It seems like every opportunity we have to win the game at the buzzer or even tie the game, we can't even get a clear good shot. Every situation I can remember, even dating back to a few seasons ago, every shot we take is highly contested and often ends up in an air ball. Hell, sometimes we don't even get a shot off or turn the ball over. What's the problem? Is it the coaches, or do we just not have clutch players?
Can only remember one real gamewinning/gametying shot from Harden and it's that Spurs game. Technically that Suns game too off of Jermaine O'Neal's goaltend.
I remember we were bad with Kevin Martin. And Lowry would always make 3s that were too late and useless.
Because Harden is Mr. Anti-Clutch. Seriously, he always takes those stepback jumpers to end the game, and only 1 out of 100 will go in.
The reason we are so bad in a number of situations can be tied to 1 reason above all others. Not an individual to be blamed, but the entire team... It's turnovers. Plain and simple, we turn the ball over too damn much to realize our potential. We would be a 1 loss team if we were at the MEAN league turnover rate. It will get better with chemistry, but we need to get a LOT better. For Harden in understandable. The tops scorers in the league will typically leading turnovers as well. For the others, its more concerning.
Because James Harden is going full r****d and we have no other plays other then Iso'ing him and Lin aanyway
We have the worst coaching opportunity in the league. Rick Adelemen pretty much quit because he didn't want to deal with starting guys like Asik & Howard for the purpose of retaining assets. Right now, the Rockets roster is a bunch of ill fitted parts. The Heat didn't win a champsionship in year 1 for similar reasons. The personnel just isn't right, and it's going to take time to sort out the roster. Answered my own questions from my last post....
We won but problems are still there..... Can't believe we are that bad starting a game and closing out one.
So much for Houston being clutch city But yeah I blame the coaching staff and Harden wanting to be the hero and pull an iso at the end, then failing.
Because our end-of-game playbook is one page long. And that one page contains a single play. ISO for Harden beyond the 3-point line. And 9 times out of 10, he bricks a bad fadeaway jumper over 3 defenders. I blame McHale for that. There's no excuse for Harden to do that night after night. If McHale actually draws that up every time, he has no business coaching in this league. And if he draws up a different play in the huddle and Harden ignores him, then bench his ass. Phil Jackson had no problem sitting Quitten in the closing moments of Game 3 against the Knicks in 1994(with the Bulls already down 0-2 and tied late in the game) when he drew up a play for Kukoc to take the final shot(which went in BTW).
there is so many level of wrongs at same time for this team at this particular moment, we can't really blame coach staffs for our failure at the end of games. in hope to summary it up in one sentence: If you are replacing Parker with a young stud but defensive liability like Harden, and Duncan with a FT terribleness like Howard, we will see how smooth even Gregg Popovich's offense would run.
