale has it out against Lin," and "Lin, Lin, Lin" arguments are red herrings. Jeremy Lin creates irrational thinking among seemingly many posters on this board.

I wonder if you replace Jeremy Lin with competent point guard, would that make a difference on how this game was perceived by the majority of fans and commentators?

That perception being, this game looked like a Rockets win until there were some very questionable substitutions by the Rockets coaching staff late in the 3rd quarter and in the 4th quarter.

I'm of the opinion that the Rockets lacked a competent point guard for 7 mins in the 3rd quarter and 3 minutes to start the 4th.

I'm also of the opinion that, while the 17-0 run during this same time period as damaging as it was to the chances of us winning, we still had a decent chance of winning until McHale subbed out Asik for about 5 mins in the 4th. To me, this was the more crucial of the mistakes.

Is there any conclusive way that I can prove this? Not without replaying the game and changing those two key decisions. However, what can be proven by the loss, was that the decisions that McHale did make, did not work. Unfortunately for McHale + coaching staff, it just seems that a lot of his in-game decisions do not work out.

 

Win or lose, no GARM thread is complete without LIN, LIN, LIN.

 

So it seems a lot of you guys want Asik to play more than 35 mpg. He has only done that in 9 of his 48 games this season. And in 4 of those 9 it was 35:20 or less.

He simply can't play 40 mpg, especially against a team that runs so much.

 

Pretty much. Parsons is one of the league leaders in minutes, let's see...#8 right now. And what do you know, Harden is #1 now. McHale relies way too much on both, he has little idea how to utilize all his players effectively, absolutely clueless.

Especially since Parsons was godawful during that end 3rd/beginning 4th period. I think that was surely a turning point. I mean he was playing superbly during the 1st half but later on had several mental lapse on O and D, McHale should have pulled him out after consecutive bumbled plays at least for a few minutes to calm him down. And I have no problem with Douglas' play and I can see why McHale might've wanted to give him an opportunity, but Douglas has to be used wisely, as he is mostly an energy guy and should not play for extended stretches to avoid stagnation.

 

Exactly which my argument is that a backup 5 is our most important position to acquire in the next couple of weeks. Another defensive shot blocker that can spell Asik without us completely losing our defensive shape.

 

Actually, that's not it at all.

What I would like to see is Asik playing FEWER minutes in some games, so that they can play him More minutes where it matters the most.

Like you have a back to back and are playing a killer team on one of those nights? Run Asik's minutes up in One game or the other, but NOT both. Then rest him for the remaining game.

Have a big lead against a non-play off contender? Rest Asik a bunch and let Smith and Patterson take the load more so that you can trot out Asik in the tough spots.

Waiting too long to call time outs and not using them strategically to give his players a breather seems to be something I notice a fair bit with McHale and co...

 

Hate to disagree with you, Clutch. But maybe we wouldn't have so many "small glitches" at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th, which you claimed to be the main reason for the loss. Maybe if Lin were on the floor with TD the last minutes, Parsons would try that silly ISO and turned it over. Maybe if Lin were on the floor, Delfino would have got a few more chances to shoot open 3s to enlarge the gap ...

Nobody is arguing that Lin should be in more because he is a better scorer so something, the main point is the offense was a mess for too long while Lin was out, and Rockets lost their cool, and the coach didn't do the right thing quick enough; instead, he went with this routine as if everything were just fine. This is what people are complaining about!

 

Can you say with certainty that this isn't already happening? His game logs show great variation in the minutes he plays in each game: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4499/gamelog

Also, hasn't one of the constant complaints against McHale been that his substitutions are too irregular? If so, wouldn't this strategy just exacerbate that?

No disagreement there. I too am left wondering WTF when we have a huge lead or deficit at the end of the game and we don't put in some bench players. I'm not a big McHale supporter (I still want Adelman!), but it seems like on CF McHale is damned no matter how he coaches the game.

Oh and I know we're all tired of hearing it but it's true: "Rox are the youngest team in the league" and blown leads like this (on the road, against a superior team) shouldn't be too surprising.

 

What I was emphasizing is not just his will to win, but his composure in a game situation like that. His shooting has been loathsome, improved recently. But what I find so admirable about his game is that he seems to always know what to do -- his instinctive understanding of the game is great.

 

Your analyses are great as always !

 

The complaint is that it's irregular across multiple players. In other words, how he subs Harden and Parsons is completely different than how he subs Asik and Lin. And yes, while there is variation for Asik, his substitutions of Asik are often in response to "small line ups" than Asik's performance (like last night).

I don't think this is true for McHale.

Keeping players in in blow out wins and losses is something we've all noticed in multiple games.

Random sub ins and out at bizarre times have been noted on multiple occasions (1-2 mins rest? Really?).

And then there's the context of the decisions. Sticking to your minutes for consistency in normal games is one thing, sticking to your minutes against tough opponents who are play off seed competitors is something else.

When you play another play off seed team, you have to be flexible enough to change your minutes allocation to what has been working while still taking into account how those minutes are being distributed in terms of length, rest period and which players you sub in and out when in relation to your line up.

Take a look at this article...

http://wagesofwins.com/2011/07/20/the-coach-is-wrong/

The idea is that the #1 job of coaches is managing minutes. WHO they put on the floor, WHEN they put them on the floor. After that it's how they utilize them.

That's the difference between average, crap and great.

So, while calling the right play is great, it's about how the coaches use their players and when they use them.

 

I wonder why McHale always chooses to match small lineups instead of taking advantage of Asik's size against them instead.

 

Here's the thing about his composure and instincts, and this comes down to what type of point guard he actually is; it seems apparent to me that he is really, like you said, composed in those late moments; that the sense of urgency is what makes him more focused. He scores big in the 4th as he plays aggressively, driving to the rim (though the team strategy was to attack the Nuggets throughout the game) and either dishing or scoring, which was more scoring in the 4th. This tells me that perhaps his playmaking is being overstated, or actually, his scoring ability is actually better than his playmaking ability.

We know that playmaking is harder than scoring; you have to think and decide on your feet not just for yourself, but also for your teammates, you have to not only react to your defender, but also to where the other defenders are in relation to where your teammates. It just seems to me, particularly in the games mentioned, that when he looks to score, he is more effective than when he is looking to create for his teammates.

 

31 minutes is about right for Lin. When his minutes increase, his performance and energy level drops. I'd rather McHale keep him fresh and utilize him like he did last night.

McHale needs to stop playing Delfino at SG. That's when the team slows down. TD needs to play alongside Lin, Beverley or Harden. Delfino should be a one position player at backup SF.

 

He does this a lot. He does it & it works sometimes & we win or he does it & it doesn't work sometime & we lose.