ClutchFans Game Thread: Timberwolves @ Rockets 11/23/2013

Mavs just lost on last second shot (Dirk missed) in Denver. How sweet it is! Poor little ponies.

 

He's going to look ugly after some games. He's going to bleed and swell, like he's some boxer or something. But, usually when that happens, he plays better!

 

Casspi is Delfino 2.0

 

Do I really need to be from the future to say that the Rockets won't win any championship with thecurrent Harden? His current level of play on this team is just no where near what they need in order to win it all. He either needs to up his game or someone else needs to step up or come here in order for this team to have a legitimate chance to win it all. As of right now this team is currently 4th best or on the West alone. So how far fetch is it to believe that unless something changes they won't win a championship this year?

 

Does Lin seem to start off slow offensively? Seems it takes some time for him to develop a rhythm. Also, seems he plays better in the second half most games.

 

Lin: Good thing im hardheaded hahah #wheredmyhairgo #elbowtothehead #tylenol

 

That's a nasty bump there. Kevin Love's elbow reminds me of Karl Malone.

 

Current Harden is injured. We should wait until he's healthy to see how his defense and ball movement is. hard to judge. Also I think this team has a lot of potential to be better without getting an extra superstar/star etc

 

You mean the current injured version. go see how bad the swelling on his feet is. The fact that he has played so many games is a miracle.

 

What I have learned from the last 10 pages of this thread:

1. The Rockets would have lost had Harden played.

2. The Rockets lose in the 4th quarter because of Harden.

3. Aaron Brooks is "unstoppable".

4. Aaron Brooks should get Harden's minutes.

5. Kevin McHale is somehow responsible for Rockets losing games but deserves no credit for wins.

 

It is possible that Harden current play is due to injuries, and once healthy his play(especially on defense) will improve, but unless he drastically improves I still don't think he and this current team is good enough to win it all. I would be glad to admit that I was wrong at the end of the season though.

 

Just looked up C Brewer. He is 6' 9" according to Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corey_Brewer

Yikes.

Why would you put a 6' 9" player to guard a 6' 3" player?

Who's guarding Parsons then?

 

Well, even if Harden plays spectacular, winning the championship this year might be a stretch. We have a nice 3-4 year window. We need a better bench IMO. And Harden needs to develop and enter his prime, which should be another year or two.

 

Par for the course nowadays on Clutchfans...

 

You have a point on whatever we receive may offset the difference. Although I think there is big difference in both the offensive and defensive play between Lin and Brooks. I also don't believe for one second that Lin is a below average defender. He does have some lapses sometimes, but overall I would rate him not a great defender but an above average defender.

How would you rate his defense tonight? I would rate it as an above average defensive performance from Lin tonight.

 

25 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds per game and every is jumping off of him already.

He has defensive issues but he isn't awful. When the ball is in front of him he can guard certain players really well. He often gets burnt when the ball swings from the strong side to the weakside.

He is no longer engaged or in proper position as the weakside defender, so when his man eventually gets the ball he makes a quick move and Harden was beat before the move every got started.

If he can become more engaged and just position himself the correct way then he won't be such a liability. For all of his problems he can still get a steal or block a shot. This area is where he needs to grow.

Every player has areas where they need to grow.

The team is doing pretty well considering the growing pains, compared to others teams in this situation. We could be the Brooklyn Nets or the Knicks...could always be worse.

This game showed our depth, but the same weaknesses plagued us and have plagued us all season...regardless of if Harden is there or not.

Turnovers, defense. We get into winning positions and by turning it over give the opponent extra possessions and we can't stop anyone. Treat the ball like it is the most valuable item on the planet.

We focus on Harden's iso to win games, in games where the opponent should have been put away anyway. It falls on the group.

 

When you cherry picked the posts to summarize, of course you will get sth like your list. I did not read all posts and so I don't know about others. At least I gave credit to Coach McHale.

When you have such a big fan base, you're bound to have many people with different kinds of opinions. So chill out. Think about it. If the world were full of people with the same opinions as yours, the world would had quickly became a insanely boring place

 

Yeah, McHate ran Haren into the ground, which made him sit out, which forced us to accidentally win.

 

I missed it real time when this happened, will take a closer look to see when it happened. Lin ate it and didn't let it affect his game. Tough as nails.

 

Harden is and will still be crucial to the team's success. I don't think he was accustomed to being the main guy and the superstar and it probably got to his head a little bit and he wanted to carry much of the burden all by himself without trusting his teammates.

I still believe he has it in him to be a better teammate and be an integral piece of a system where everyone has a role. It's just that coaches have to do a better job of keeping him disciplined and attuned to what it takes to win consistently by involving everyone. If Harden sees the coaches mean business, if Harden sees the coaches trust the other players more, am sure they can get his buy in. But if he consistently feels that the coaches have to play him 43 mins each game, and he sees that the coaches don't seem to trust many of the bench players, he probably feels more of a need to do stuff himself and thus coast to preserve energy.