So the rest of the free loading frauds get exposed

Wholeheartedly disagree. It absolutely exists. There's a reason we can beat the Warriors and the Raptors, then lose to the Pelicans bench players and the Orlando Magic.

It's the sign of a mediocre team that cares when it's playing good teams and doesn't care when it's playing bad teams. Clear as day and has been the case all season.

 

Are people.... SURPRISED that the team is trash when Harden isn't superhuman?

 

Harden was garbage too....it was really hit fault for missing 21 shots.... 75% of which were jacked up for no reason.

 

I really don't get how some guys can't see this...we just saw games against Knicks, Raptors, Pelicans bench, i mean, if that's not obvious what happened, i don't know...

 

It was a bad loss no doubt. Is it a problem? Yes, we have lost too many games to inferior teams. This needs to be addressed. But there is a bright side. We have among the best records against good and elite teams. We beat the Warriors on the road without EG or CP3, for crying out loud. Hopefully this loss will serve as a true wake up call...

Also, while it would be nice to get a top seed, it shouldn’t be our biggest priority. We need to get healthy and be rolling by the time the playoffs start.

 

I kind of expect us to lose a few more like this. Mainly because I think the team will need to renegotiate life with Chris Paul back. It's not like he played major minutes and that's why we lost, but I still expect them to need to get used to playing more team ball and less focus on Harden alone.

And combined with the fact that we too often play down to the competition. Just my two cents.

 

I really really really really like DM.

I understand, conceptually, how we got to the point we're at.

For every miss - Royche White, Morris over Kawhi, there are great finds - Capela probably the best, but plenty of 2nd round gems, not to mention G league pickups or waiver wire pickups.

But it's incredibly confusing that for a guy who has built his entire basketball philosophy around math, that would support everything that has become the 3&D player, he has neither focused on (1) tall, langy and rangy defenders, or (2) knock out three point shooters.

And when there was a guy that was at least close to fitting that in House, who was hitting 39%, they can't come to a deal with him.

The guys he did get ABSOLUTELY have value. When EG is hitting at 36%+, he's that shooter I'm talking about or close to it (wouldn't a 40% shooter be great?!?). When Tucker hits from the corner and isn't having brain farts, he does provided defensive versatility. It's not chopped liver. But they're not ideal.

 

I think that last season we just got on such a roll that we kept locking in every night ... and we set a goal of the number one seed .

I think our mindset has been more relaxed this year .... I dunno if that's good or bad . Who knows , we really might have a switch to go up another gear in the playoffs.

But the game was clearly decided by our defensive effort . If we had kept up the intensity the whole game then we would have blown them out .

The chemistry isn't quite there with harden and cp yet . At times both of them were passive.