14 replies to this topic

[Red94]

New post: Recap: Dallas Mavericks 116, Houston Rockets 109

[cdhthegreat]

The coaching tonight was pathetic. 45 minutes for harden with a rolled ankle. COLE ALDRICH. Patterson at the 5. No Greg Smith.

[Bigtkirk]

Hopefully, McHale was just getting back in the swing of coaching things in this game and the poor use of the bench won't continue. But I'm at a loss to understand what Douglas, Delfino and Aldrich did in this game to deserve 82 minutes of playing time to the exclusion of almost everyone else on the bench.

[blakecouey]

Is it too soon to ask if we should oust McHale? I understand it was his first night back, after nearly a month during a very emotional/stressed time, but this isn't the first time we've seen ineffective use of the bench, ugly rotations, and poor execution. What kind of coaches are out there that could be beneficial to growing our youth and instilling confidence/work ethic into them more so than McHale?

[xsamc1]

I'm surprised McHale would make such drastic changes to the rotation in his first game back.

[Rahat Huq]

I was curious about this. I wasn't at nor did I watch the game. Why did he make such drastic changes his first game back?

[Stephen]

Drastic changes? Not Really.
Lin 19:59 against LA,26:03 against SA then 18:05 against Dallas.
But really,it was a return to McHale's rotation at beginning of yr,only using Douglas,Delfino and a third big(at beginning of yr it was Morris out of lack of anyone else).
He went w/Smith,who got in foul trouble,replaced him w/Aldrich who was reasonably effective.
He went small because that's what Dallas did,Asik isn't someone who can punish other teams posting up and Kaman was eating his lunch on jumpers.
He didn't rest Harden in First Half because he was afraid the ankle would tighten as it did after Half-Time.(A couple of times cameras caught McHale asking Harden how he was feeling and Harden saying he was OK to play.)

We constantly hear how coaches see things in practices and being around the team that we as fans don't and that explains what often appears to be puzzling player decisions.
Against Dallas we may have seen indirect confirmation of that cliche.
For the past few weeks McHale has been away from the team,not attending practices,his only real exposure to the team watching them on TV and phone conversations w/Sampson.
And the previous three games were the first ones McHale could devote his full attention to.
And what would McHale have seen watching the games?
Marcus Morris,0-2FGA,0-2FTA,2 rebounds...0-5FGA,1-2FTA,5 rebounds...1-5FGA,3 rebounds. These bad numbers don't even begin to describe the utter futility of Morris trying to create something.
Lin had a good game against Utah then went 4-17 in next two games including 0-4 from 3pt land.

[Stephen]

To be honest,looking at the schedule I thought the Rockets would be in the midst of a 6 game losing streak and that they'd be buried in December,before making a late run.

Instead the Rockets are 2-3 so far out of the @OKC,Utah,Lakers,@SA,Dallas,SA stretch. They have16 games in Dec(4 sets of back-to-back,a 4 game-in-5-night,3 rd stretch starting Christmas Day).
To date they've played 13 games against Play-Off teams from last yr out of their 19 games.
I was hoping they'd have 7-8 wins by now,9 far exceeds my expectations.

[feelingsupersonic]

I knew about the back to backs and all that but thanks for a real breakdown with regards to playing time and who's hot and who's not. I get tired of Rockets fans talking about replacing McHale as a knee jerk reaction to a game. It's almost as if watching the games is not enough, fans have to pretend like they're GM's. I get tired of it. Anyway, I don't want to get completely negative so thanks Stephen for presenting facts. Let's enjoy what this team is doing, overachieving.

[Johnny Rocket]

The reason McHale pulled Asik is simple: he had 4 TOs in 20 minutes. That's not acceptable, no matter how good your rebounding.

I don't know why, though, he sat Lin so much over Douglas. Douglas played fine, but so was Lin.

In terms of where the Rockets are at in general, this is what rebuilding looks like: wildly inconsistent performances. You gotta role with it or it will drive you crazy! I agree with Stephen that 9 wins are pretty good at this point.

[Sir Thursday]

I was curious about this. I wasn't at nor did I watch the game. Why did he make such drastic changes his first game back?

The Rockets were getting killed in the first quarter, and it was the insertion of the small ball lineup that got them back in the game in the second. McHale then proceeded to continue playing a small lineup for the rest of the game. I'm not sure that was the best decision because it meant that Delfino, Parsons and Harden had to play the majority of the game and were tired down the stretch, but I can kind of understand why he did it.

In addition, the coaching staff seemed to make a (reasonable, based on what I saw) decision that Toney Douglas was the best man to guard OJ Mayo after he torched everyone else they put on him in the first quarter. That's why he saw so much floor time in this game. And despite Mayo's gaudy statline I thought he did a reasonable job (although there was a glaring exception to that statement late in the fourth quarter where he got wiped out on a screen and allowed Mayo to bury a 3 to put the Mavericks up 5 with not much time left).

Of course, the upshot of that was that Lin didn't see much playing time. There was a section in the third quarter where he went with a double PG lineup with both Lin and Douglas, and it didn't look too bad. Douglas has picked up his level quite considerably over the abject awfulness of the first few games and Lin is starting to make some shots from the corners, which just about turns them into a functional pairing.

ST

[xsamc1]

I suppose I'm just used to seeing coaches who have set rotations and only make changes if someone's in foul trouble or injured. Players have to know how to play with each other and if you're mixing up the rotations a lot, it can lead to a lot of turnovers.

[UncleCaveman]

I hated some of the lineups that McHale put out there, especially in the 4th. There were extended minutes with Patterson as the sole "big" and Parsons apparently playing the 4 with Toney Douglas and Jeremy Lin on the court together. Is the team better with McHale? It doesn't look like it to me.

[CHOPE]

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[CHOPE]

OOPS...sorry guys. should be
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