ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Sixers 11/13/2013

She's cute~

 

Rockets need a 3 or stretched 4 that can really defend to help out the perimeter....Bev helps the 1 a bit but as we've seen doesn't solve Houston's perimeter problem.

 

Where was Bevs perimeter defense against Wroten tonight? My point is that you don't stick with the same thing when it has proven to not be working. And yes I don't want to hand the opposition more mismatches than I absolutely have to. And Parsons has been playing with back spasms and he played 40+ minutes. McHale has no issue riding barely healthy players.

 

What happened to Lin in the 4th quarter? 0 points and he only attempted 2 shots (both threes that missed). 0 free throw attempts. Was he exhausted?

Say what you want about Harden and his ISO ball, but he doesn't let down on his aggressiveness in the 4th quarter. Probably to a fault. We needed that tonight though.

 

Aunt Tessie?

 

The Sixers were single covering DH12 so we went to him downlow. Bev and Parsons really picked up the slack in the 4th same with DH12 as well. It would have been lovely if Lin had hit those 2 3's though but we had more than enough guys make up for his coldness in the 4th.

 

He was exhausted.

22/24 minutes in the first half.
Only 90s of rest in the 2nd half.
47 minutes in the double OT Raptors game.

And he was basically carrying the entire offense and trying to play defense.

 

so you're saying it's completely legal to deny a hot scorer the ball or to throw a double team at him/her? s


we will bounce back. I do wish we would get more screens for our guards. It seems like we're purposely not running so many of them to make howard believe he is one of the last true post up big men.
my problem with dwight tonight wasn't that hawes scored 18, but that hawes blocked him twice and caused lin to turn it over 3 times. He looked like a white sam perkins on steroids.

 

They kept running the Parsons/Dwight pick and roll 'cause Chandler was getting to the rim easily - and finishing (or getting fouled).

 

Out of my head: Heat last season, Mavericks in 2011 went at least 9.

 

It is the height of silliness to now call Lin your "bench" player. He's clearly the number 3 player on this team now, whether he starts or not. Lin has a history of coming up big in the clutch, he came up big all game, got exhausted in the 4th. So, your now number 4 player, Parsons, even though he has a bad back, was asked to make some plays because Lin was tired. Beverley noticed that and started handling the ball more to help Lin and was a huge part of the game. This game had wonderfully balanced scoring, neither team playing stellar defense, odd matchups, mostly good offensive execution for both teams, but bad free throw shooting for the Rockets, too many turnovers for the Rockets and some blown easy baskets like Dwight just flat out missing the dunk following the lob from Lin. Lin could have had 15-18 assists this game. The Rockets are a work in progress but they played a lot more cohesive tonight than they have in previous games.

 

I think McHale ran Harden for heavy minutes and ran isolation plays because the team is just not that good _ as shown tonight. He sacrificed development for wins. But I agree about bad decisions. Like having Delfino guard 7 footers and playing Jermey in the playoffs when he was injured.

And hard to run consistent pick&rolls with a big man who can't play away from the basket. The opposing team knows what's coming. And if the defense isn't doubling the guards, it makes it harder to do.

 

DH should come out to set screens.

 

Good post. I thought even some of the TOs that weren't those obvious hacks thats should have been fouls, were ones from him trying to make plays to get others involved. For a player so despised by some, and insisting that he be playing from the bench, to carrying this team two games in a row, it's something positive to focus on.

 

IMO tonight exposed a roster flaw in that the Rockets have only two real playmakers off the bounce. With harden out Lin basically had to play every minutest and that resulted in fatigue/bad decisions

 

The ball movement is definitely much much better. Of course we are not playing against an elite defense team so that is expected.

 

Are you kidding?
Are you really blaming Lin's poor defense on McHale?
You are basically saying the coach should have known better than to expect Lin to defend his man. That's just ridiculous.
Do you people hold Lin accountable for anything?

 

maybe we should change a coach

 

You are two funny. There wasn't a mismatch with Beverley on Wroten.

Wroten had 18 points on 18 shots with 11 rebounds, 10 assists, 0 steals, 1 block and 4 turnovers.

Beverley had 12 points on only 8 shots, 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, 1 block and 0 turnovers.

 

Well, looks like conquistador#11's safe prediction came true.

Without Harden, the Rockets shattered their previous season high of 21 assists with 34 tonight despite terrible shooting nights from most of their players bricking wide open shots all night. Before tonight, the Rockets were averaging just over 18 assists per game this season.