I think he's over thinking it. He's trying to play too smart and it's causing him to play too slow and lethargic. He just needs to relax mentally and just play his game. Dame Lillard did the same thing in those first 2 games in Portland.
same here. they've looked sloppy. and its not being forced by the wolves, they're just not in sync. having two weeks of meaningless play took its toll. maybe mda was right about playing his guys to avoid rust, but it didn't work. good new is we have enough talent to survive the first two rounds without playing our best. hopefully that gives us 10 or so meaningful games to get back into peak form before facing the warriors.
Weve all watched playoff basketball enough to know that the home team usually wins a game 3 when down 0-2 Its the human nature game where the home team is juiced up and the road team is chillin. I wont be worried unless the rockets lose game 4
Ok, but this is the playoffs now and they are a team with many talented NBA players. Butler, Teague, Rose, KAT have all been all star level at some point. They showed that they’re not gonna go out like some punks. What I find hilarious is that on another board with fans of all the teams there is better understanding that the Rockets are playing what should be the 3rd seed in the first round than I’m seeing here. I guess y’all just want a pity party rather than acknowledging that the other team came out with their backs against the wall and shot close to a franchise record from 3.
Twolves aren’t scoring 120 again. Too much in their favor surrounding that game to be legit worried. Win at home, split on the road. Gameplan as old as time. Rockets betrayed their own style. Capela missed 100 freebies and everyone missed 100 threes. Open 3s. Kind of amazing they scored what’s 106? Seemed like everyone was off, shooting, passing, defense, turnovers, everything was off and they still scored that much. Twolves are the worried party right now. No matter how good they feel about last night, how are they going to do that again? Make no mistake, the rockets show up hot and ther,es exactly one team that can hang and it isn’t Minnesota.
Not entirely. Game 3 is the best they have shot from 3 by far.....46%FG and 36.6 from downtown Both previous wins: Game 1: 27% from 3 Game 2: 36.5%FG and 30.8% from 3 (which was a blowout for us) I think the Wolves had defended the 3 well enough or the Rox have been slumping themselves, or both. The thing is they have been off the whole series, even in the blowout game. I am shocked peeps dun see it. Even if they win against Minnesota, that is by far not championship level. At least the first 3 games were not great IMO. Our Defense was the best part in those 2 games.
IMO- it's not really that concerning that we lost. The playoffs are intense, the Wolves have some good talent, and they played out of their minds. What is concerning is how we lost. We looked disinterested. We honestly haven't played a complete game yet during these playoffs. We haven't looked at all like the team that won 65 games during the season.
Some of these trends extend back even beyond the Gerald Green game-winner against the Suns. Using a car analogy, it's like we have a high performance car but since late March we have never been able to pass 2nd gear. D'Antoni's gotta get under the hood and do some diagnostics here.
We shouldn't write off this loss but at the same time we should put it into perspective. Let's give the Twolves their props. They are a good team that is clearly better than their seeding. They haven't been playing well the last few weeks but to their credit they made the adjustments they needed to make they also played loose and looked like they were enjoying themselves. As someone living in Minnesota I've seen first hand the long history of frustration by this fan base and they thoroughly enjoyed getting some relief from that frustration last night. That said the Rockets are still the better team. To use a very recent Minnesota example in this year's NHL playoffs the Minnesota Wild faced off against the heavily favored Winnipeg Jets. The first two games in Winnipeg were sloppy and chippy games that the Jets won. In game three in Minnesota the Wild came out and dominated the Jets. What happened next though was that the Jets came out and won a close game 4 in Minnesota and then destroyed the Wild in game 5. In the end the better team rose to the challenge and took the series.
Didn’t think effort would be an issue after the Game 6 embarrassment last year. Guess I was wrong. Completely pathetic effort from start to finish in a playoff game.
Was Harden’s effort specifically a problem? Because I saw Harden very engaged, working hard to beat the hard hedges and doubling that Min was doing. He was very aggressive attacking the basket throughout the whole game, even when he wasn’t getting calls. The lack of effort seemed to be more from the role players.
I’m just talking effort in general. Whole team looked like they had no interest in being there. Harden’s effort was okay I guess, but his offense was once again bad. Not what we need or expect. The way we’ve looked does not bode well for the next rounds. We’ll see.
I get it, but 29 points is 29 points. It’s hilarious to think if Harden doesn’t drop 40+ in a playoff game that means his offense is “bad”
It's too soon to overreact, and playoff Thibs of course was going to have disruptive defense, and playoff Dan Tony has historically not met his regular season offensive output (naturally). But I feel like most Rocket fans have been quietly fretting about the playoffs for most of the last few months. We're a little dinged up. Our amazing star, our best since Hakeem, has a history of not quite having a Hakeem-like gear in the playoffs. And Dan Tony's Suns teams sometimes under-achieved in the playoffs versus their regular season records. There will always be lingering worries about high octane offense translating into the more grinding postseason. We've been holding our breath and really knew there would be some bumps. We'll see, ultimately, what Harden, Paul, and Dan Tony are made of. If they inspire everyone else, get back to enjoying basketball and kicking ass, we'll get to the WCF. If the role players sense hesitancy and doubt in their leaders, we may well exit in the 2nd round. Sorry, I think that's realistic.
You look at the teams in the Western Conference that are playing great and see that they have taken their game to a different level in the playoffs. The fire and intensity that I see in how they are playing I don’t see in the Rockets. The Rockets have been playing with an entitlement attitude as if they are suppose to be handed wins just because they are the #1 seed. They can get by with it in this round but they will be in for a surprise in future rounds if they don’t get their act together.
