Clutchfans Game Thread: Thunder @ Rockets 8/18/2020 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

Can our bench keep it up?

 

Harden not getting 3 FT after that collision was criminal.

 

Rockets passing was crispy!

 

That was freakin brilliant. A master-class by the Rockets.
I had this series as a real danger, especially with Westbrook out to begin with.

The defence was awesome, so was the hustle. The passing was amazing.

MDA gets criticised often for his lack of game plan, but tonight was a masterclass. Who wouldve thought Green would be bringing the ball up court??

We can also shut those Harden haters up for a couple days!

Green and Mclemore off the bench with over 30 pts combined were fantastic.

Only criticism was Roco and Rivers couldve been better.

1 down, 15 to go. Let's go Rockets!

 

Me too, bro! Me too! What a game!

 

Defense wins games, defense wins championships.

 

Tired of hearing these dumb announcers and analysts say okc offense was stagnant instead of giving credit to hou defense. Stagnant is what happens when the defense switches everything, that's the whole point of why hou plays like this. Your only option is to go 1 on 1 or post up. "Moving the ball around" isn't going to produce anything vs a switching defense.

 

Current defense is better than 65 win defense of 2017-2018 IMO.

Much much more disruptive. All about TOV.

 

Yeah but most teams or every team switches.

You could be stagnant and hit your shots or have a Harden ISO.

One game doesn't tell the entire story but honestly the D has the Thunder figured out real fast.

Credit goes where it is due.

 

OKC is stagnant when CP3 is your PG...

 

He slows down the game for sure.

 

Shoot 2 points is more easier to draw foul when u get into the rims area. u can see the statistics of foul of 2 points are more than 3 points. You also need to count the shooting accuracy of the players.

 

Listen to CP3 post game, most teams hedge or drop on a pg/c pnr. We are not talking about switching a screen between a 6'5 sg and 6'7 sf which every team should do. If you switch a pg/c pnr then you have a lumbering 7 footer guarding Cp3 which he can blow by and create open shots. Hou's switch is unique in that as you know we don't play 7 footers. So despite disadvantages on rebounding and supposedly post denfense(even though that's not the case), they have an advantage in perimeter defense where they can blow up all the screens.

ISO offense is bad offense for 90% of teams. Not everyone have a James Harden.

The dirty secret in the NBA is that post offense is also bad offense. Despite the narrative pushed by old heads to "pound it inside". There is no more Hakeems in the NBA.

 

BULLSHIT

 

How's Oklahoma City?

 

I wish I could like this 100x. It does annoy me when Harden starts falling on every 3, but these clown defenders really do jump right into him.

I don't understand what is so hard to understand. When defending a shot cleanly and properly, you HAVE to jump straight up and down → NOT INTO A PLAYER, THAT IS A FOUL, EVEN AFTER THE SHOT IS RELEASED. If you are closing out you have to avoid contact through the duration of the movement (essentially you have to jump to the side of the shooter and past him). If you make contact IT IS A FOUL.

 

I think the Heat could potentially rival that.

Jimmy is no James but he is pretty good in the clutch and the playoffs.

He miraculously found his shot.

I think Boston and the Raptors could run counters as well.

The East is severely underrated as they have not a big presence outside of Embiid, Miles Turner to a lesser degree.

Or Marc Gasol who isn't being used much.

Ibaka is a fine moving individual.