For our offense, I'm wondering if we need to push the pace a little more. I know CP3 and Harden prefer it a little slower but I think going faster will give us easier looks.
brother, please don't get defensive in defending Harden. I'm one of Harden's biggest advocates and fans. I notice you seem to take many posts constructively criticizing Harden in the least bit way too seriously. You are so quick to jump out and "defend" him when in fact fans like myself are not criticizing him really at all. Chill out. And back to your question, Harden got BLOCKED quite a bit in traffic in game 3 and he did not finish many other times that he did not get blocked. I know that he can be MUCH better in that regard because I've seen him not only this season but since he's been in Houston. My point is he needs to keep driving like in game 3 (good), but he needs to convert those layups. Yes I get there was contact that wasn't called in game 3, thus no free throws. But point stands, he needs to convert them tonight. If Harden can't finish (whether blocked or just misses bunnies) regardless of it being a "foul", the Rockets' scheme of spacing will be hindered. His excellence in driving to the rim at will is a major factor in opening up the 3s in this offense.
you nitpick his failures but don't credit his contributions aside from him and cp3 no one else really contributed that much check their BPMs guess how many layups he converted in the 4th? if you are a true rockets fan then give actual constructive criticism to the team.. not single out the best player that night.. the guy who kept us in the game.. the guy the whole minny team is focusing, hacking, and shoving like everyone else needs to show up and not simple "hardens 29 pts, 7 assists ain't enough" or "11 pts, 3 assists in the 4th arent" enough we are in a thread for adjusting after game 3 loss right? if you were going to list MDA and the whole team's prioprities of things to do, would Harden scoring 45 be first on your list? or everyone else need to play alot better first
With all due respect..shut up already. I'm actually a bit surprised that I'm even dignifying your response with a reply right now. I never nitpicked Harden's failures in my post. I simply stated what needs to happen tonight and moving forward for the Rockets to be at their best. Get over it. You are a HARDEN only fan that can't take ANYTHING remotely negative said about your favorite player. Harden I believe is the best player in the world right now. I do not need to further justify my fandom for Harden nor the Rockets. Just...shut up with your hyper sensitive schtick. I'm done.
I am a true rockets fan.. i truly wanted the rockets to win the last game it's not even about harden, its stupid a stupid fan like you who does't know math and what's physically possible.. then nitpicks a teams best player just because of 1 missed layup harden making an extra layup inspite of how minny was physical and shoving him and refs wanting minny to win wouldn't have won us last game but ego, tucker, and green making their layups at their reg season % and holding minnys threes from 55% closer to their reg season 35% would sure have geve rcokets a chance to win the game you make it sound like "hey I found the one thing which was the issue last game" and its harden's 1 missed layup? LOL is that a layup which happens to equal to 20 pts on the scoreboard
When you get blown out - it's usually not because of minor adjustments but something larger - the implication being the way the team played together. Seems to me the defensive intensity has not been there consistently. This team hasn't been as sharp the past 3 weeks. I can't believe Luc is THAT instrumental. Hopefully the game is just the kick in the butt they need to step up the intensity.
Unfortunately, I think JJ is even worse at defense than Green. Green at least can go off offensively and is more athletic. Could be wrong though, as Joe hasnt really played that much this PO.
IMO the offense is the problem. The wolves were the 4th best regular season offense and were trash for 2 of 3 games. They have too much talent to be shut down every game though. Rockets are currently the 15th best offense in the playoffs by ortg, and the wolves are not a good defensive team
Can we just not let them shoot 60% from 3....and hit down some of our open shots. Have to come out playing D tho, run and not let their d setup and clog the paint. Anyone else more concerned at how slow we look (cp3,Ariza, tucker). Teague is giving us all kinds of trouble
Hard to think that any Thibs team would be a poor defensive team. Granted not very good during the season but they seemed to have picked it up. I don't think it's taking away the 3's as much as taking away the dribble penetration.
We have to stop getting beaten off the dribble so easily. Between Teague, Butler, Wiggins and Rose....these guys are blowing right by our perimeter defense and getting into the paint whenever they want. This means playing tougher man-on-man defense, rotating and improving our help defense. CP3, in particular, is really struggling with staying ahead of Teague. Hell, if you woke me up out of a coma right before the start of the series and asked me who I thought was Minnesota's best player -- guess what, I'd say Teague. He's killing us. Wiggins is streaky, Rose's luck will wear out if he keeps chucking up garbage 15 footers and Butler is going to get his. We just can't afford to have Jeff Teague level players blowing up on us. Especially, with All-NBA Defense players like CP3 checking him. Defensively, outside of that, I don't think we're doing a bad job. I like the way we're playing KAT. He woke up in G3, but you can definitely tell he's not used to having to work so hard to get looks. It's definitely thrown his game off. He's the only player on that team that warrants a double-team, IMO. Keep doing what we're doing and defend the three point line better. They're not going to shoot 60% from 3-pt land again. Offensively, obviously something is off and we're not hitting our 3's. Despite being hard on Ryno, I actually would start him over Tucker tonight. He looked pretty good in G3, opens up the floor for our shot creators and it's a road game #RoadRyno. I'd also have Gordon and our other 3&D players on a shorter leash. Good things happen for us whenever Green gets hot, so if Gordon is having another 3-13 type night you need to cut back his minutes and try someone else. JJ is another guy I would look to if Tucker and Ariza continue to struggle. Bottom line: this offensive system doesn't work without us hitting 3's. Whatever it takes to accomplish that. Harden, CP3 and Capela are going to pull their weight. We need just need those 3&D players to connect the dots.
Chris Paul needs to turn in an harden game 2 defensive effort . Clint needs to bring his game 1 energy . If we come out strong we can stop them from getting in a comfortable shooting rhythm. Offensively , we are getting good looks ( not saying we are playing our best ) but I'm not worried about offense . We should eventually hit some shots and even if not , our defense can pick us up , and harden could carry us
Slow Pace and defend 3 pointers Rockets have 6 rotation players are age 32 or older Starters: Paul, Ariza, Tucker (all 3 starters don't look like Championship Players) Benches: JJ, GG, Nene There are more "old man" than young man.
