The Benching of Donatas Motiejunas by the head coach Kevin McHale

I would've taken Canaan playing PF over Casspi tonight. Dude straight up sucked.

 

I didnt saw this game, but i doubt McHale would just give Dmo only 12mins for no reason, maybe he didnt defend well or was disrupting offense? Maybe Mchale wanted to try other options, mby Casspi was outperforming Dmo in practice. I Dmo biggest fan, but he does a lot of dumb mistakes which can anger Coaches..

 

I would definitely rather have him out there instead of Casspi

 

and Iggie's two prayers in overtime that went in. sigh

 

It really doesn't make sense. It honestly seemed like the momentum swung in our favor any time DMO stepped onto the court. I'm not sure why they went away from him.

 

DMo was looking aggressive out there too. He took it to David Lee in the post and I thought, "Brilliant. Attack Lee on the offensive end with DMo since they can't leave Dwight." Then it just never happened again.

 

I hate it when whenever we are down just a little (cause we were never getting blown out last night) that if a lineup comes in and gets the game back even or ahead, McHale thinks that means that NO MORE SUBSTITUTIONS can be made again for the rest of the game. That is such horrible coaching to me and lacks vision and strategy for in game situations that need to be adjusted for a lot of times during the final seconds of games to get rebounds on free throws, play defense or plan offensive matchup sets.

 

I have no idea y da heck d-mo was not given a chance at da end. ..he could have helped with da rebounding and also would have made atleast a couple of threes....also we could have used garcia, but not caspi....mchale lost us this game.....

 

Rockets just won 8 in a row before losing to a good team on the rode.

Stop with this non-sense.

 

*road

 

Exactly. We definitely could have used some size for rebounding purposes. Gave up way too many second chance points.

 

No tinvloving Dwight consistently in the offense throughout the game lost us this one. Our record is solid when Dwight scores 20+ with 17+ touches. Certainly makes winning easier. Also, totally went away from team ball towards the end of regulations and the entire OT. All ISO,one-on-one BS

 

I don't think it was a punishment benching. I just think McHale wanted to go small ball to push the tempo up a notch and worked pretty good. The Rockets got back into the lead and since it was working McHale stuck with it.

I actually thought DMo played pretty good while he was on the floor. TJones was just shooting the ball off of the back of the rim tonight as was a lot of players including Howard for most of the game.

I actually thought that the Rockets played a hell of a defensive game. I thought they really made things hard on Curry, Thompson and Iggy. The Warriors had a nice play to tie the game at the end of regulation but I really thought the Rockets were a bit gun shy trying not to foul and send Curry to the line.

In OT, Iggy launched a couple of prayers that were answered which I thought was really the difference in the game. That and the fact that Pat picked up at least 3 phantom fouls guarding Curry which eventually led to his fouling out of the game.

I don't think McHale was punishing anyone with the benching.

 

I saw Casspi small ball as a hail mary pass given how sucky the Rockets offense was all night last night.

I have no problem with it as an option, but just wish we had a better small ball option like Delfino available for those times instead of Casspi.

I dont think the Rockets are incredibly happy with the options they have for small ball lineups anyways(hence why they tried for Dunleavy & traded for Hamilton) so I wouldn't get too worried about Casspi really being a long term option for this role. I think Morey is probably already making calls about Granger and Earl Clark as we speak.... well probably Earl Clark but Danny Granger he cannot talk to until he's officially bought out due to tampering rules.

The emergence of Jones this year has really hidden the fact that the small ball lineup is something the Rockets desperately need to have in their back pocket at all times. The Rockets wouldn't have won a game against OKC last year in the playoffs if it wasn't for that lineup. I expect Morey to push real hard for one of those two guys, or to really "encourage" McHale & co. to give Hamilton & Covington exploratory rotation minutes in small ball lineups to see what they have their going into the final stretch of the season.

 

Harden as a full time PF in crunch time is something I would consider. He can't really get caught out of position and is a strong defender in the post. Gives us a huge advantage in the cross-matching as well.

 

I don't have a problem with the rotation last night. McHale was experimenting with some combinations, and what he learned may help the Rockets come playoff time. We need to know what works and what doesn't.

 

PF is still a issue on this team (we need a vet with polished skills). Both guys are young and still learning on the job. T Jones has been more productive than Dmo. DMo is always out of position on D and rebounding. He has his moments where he hits some shots, but for the most part he rushes things to often. I don't think they trust him out there for long periods.

D Lee set the tone at PF from the get go and T Jones and D Mo couldn't keep up...

 

Also people complaining about the Hail Mary lineup need to rewind the tape from last night and realize that the Rockets really had no business being close in that game. Definitely one of their worst performances of the season, and one of the best defensive performances I've seen a team have against the Rockets.

The small ball lineup and the freedom it gave Harden & co to get some points on the board was the only reason why they had the chance to win it at all.

 

I agree. McHale had to make this move because we could not score inside. I am more disappointed at Howard got pwned by a 35 years old J Oneil.

 

The good thing is the next time Beverley fouls out we'll have Canaan on the bench to bring in instead of Casspi or one of the other montage of power forwards. We can simply continue on with Harden at the 4, Parsons at 3, Lin at 2, and Canaan at 1, with the big fella in the middle.

Don't be surprised when Canaan steals all Casspi's minutes and a few of Jones' minutes while Greg Smith and DMo scramble over the rest of TJones' minutes.