Rivers was -8 for the 6 minutes he played. That was the same number of points Rockets lost this game.
Y’all must have been watching a different game than me if you are asking where is Austin Rivers or if you want more Austin Rivers. He was the MAIN reason we got blown out early and lost eventually after failing to climb all the way back. -18 in 7 minutes. Lakers are completely packing the paint when Austin and Russ are in the game together and led to that stretch when the rockets couldn’t score because there was no spacing. Russ didn’t play well at all don’t get me wrong, but he was out there hustling and actually playing the most aggressive/healthy we’ve seen all playoffs. Austin is doing NOTHING. Watch, the adjustment for game 3 will (should) be no more Rivers.
Exactly this! Rockets cannot have more than 10 turnovers. And Rockets only forced 15 turnovers vs. 17 turnovers they gave up, unacceptable. Lakers had more steals AND blocks. And 6 missed FT was very un-Rockets like.
17 turnovers was due to no spacing in the paint when we drove to the basket when we played two non shooters at the same time in Rivers/Westbrook. Westbrook brings intangibles even if he is a bad shooter, and is still your second/third best player. Rivers brings nothing. We can’t play both and it’s obvious what needs to be done.
I know McLemore’s defense is trash and maybe we find out he’s unplayable too but I actually haven’t seen him being exploited yet, especially with Lebron out of the game. Rivers non shooting just got exploited for a loss. Give McLemore a shot.
McClemore's offense is a strong positive and makes up for his defense. House on the other hand is a net negative on offense and defense and is unplayable yet he is getting minutes that should be going elsewhere. Would like to see Ben McClemore get all the Danuel House minutes.
Defend better, cut the turnovers down and hit free throws. The Lakers shot uncharacteristically well from 3... the Rockets dared players like Kuzma and Rondo and Morris to beat them, and they did in game two... but even with their extremely hot shooting, they almost lost the game. Harden played smart, Westbrook doesn’t know what he is doing. The Rockets cannot win unless Westbrook plays well.
Westbrook needs to drive more and pass sooner - he's either settling for 3's or driving into a wall and passing too late. If there's a double team on Harden and WB is hitting a wall someone has to be wide open and WB needs to pass before jumping into that wall
rivers has had a terrible postseason all around. if he doesn't show up morey may not even re-sign him
We can win this match without westbrooks. He plays like a spy. Jeff green is disappeared after westbrooks on court. 4th quarter should not give the ball to westbrooks
1. Houston can get hot as the sun and cold as the Iceberg that sank the Titanic. 2. Lakers are more versatile, can trot out formations with different size. 3. Playoff Rondo is a thing. 4. Whoever wins the War of the benches wins the series. 5. Injuries, chemistry issues, Turnovers, bad shooting.
The lakers are packing the paint, while westbrook tries to force the issue by driving into a seam looking for a foul or a kick-out while they are playing the passing lanes, instead of taking the open pull up midrange. He needs to take what the defense gives him and he also needs to try and back it down for a postup when the opportunity presents itself on danny green, kuzma, rondo, or morris. Same thing with james. I would like to see more of those harden post ups when given the opportunity. He needs to be able to see that they are throwing a double when he's overdribbling in isolations....Those turnovers are what killed us. We absolutely need to take care of the ball. I'm not a fan of having harden bring the ball up the floor on rondo, especially when he's tired. They are letting rondo foul him and letting AD use that damn free arm for an offensive foul. **** the refs. Is Mcgee hurt? With him out they may be playing their small ball most of the game with dwight not playing anymore. If this is the case, it'll be more of an opportunity for russ to drive in and post up. They need to always be aware of where lebron is, as he's coming from the weakside for that block. I still think we can beat them. Without those turnovers, we still could have won the game. Now we know what is coming. Its up to our coaches to adjust. Its on you Mike. Its on you harden. Its on you russ. Its time for our team to come together and make the sacrifices just like the lakers did. Props to EG for his game. i aint giving up on austin rivers yet. I feel we need his ball handling skills as they are pressing full court. I feel we can throw a wrinkle in there with him bringing the ball up the floor and running the offense through him with a screen. We can't afford to let them press us late into the shot clock only to turn the ball over.
That 5th foul on WB was the nail. They started attacking him for easy buckets - 8 to 10 points giveaway from end of 3rd to early 4th. This team identity is defense and you can’t give them easy buckets. I thought that was the turning point. I fault MDA for sticking to that obvious flaw. ps. I still don’t get that loose foul call on the review that resulted in WB 5th foul.
The Rockets seemed to be bogged down a lot on offense when the Lakers went to a zone. Especially with Westbrook on the floor. It’s too bad they wasted a great shooting game from EG and PJ.
And now the positives: Russ played like trash and we could've won that game. James only had 12 shots and we could've won that game. Unless something happened in GM2 I am not aware, LA ain't going to be scoring north of 110 let alone 117 again in the series! Definitely a pooper to watch though!
What I saw: Foster repeatedly killed the Rockets’ momentum with his bullshit. Westbrook tried to be the man but played like ****. Lakers game to play, made some great adjustments. Rondo has some gas left in the tank. We weren’t on the same page. That’s on MDA and Harden I knew when Foster was announced our goose was cooked. You take away those fouls and we had a good shot to win.
Westbrook is unplayable. And he’s making 40 million dollars. I will never get over that moronic trade
