ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Wizards 2/23/2013

Matt Jackson ‏@MJ4Sports
Kevin McHale said Jeremy Lin was sick tonight

I know he played really bad tonight but cut him some slack. Dude was definitly sick and his body languaged showed. I remember Harden was sick vs Utah that game and didn't play well. He got out of the game though. Probably would have been wise for Lin to have rested tonight, but who else would be backing up Beverley? Anderson?

 

Thanks for the update.

The loss of TD and Ppat kind of showed tonight (I know HOU is better off in the long run).

 

That's pretty bad... He worked on conditioning this off season too. Hope he can improve on this with experience.

 

I've noticed that his game and particularly his shooting is off on the away games when the other arenas have "Asian heritage night"... Game in Toronto, Philly, SAC, Brooklyn, and now Was.

 

I blame this game once again on Lin. If he plays like crap, we usually lose. If he shoots and passes well we win. 2/9 shooting. We lost by 2. If he had just made 1 more 3 and even had a below average shooting night, we would've won this game.

But I'm giving him a pass this time. He was sick so that is a valid excuse. But as much as this team lives and dies with Harden it also lives and dies with Lin. If Lin is inconsistent so will this team.

 

Saw a bunch of Harden jerseys, bunch of Yao and Lin Jerseys, even a Kmart jersey. There was this cute white kid around 7 yrs old (?) who sat right behind the Rockets bench wearing a Lin jersey and a Harden beard. before the game the kid went right up to James and James said something to him. Thought it was really cool that James took the time to acknowledge the kid.

There were a lot of Asians there because the Wizards promoted it as Asian Heritage night to tie in with Jeremy's appearance at the Verizon Center. The halftime show featured a Chinese Lion dance troupe. It was a smart marketing move on their part to put people in the seats. And definitely there were as lot of Asians there just to see Jeremy play. It was too bad that he was sick and failed to give the crowd an exciting performance.

 

I was at the game, just a couple of rows behind the bench. Here are my impressions:

Lin looked timid all night. Lacked confidence, and his shot was off. He made some poor passes and feared going inside after Harden got his shot blocked. Found out after that he was sick, which makes sense because he was not on his game tonight...to the disbelief of the entire Asian population of our nation's capital. I'm not kidding, there were almost as many LOFs as Wiz fans.

Beverly is very quick and tenacious. I thought he did a great job tonight; Wall was a non-factor. Noticed that ball movement can sometimes suffer when he's in the game, but this kid is a very solid backup point guard. He had his shot going tonight.

Asik was no match offensively for Nene and Okafor. I knew going in he wasn't gonna be able to provide much offense for us tonight. He did well rebounding the ball as usual and had a couple of great blocks. He took Nene out of the game.

Asik and Beverley get gold stars for their defense tonight.

Harden is such a superstar offensively, but he really suck on defense tonight. He couldn't stay with Beal. If Harden can improve his defense, he'll be a top 5 player in this league.

Starting Delfino at the 4 was a mistake. I'm glad he played a ton of minutes and he did very well, but matching him up with Okafor was terrible. We're very lucky the wiz foolishly waited till the 2nd half to exploit tht matchup.

DMo looked young but solid. He just needs to play more minutes and get more comfortable and confident. He's got a long way to go defensively, but I'd rather have DMo and Smith on Okafor than Delfino.

Greg smith deserves a gold star defensively tonight. I want to see him do that every night. His injury looked scary in person. Glad he's okay.

Parsons shot lights out and played great. He couldn't contain Webster though.


We lost tonight because the Wiz exploited our front line by going inside. Webster and Okafor beat us inside and Beal was too fast for Harden on the outside.

For all those posters that kept saying we didn't have anything to worry about because we'd just outrun the wiz, and that going small wasn't gonna be a problem ....you were wrong. Sometimes small ball doesn't work. The only reason we controlled the game as much as we did was because the wiz are fools and didn't go inside enough till the 2nd half. We need better defense from Harden and we need better defense from the 4 spot, especially if we want to play against big front lines.

 

Despite lin's lackluster O, his D was fantastic tonight. Don't think Wall attempted anything jumpshots or drives with Lin on him. Lin's D has been the only consistent part of his game this season, unfortunately.

 

I saw the stat line and Lin had 3 steals. Due to my crappy streaming, I saw only 1 steal. When did this happen?

 

Interesting, thanks for sharing.
I wonder why Coach McHale didn't stick with Beverly then? He was playing great. I know he plays with a high motor the entire time but he didn't even look tired, eh.

True, Jeremy and James are the hearts of the team. Well, James is the heart, Jeremy is the brain, Asik is the lung, Royce is...?

 

No PF cost us a chance to win this one. On the last free throw, Parsons and Delfino double teamed Webster on the rebound that Beal got. If we have a PF on Webster, that ball goes right to Parsons.

 

Way way way too many 3 pters tonight, you knew once their legs got tired in the 2nd half that the 3s would stop falling and they had nothing else.

Live by the 3, die by it...they needed to shoot a lot more midrange, or post up Dmo and Smith.

This game had the look of the Rockets feeling it would be an easy win, and when the Wizards turned up the heat the Rox didn't have an answer.

IMO - the Rox are still really young and learning how to win, you can beat some good teams and lose to some bad ones - it is all a matter of focus.

DD

 

Agree with you about team also lives and dies with lin cuz he is one of the leaders of the team. Everyone knows this team is young. You have to go through inconsistency before you learn to be consistent. But to say that if lin could have made 1 more 3 we would have won is ridiculous. If anyone would have made 1 more 3 we would have won. Lin missed 7 shots, Delfino missed 11, and Harden missed 13.

 

I've experienced this too, and seen it happen with others. Also, wasn't there a game earlier in the season when Harden was under the weather but still put out a solid performance?

I've also seen this outside of sports. As a stage manager, on several occasions I've witnessed actors deliver their best performance on stage when most of us would have called in sick.

Having said that, sometimes when you're under the weather, you just can't perform well no matter how much you want it, and I've experienced that too. So maybe tonight, Lin's body just couldn't keep up with his heart.

It was a close game, one which we should have won, one which we'll learn from, and one of the many entertaining matches that the Rockets keep giving us this year.

 

only michael jordan plays like a boss when sick.

 

Not ridiculous at all. Delfino is a bench player. Harden's already a star and has been the most consistent player on this team. Not to mention he shot a way higher percentage than Lin this game. Lin is supposed to be the second freakin option on this team with a star ceiling, not shoot (2/9) like Rafer Alston, turn the ball over and look like he belongs in the dleague. He's also the 2nd highest paid player, tied with Asik. If you don't see that then you either don't think much of Lin or you're a LOF with your head too far up his butt.

 

Don't forget @GSW... his shooting was pretty awful that night too.

 

CP3 is 2-8 right now after a 1-6 performance on thursday....see it happens to the best too.

 

Royce is the taint. That's the only acceptable answer.

 

No, it was the Utah game and he played terrible, also couldn't play many minutes.
Asik also surprised me with an ugly lazy performance one game, which turned out he also had the flu.
The Rockets (and myself) just don't have a strong immune system like you guys