ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Thunder 11/28/2012

Ibaka just went off, and Harden got shut down badly. Sure he got to the line but the other half of his drives he got stuffed, a total of 7 times.

Parsons could have made an impact, I think he would have kept Durant to the mid to high 20's instead of giving up 37.

 

I think you missed the point of my post which is in reply to your post saying that OKC were only keying in on Harden and everyone else was open. When the truth is that they were not.

They were doubling Lin and Harden. And Lin playmaking in the 2nd half made them pay. That's not a slight on Harden. The coach needs to trust him more to play that role because honestly, he is the best on the team at it.

I think everyone needs to step back and realise that these guys are still figuring out their roles and chemistry, as are the coaches. This is the first time they have faced this kind of suffocating D this season. And that was when they were already tired before the game, against a team that will be in the finals at the end of the season.

So yeah, Harden needs to make smarter decisions when he's not shooting great and Lin needs to shoulder more of the offensive burden when Harden is struggling, but the coaches also need to trust Lin to let him do that. People seem to think that players can do whatever they want, they can't. We have certain offensive sets that include Lin standing at the corner to provide spacing for Harden so he can drive. That's what the coaches want and to then say Lin is being passive because of it is massively unfair.

Would you rather he jacked up bad shots like Harden did with 3-16? He made good passes and got his team mates good looks, and that's what you ultimately want from your PG when he is being trapped that hard.

 

we should be used to it by now..

 

agreed.
He isn't living up to expectation right now.
It just depends if he is improving his game or not.
I like this team a lot. The potential of us being young is bad this year, but the next couple of years of chemistry building, hopefully will be good LOL.
I just wish we didn't give up Jeremy Lamb. GD!!
Couldn't we have just packaged Martin & Douglas and let them keep Cook.
Our bench is horrible right now.

 

Maybe, if they both sat out yesterday and missed the funeral today.

 

Also, Westbrook who is considered to be one of the League's best PGs wasn't any more effective than Lin, despite that fact that he wasn't getting double teamed the way Lin was. So perhaps people should keep that in perspective when they bash the team's PG.

 

Westbrook is a top 5 PG
On LIn
9 points
7 AST
4TO
OKC had to run a few double screens to free up Westbrook

Why Houston lost
SG, SF, PF abused Harden , Cook , and Patterson

I think Cook got scored on about 45 points between switching from Durant, Martin
Ibaka 5 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS
Patterson 6 Total REBOUNDS in 38 Min.

OKC was Trapping Hard on the P&R , gambling to let anyone , but Harden to Score

LIn Passed up WAY TO MANY SHOTS

 

Who cares? That's a great outcome for the youngest team in the NBA.

 

I do agree Harden in my opinion isn't the better playmaker. He tends to call him number a lot & then looks to dish when he cant score. There isn't anything wrong with Harden because he is the superior scorer & we want him to score. Lin on the other hand rarely ever calls his numbers. His first priority is attacking the basket & dishing off to his teammates.

If we want to look into numbers both players are pretty good & similar but Lin has the slight edge in terms of setting teammates up for high % shots. For example Lin ranks top 11 of all PG's in the NBA in assists at the rim ahead of Dragic & Lowry. NBA average is 1.5 he is at 3.1. He is also 11th in terms of assists leading to 3 point attempts also ahead of Dragic & Lowry. NBA average is 0.9 & Lin is 1.8. James Harden is second of all SG's in terms of assists leading to baskets at the rim at 2.2 (less than Lin) NBA averages is 0.7. He is 3rd in assists leading to 3FG at 1.8 NBA average is 0.4 (just as good as Lin).

What Lin does well that Harden doesn't is that he leads his teammates into his shots. In transition for example he doesn't pass to his teammates hands he passes to where his teammates should be going not where they are. Did the same thing with lob passes. Yesterday in the toronto game when passing to Asik for example. He didn't just dump the ball off to Asik but passed where Asik should be going. Passed in the motion of where he should shoot. This wasn't something he was able to do last year. Harden doesn't do that. This ability really seperates PG's. I remember the toronto broadcasters were saying that that shows true PG skills just being able to run an offense like that. Just a thought

 

Not to mention freezing their butts off in a Minnesotan graveyard. That the Rox even came close to scoring 100 points was a minor miracle.

 

dude seriously have you been watching this season?

Lin has a role on this team and that isnt to drive into the paint

 

BOOM. Dropping some knowledge on you fools. Politely too. LOL.

Agreed on all counts.

 

Absolutely. We finally have a team that's young and has an upside.

I sure hope they would squeak in this year to gain some playoff experience but I am enjoying how this team is evolving.

 

Can't defend opposing power forwards at all. Patterson scoring 27 is no good when Ibaka is 11-13. Asik and Patterson seem to struggle defensively against good bigs.

 

Not a bad game facing the defending WC champs. If we didn't miss a whole bunch of wide opens in the 4th, it could be a tight game at the end.

• 2pat great game except for the missed dunk
• Asik great game except for the missed FTs
• Lin good game except for being too passive attempting shots
• Cook good game overall, not bad for suddenly playing 38 mins starter role except for his defense
• Harden not a bad game at all based on the fact that he was the Thunder's target all game long except pressin a bit in the 1st half
• Morris looked pretty passive in the past few game
• Smith should've played more mins

Rox did fight till the end but Thunder is just too good, they stopped every little spurt Rox made. It's a great learning experience for this young team.

Let's take a good rest and move on to the next! :grin:

 

dude, you're asking haters to put things in perspectives. that's like asking Westbrook to create plays for his teammates.

 

Hardens offense is to predictable. 3 point shot or euro step layups that end up as turnovers

 

I've said a bunch of times that OKC doubled every P&R, no matter if it was Lin or Harden. I never said everyone else was wide open, OKC played great team defense and had very few defensive holes. The Lin playmaking in the second half didn't really make a positive difference dude. They blew us out.

Agreed.

Somewhat agree. I agree that it is a coaching issue. We should have adjusted after the P&R clearly wasn't working in the first half. Harden should be in better positions to score the ball. He was pressing a little too hard tonight and tried to make too many things happen. Even though a lot of plays are run for Harden, there were many opportunities for Lin to be more aggressive as well. I think that Harden is without a doubt the best player on this team. But everyone has to learn and grow into their new roles this season, and both Lin and Harden can improve on a lot of things.

 

Gotta give props to OKC defense. They just showed the whole league how to defend harden effectively, and that was exactly how Miami defended harden in the finals --- trap hard and force him either to give up the ball or take a bad shot.

It worked again.

 

don't forget neither of those two wanted to stay. --lowry