ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Wizards 10/30/2019

Can we hire a real defensive coach right now? We lost too many points in past 4 games.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed with the offensive output by anyone when you give up 158 to a team with this little talent. We better get up for our next opponents or you are looking at a losing streak coming. Remember that low point differential bodes very bad for the play-offs. Our best year in 2018 we had a very good point differential.

Harden looked like himself on offense and made quick decisions so that.s good. He drew a lot of attention, was aggressive and it paid off. That one cross over that sent the African kid flying was beautiful. Westbrook assisted heavily again, as well as the whole team and we didn't turn it over that much for such a crazy game. Gordon was clutch with the 3 and we hit our FTs as well. For the rest, this game was just embarrassing in terms of 3pt defense and how simply they forced us to give up open threes. How have they not figured that out?

I liked our hustle at the end, Tucker on that rebound, Westbrook attacking, Harden similarly and Gordon on defense of IT with some hustle of House as well. Allowing that many points is still ridiculous though, they shot 62% for the game and 55% from 3!!! This is the freaking Wizards we are talking about. Inexcusable. A good coach would be mad about this win, is MDA? By the way, did you see how a few minutes of Chandler definitely made a difference. They were much less likely to drive and those double-teams forced errant passes, but of course our rotation sucked and Harden got cut on backdoor.

Nice that Harden found his shot, but this effort defensively and our strategy needs to change. You don't just lose on effort.

 

Totally. Was so sick of hearing how awesome the Golden State "system" is when in reality they didn't win a single championship against a full strength team until KD got there. If an offensive gameplan relies on 2 MVP's, 2 all-stars, and a former all-star to be effective, I don't think it's the coaching that's pushing the team over the edge.

Now we finally get to see how bad GSW actually is without a huge talent advantage.

 

Off Rtg: 117.8 (1st of 30)
Pace: 108.7 (1st of 30)
Def Rtg: 117.3 (29th of 30)

LOL

 

If you talking about Isaac Bongo who got crossed over. He is a German kid now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Bonga

 

MDA just came!!!!

 

anyone has any highlights with craig ackerman calling it?

 

I could get used to this becoming normal....

• Harden gets 50+
• Westbrook gets a Triple Double
• Clint Capela has the classic 90's all-star big man production of 20+/10+
• Gordon gets 15 off the bench

 

That’s great, but we won’t get very far without length, defense and rebounding. EG and Austin the only good players off the bench.

 

dont forget this


all in all even with durant all they got is one legit title

 

Wow that’s really scary, no way that’s sustainable for a “contender”. The 3 pt defense was 3 Stooges-like slapstick laughable last night. Beal is a great player but otherwise that was Downright embarrassing last night.

 

Why wait for AllStar weekend ,when u can watch Rockets all season long. Rockets will outscore AllStars in a heart beat.

 

Yes, Warriors being a dynasty overlaps Harden's tenure here. But the reason for it is Harden's inability to play on-man for 100% of his minutes. They use it all the time to save his legs from having to chase and go around screens (see House recently). With the Warriors done for this season, I'll be surprised if they even remotely consider not switching and playing on-man for certain parts of a game. I'm of the belief that if they do show signs of willing to change up their defense to more on-man, then it'll have to have had Harden's sign off.

 

This isn't logical.

Switching defenses allows teams to just run screens and force Harden to defend the ball handler. In fact, the Warriors and other teams have done this, hunting Harden. (Like we Hunted Steph)

Harden's defensive issues are largely about his OFF ball defense. He ball watches and let's guys just slip by him and then reaches way too much.

If all we wanted to do was hide Harden, the most effective way would be simply to lock him onto a post player and refuse to switch.

The reason we switch is because the meta strategy in the NBA was to run guys off of screens and get wide open shots when your defender tries get by it. If he goes around it your open for a 3, if he fights through it you can dive to the basket. We (and other teams with good defenders by the way) switch to take away that 3. That is the whole reason for the switching scheme.

Getting rid of switching would be great for resting harden. Find the teams post guy and just let Harden deal with him exclusively like the old days.

 

I just saw the score. WTF? I thought it was a typo.

 

I saw it late last night and instantly thought triple OT. I haven't had a chance to catch the games with the Astros in the WS but I'm guessing 6 seconds or less is back.

 

At the risk of going all Carl Herrera on you, I wonder if Landry's is willing to pay for one.
Or maybe Dan Tony's lame duck status scared away real coaches.
But we ain't gonna win much if this continues. All it took is the refs calling one Capela five-step-travel-breakaway-dunk and we'd've lost.

 

Get use to it. The Rockets are not contenders so it will continue. The playoffs are not a guarantee but if they do make it it will be a lower seed and a 1st exit.