19 replies to this topic

[Jeby]

It's halftime. Kemba Walker is teaching the Rockets that contested long 2's may be the worst shot in basketball, but wide open long 2's are still pretty good.

[Mario Peña]

Rockets win! I watched the second half and it definitely wasn't pretty but they grinded out a win. Harden was cold again but made some key assists and continued to attack the basket to get to the line, the defense stepped up in the fourth, Beverly brought some energy and other Rockets stepped up with defense and 3 pointers when it mattered most. McHale's rotations seemed good and I saw Harden come off some back screens and get some good picks from Asik to take Biyambo out of the paint.

[Kade]

Lets hope we can keep playing 10 win teams going forward and gut it out second half.

[Dan G]

Only got to box score watch this game and was a little worried but the Rockets pulled it through. Whew is all I can say and I bet McHale is saying the same thing.

[Jeby]

Sat right in front of the hardcore cheering section. They were screaming at the refs in the 4th every time Harden went to the line. He mocked their pain.

[Mario Peña]

If you are a leader of a team like James Harden and you are just learning how to lead a group of guys than this was a good experience for all involved. I like how Harden continued to attack the basket as opposed to settling for jump shots as the game went on. Harden also made some good passes that showed trust in teammates and one pass in particular from above the 3 point line across the court to Delfino in the corner was pretty impressive. Harden even became disruptive in the lane as Bobcat guards penetrated against the Rockets defense. The mark of a great player is what he can do to lead his team when his shots aren't going down and Harden is learning how to impact the game in ways that great players do.

[khyberjones]

I think McHale is limited as a coach. He has to let his point guard, Lin, run the offense and be aggressive. Harden was 5-20 and has had a bad month. Almost every starter has dropped off due to over-reliance on Harden iso-ball. To move the ball, you need to trust the PG to do it.

[datruth]

A win is a win, but lets look at what's going on. Morris should have not been pulled from the starting line up once the team started winning. All on Mchale and Sampson. Beverly seemed to hit a few shots, but if it was lin that turned the ball over like he did Lin would have pulled from the game. Harden again led the team with turnovers and missed shots. Mchale made sure Harden got at least twenty to twenty five shots in, despite stopping the flow of the team. Lin and Harden will not exist together. It worked for a while, because Harden took a back seat to Lin and allowed him to control the tempo. Harden wants to be the man here in Houston and he wants the numbers. Not the wins. Fans are disappointed. Cole brought toughness tonight, but we have at least four players just standing around the three point line. Parson has been solid so far this year and maybe even a better player in my mind than Harden. He doesn't need 25 to 30 shoots a game and plays better team ball. I think we are going backward and not forward. At times Harden reminds of the a player at playground park that gets the ball and shoots all the time. Plays little defense, slips out for easy shoots, because it all about him. Many people was exicited about this team, but Mchale has made sure any excitement is now frustration. He is the worst x and o's coach in this league. Spoiler alert Sampson there is no blake griffin like you had in oklahoma, he was stronger and more athletic than anyone else he played against in college. You must coach up your player not degrade them.

[SamC]

Now that teams are doing a better job preparing for Harden you see a huge drop off in efficiency and yet McHale keeps giving him the green light to jack up shots. We may have won today but if McHale continues with this game plan, I don't see too many more wins in the near future.

[timetodienow1234567]

I think Lin should come off the bench. He should only play when Harden's out. I like both of them, but the way the offense is being run, Harden's really the point. He's playing ISO after ISO like Melo(but not as bad, yet). If Lin comes off the bench and bolsters the second unit, it's great. Or they could move Harden to the 2 and play them both. But Lin and Harden aren't meshing with the offense that's being run now.

[PKM]

I think Lin should come off the bench. He should only play when Harden's out. I like both of them, but the way the offense is being run, Harden's really the point. He's playing ISO after ISO like Melo(but not as bad, yet). If Lin comes off the bench and bolsters the second unit, it's great. Or they could move Harden to the 2 and play them both. But Lin and Harden aren't meshing with the offense that's being run now.

That's ludicrous. Play Lin less than 20 minutes a game? There's no reason to do that.

Lin and Harden need to learn to play together. There's no way around it.

[timetodienow1234567]

That's ludicrous. Play Lin less than 20 minutes a game? There's no reason to do that.

Lin and Harden need to learn to play together. There's no way around it.

I agree, but the offense is ISO after ISO with Harden running the point and Lin's jumper isn't there yet. I want them to play well together, but it simply isn't happening with the offense that McHale has put together. I'm just giving my observation about what would help the team the most. Since Mchale isn't going to let Lin run the point, the team is better off with a jumpshooter at the 1.

[Jeby]

Scattered observations from the game:
1. Without some miraculously good pull-up jump shooting from the Bobcats, the game wouldn't have been close.
2. I'm increasingly feeling that Asik's turnover problems have a lot to do with the guards throwing passes at his feet.
3. The beauty of Carlos Delfino's jump shot has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. The amount of concentration as the ball leaves his fingertips is what separates him from Chandler Parsons, who seems to just be going through a motion and hoping the odds are in his favor.
4. On the other hand, Parsons was extremely decisive off the catch, especially at times in the first quarter when his teammates were struggling.
5. Patrick Beverly was the hungriest player on the court. His desire to win translates into effort. Jeremy Lin's desire to win tranlates into timidity, as he tries to not mess up.

[Alituro]

I think everyone's perception of Harden over-iso-ing is a little skewed. As you know, with Lin's poor shooting, inconsistency from the PF position, butterfingers at C, and besides Parsons or Delfino, we have absolutely zero real offensive threats. Harden commands a double team every time, and thus, someone is open. Harden generally has no problem finding the open man. You can understand a growing hesitance to do so, though when the open man is a unreliable PF, slippery C or a timid Lin. When they are his open men, I'd rather him just create a shot for himself more often than not. An offensively reliable big man such as Motiejunas, IMO, would go along way towards spreading the floor and allowing Harden to create shots for others and even better shots for himself when a team can't take the risk of sending a double to him out at the arc. We absolutely need another prolific scorer, or these are the pains we will feel for a long time.

I agree with Jeby about Asik and the passes he gets.

[thejohnnygold]

James harden should watch the movie, Juwanna Mann. It's a perfect lesson...without the cross-dressing.

[Mario Peña]

I second what Alituro wrote about James Harden and his isolation tendencies. I don't think the Rockets run too much isolaton for Harden at all. When Asik sets a pick for Harden at the top of the key that is not isolation nor is the series of screens that are set for Harden enabling him to get a pass with a mismatch. The complaints about too much isolation for Harden seem unfounded.

[Alituro]

That's right, feelingsupersonic. Not only that but having Harden in a true iso where he is one-on-one with a defender, is probably the best possible case for our offense. He can take anyone one-on-one (even Kobe) and is efficient at it. Teams are not allowing a true iso though because they can afford to send help because of gross offensive incompetency from the others on the floor. I'd even rather him attack the double sometimes rather than find a tentative Lin, or hesitant Patterson open. The only other bright spots on our offense are Delfino and Parsons and you will see that when their man helps on Harden, he defers almost every time. He trusts them. I'm sure he'd show Asik some trust too, if he could hand the ball to him rather than have to throw it (at his knees).

[timetodienow1234567]

Who's fault is it that Lin's tentative? It's Mchale's. Harden is sucking it up right now, but has no fear of being benched or even losing his MANDATORY 25 shots a game and I'm fine with that since he's growing. I just want all of the young guys to play without fear of being benched for every little mistake. I'm just saying that he's hurting Lin's growth by threatening to bench him all the time and then actually benching him. I mean Harden has been atrocious recently, being as inefficient as Kobe. I don't care if you get 20 points if it takes you 25 shots to do it. I just wish that Mchale was focused on improving the young guys. Did Scottie Brooks bench Durant/Westbrook/Harden/Ibaka when they sucked it up? No he didn't. He let them play, and then went over the film and explained what they did wrong. Now they are a power in the West. While Harden is no Durant and Lin is no Westbrook, that pattern of letting the guys play and coaching them seems to work. Why can't Mchale do that?