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Los Angeles Clippers @ Houston Rockets on 3/30/2013, 7:00pm CST.
#2
Posted 30 March 2013 - 06:48 PM
Paul has not exactly been shooting the ball well lately, averaging a sub .300 percentage from long range in March
Who wants to bet Paul has his best 3pt shooting game in March tonight?
We will probably see Lin sag in to double Blake alot, and Cp3 will get wide open shots.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
#4
Posted 30 March 2013 - 07:07 PM
McHale will probably let D-Mo do what he can without help until he gets into foul trouble as usual, then comes in Delfino who definitely needs help if we don't want Blake to score 50 points.
Another option is to let T-Rob play with the starting unit, I'm guessing floor spacing is the reason McHale hasn't tried this.
Otherwise this will probably be another night where the 2nd unit outplays the 1st unit.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
#6
Posted 30 March 2013 - 11:34 PM
Greg Smith is actually a better option than T-Rob, he's significantly stronger and more productive. I'm happy with McHale's thinking process here.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
#8
Posted 31 March 2013 - 02:35 AM
We played playoff caliber defense, we out muscled them, out hustled them, we fought hard for every rebound and loose ball, our rotations were practically mistake free. That was so awesome to watch after seeing so much of the opposite. If we play defense like this in the playoffs we can definitely cause an upset.
Offensively, I know we are better with Harden but I have to say I like how our offense flowed better tonight, we didn't dribble in one spot till there's only 5 seconds on the clock before passing to someone who's not even open expecting him to shoot. Instead we were trying to get a good shot with 20 seconds left on the clock, often passing up half-good looks to get an even better look, just beautiful unselfish ball movement. There was one play where I counted 8 quick passes before a wide open Garcia 3, it looked like we was playing a game of hot potato and the Clippers defense was running around like headless chooks trying to rotate.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
#9
Posted 31 March 2013 - 02:57 AM
playoff caliber defense? your kidding right? the clippers were a tired team coming into this game after a hard fought loss to the spurs. they looked a step slow. it was a great win for us, but lets not blow it out of proportion. remember we rested in our blowout loss. I know harden wasn't playing and the players who were playing should get credit for taking up the slack, but if you saw playoff caliber defense you must have been watching another game.
#10
Posted 31 March 2013 - 03:45 AM
Interesting point that was brought up. As the Rockets have been notoriously bad on the 2nd night of b2bs, and LAC very good, I have to give props to McHale for benching the starters last night so that they'd be rested for this game. Sure, the bench gave us the real spark, but I approved of the move both for the rest and for the message (don't play like crap starters! effort needed!) -- tonight, they all came out with 110% effort.
I will say that it is probably a little bit of both. Our effort level and defense stepped it up, but LAC really imploded. It was ridiculous watching them and how frustrated they got. The calls and stuff got into their heads.
#11
Posted 31 March 2013 - 03:55 AM
#12
Posted 31 March 2013 - 04:11 AM
Yep, like Phaketrash said the LAC have been very good on b2b's (12-6 coming into this game), and you wouldn't have guessed that watching after what we saw tonight. I'm not saying we shouldn't put any salt on this win at all, put a little salt on but don't just scoff it off like we didn't do anything. I think almost every Rockets fan expected us to get blown out without Harden, but then we're the ones who do the blowing out and all of a sudden it's no big deal. There's some really questionable Rockets fans out there I have to say, my apologies if it angers them to hear me say this was a great win but that's just how I see it.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
#14
Posted 31 March 2013 - 04:51 AM
The whole season McHale has been preaching to move the ball like a hot potato and play gritty defense. This was one of those games where the players actually applied his lessons, but watch us forget these lessons at least 2 more games this season to put us down around 20 points before we wake up and make a come back victory.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
#16
Posted 01 April 2013 - 05:57 AM
I've been watching all the post game interviews, and just based on the things the players and McHale have said, I can tell you you're wrong.
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
#19
Posted 01 April 2013 - 02:39 PM
I've been watching all the post game interviews, and just based on the things the players and McHale have said, I can tell you you're wrong.
I've watched those same interviews, and have on occasion seen some mention it, but I have not seen a steady parade of this idea being pushed. most of what I hearing relates to focus and energy, not ball movement and gritty defense
#20
Posted 01 April 2013 - 06:28 PM
Geez do you want me to find every time he mentioned it? That's alot of work but I'll find a few.
Quote after the recent Pacer's game:
“We’re a little more read and react,” McHale said. “It’s systemic to our team
not moving the ball, not moving bodies enough, just being a little bit stagnant"
Quote after the Grizzlies game:
“We had bad spacing, and we weren’t moving the ball,” McHale said. “We
weren’t moving the defense. They just locked us down. It’s been three games of
that. They’re going to really run at James and try to get the ball out of his
hands. We’re going to have to adjust to that and play with more movement earlier
in the clock."
During the game:
Coach Kevin McHale shouted “Move it! Move it! Move it!” Again, no one did. (link)
Quote during the 7 game losing streak:
"We have to play with pace. We have to move the ball. The ball can't get sticky.
It's got to go from side to side." (link)
December:
After the game, Kevin McHale called the ball "sticky" as the Rockets tried to
run their offensive sets, basically saying there wasn't enough ball
movement. (link)
After the Wizards game:
"Yeah, we were sticky again tonight," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "We didn't
have great movement and our spacing got a little bit funky. We chased the ball a
little too much." (link)
Alot of talk about ball movement again here after the Hornets game
After the Nuggets game:
"We're not cutting, the ball's sticky, it's just a lot of stuff we've got to
correct," McHale said. "We've got to get better at ball movement, we've got to
get better ball and body movement." (link)
and I shouldn't need to remind you there was a lot of praise from McHale about the ball movement after the Clippers game since it was so recent. I can easily find several more but I think you should do that since you're the "Rockets best fan" or so you claim...
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.”
― Frank Zappa
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