Well losing Nene hurt more from the stand point that the Coach doesn't or can't trust anyone beyond his 7 man rotation to play. MDA seemed to play a 9-10 man rotation consistently through the regular season that netted 55 wins but come playoff time it was down to 8 before Nene went down. Has any other successful playoff team made it to the conference finals with such a short rotation?
LMFAO no it doesn't. Nobody even remembers Kobe retirement game shot selection by Russ for a full 5 games now. And that was just 2 weeks ago.
Most clueless thread by an OP I've seen in a long time here on clutchfans. The onus was on Harden. If you can't execute, you're doomed to fail.
Great point. How did he sucked so badly when Kwahiiii was not guarding him??? He had 3 Turnover in the OT and no KL guarding. This is unpossible
it's laughable because it's funny? What game did you watch - the one where each team went crazy down the stretch or the one where the walking dead on both teams shot a combined 20% from the floor in the last 10 minutes?
Then why did he stand there watching it over and over again? If he doesn't call a timeout and reign Harden in then he's ALLOWING IT.
I watched the one where Harden undoubtedly choked a late rockets lead away with moronic turnovers, and tried to win the game with late ISO plays, which he didn't make. All the while, SA made winning plays without their best player on the floor to win. Don't blame that on Dan Tony dude.
MDA may have just lost this series because of his unwillingness to play more fresh legs. All 7 players were exhausted towards the end with one day of rest before game 6. I have a feeling this fatigue and energy draining loss will cost them game 6 and the series. I really can't stand coaches that will run players to the ground because they can't "trust" others to play.
Winning plays? The ball just happened to fall into the Spurs' lap on many of the offensive rebounds in OT. And if they didn't, our guys were tired as hell trying to get it. Neither MDA nor Harden deserve 100% of the blame. But those are definitely the biggest offenders.
I don't know what you guys expect from D'Antoni, but I've personally seen this pattern over and over with him. His style does not work in the NBA. It works better now than it used to because of all the rule changes, but it still doesn't work. The only reason golden state is able to do it is because they have a DPOY, MVP, and two additional all stars in the starting lineup.
If you decide to play only 7 players in an intense game 5 conference semi-final on the road then it's on you if the team cannot execute, rebound, or hit shots due to being mentally and physically exhausted.
I didn't even mention rebounds, but now that you mention it, get a rebound! or is that Dan Tony's job?
So basically it doesn't work other than the last two dynasties that use it in GS and Miami. What style do you propose we use - the one where non HOF loaded teams win titles? The last time this worked was 2004 with the Pistons. So...do what they did I guess?
I agree with tfor3, Harden came back in the 4th with 7/8 minutes to go, he had at least 5 full minutes to rest...and it's not like he plays lockdown defense or he runs after screens to take wide open shots while he's on the floor...and yeah, he walks the ball up what? 90% of times? If he's dead tired after 8 minutes playing like he does, basically every player on the court should be as tired as him if not more.
Harden turned into "bad hero-ball Russell Westbrook" in the 4th qtr and in OT, and it hurt the Rockets badly. I think he got frustrated with his teammates and stopped trusting them. D'Antoni's 7-man rotation was stupid, and led to fatigue down the stretch. He should've given Dekker and one other deep-bench player 8-10 minutes to give other guys more of a breather.
This game tells me that the Warriors will sweep either team. 7 man rotations and terrible end game execution will get you swept. Soft bigs and old age will cause SA to get swept by the Warriors. Either way, the Warriors sweep their way into the Finals.
Try holding someone with say . .. 30 pounds and 5 inches on you Not all minutes are the same Rocket River
