Good teams prepare the first 20 games like a script, typically last until the all star break. then teams make adjustment after the all-star break. So good teams do prepare.
We hear this every single off season, and every single season he comes back as the most improved player on the team.
Yes that's because some people are just not knowledgeable about things. Most of the time these people are the people that end up talking like they know it all. Good post.
I don't think effort was the issue - if anything it was too much effort in all sorts of direction. It was a lack of being in-sync and in control. They were too hyped up if anything.
Effort was definitely an issue in the 1st half I thought. They were just being lazy on defense. In the 3rd quarter we woke up but we went into some sort of weird desperation mode and it seemed like we had no idea what was going on.
Denver actually did what I thought most teams will do against us this season. The Rockets are ELITE at finishing at the rim and so-so at shooting....so the way to stop us is to pack the paint and cross your fingers that we aren't hitting 3s. I think we started something like 5/9 from 3, but made just 2 of our last 26. Ice cold. IMO, our offensive struggles had more to do with our defense and rebounding. Rotations were bad, and they were just hitting shot after shot. I feel like that game was an aberration. By the 2nd quarter I had a gut feeling we were going to lose. Just one of those games when everything they did was right and everything we did was wrong. I never felt like we were in the game.
I felt we had some hope , I was at the game so not the best analytical view , but I thought the officiating was extremely biased against us especially in the first half . Harden wasn't getting any calls driving to the lane. Denver shot very well , we let them get way too comfortable early in the game and when we upped our effort it was too late . Our ball movement was nonexistent and it was clear that neither Lawson nor harden was comfortable playing with each other ... That will improve. As obvious as this sounds , the key for us is health . Not only will it get more talented players on the floor , but the chemistry will be better . Howard and Dmo both will call out coverages much better than the bigs we had access to Wednesday. This team needs to be playing its best ball in the playoffs , not necessarily right now . That being said , outside of pat and montrezl the effort level needs to go up . We've always had a bit of a bad habit playing down to our opponents. Regardless of the outcome tomorrow night I expect the effort level to go up substantially.
