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Well, the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets four times on their way to winning 67 games this season. And of the 16 teams before them to win 65+ games, only LeBron’s ’09 Cavaliers, Dirk’s ’07 Mavericks and the post-Russell ’73 Celtics failed to win the title that year. Golden State was also 39-2 at home in the regular season. Only the Spurs, Bulls and Grizzlies (in Round 2) have managed to beat the Warriors at home so far this season.

Numbers like that make you wonder if the Rockets ever really stood much of a chance. 

But after coming up short in the first two games, and then failing spectacularly in the third, the Rockets finally broke through and beat the Warriors last night.  Some will say that it was a trap game for the Warriors: up 3-0 on the road after a 35-point win, knowing Game 5 is at vaunted Oracle Arena. And they’d be right; it was a total trap game.

But so what. Houston avoided the sweep, and James Harden got to exact some revenge after coughing up Game 2 in Oakland.

Remember when there was a time when people were trying to make James Harden vs Klay Thompson into a thing when talking about the best shooting guard in the league? They would qualify it by using terms like “two-way player” and show funny gif’s of Harden not playing defense. So it was fun thinking about all those naysayers biting their tongues when Harden nearly had back-to-back triple-doubles in the first two games of the series with Thompson as his primary defender. Meanwhile, Thompson was working so hard chasing Harden around that he was shooting 37% from the field and only 18% from deep. Splash Brother indeed.

Harden worked over Thompson so well that Warriors coach Steve Kerr was forced to try Harrison Barnes on Harden. It worked in Game 3, but last night it did not. Harden bounced back from his dreadful Game 3 with perhaps his best game of the postseason. And I do realize that I said that exact phrase just two games ago when I wrote about Game 2, but what else would you call a line of 45 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks? He scored as only he can when he’s rolling: 13-22 from the field (59%), 7-11 from deep (67%) and 12-13 from the stripe (92%).

But it wasn’t just the numbers. The Warriors would not go away last night and every time they fought back to make things uncomfortable, Harden responded, usually with a dagger three. In fact, Harden was so good from deep that even a full-court two-handed heave hit nothing but net.

Thompson did play better when not chasing Harden around, scoring 24 points on 6-13 shooting from three.  He was forced to carry the load for a stretch because of the terrible fall Steph Curry had while trying to block a Trevor Ariza layup. Curry landed hard on the back of his neck and it was called a “head contusion” because team doctors will do ANYTHING to not say the word “concussion”. Curry missed the last five minutes of the first half and most of the third quarter, but played about the same after the injury as he did in the first half.  He finished with 23 points and 4 assists.

The Rockets started the game on fire and scored 45 points in the first quarter, thanks in large part to Josh Smith.  Smith shot 5-5 in the opening period, including a couple of pull-up threes in transition. He finished with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks. He was easily the second-best Rocket, but the dreaded Hack-A-Shaq that Kerr used in the fourth quarter marred his performance. He shot only 3-12 from the free throw line, and forced McHale to pull him down the stretch.

Dwight Howard (14 pts, 12 reb, 2 stl & 2 blk) played well and really frustrated Andrew Bogut, holding the big Aussie to 0 points and just 8 rebounds.  But while fighting for a loose ball in the third quarter, Bogut shoved Howard in the back and Howard responded with a forearm to his face. Howard was assessed a Flagrant 1, and some are wondering if it might be upgraded by the league to a Flagrant 2, in which case Howard would have to miss Game 5.  I think it could go either way, but Adam Silver is pretty level-headed and surely knows that this is what Bogut does to people. I think he’ll let Howard keep playing, like he did for Russell Westbrook in the last game of the season.

Three other Rockets scored in double figures, led by Trevor Ariza’s 17. Terrence Jones (14 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast & 2 blk) played well, but let Draymond Green bully him at times. Jason Terry missed too many open threes but ended up with 10 points, 6 boards and 4 assists.

So now the series heads back to California. You all know the stat, no team has ever come back from down 0-3 to win a seven game series in NBA history. 0-116 so far. And these Warriors really seem to have Houston’s number, last night not withstanding. So prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. This may very well have been the last win fans of the Rockets get to see this season.

On the other hand, this series isn’t 3-0 anymore. It’s 3-1 now, and these Rockets know what it takes to come back from 3-1.  But any potential comeback won’t be against a tired, fragile Clippers team. It will be against a 67-win 1-seed.  However, figure out how to win Game 5 in Oakland on Wednesday, and then Game 6 is back in Houston.  Get through that, and it’s as they say, “Anything can happen in Game 7″.

But Clutch City will have to get through Game 5 first.

The post Golden State Warriors 115, Houston Rockets 128: I Hope You Enjoyed This One appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

So last night, with precious few seconds left on the clock in a one point game and the ball in his hands after rebounding a Harrison Barnes miss, Harden raced up court for what would surely be a last second play to decide the game.

“There’s no one there, there’s no one there!” I screamed at my TV, fully expecting him to get to get into the paint.

But Harden didn’t attack.  He haphazardly went into Steph Curry’s body, then pulled up so that he could play a wall-pass with Dwight. Once he had the ball back, with no real plan of attack, he bobbled the ball off the Splash Brothers’ feet.  Game Over.  Warriors 2, Rockets 0.

Why didn’t Harden just attack the basket like he does so many times a game, usually with bigger defenders protecting the rim?

I mean, I get that he’s double-teamed, and they do have the middle of the floor walled off, but there’s no big man and he’s got both defenders on their heels.  And if he didn’t like that look, why not call a timeout and draw something up?

But after Harden pulled up and waited for everyone to catch up to the play, there had to be a better option than attempting to drive at the same double-team that he just forewent, who happens to now have their feet set with backup behind them.

It’s literally the same look he just bypassed, except a little worse.  Even if a timeout was not an option at this point, why not run right at Dwight Howard’s shoulder and use him to create space for a shot?

It was a pressure situation and there was no time to think, that’s why. Harden played so well, but by the very end, he’d run out of magic.  It’s just terribly unfortunate that Harden’s awesome performance was all for not.

Harden scored 38 points on just 21 shots, but this wasn’t a free throw contest like a lot of Harden’s big scoring nights.  He was 9-10 from the charity stripe, sure, but he was also 3-6 from deep and 13-21 (62%) overall. For the second game in a row he was an assist shy of a triple-double, adding 10 rebounds, three steals and a block to his impressive box score. This was the best, most complete game for Harden in the playoffs.  He and Curry duked it out all night and, if not for the late-game blunder, Harden outplayed the league MVP.

Houston fell behind by as many as 17 in the first half, but Harden was their answer.  And it wasn’t a flashy hit-em-quick comeback like the Rockets are wont to do.  They did go on a 14-2 run to close the gap, but it was a methodical approach that got them back in it.  Harden scored 12 points in the second quarter on 5-6 shooting and was absolutely ruthless from the midrange.  The analytics community is fond of saying that only a select few players (Dirk, Aldridge, Durant etc) make shooting 15-18 footers worth the effort, but that step-back jumper that Harden perfected this year just added a year or two to his prime.  That shot will save him from crashing to floor so much after attacking the rim time and again.

The Rockets might not have needed such a run in the second had the bench not been so bad.  For a unit that got so much praise for their second round performance, they have looked absolutely ordinary two games into this series.  Josh Smith was a little too aggressive last night, taking too many shots in the first half and then disappearing in the second. Corey Brewer made little statistical impact and finished with a +/- of -23.  Pablo Prigioni somehow managed to finish with a -10 in only seven minutes of action. The only Rockets player off the bench to really show up was Terrence Jones, who finished with a line of 12 points, 2 boards, an assist, a steal and 3 blocks.  He attacked and played fearlessly, although there were several times he took contested shots rather than kicking out to open shooters.

Dwight Howard ended up playing despite his sprained knee, and played well.  He shot 73% from the field for 19 points, but was only 3-7 from the stripe.  He did manage 17 rebounds (5 offensive), 2 steals and a block, but allowed too many layups in his vicinity.  Steph Curry especially squeaked by a few times for easy buckets while Howard was in the area.  His stat line looks better, but I’m not sure Howard made as much of an impact as Andrew Bogut (14 pts, 8 reb, 4 ast & 5 blk).

Besides Bogut and Curry (33 pts, 3 reb, 6 ast & 1 stl), the only other Warrior to really hurt the Rockets individually was Draymond Green.  He only shot 3-9 from the field, but stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal & block each.  Where the Warriors really had the advantage was their bench.  For the second game in a row, Golden State went on a big run with their starters on the pine.  Shawn Livingston had another good game, making all four of his shots for 8 points and 4 rebounds.  Leandro Barbosa’s 4 points and 3 assists don’t look like much, but he was +13 in his time on the court.

The Rockets can’t continue to let Golden State’s bench decide games.  The Warriors second unit closed that big Rockets lead in Game 1, and they built a big lead in Game 2 against Houston’s bench.  It hasn’t been Houston’s offense as much as the defense, and Kevin McHale needs to figure out a way to generate stops with his second unit on the floor.

The Warriors are the better (or just healthier) team, but I can promise you this: those “Over-Rated” chants that were echoing through Oracle Arena in Game 1 every time Harden touched the ball will not be heard for the rest of this series, regardless of how many games it goes.  They may not have believed it before, but there’s not a Golden State fan out there that doesn’t recognize how good the Beard really is anymore.

And for all those folks who thought that the Rockets were punching above their weight and didn’t belong in the same class as the Warriors, those beliefs can be put to rest.  Without two of their five starters, the Rockets are just a few plays away from being up 2-0 in this series themselves.  I’d like to see what this series would look like if the Rockets were healthy and the Warriors were missing key-cogs like Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala.

But that’s not the case.  Golden State is the healthiest team left in the playoffs and certainly the favorite to win it all.  Hopefully getting back to Houston will cure some of the Rockets problems, and those Toyota Center rims will be as soft and sticky for the Rockets as Oracle’s were for the Warriors.  Just one or two breaks and the Rockets are right back in it.

Clutch City better show up.

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MF – What were your thoughts after 128-95 in Game 4? Series over, or were you more reserved?

LM – When I helped the Podium Game with their preview of this series, I thought it was going 7. A series isn’t over just because a team goes up 3-1. And the Clippers know this better than most teams. After all, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan were in red and blue blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Memphis Grizzlies just three years ago. It’s the playoffs. You can’t expect your opponent to quit!

I’m sure we have differing opinions, but that fourth quarter in Game 6 was awesome. The Clips looked gassed, but Josh Smith also looked like LeBron…Did you see it as more meltdown, or more comeback?

I thought it was awesome as well. It was incredible. So many narratives burned in flames in that fourth quarter, and it was glorious to watch. The Rockets won that game. Doc Rivers made the point after the game: it doesn’t matter that the Clippers went decomposed bone cold offensively in the last six minutes of the game if they defend like champs. The Rockets dropped 40 points in that fourth quarter. They out-rebounded the Clippers 21-5! The Rockets took it from the Clippers. I’m focusing on that incredible effort more than LA’s choke job. Again, it’s the playoffs. It’s about winning games, and the Rockets were big winners Thursday night.

I cant remember who said Blake Griffin has been the best player in the playoffs so far (Jon Berry?), but I have to say that I agree. It always seemed like before he only played this way when CP3 missed time. Has this playoffs been a new level for Blake Griffin, or is this where he’s been and I just haven’t noticed?

Man, Blake Griffin is a few less fourth quarter brain cramps from shutting this entire postseason down. I was an early defender of the Blake Show when folks went out of their way to simplify his game (“All he does is dunk”), and a part of that faction loved to used Chris Paul as a reason why Griffin was overrated, as if he didn’t hop Kia’s in his ROY season. But while Griffin has always had the skill, his effectiveness has indeed reached a new level in these playoffs. He’s had triple doubles with and without Paul on the floor. He’s hit the glass harder and hit the paint harder. His game definitely went from the sustainable regular season approach to the necessary dog you need to win in the spring. But … he needs another game or the ignorance will continue, at least on some level.

What’s Austin Rivers’ deal? Rockets fans just went through this with Al Farouq Aminu going all Ron Artest on us in Round 1, and now Rivers is Jamal Crawford 2.0? WTF?

Well, in all the hate that Austin Rivers gets, people lose track of the fact that the kid is only 22 years old. He’s had a rough start to his career, and he’s not the most fun player to watch when he’s at his worst. He doesn’t lack skill, as the Rockets and Spurs found out. But Rivers’ jumper is the difference between him being useful or a liability. He made 10-of-18 threes in Games 1-4, but he has regressed sharply towards the mean in Games 5 and 6 (1-of-8).

Coming back from down 3-1 to win a series is old hat for Houston. What’s the general feeling for Clippers fans heading into Game 7? How much do you fear Clutch City at this point?

I feel like Clippers fans are caught between feeling sorry for themselves and staying optimistic. With all due respect, it’s not even about the Houston Rockets at this point. The Clippers had control, and now they don’t. But they still have a chance to do what they need to do. Clippers fans have been here before as well. The Clippers are the only team to win a Game 7 this postseason (since they are the only one to play in one). So it’s more just wondering if the Clippers take care of business in one game. None of the other stuff matters as much once Game 7 tips off!

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So to recap, before my 12th birthday, I was in the midst of the greatest NFL dynasty there will ever be (save it, THE. GREATEST.), had seen a National league MVP and likely champ in baseball if not for a soul-killing strike, and had already witnessed my still-favorite basketball player ever carry a ragtag team to an NBA Championship.

So in Game 1 of the ’95 Finals, with the Magic up by three on the Rockets with six seconds to play and Nick Anderson at the free throw stripe, I was pretty sure I was about to explode with anxiety.  I was basically batting 1.000 in big games at that point in my life (who knew that would flip so, so hard), so I had no idea what to do with my self when it seemed the Rockets may lose.  My dad was plugging away on the graveyard shift, and my mom had zero interest in sports, so I was left to my own devices during one of the biggest moments I’d ever witnessed.  We all know how Nick the Brick earned his nickname, but when he missed that second free throw and yet managed to grab his own rebound before getting fouled again, I spiked the remote control (don’t tell Dad) and turned off the TV to go shoot baskets in the dark to cool off.  It wasn’t till two hours later, after I’d imaginarily helped Dream dispatch Shaq and Penny in Game 7 to win the title, that I came back in and watched Sportscenter.  To my shock/elation/dismay, Anderson missed two more free throws, the Jet tied the game to send it to overtime, and the Magic didn’t box out Hakeem (6:10 mark).

My point is, kids are dumb.  “I’ll never make that mistake again,” I told myself.

Well, some things never change.  I’m still an idiot.  

Last night the game headed into a commercial break with three minutes to go in the third, and the Rockets down 18.  DeAndre Jordan had just REJECTED a Dwight Howard hook-shot and the Clippers were capping a 14-2 run.  “This is an avalanche!” Jon Berry said.  And I was absolutely buried in it.  Able to take no more, I turned the sound down low, wrapped myself in the warmest blanket in the world, and intentionally dozed off on the couch.  I was in no mood to write the doom-and-gloom recap this was sure to be, choosing rather to wake up early after I’d digested what was happening, and finish the fourth quarter to have it posted before coffee time.  But around 12:30 last night, my phone started buzzing with texts from my buddy Chad.

“Holy S***”

“You watching??”

“49-18 run!!!”

Needless to say, I restarted the fourth quarter immediately.  After finishing the game, the opening paragraph of Jonathan Abrams’ Grantland piece on Josh Smith was sticking in my head.

From the stands, Pete Smith can still hear people complain about his son’s play. He has to restrain himself from responding. He detests the critical comments, the jabs from people who’ve never played the game at an elite level. They don’t know how hard it can be. They don’t know that you need guts to take those shots. They don’t know that Josh Smith is living a dream that’s been transferred from father to son.

Well Mr. Smith, can you hear the haters now?

Dwight Howard (20 pts, 21 reb with 7 offensive, 1 ast, 1 stl & 2 blk) was the only reason the Rockets were hanging in the game early while LA was running their layup lines on Houston’s defense.  But his obligatory silly fouls and even a flagrant and technical foul each eventually handcuffed his aggressiveness.  James Harden (scored 17 of 23 points in the 2nd) was the only reason Houston fought back and took a lead in the second quarter, but remnants of the flu sapped his strength early and he went MIA in the second half.

So near the end of that dreadful third quarter, after Kevin McHale’s mistimed Hack-A-Shaq had sparked the Clippers into retaking the lead, the Rockets were running out of ideas.  With their two best players hamstrung, who would step up and be the reason they got back in the game in the fourth quarter?  Who would grab the team by the belt and make certain that they didn’t go meekly into the offseason?  Josh Smith and the rest of the Headband Brigade, that’s who.

When the Rockets were healthy this season, or at least healthy-ish, I L-U-V loved their bench mob.  It didn’t matter who else was on the court (although D-Mo made them particularly formidable), what really made it fun to watch was the Brigade.  Smith added his playmaking, Jason Terry his shooting and Corey Brewer his Corey Brewer-ness.  At full strength, I liked Houston’s bench as much as any in the NBA.

But never in my wildest dreams did I think they had that in them.  Against Chris Paul (31 pts, 7 reb & 11 ast) fighting to prove he can carry a team past the second round and the best Blake Griffin (28 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl & 1 blk) we’ve seen to date, in a do-or-die elimination game ON THE ROAD, and without the league MVP runner-up, the Rockets outscored the Clippers 40-15 in the fourth quarter.  Smith (19 pts, 6 reb & 2 ast), Brewer (19, 10 & 2, and a +/- of +32) and Terry (7, 7 & 5) were good all night, but definitely saved their best for last.  They combined for 34 of those 40 fourth quarter points (15 for Brewer, Smith 14 and Terry 5).  Smith more-or-less played the point and was nearly flawless.  He took care of the ball and although he shot too much from the outside (4 attempts), they were going in (3 makes), so it didn’t matter.  He had the guts to take those shots.

But it wasn’t just the offense.  The defense in the fourth quarter was outstanding as well.  I don’t know if it was tired legs on the Clippers part, but the Rockets looked quicker, sharper than they have all playoffs.  They didn’t miss a rotation and there were no open shots to be found on the perimeter for Clippers’ shooters.  Blake Griffin definitely got tight and was scared to pull the trigger on his 17-footer, which had been deadly all night up to that point.  Dwight Howard and Smoove controlled the rim and kept the Clips’ bigs off the glass while Brewer and Trevor Ariza bounced around the outside like they were spring-loaded.  I don’t want to think James Harden, even sick, was hurting them so much in that department, rather they just finally felt the heat on their ass, but that was the kind of defense that’s required to win championships.

As for the rest of the Rockets, Terrence Jones was big off the bench, scoring 16 points on 6-8 shooting, with 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. He thoroughly outplayed the Clippers backup bigs, but just doesn’t have much to offer against Blake Griffin.  I’m oddly a huge Pablo Prigioni fan, but he was actively bad last night, and even picked up a tech for punching a chair.  On a positive note, Jamal Crawford seems to have cooled off from where he was earlier in the series and Austin Rivers has come back to earth, as both were a non-factor last night.

So now, back to Houston for Game 7.  This is undoubtedly the biggest game the Rockets have played in almost 20 years, since John Stockton buried them in Game 6 of the ’97 Western Conference Finals.  The three days will help James Harden get his legs back after the flu, but it will also give the Clippers some much needed rest; they haven’t had three days off since Game 2 of the first round against San Antonio.  You better believe Chris Paul will be as focused and ready as we’ve ever seen him, with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan at max volume.  The Rockets can’t afford another slow start or count on more dreadful Hack-A-Shaq to keep them in it.  They need to feed off the home crowd and come out hot, with the same intensity on defense that they showed in the fourth quarter last night.

But if the Rockets do fall behind and need a spark, be sure that Josh Smith, Corey Brewer and Jason Terry will be ready.  For when the night was at it’s darkest, and the Rockets hanging by a thread, it was the Brigade that rescued them.  Let’s just hope they’re not so necessary on Sunday.

And as for the Clippers, they should have taken Pam Poovey’s advice and finished Houston when they had the chance.

The post Houston Rockets 119, Los Angeles Clippers 107: The Headband Brigade appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

(Extracts foot, clears throat)

Unique, New York.  Unique, New York.  The Human Torch was denied a bank loan.

The arsonist has oddly shaped feet.

That’s better.  Now, if you’ll allow me a moment:  

Felker: Rockets in 6. I don’t believe a word saying that Paul will miss even one second with his injury. That noise about him never making it out of the second round is getting louder and he hears it. And I wonder how injured he actually is. Paul embellishes on a Paul Pierce-ian level, and Doc Rivers is full of it. They’re just giving themselves a scapegoat for when they go belly up again.

Having said that, maaaybe he is a little hobbled. Either way, I’ll take a rested team over a shaky seven-man rotation coming off one of the most grueling first rounds ever any day of the week. Doc Rivers will keep playing his guys 40+ minutes a game, because his only other option is Big Baby and Austin Rivers. Check Please.

Well, someone was feeling their favorite team’s first playoff series win in years, weren’t they?

Except for the part about the big minutes, that was just a bunch of wrong, topped with inaccurate and a side of misguided. Oh, and a heaping helping of presumptuous for dessert.

Mere crow is but too fine a dish for that breed of prognostication.

It’s quite safe to say that the Clippers are more complete as a team and better coached than I presumed. Or maybe it’s just Blake Giffin.  Either way, what the hell?

The Rockets evened things up last night in Houston, sending the series to L.A. tied at one apiece.  But how is this team not leading 2-0?  Perhaps it shouldn’t be so difficult to comprehend, seeing as the Rockets only hosted games one and two because they are the two-seed; a result they achieved despite the fact that they played most of the season without one of their two best players.  Chris Paul is in fact injured, rather seriously it seems, and yet the Rockets are still the ones chasing the game.

I thought removing the head was supposed to kill the snake, but instead of edging the Clippers into chaos, Paul’s absence has instead given Blake Griffin room to shine.  Griffin came out scorching and had 26 points by halftime.  He finished with only 34, but shot 56.5% from the field and added 15 rebounds and 4 assists.  He was so thoroughly in control of the first half that when Reggie Miller commented that Griffin looked more like LeBron than LeBron in Game 1 (and to that point in Game 2), everyone watching in my living room could only nod their heads and shrug.

Griffin cooled off in the second half, but the only reason the Rockets were even still in the game at that point was because the Clippers could not keep Dwight Howard away from the rim.  All night long Dwight slammed home lob after lob, and kept DeAndre Jordan stuck to the bench with foul trouble.  Jordan played only 25 minutes (his lowest so far in the playoffs) after picking up his fourth foul midway through the third quarter.  He had been averaging 25.6 mpg.

Dwight finished with 24 points on 8-11 shooting, 16 boards (4 offensive), 3 assists and 4 blocks.  But once again proving that no one is perfect, Howard missed his free throws at an alarming rate, clanging 13 of his 21 attempts. Jordan did give Howard problems at times, but for the most part Dwight could be found patrolling the paint, crushing everything he got his hands on.  For someone who was told repeatedly to stay on the floor, Howard spent an awful lot of time hovering somewhere just short of the stratosphere.

And as good as Griffin was in the first half, James Harden was in the fourth quarter.  He scored 16 of his 32 points in the final frame, after sitting for half of the third quarter with foul trouble.  Before his fourth quarter clinic, Harden wasn’t overly effective.  He only made 3-10 from deep, but hit two big ones in the fourth as Houston was pulling away.  He was still being too careless with the ball at times (7 turnovers), but he also made several excellent skip passes to open shooters on the backside and had one particularly sublime full-court outlet to a streaking Corey Brewer.

As for the Clippers, after halftime stole Griffin’s mojo and Jordan had to back off due to fouls, L.A. had no one to turn to. Without Griffin’s playmaking, Matt Barnes’ open looks got a little tighter and Austin Rivers tried to do a little too much.  JJ Redick had his second straight subpar game, and is only shooting 39.1% from the field for the series.  Jamal Crawford made a few tough shots to keep the Clippers around but was inefficient overall.  Someone named Lester Hudson, who is apparently kind of a big deal in China, provided a Patrick Beverley-ish spark off the bench for the Clips, but was gassed after only 11 minutes of action.

Besides Harden and Howard, the rest of the Rockets were scrappy if not efficient.  No one shot particularly well, but Trevor Ariza finished with a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds.  Meanwhile, Terrence Jones and Josh Smith only shot 7-21 from the field as a pair, but still managed to fill the stat sheet (18 pts, 14 reb & 5 blk combined).  Corey Brewer played with his hair on fire.  He attacked Griffin from all angles as part of the double-team, and even beat him to a jump ball after tying him up in the post.

Now the series shifts to L.A.  There’s still no way to know if and/or when CP3 will be back, but the crowd at the Staples Center will be a welcome sight to the Clippers regardless.  All those thunderous dunks Blake Griffin has been hammering down will feel a lot different in front of his home crowd.  And let’s not forget that James Harden is an L.A. guy himself.  Who knows what kind of emotion that will add to his game.

The realistic goal is surely just to split Games 3 and 4 in Los Angeles, but the Rockets shouldn’t lose another game that Chris Paul misses or comes back ordinary.

But what do I know?  I’m still chewing crow.

The post Los Angeles Clippers 109, Houston Rockets 115: Lob Cities appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

…have the only actual, functioning lightsaber or your very own dragon to ride?

Wait, wait, wait.  Thats not what I meant.

Basketball.  Spurs, Clippers.

Game 7.

Saturday night.  Staples Arena, Los Angeles, CA.

Lob City and the last(?) ride of Tim Duncan and his Immortals.

All for the chance to play our Houston Rockets in the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

So, who will you be rooting for?

I mean it has to be dragon, right?  Imagine showing up to work on that bad boy.  Or a first date?  Game. Over.

But, then again, how can you turn down a lightsaber??  Even Han Solo wishes he had a lightsaber and he had an almost-dragon.

Okay, okay.  Seriously.  Who should Rockets fans be rooting for tomorrow?

There is a thread dedicated to this very question in Red94’s forum, and it certainly leans “go Clippers”, but not as much as I expected going in.  There’s concerns about the never-dead Spurs, met with fears of what CP3 might do.  The Clippers short bench, matched with the Spurs tired legs.  You could really go round-and-round looking at the pros and cons.

To me, it basically boils down to one question: After a grueling seven game series, with six days of rest for the home team and only two for the survivor, would you rather the Rockets face the Spurs aging depth, or the Clippers athletic trio and short bench?

The case for the Clippers

It all starts with what the Clippers don’t have, and I mean more than just an NBA-level bench:

Kawhi. Anthony. Leonard.

Kawhi Leonard was basically put on Earth to stop James Harden from getting buckets.  He’s long, strong and wildly athletic, with hands like a shortstop and the reach of a red-zone wide receiver.  If Harden is the puppeteer to the Rockets’ marionette, Leonard is a giant rusty pair of scissors that wants to give him tetanus.  Harden was a mixed bag against Leonard this season, but in their final matchup of the season with so much on the line, and in the second game of a home-and-home to boot (similar to what things will be like in the playoffs, where teams have more time to scout and prepare), Leonard held Harden to just 16 points on 5-19 shooting, and did so without fouling (Harden shot only six free throws).

And then, there’s also that bench.  That dreadful, eyesore of a Clippers bench.  The bench that can’t stay on the court, over-extends the starters and leads to tweets like this:

Thru 6 gms, LAC mins per game: Blake Griffin: 41.2; Chris Paul: 39.7; JJ Redick: 38.7; DeAndre Jordan, 36.3. And now Davis might be out

— Adam Wexler (@awexler) May 1, 2015

The bench that had been leaning awfully hard on Glen Davis, and may have just ended his season.  It’s being called a sprained ankle, but my first reaction – and everything I’ve seen since – was that he hurt his achilles.  I could be wrong, but either way, chances are he won’t be 100% anytime soon.

So what does that leave the Clippers’ frontcourt?  A whole lot of Hedo Turkoglu and Spencer Hawes, who has played only eight minutes in the playoffs.  How sweet is it going to be watching Josh Smith come off that Dwight Howard screen and Hedo Turkoglu is scrambling to get back to him?  Doc Rivers is going to wish he had Dirk’s lead feet on defense.  And if the Clips don’t find minutes somewhere else, how long can Griffin and Jordan stay productive with all that wear and tear?

And then there’s Austin Rivers.  How effective is that sputtery high-dribble going to be with Corey Brewer lurking?  Good luck getting to the rim, Austin.

But probably the biggest advantage to avoiding San Antonio: No Hack-a-Shaq.

(And for the record, it is called Hack-a-Shaq. We don’t rename the “Bird Rule” every time it’s used on another player, it’s simply “Team Y exercised the Bird Rights on player X”.  Same with with Hack-a-Shaq.  That is the first and last time I will ever agree with Reggie Miller).

There’s no way Doc Rivers can play DeAndre Jordan 36.3 minutes per game and try to employ Hack-a-Shaq on Dwight or J-Smoove.  The level of hypocrisy required can’t possibly exist in this, or any, universe.  Gregg Popovich, however, has mastered his most sinister of game plans and wields it like a Jedi with his lightsaber.  He could take a shining moment in recent-Rockets history and turn it into a three hour perversion.

Yup, that’s it – Popovich knows best – Lightsaber it is!  But only if it’s one of those new ones that everyone hate-loved, and in Mace Windu-purple.

The Case for the Spurs

I still haven’t completely figured out how the Spurs are hanging with LA in their series (OK, yes I have).  Tony Parker looks like 32 year old who has played 1200 games (plus international) with nary a rest for 13 straight years.  Tiago Splitter has barely played all series before last night and, while he was decent, is still limping around with a bum-calf.  Danny Green is slumping badly, and as for Manu Ginobili, well, see: Tony Parker.

And while we’re on the subject of age and health, when was the last time Dwight Howard looked this good?  Would you rather see him bang against DeAndre Jordan for 40 minutes and (possibly) wear him out, or feast on a 39 year old and a 240-pound stiff with a bad calf?  Dwight has had big games against the Spurs in the past, when their only option was to “unleash” Aaron Baynes against him, and is primed to do so again.

Also, remember what JJ Barea did to the Rockets defense in the first round?  Well, Rajon Rondo isn’t walking through that door, but Chris Paul very well could be.  The Rockets had no answer for a 5’9, 180 pound microwave and now we’re supposed to be looking forward to matching-up with the best point guard since Isaiah Thomas?

Then there’s the sheer un-likability of the Clippers.  Maybe this is just a personal one with me, but they have been my least favorite team since the first time CP3 found Jordan for a backdoor ‘oop.  Between Chris Paul’s constant caterwauling and Doc Rivers’ incessant, whiny stink-face, I can hardly stand to watch their games.  And if Blake Griffin is so likable, why does every other NBA big man hate him? (save for Tim Duncan, apparently.)  Of all people, Matt Barnes is the only one I like watching and he’s the biggest ***hole of them all!

Final Verdict

Rahat is right: the answer is N.E.V.E.R. the Spurs.  I tried, for the sake of impartiality, to make a case for San Antonio and even very nearly wrote the sentence, “The Spurs may actually, finally, be running out of gas”.  But I refuse to be one of those.  And remember that bit about Tony Parker and his 1200+ games?  Well, 39 year-old Tim Duncan and his near-1600 games blocked a Blake Griffin hook shot three days ago.  Let that sink in.

The fact is, after taking a few notes and lining things up side-by-side, it just has to be the Clippers.  Plus, the possible joy of being the nail in the coffin for Duncan & Co. would hardly be worth the sheer terror of having to sit through a seven game series of Gregg Popovich’s mind games.

Either series would be a bitch, but only one might end with more scorn from those arrogant, bombastic Spurs fans we all know (I’m looking at you, Dean).  Let’s go Clippers!

Dragon, it’s definitely 100% dragon.  Who needs a lightsaber when you can fly and breath fire?

Gotta be dragon, right?

The post Would you rather… appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

MF – Rockets fans adored Chandler Parsons. Half still do, while half blame him for leaving even though thats pretty much Daryl Morey’s fault for underestimating the troll inside of Mark Cuban. How hard did you fall in love with him this season, and how did it change your outlook to lose him so early into the playoffs?

TC – It took some weeks. His November was objectively terrible as he started his season with some terrible shooting and a ton of missed layups, but as the year wore on, we all began to realize just how great this dude was. From January on, I’m one of many who would argue Parsons was the most important Maverick. His spot up scoring skills, whether it’s an actual jumper or that pump fake of his, make him a fit with literally any four players you put next to him, and as the season wore on, we saw Carlisle putting the ball in his hands more and more as a primary option.

When Parsons went down, the series was over. I’ve said for a while Houston was Dallas’ best matchup, but I still picked the Rockets in seven. The Mavericks needed him for a chance at an upset, something that’s pretty evident from watching the series.

Al-Farouq Aminu has had some big games against the Rockets this season comparative to the rest of his season.  In short, he’s killing Houston. Where did he come from? How the hell did he only average 6 and 5 for the year?? And, most importantly, whats his deal with the Houston Rockets???

He only really got into the rotation in January because he wasn’t quite this good to start the season, but damn do Dallas fans love him now. His offense is in a bit of an unsustainable groove this series — he’s a below-30 percent three-point shooter — but the defense, rebounding and hustle are a season-round thing. He honestly might be the most important Maverick free agent this summer.

I’m on the record admitting my reverence for JJ Barea. What he (and Dirk & Tyson & J-Kidd & Carlisle) did in 2011 was the most fun I’ve had watching basketball since I was a kid watching the Dream do his shake-thing. How did Minnesota not have a spot for this guy?

Dallas really is the perfect spot for him, in a flow offense with floor spacing around him where he can run a half dozen pick-and-rolls every time down the floor when he’s the lead ball handler. There’s something about being back “home” too, I think. I’m not sure the exact failings of his play in Minnesota, but he’s a player who really needs all the right conditions to succeed. With Rondo out, he has that with the Mavericks.

The Rondo trade was an unmitigated disaster. How much did losing Jae Crowder and Brendan Wright hurt the Mavs? And what do you see the long-term effects being now that he appears to be leaving?

I don’t really see Wright or Crowder as huge losses. Wright’s a free agent this summer while Crowder’s a player who’s extraneous with Aminu on the roster. The big effect the trade might have had is it crippled the Maverick chances to make a move as other point guards became available closer to the trade deadline. It’s impossible to know, but could Isaiah Thomas have been available? Brandon Knight?

From an outsider’s view, what sort of things are you seeing upon closer inspection of Houston that has surprised you? Disappointed?

Dwight Howard’s renaissance has been great to watch as an NBA fan, and if he can play like this, I think you guys have a chance against most teams. At the same time, I’m worried that if Barea can do this, how worse will things get when it’s Chris Paul or Tony Parker next series?

The series is 3-1 and headed back to Houston for another chance at a close out. Do you think Carlisle has anymore tricks up his sleeve, and what are you hoping to see in Game 5?

Of course I’d love the Mavericks to push the Rockets another game, but I have my doubts. A lot of things went right in Game 4 that aren’t really sustainable — the three-point shooting on both sides, for example.

The post Q&A with Tim Cato of Mavs Moneyball appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Because to me, worrying about them always seemed so silly.  In high school, guys who wouldn’t wash their socks after big wins weren’t insuring a repeat performance, they were only making their shoes stink.  As Chris Webber says (and to which I agree), believing in such things just means you don’t trust in yourself and your training.  I personally just never had much use for superstition (and certainly didn’t need any help making my shoes stink).

But jinxing was on my mind when I wrote the headline for Game 3’s post-game coverage, “You may or may not want to consider thinking about possibly pulling out your brooms”.

As you can see, I was a little timid with the headline at first, afraid to outright upset mystical forces that I don’t understand and/or believe in. But as I got to writing and re-watching some of the game, I couldn’t help but notice how dominant the Rockets looked; Dwight snatching every rebound, Harden slicing and dicing the Mavs defense.  Even though it was a wire-to-wire game, the Rockets had absorbed two 30-point performances by Dirk Nowitzki and Monta Ellis, and saw every trick in Rick Carlisle’s toolbox and still came out on top.

So if i was a little concerned at first that perhaps I was being too cavalier with the title, by the end it was all I could do to not out-and-out guarantee the sweep.

But I was wrong: maybe jinxes really do exist, and Rick Carlisle definitely still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

First off, Carlisle made the obvious decision to start JJ Barea and my new least favorite player in the whole world, Al-F@$#% Aminu, in place of Raymond Felton and Richard Jefferson.  In all honesty, that should be an indictment of Carlisle, not praise.  Starting Ray Felton and Richard Jefferson?  What was he thinking?!

But beyond just shaking up the starting five, Carlisle used Aminu as his own personal Kawhi Leonard, and was rewarded with a very Kawhi-like performance: 16 points on 6-10 shooting and 3-5 from deep, with 12 rebounds (4 offensive), 2 assists and 1 block.  After doubling to force the ball out of Harden’s hands and getting beat over the top in Games 1 & 2, the Mavs tried playing him straight up in Game 3 and the Beard went off for a playoff career-high 42 points.  But last night with Aminu starting, Carlisle had him hound Harden one-on-one all night, keeping Harden out of the paint and even forcing a turnover on an eight-second violation after poking the ball away in the backcourt.

And it wasn’t just stifling defense; Aminu was all over the court, making plays on both ends.  He swatted a Harden layup into the second row in the first half, bullied Harden on the block in the fourth quarter for a vicious dunk and grabbed multiple offensive rebounds at the worst possible times. The Rockets just had no answer for his energy.

And speaking of energy: JJ effing Barea.  I could save myself some time and just copy & paste what I wrote about him after Game 3, but unfortunately for me (and Houston), I wasn’t effusive enough for it to really work for Game 4.  Barea was even more aggressive last night, going for 17 points, 13 dimes, 3 boards and a steal.  As I’ve stated before, nothing Barea can do will ever take away how happy he made me in the 2011 Finals, but dammit if he isn’t trying.  Patrick Beverley may not have have been able to make a huge difference against the likes of Steph Curry and Chris Paul, but boy do the Rockets miss him against the Mavs diminutive point guard. He’s just too quick and too crafty for elder statesmen Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni, who both had terrible games with Terry missing eleventy open threes and Pablo providing next to nothing.

Monta Ellis had another killer game, following his 34-point Game 3 performance with 31 last night.  He only hit two threes, but they were both back-breakers as the Rockets were trying to fight back from a 20+ point deficit.  Dirk Nowitzki wasn’t quite as spry as he was in Game 3, but his timing could not have been worse for the Rockets.  It seemed like every shot he hit was either capping a big Mavs run, or hitting the breaks on one for the Rockets.  With Houston switching so much, Dirk had no problems finding a wing to backdown and shoot over.

As for the Rockets, everything that they did well in Game 3 was missing last night.  Harden (24 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast & 2 stl) played decent, but hardly looked like an MVP candidate.  Aminu’s length really frustrated him at times, and his usually solid post-defense was nowhere to be seen against Dirk and Aminu.  Trevor Ariza had, by my memory, his worst game as a Rocket.  He wasn’t just a non-factor, he was a huge hindrance.  There were multiple times when he took the dreaded pull-up 19-foot jumper in transition that everyone knows the Rockets hate.  He did little to take advantage of Dirk’s defense when he was matched up with the lead-footed German, and was a total non-factor on the boards, usually one of his strengths.  I was glad to see it wasn’t just me that was so bothered by Ariza’s performance, even Trevor himself noticed:

“I take a lot of responsibility because I didn’t play particularly well. I played with low energy. That won’t happen again.”

But Ariza was hardly the only Rocket to play substandard.  Dwight Howard, so dominating on the glass in Game 3, couldn’t be found after the first quarter of Game 4.  He started solidly, scoring 8 points in the first while abusing the Mavs big men on the block and out of the pick-and-roll. But after the opening quarter, the Mavs were monsters on the boards and nothing Dwight did seemed to help.  By the end of the game, he wasn’t even really fighting for rebounds anymore and the Mavs finished with ease. And let’s not even discuss his free throws.  After going 12-18 from the stripe in the first three games, he probably deserves some leeway, but 3-13 is unacceptable.  Josh Smith caught fire in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 points on 7-7 shooting (hitting 4 threes, including two dagger step-backs) in the final frame, and made a game out of a blowout. But even when paired with Howard, he couldn’t help the Rockets on defense and especially on the glass.

The Mavs are the WORST rebounding team in the league but mauled the Rox on the glass tonight 52-38, leading to a 20-4 edge in 2nd chance pts

— Craig Ackerman (@ca_rockets) April 27, 2015

The Mavs had 16 offensive rebounds to the Rockets 7, and as Houston (read: Josh Smith) was fighting back at the end, Dallas grabbed back-to-back offensive boards leading to a Monta Ellis three-pointer that was essentially the nail in the coffin.  For some reason McHale went away from Terrence Jones as the game went on, but he still had an easy 13 and 6 in only 18 minutes. McHale admitted afterward that he should have played Jones more, and he certainly would’ve helped against Dirk and on the glass.  Nick Johnson logged a few minutes for the first time this series, and although he didn’t make much of a statistical impact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him log a few minutes in Game 5 as well.  His energy on defense was noticeable and he looks more capable of keeping up with Barea than the rest of Houston’s backcourt.

The truth is, Houston looked like a team that had a 3-0 lead and was playing on the road.  Everyone knew the Mavs weren’t going to lay down, and yet the Rockets played exactly like that’s what they expected.  Things will be different in Houston on Tuesday, when the Rockets will look to close things out in Game 5.

San Antonio and Los Angeles look like they’re headed for seven, so there’s still time to get some rest before round two, should the Rockets make it that far. (See what I did there?)

The post Houston Rockets 109 Dallas Mavericks 121: No D in Dallas. Or rebounding. Did I mention no defense? appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

And be sure, when Dwight plays the way he did last night, and all series really, he is still the most dominant big man around.

It may seem strange to anyone who watched last night that this article begins with Dwight Howard and not James Harden,
who scored 42 points on 15-24 shooting (5-7 from deep), dished 9 assists and grabbed 5 boards.  The Beard was wonderful, as always, but he has been doing that literally since the day he landed in Houston.

This new (old?) Dwight Howard, however, has been but a myth since the golden days of Orlando.  Not even Kobe got to play with the hover-near-the-rim-like-a-crouched-tiger Dwight, one with enough self-awareness to recognize that he was better suited for rim-protection and finishing than for posting and Dream Shake-ing.  Did all that time off, while the Rockets played their way to the 2-seed, finally open his eyes to this after three long years?

If anything did in fact open Dwight’s eyes to that reality, it was almost certainly sitting and watching James Harden do work.  As he showed all season, Harden only needs minimal help to pile up W’s.  And last night Dwight’s monstrous effort (13 pts, 26!!! reb, 3 ast, 2 stl & 2 blk) was the perfect compliment to Harden’s playoff masterpiece, as the Rockets took Dallas’ best shot and still came out on top.

When Harden hit his first two shots, both three’s from the right wing, you knew he was in for a big night.  The Beard went 2-9 from deep in the first two games of the series, and shot poorly in general (31% FG).  Last night he hit shots from all over the court, but was especially active from midrange.  This is normally such a faux pas for the Rockets, but with Tyson Chandler frantically trying to figure out how to protect the paint while also keeping Howard from tearing the rim down like he did in Game 2, it left quite a vacuum in the middle.  Chandler hung back by the rim more, rather than coming out to no man’s land to challenge Harden, and the Beard simply pulled up a few feet shorter than he normally would and knocked down several 15-footers.  He was surgical all night.

The rest of the Rockets weren’t exactly sitting back and watching either.  Josh Smith (18 pts, 3 reb and 4 ast), Corey Brewer (15), Trevor Ariza (13) and Terrence Jones (12) all scored in double figures as well.  The offense did stagnate at times, with too much standing around and too many pull-up jumpers, but overall the Rockets scored at will.

On the other end, the Mavericks may have just killed whatever free agent value Rajon Rondo had left.  After leading the league in offensive efficiency for most of the season, then falling to the middle of the pack after the Rondo trade, that the Mavericks just scored 128 points against a top defensive team in their first game without the mercurial point guard is not a good look for Rondo.

Monta Ellis and Dirk Nowitzki led the way for Dallas, both scoring 34 points.  Ellis handled the ball more without the aforementioned Rondo, and attacked (15-25 FG) as ferociously as he has all season.  Dirk somehow managed 10-19 shooting despite moving around like a mummy, and hit a big three late in the fourth to keep Dallas in the game.

Al-Farouq Aminu (15 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl & 2 blk) continued his season-long personal vendetta against the Rockets.  With the way he’s played in a couple of games against Houston this season, I was shocked to learn he only averages 6 points on 41% shooting and 5 boards.  JJ Barea (11 pts, 6 reb, 9 ast & 1 stl) reminded us once again that he’s the guy who stared down Lebron James and outplayed him for an entire Finals just 4 years ago.  Despite Ellis’ and Nowitzki’s scoring, it was really Barea who caused the Rockets the most trouble.  In just 25 minutes of action Barea managed a +22 plus/minus; the next highest Mav player was Amar’e Stoudemire’s +6.   He started breaks, broke down the defense and attacked the rim like he was the best player on the court, but disappeared late.

And it was late, with the Rockets up one, that Harden iced the game.  Ellis added a beautiful lay-in off the glass over Howard, and then Brewer went 1-2 on his free throws for the final points.  Ellis had an 18-footer at the buzzer to tie, but was fading to the left, shooting right and missed badly.

So now the Rockets are one win away from the sweep and some sweet, sweet rest while the Spurs and Clippers battle on in what is definitely the best series of the first round.  The Mavs showed that they’re not going to take anything laying down, but if the Rockets can tighten up their defense and put the clamps back on Lurch Dirk, this series is over.

And when the Spurs and Clippers are done pounding on each other, the Rockets will be waiting.  And it won’t be just James Harden and his band of misfits.  They’ll be joined, not by Dwight Howard, center for the Houston Rockets, but by DWIGHT FREAKING HOWARD, Hall of Fame-r.

Maybe it won’t last, maybe it’s just an aberration and Dwight’s health will waver again and his newfound effectiveness will fade back to mere solid production.  But for now?  Bring on one-legged Tim Duncan and Aaron “Dunk-Bait” Baynes.  Bring on Wishes-he-was-Dwight DeAndre Jordan.  It won’t matter.  The only thing keeping this team with those two players from the Finals is Him.

The post Houston Rockets 130, Dallas Mavericks 128: You may or may not want to consider thinking about possibly pulling out your brooms appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

The Southwest Division is hands down the best division in the NBA, and all five teams could make the playoffs if the Pelicans beat the Spurs in the Big Easy on Thursday.  Not only would a Pelicans win cement the 2015 Southwest Division as one of the most impressive in NBA history, it would go a long way to helping Houston get back to the 2-seed.  As it stands now, Houston is fifth, which means Portland would come to town for game one (Houston would have home-court advantage because they have a better record, even though the Blazers technically sit fourth due to winning the Pacific Division).  But so much can change between now and Thursday morning.

The only things that are certain is that Portland is the 4-seed and will not have home court in the first round, and Memphis cannot win the Southwest Division or the 2-seed.  A Memphis loss to Indiana on Thursday would lock them into the 6-seed.

As for the rest: Buckle. In.  Because this is not easy.

First, we’ll start with the schedule and all the games that will affect the Rockets.

Los Angeles Clippers @ Phoenix Suns.  Tuesday, April 14 @ 9:30 pm.

Utah Jazz @ Houston Rockets.  Wednesday, April 15 @ 7 pm.

San Antonio Spurs @ New Orleans Pelicans.  Wednesday, April 15 @ 7 pm.

Indiana Pacers @ Memphis Grizzlies.  Wednesday, April 15 @ 830 pm

The Southwest Division winner will be the 2-seed, regardless of what L.A. does in Phoenix on Tuesday, if either the Rockets or Spurs win their final game.  If they both win and the Clippers do as well, the Spurs would take the division and the 2-6 seeds would look like this:

2. Spurs
3. Clippers
4. Blazers
5. Rockets (home court)
6. Grizzlies

But if the Clippers were to lose, Houston and L.A. would swap spots and the Rockets would be the 3-seed.

Now, if both Houston and San Antonio lose and the Grizzlies beat Indiana, resulting in a three-way tie for the division, that changes things.  A three-way tie would be decided by the combined records in head-to-head match-ups of the involved teams.  Houston went 2-2 vs MEM, and 1-3 vs SA, meaning 3-5 total.  San Antonio split the season series with Memphis, and would win the tiebreaker because their 5-3 record is better than the Grizzlies 4-4.

The only way the Southwest champ doesn’t win the 2-seed is if the Clippers finish with the best record of all four teams.  A three-way tie coupled with a Clippers win would mean the 2-6 seeds would look like this:

2. Clippers
3. Spurs
4. Blazers
5. Grizzlies (home court)
6. Rockets

In that same scenario, but with a Clippers loss to the Suns, 2-6 becomes:

2. Spurs
3. Clippers
4. Blazers
5. Grizzlies (home court)
6. Rockets

The only way the Rockets can win the 2-seed is if they win their final game and the Spurs lose theirs.  Then, 2-6 would be:

2. Rockets
3. Clippers
4. Blazers
5. Grizzlies/Spurs (MEM if they win)
6. Grizzlies/Spurs (MEM if they lose)

Whew! I think that covers it.

It’s amazing that this late in the season, with only two days and one game per team remaining, so little of the playoff picture has been settled.  Not one single Western Conference playoff match-up has been decided, and only three seeds are set!

The Rockets don’t control their own fate currently – even a win might only take them as high as fifth – but they definitely have the easiest game remaining of the four teams involved: at home against a Jazz team that should be trying to lose for draft purposes.  And luckily for Houston, the Spurs should have the toughest go of it, with Anthony Davis (at home, no less) scratching and clawing to make the playoffs for the first time.

But having said that, with so little decided, a win or loss might not even matter depending on who you hope to see in the first round.  I’ll be back later in the day to discuss and breakdown the potential first round match-ups that the Rockets might face.

Stay tuned.

The post Tiebreakers and the Playoff Picture appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

For several weeks now, it’s looked like the Houston Rockets were going to be the two seed and play the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs.  All of a sudden the Rockets are in the three-spot and are only a half-game from slipping all the way to sixth with four to play.

The San Antonio Spurs, after Wednesday night’s drubbing of the home team, have won nine in a row and 12 of their last 13.  They still sit sixth, but with a win Friday night in Houston the Spurs can completely change the look of the Western Conferences’ first round. 

And for the Spurs, it all starts with Tony Parker.  I know Chris Paul is the best point guard in the league.  I know Russell Westbrook is the most explosive, John Wall is the quickest, and Kyrie Irving the best scorer.  But is there another player in the NBA that can make running an offense look easier than Tony Parker?  He is the rare combination of scoring guard and floor general that you just don’t see very often.  Parker lived in the paint against Houston, scoring with a bevy of scoops, floaters and pull-ups.  The Rockets don’t miss much of Patrick Beverly on offense, but you have to think he would have been able to do a better job of at least making Parker work to get to his spots than either Jason Terry or Pablo Prigioni were able to.

And on the other end, the Rockets didn’t have their usual explosiveness.  Houston started strong, scoring 33 points in the first quarter, but a three at the buzzer by Boris Diaw really seemed to take the air out of the Rockets for the rest of the game.  James Harden scored 13 points in the opening quarter and was 6-6 from the free throw line.  But he only had 9 points in the final three quarters, and got to the line just two more times.  The story was the same with Dwight Howard, who had 6 points and 7 rebounds in the first quarter, and managed only 10 and 4 the rest of the game.

Joey Dorsey continued to embarrass himself from the free throw line.  He was only 0-4, but had another air-ball and didn’t come close to making any of his attempts.  The Spurs announcers had to really contain their joy whenever he was at the line, and swallow laughter after Dorsey tried to crack the glass his shots.  I know Dorsey brings some things defensively, but is he really an improvement over Clint Capela at this point?  (Keep in mind that Capela was a 60% FT shooter in the D-League, despite the putrid start to his NBA career).  Dorsey routinely gets rebounds tipped away from him by taller players, and his free throw shooting is a big, giant bulls-eye when the playoffs get here.  All things being the same, I’d just assume Capela, the young buck with all the potential and length, get Dorsey’s minutes and start figuring out how to be an NBA regular a little earlier than expected.

Trevor Ariza (19 points, 5-6 from deep) and Josh Smith (13 pts, 3 reb and 5 ast) had solid games for the Rockets.  Prigioni did some nice things, but could only do so much.  And that was about it for Houston.  Corey Brewer shot 1-6 from the field and somehow managed a plus/minus of -22 in only 23 minutes.  Terrence Jones had probably his least effective game of the season, getting zero boards and only scoring only 2 points.  Add that to Jason Terry’s 4 point, 1 assist line and the Rockets got almost zilch out of 40% of their starting five.

Besides Parker, Kawhi Leonard and Boris Diaw were all over the court, stuffing the stat sheet.  Aaron Baynes outworked Houston’s bigs all night and had a game-high 12 rebounds.  Manu Ginobli’s three made three pointers felt like 10, hitting them all to either cap a Spurs run or beat the buzzer.

After getting the devastating news that Donatas Motiejunas would miss the rest of the year earlier in the day, this game just felt par for the course for the Rockets.  They just can’t catch a break.  And for several weeks now, Rockets fans have been eying the standings, trying to decide who they’d prefer to host in a first round matchup.  And for weeks its looked like it would be either Dallas or San Antonio.  But after the Spurs recent run, and this loss by Houston, it could very well end up that San Antonio hosts Houston in game one.

Wouldn’t that be just awesome.

The post Houston Rockets 98, San Antonio Spurs 110: Here Come the Spurs appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Harden was virtually un-guardable all night, scoring at will from all over the court.  He was especially deadly from deep, hitting 8-9 from three.  But Harden wasn’t just getting buckets, he also filled the box score with 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals.  He scored 10 of the Rockets last 11 points to close the fourth quarter, but actually missed his last two free throws which could have pushed his big night even higher.

And the Rockets needed every point Harden could muster because the Kings hung around all night, thanks in large part to DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins (24 pts, 21 rebs and 10 ast and 6 blocks) was simply too long and too strong for the Rockets hodgepodge frontcourt, on the way to his second career triple-double.

Omri Casspi (18 pts, 7 rebs, 4 ast and 4 stl) did his best to make the Rockets rue the day they released him last off-season, doing as much as anyone could to slow Harden, and finished with a plus minus of +13.  The next closest Kings’ player was former Rocket Carl Landry’s +2.  The Kings did have six players in double figures, and they shot 50% from both the field (48-96) and from three (7-14).

Sacramento feasted on the Rockets at the rim, scoring 35 of their 48 buckets from inside the paint.  The thin frontline for Houston certainly didn’t help, but there were also numerous plays where the Rockets missed the offensive rebound or turned the ball over and just didn’t get enough bodies back on defense.

But even with the Kings battling back from every deficit and making it close at the end, you never really got the sense that the Rockets might lose.  And it wasn’t just Harden’s doing, either.  The Rockets shot 40 three-pointers, making 18 (45%).  Houston is 8-4 this season when shooting 40 or more threes.  Trevor Ariza continued his hot streak, making 6-14 three-pointers and was his usual irritating self on defense.  Joey Dorsey added 7 points and 11 rebounds, 7 on the offensive glass.

Terrence Jones made his first appearance since an elbow to the midsection caused his lung to collapse, and absolutely stuffed the stat sheet in his 32 minutes.  Jones scored 16 points on 6-10 shooting (2-3 3pt) with 7 boards (3 offensive), 3 assists, 1 steal and a career-high 7 blocks.  Five of Jones’ blocks came on two different possessions, blocking Casspi twice around the rim in the first quarter, and then rejecting three consecutive Carl Landry layups near the end of the first half.  But it wasn’t all rosy for Jones, as he looked winded in the fourth quarter and he (-15) and Corey Brewer (-8) were the only Rockets’ players with a negative plus/minus.

Clint Capela only played 10 minutes, but had two more big dunks and finished with a +9 overall, second-highest for Houston.  For the second consecutive game he showed how effective hovering near the rim and keeping the paint clear can really be.  Here’s hoping that Dwight Howard is still paying attention and still intent on not changing the offense when he’s back to full-time.

But as usual, James Harden was the real story.  It seems as though everyone in the national media has reserved the MVP for Steph Curry, but if Harden can win a scoring title and/or carry this beat-up, constantly fluctuating roster to the 2-seed, I just can’t fathom anyone passing him over for the award.  Curry has been great and so have the Warriors, but they’ve also been the healthiest team in the league this season, and his degree of difficulty hasn’t been anywhere near the realm of Harden’s.

Now that Pat Beverley is done for the year, the Rockets got exactly two games out of their opening day starting-five.  Harden’s cast of characters has continuously changed, but night-in and night-out he’s been exactly what the Rockets have needed: an MVP.

The post Sacramento Kings 111, Houston Rockets 115: Making His Case appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Poor Solomon Hill, poor C.J. Miles and poor Ian Mahinmi.

The poor, poor Indiana Pacers.

When James Harden is in attack mode, all you can do is pity the fool opposing team, primarily whatever sucker gets tasked with attempting to wrangle the Beard on a given play.

And Monday night in Indiana, Harden was in attack mode.  He ended the night with 44 points, thanks in large part to sinking 21(!) of his 22(!!) attempted free throws.  And this wasn’t the ref-baiting, flop-master that so many Harden detractors detest.  This was the expert scoring machine that knows how to protect his space with the ball and penetrate the defender’s all at the same time.

As much as I cherish listening to Bill Worrell talk basketball, I get a real kick out of listening to opposing broadcasts digest this Rockets team.  Harden’s Morey-Ball.  Dwight Howard’s post game.  Josh Smith’s J-Smoove-ness.  There is a lot to take in.  And last night Chris Denari and Quinn Buckner saw a whole lot of Harden rocking his defender to sleep, getting into the paint and attacking the rim, only to be sent to the stripe by another chop across the forearms by an unwitting assailant; all while the Pacers’ broadcast team were forced repeatedly to admit something along the lines of, “Yea, you can see the slap across his arms right there”.

But it wasn’t just on plays at the rim that Harden was drawing contact.  The Pacers were hellbent on crowding Harden and playing him close, which only made things easier for the Beard.  Any time a Pacer defender reached in or made too much body contact, Harden was ready to attack that space and make it his own, often drawing a whistle.  And I won’t even say I don’t appreciate the way Harden’s critics feel about this type of strategy, but it keeps defenses out of his jersey and leaves him room to operate.  Just don’t tell me that free throws are “the best shot in basketball”, then expect me to get indignant when a player excels at creating that particular shot.

But enough about the Beard, we’ll come back to him.  As sublime as Harden was, the rest of the Rockets were excellent as well.

If it feels like I’m always talking nice about Josh Smith, it’s because I am.  He has played well in just about every game I’ve covered this season, and last night was no different.  Smith had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.  But the real surprise was how smooth his jumper looked last night.  Smith shot 4-6 from deep, and while he did have one airball, his catch-and-shoot continued to look sharp.  He even knocked down a 25-footer off the dribble with a hand in his face to beat the shot clock on one possession.  I still prefer my Smoove as close to the rim as possible, but it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy life’s little gems.

Donatas Motiejunas chipped in 17 points, the most memorable being the fluid 31-footer he knocked down as time expired in the third quarter with four Pacers in his vicinity.  He also had his usual craftiness around the rim, scoring on a bevy of hooks and drop-steps.  Which leaves me wondering, with D-Mo and former-Rocket Luis Scola (miss you) facing off against each other in the same building, does that mean the rest of the NBA was up and under-less?

As for the rest of the Rockets, every player had a positive plus/minus (led by Joey Dorsey’s +14), Corey Brewer was the only other double-digit scorer (11) and Trevor Ariza had a game-high 11 boards.  Pat Beverley picked up a wrist injury trying to snag a rebound, which was especially disconcerting because he knew right away that he was injured.  He grabbed his wrist as he headed down court, but he didn’t make it three steps before turning to Kevin McHale for a substitution and immediately jogging back to the locker room.  As of publication, no word on the extent of his injury.

But back to Harden.

In the month of March, Harden’s seemingly air-tight case for MVP has been dealt a Russell Westbrook-sized blow.  After months of valiantly carrying a beat-up squad through the treacherous West, where one three-game losing streak can cost you 3-4 seeds in the standings, Harden finally let doubt creep back into the MVP conversation.  With Steph Curry and the Warriors rounding out a 60-win season, and Russell Westbrook in the middle of his spot-on ’89 Jordan impersonation, Harden needed a strong finish to stay fresh in the voters’ minds.

Instead, pundits would have you believe Harden has played some of his worst basketball of the season this month, including the clunker he had in Utah two weeks ago.  The reality, though, is that Harden’s March hasn’t been markedly different from the first four months of the season.  His shooting percentages are the lowest they’ve been all year, but his assists, rebounds and even free throw attempts have held steady.

The problem really comes down to his legs.  Essentially, for entire games this month, Harden has looked cooked.

Including last night, Harden has played 11 games in March.  In six of those games, he has looked like himself, scoring 31.5 ppg, with 18.7 FTA and 39% from deep.  All indicators that he’s fine.  But in the other five games, Harden is averaging 16.8 ppg, with 7.2 FTA and 15% 3pt.  That three-point percentage is very concerning, because tired legs equal a flat shot.  Not to mention, pull-up jumpers look a lot more inviting than yet another foray into the land of giants when you’re spent, and less dribble-drives means less free throws.

I still think Harden is the front runner for MVP, but at this point I’d be more concerned about trying to navigate 4 rounds of brutal NBA playoffs than running Beard into the ground for a regular season award.  Harden is third in minutes per game, but because he’s stayed healthy and hasn’t had a two week vacation mid-season (LEBRON), Harden actually leads the NBA in minutes played.

That’s another good reason to vote for him for MVP, but it’s also a big justification to let him have some rest down the stretch.  With just 12 games to go, decisions have to be made.

The post Houston Rockets 110, Indiana Pacers 100: Attack Mode Engaged appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Insider’s View – Q&A with Chip Crain of 3 Shades of Blue.  Follow Chip on Twitter @chipc3 and @3ShadesofBlue.

For the other side of the conversation I had with Chip, check out 3sob.com.

MF – I honestly never understood it, but there were Rockets fans that were happy to see Courtney Lee shipped out to Boston a few years ago. Gasol is generally recognized as the best center in the NBA, Z-Bo and Tony Allen get plenty of grit-and-grind love, and Mike Conley makes just about every “most underrated” list. But how important is Lee to what the Grizzlies like to do?  

CC – Courtney Lee is vital to the Grizzlies success this season. Everyone knows about Conley, Gasol and Randolph and the Green acquisition has been well covered but Courtney Lee’s outside shot is every bit as important as the other starters. Memphis is 18-2 this season when Lee hits at least 2 three point shots. Considering that Lee is the third best 3 point shooter in the league, the fact that he has only accomplished this feet 20 times is disturbing and reflects the problem with Lee. He doesn’t appear to like taking a lot of shots.

Lee focuses hard on defense, takes proper shots and defers to others more often than he should. Joerger has repeatedly said Lee needs to take the shots he gets when open rather than force the ball to others. When Lee doesn’t take the open shots teams collapse into the lane making it more difficult for anyone else to score.

What’s the biggest difference about the Grizzlies now that Jeff Green is on the team?

That’s a good question. Many pundits have talked about how Jeff Green has made the Grizzlies so much better, and the team is 16-5 with Green starting at SF, but his individual difference isn’t that great. Green has fit into a role where he is at times the 5th offensive option so he offensive impact is limited, his defense isn’t as good as the player he replaced (Tayshaun Prince) and his rebounding isn’t anything to write home about even if it is an improvement on Prince.

However, Green does force teams to stay with him out to the 3 point line and that alone makes it easier for Gasol and Randolph to operate inside. Teams left Prince alone all the time. Green will punish teams that ignore him. Prince couldn’t.

Speaking of Green, he’s been the upgrade at small forward the Griz needed, but how much do you personally miss James Johnson? He never had any huge stat lines against Houston last season, but he still gave the Rockets fits, breaking up pick-and-rolls and keeping possessions alive with big rebounds. Naturally, he put up 27 points, 5 boards, 4 steals and 4 blocks in his first game against Houston with the Raptors, because of course he did. Were you sad to see him go?

Interesting question. James Johnson is an incredible talent on the court capable of exploding at any moment and in any manner. That was his downfall in Memphis. JJ gave the team life on some nights and yet he never seemed content and that caused the problems that allowed him to leave town. It wasn’t so much is talent on the court as his attitude off it that was his downfall.

Personally I enjoyed watching him do his thing on the court but it was clear by the end of last season that Johnson and Joerger weren’t getting along and I wasn’t surprised or disappointed when he signed elsewhere. It was expected.

You hear a lot of talk about what a matchup problem the Grizzlies can be for other teams because of their size and toughness, but what kind of match-ups/game plans give Memphis the most trouble? Are there any teams specifically that you would like to see them avoid in Round 1 of the playoffs? (Assuming they keep the 2-seed)

Frankly every playoff team in the Western Conference gives me worry. When Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Dallas are the 1st round road opponents every team should know it will be a fight to win the conference.

I would particularly not like seeing Oklahoma City or San Antonio in the 1st round but based on current standings the Grizzlies likely will face one of them. San Antonio had Memphis’ number for the last few seasons prior to the Grizzlies winning the last two games (including an epic triple OT win in San Antonio) but the Spurs weren’t at 100% in those games. OKC has beaten the Grizzlies in the playoffs in 2 of the last 4 years, both series going 7 games, but a well rested Durant and Westbrook in the playoffs is frightening.

In the upper half I would want to avoid Houston and Golden State as long as possible since their perimeter games are very difficult for the Grizzlies big man defense to contain.

What number do you think Marc Gasol will play with on the Knicks next year since Patrick Ewing’s #33 is already retired? Pau’s #16??

Kidding, kidding. But seriously, how worried are you that he might move on, or is this all just a formality and he’d never actually leave Memphis?

I am not even thinking of Gasol wearing Knicks colors next season. Why would he take less money and a shorter contract to play in the mess that is on the court at Madison Square Gardens right now? People forget but Gasol’s parents and younger brother live in Memphis. Marc graduated from a Memphis high school while Pau played here. Marc also consistently has said he wants to play with Zach Randolph who he calls his brother from another mother. I don’t see anything New York can offer to attract him away from Memphis.

I’m concerned he will move, but not worried if that makes any sense. A big market city with a lot of cash and a winning franchise would be tough for him to turn down even with his family ties and Zach Randolph in Memphis. I could see the Spurs, Lakers, Heat and possibly Chicago making offers that would be hard to turn down. Reuniting with Lionel Hollins and New Jersey isn’t likely either but you never know.

The only way to get Marc out of Memphis in my opinion is to offer a larger market where he could offset the loss in NBA income with advertising contracts and a strong Spanish population.

The post Houston Rockets @ Memphis Grizzlies: feat. Chip Crain of 3 Shades of Blue appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Although not through the NBA’s typical scheduling process, this was as much of a “schedule loss” as the Rockets will face all season.  And yet, Kevin McHale had Morey’s motley crew kicking and clawing (and for a long stretch, beating) the East-leading Hawks.  But when things slowed down in the fourth, and the Rockets couldn’t get out on the break, Atlanta choked-out Houston’s wily offense and put the game away.

The Rockets missed Harden, definitely, but it’s not like they were punchless.   Houston led by 9 at the end of the first, 14 at halftime and 9 again going into the third quarter, mainly thanks to some wizard interior passing and a throwback Jason Terry performance.  Terrence Jones (18 pts, 8 rebs, 2 ast, 3 blk) was an absolute menace in the paint, causing Hawks great and color commentator Dominique Wilkins to gush over him multiple times down the court.  Terry (21 pts on 8-13 shooting, 4-8 from 3) carried the Rockets through the middle of the game, scoring 20 of his 21 points in the second and third quarters.  But while JET and TJ were definitely the stars of the game for the Rockets, they combined for a +/- of minus-25 for the game.

It was interesting listening to Nique digest this game as it went along.  He loved Jones, but could’t decide what to think about Donatas Motiejunas.  He kept mentioning that D-Mo shooting the three was what the Hawks wanted, even as he went 3-6 from deep.   Motiejunas also looked like a force in the middle for stretches, and a huge liability at others.  He had several beautiful post moves, and along with Houston’s other big men, made multiple pinpoint passes for scores.  But there were also times when D-Mo couldn’t stop letting his man score, especially Al Horford.  And once again, Motiejunas missed several bunnies around the rim, continuing what’s become a troubling trend.

Josh Smith, back in Atlanta, was in typical hot-and-cold form (14 pts, 7 rebs, 3 ast, 2 blk in only 24 mins).  At one point he got a fortunate bounce off the rim to sink a three-pointer, forcing Atlanta to call timeout.  As he jogged back to the Rockets’ bench,  Smith held a finger to his mouth, beckoning Hawks fans in attendance to quiet down.  Shortly after, Smith hit another three in transition, again inviting the crowd to have a seat.  But from that point on Smith seemed like he was pressing, turning the ball over on multiple possessions, fouling unnecessarily, and missing 3 of 4 shot attempts in the fourth.

Jeff Teague finished with what had to be the quietest 25 points of the season, with a very James Harden-esque shooting performance (7-12 FG, 9-11 FT).  Dennis Schoeder added 16 pts, 4 rebs and 8 ast off the bench, while Paul Milsap and Horford combined for 34 points and 22 rebounds.  The Hawks missed seemingly every momentum-swinging, run-capping shot they took until the fourth quarter, when they dropped 32 on Houston.

If you ever wondered how the Rockets would look without Harden’s one-0n-one skills, last night was your answer.  There were times when the offense was electric.  Fast breaks, swing passes – the ball bouncing around like hot potato – usually ending with an easy lay-in.  And there were times when it was chaotic, sometimes aimless and oftentimes reckless.

Harden’s steady left hand at the helm would have probably gotten the W, but it was kinda nice to see what the rest of the Rockets could do when left to there own devices.  The Rockets’ B-squad stood toe-to-toe in the center of the ring with one hand tied behind their back, and took every punch the Beast from the East had, losing a close decision.  We got to see what the rest of the Rockets were made of, and Harden got a good night’s rest heading into a tough matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday night. Things could be worse for Houston.

The post Houston Rockets 96, Atlanta Hawks 104: Close, but no cigar appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Notes: Since Dwight Howard joined the Houston Rockets, they have not beaten the LA Clippers in six tries.  The primary reason?  James Harden.  Harden just can’t figure out how to score against the Clips.  He’s only averaged 17 PPG, shot just over 30% from the field and only about 10% of his 3’s.  In several of those games, JJ Redick has really caused problems for Harden on both ends of the floor.  But Harden also struggled when Redick was out, so I’ll be curious to see if it’s the match-ups that have slowed Harden or if it’s something scheme-wise that Doc Rivers is cooking up.

Howard has missed both games against the Clippers this season.  In his absence, DeAndre Jordan has given the Rockets fits.  He’s averaged a +/- of +17.5, with 15.5 PPG and 70% FG, 16.5 rebs (5 offensive), and 14.5 FTA.  Especially in the last game, in which Blake Griffin didn’t play, Jordan’s length and athleticism wreaked havoc on the boards, as he kept multiple possessions alive on offense.  And on defense he was downright Russell-ian, with 3 steals and 2 blocks, while keeping Harden and the Rockets out of the paint more than usual.  

Injuries: Patrick Beverley is still listed as day-to-day and will be evaluated at shoot around.  Kostas Papanikolaou will miss the game with a sprained ankle.

Blake Griffin still has about a week left of rehab after surgery on his elbow and will miss the game, while Austin Rivers should be suited up for the Clips.

Insider’s View - Q&A with Law Murray of Clipper Blog. Follow Law on Twitter @LawMurrayTheNU.

MF – Grantland’s Kirk Goldsberry has an interesting new piece on defensive assignment tracking and how players affect shot attempts and shooting percentages from the 13-14 season. Chris Paul is kind of the star of the article (we won’t discuss James Harden), but there seems to be a bit of an overall backlash against Paul this season, mostly since the referee comments. Has there been any kind of slippage in his game, or are people just finally tired of his Napoleon act and he’s really still great?

LM – Paul is in his tenth NBA season, and he turns 30 in May. For the first time in his career, he didn’t enter this season as the clear-cut best, most valuable player on his own team. The silly and tired “best point guard” discussion is more crowded than ever. And the images of Paul’s shortcomings have become more glaring, whether it’s the lack of team success (three postseason series wins) or his own untimely miscues (Monday night’s turnover parallels Paul’s Game 5 turnover against the Thunder).  The reality is, Paul has been as good this season as he usually is. He’s been even more valuable due to his durability, appearing in all 57 games so far. He’s not getting to the line as much (career-low free throw attempts per game) and he’s not leading the league in anything for the first time in awhile. But Chris Paul hasn’t changed; basketball consumers’ conversations have changed.

DeAndre Jordan has really shouldered the load since Blake Griffin’s injury, but hes also an upcoming free agent. If the Clippers don’t get over the hump this year, do you think its a given he comes back next season (on a presumed max deal), or might he be the “shake up” every team makes when they can’t take the next leap?

With the lack of flexibility given Los Angeles’ situation, and with Jordan showing increased value with his production sans Griffin, it’s not a given that Jordan will be back with the Clippers. In fact, I think he probably walks. Some team is going to blow Jordan away with a major offer, and he turns 27 in July. That’s not an age where you “take one for the team”. The Clippers aren’t getting to the Conference Finals, and it will be interesting to see how the team would handle Jordan’s next deal in that case.

With all the players bouncing around at the deadline, do you think Austin Rivers was the right move for this team, or did Doc Rivers the GM handicap Doc Rivers the coach?  

The Austin Rivers experience has netted a career-night (28 points in a blowout win vs. Sacramento Saturday night) and a big letdown (a donut in a three-point loss the very next game vs. Memphis Monday night). Rivers is in the best situation of his fleeting career. His three years have been humbling, to say the least, and without a guaranteed contract for next season, he’s trying to show he belongs while being the nominal eighth guy in the rotation. Rivers has been marginally better than the guy he replaced in that spot to start the season, Jordan Farmar. But no, Doc Rivers as the primary personnel executive has not helped Rivers put a better team on the floor. There is just too much flotsam on the roster.

The West is crazy this year and I believe it really will come down to matchups in the playoffs. What is the key to the Clippers offense when the starters are sitting, and how confident are you in the Clips bench to make it through 3 rounds of the Western Conference?

When starters sit, the key to the offense for the Clippers has been Jamal Crawford, the two-time Sixth Man of the Year. Crawford’s something close to a physical marvel. He turns 35 in March, yet he’s pulling in a career-high usage rate off the bench. Crawford has never been known for his efficiency, and he’s not shooting the three or getting to the line as well as he did a season ago. But he’s leading the league in points per game off the bench while protecting the ball with a career-low turnover rate. And yes, the over-reliance on Crawford’s bench production is another reason why the Clippers aren’t touching the Finals in 2015.

The post LA Clippers @ Houston Rockets: feat. Law Murray of Clipper Blog appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Having said that, it felt like last night was the best punch the Wolves could muster; and the Rockets took it in stride.  Birthday boy Andrew Wiggins scored 30 (Can’t we just call him Ender already? He’s as advertised), former Rocket Kevin Martin got his usual 21, and Ricky Rubio flirted with a triple-double.  In fact, all five Wolves starters scored in double digits.  But it just wasn’t enough.

Credit Minnesota for hanging tough, but the game never really felt in danger for the Rockets.  James Harden was what he has been all season: MVP-worthy.  He had his second triple-double of the season (more on that in a bit), with 31 points, 11 boards, 10 dimes and 4(!) blocks.  He started slow, missing all six shots he took in the first quarter, but was 7-14 (5-8 on 3-pt) for the rest of the game.  He hit killer threes at the end of the second and third quarters, and the latter, which nearly re-tore Rubio’s ACL, was the NBA’s play of the night.

The rest of the Rockets were no slouches either.  Every starter except Jason Terry, who was filling in for a sick Patrick Beverley, scored in double-digits (JET had 9).  Josh Smith shot too much from the outside, but had 17 points off the bench and filled the stat sheet before fouling out.  Corey Brewer’s 11 points off the pine outscored Minny’s bench (10 pts) all by himself.  D-Mo did what he could defensively against massive General Zod Nikola Pekovich, and managed 12 points, while Trevor Ariza was cold from the outside (2-8) but made up for it with his usual defense (4 steals) and by crashing the boards (8 total).

But the real story, other than Harden, was Terrence Jones.  In his first start since November, Jones was all over the place to the tune of 15 pts, 15 rebs, a steal and two blocks.  The Wolves could do nothing to keep him off of the glass (9 offensive) and his shot chart is truly impressive.

Someone show that puppy to Josh Smith!  Jones never settled and attacked the rim every chance he got.

The Rockets really struggle with long rebounders, especially without Dwight Howard (see: Chandler, Tyson; Jordan, DeAndre).  But they have to lead the league in true power forwards who can take the ball off the glass and run a successful fast break.  Jones (and Smith) ran several such plays Monday night.  T.J. seems to be the safer ball-handler, and Smoove the much more creative passer.

But back to James Hardens’ triple-double.  At a time when Russell Westbrook has really stepped up for the under-manned OKC Thunder, Harden needed a night like this to stay at the forefront of the MVP race. ESPN Stats and Info dug up some very interesting bits on Harden’s big night:

James Harden notched his 2nd triple-double as a Rocket. He became the 1st player since Steven Francis in 2001 with multiple triple-doubles in a single season and the 4th Rocket since 1996-97. The other two…hall of famers…Clyde the Glyde Drexler and Scottie Pippen. [+]

From Elias: It was a high-scoring, poor-shooting triple-double for James Harden. Harden finished with 30 points, but shot only 35% from the field. The last player to * Have a triple-double * Score at least 30 points * and shoot 35% or worse from the field in the same game was Pete Maravich for the Jazz against the Lakers on March 5, 1975.

Hakeem Olajuwon and Harden are the only players to score 30 points in a triple-double in Rockets franchise history. Hakeem did it 5 times.

Quick Hitters on Harden’s big game * Had 2 career triple-doubles entering this season (all with Rockets) * 6th player with multiple triple-doubles this season * 1st Rockets player with multiple triple-doubles in a single season since Steve Francis in 2001-02 * Joins Kobe Bryant as only players with a 30-point triple-double this season * NBA-leading 25th 30-point game this season * Rockets are 21-4 when Harden scores 30 points this season; 9-2 when he has 10 assists

While it’s true Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge have also missed significant time due to injury, the fact that Harden has not only kept the Rockets in the playoff hunt without Dwight Howard (and Chandler Parsons, for that matter), but that they currently sit in third place has got to be the storyline of the Western Conference so far, Warriors be damned.  The Rockets continue to sit squarely on James Harden’s shoulders, and 56 games into the season, he’s managed the weight spectacularly.

Side Notes From The Next TV Over: Rudy Gobert is AWESOME.  We finally get to see what Shawn Bradley would have looked like if he wasn’t flat-footed dunk-bait.  How often in his career has Tim Duncan had a HOOK SHOT blocked?  And he can run the floor?  Here’s hoping Dante Exum isn’t really the next Kobe (he’s not), because the Jazz have something special in Gobert.

Also, presented without comment:  Isaiah Canaan.

The post Minnesota Timberwolves 102, Houston Rockets 113: As Expected appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

The Rockets turned the ball over more, shot worse, and played with less conviction/composure.  The Warriors’ have now posted the two highest scoring totals the Rockets have allowed this season (131 & 126), and their 40 point third quarter was the most points a team has put up on Houston in any quarter this season.  James Harden’s 33 points hide the fact that he wasn’t able to dictate much except from the free throw stripe.  Josh Smith’s double tech-ejection makes you forget the nice alley-oops he threw Dwight Howard.  And nothing Pat Beverley or Trevor Ariza did could slow down Steph Curry or Klay Thompson.

On the bright side, this games wasn’t on TNT, so no Rockets’ fans weren’t subjected to what surely would have been an evisceration of Dwight Howard by Chuck and Shaq.  The box score wasn’t THAT much different between Dwight (7 points, 11 rebounds) and Andrew Bogut (9 points, 10 rebounds), but their impact couldn’t have been more opposite.  Dwight spent most of the game hacking and banging shots off the glass, while Bogut protected the rim ferociously, finished strong in the paint, and even ran a beautiful semi-fast break to a back door Klay Thompson.  As an ardent Howard-defender, this was the type of game that makes that stance so difficult to defend.  In his defense though, there were multiple times when Howard found himself being guarded by Draymond Green and David Lee and the Rockets just didn’t do enough to get him the ball in those situations.  But overall, Howard looked like the lackadaisical and overblown oaf that so many pundits claim he is.

The Rockets’ bench is the only aspect of this game that you can point to and say they were better.  The group of Joey Dorsey, Kostas Papanikolaou, Corey Brewer, Alexy Shved and Jason Terry took a huge Warriors lead at the end of the third quarter and whittled it down to nine with four minutes to play.  But even that was likely due to the Warriors checking out after playing with with such a large lead for most of the game.  Steve Kerr was forced to reinsert Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, who quickly pushed the lead back out of reach.  I certainly don’t blame Kevin McHale for leaving the unit that made it a ballgame again on the floor, but seeing as most of those players are not used to playing 10-plus minutes at a time, it would have been nice to see what James Harden could have done with a single-digit lead.

I typically keep a pretty level head throughout the long NBA regular season, but this loss, following Saturday’s drubbing, already has me looking ahead and hoping the Rockets don’t end up in the 4-5 spot in the West at seasons’ end.  Any combination of the conference’s parade of contenders would be better than a potential second round match-up with the Warriors.  There’s just something about Golden State that makes Houston look impotent.

Last year the Rockets swept the San Antonio Spurs and they still managed to win the title, so having a bad inter-conference match-up isn’t a death sentence to title hopes.  But San Antonio also caught a break when the Blazers upset the Rockets in the first round.  If Houston has any real chance at a title, it looks like they’re going to need the same kind of break.

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JR – It’s a combination of both, really. There’s no doubt that the camaraderie and relationships built over the past few seasons have benefited this team and helped with the changes, but this team isn’t this good without Steve Kerr, Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams. This roster is a wonderful mix of rising stars and proven veterans, and Kerr has established everyone with a given role. This includes veterans David Lee and Andre Iguodala, who have quickly accepted their new roles on the bench given their previous roles as starters.

Several teams near the top of the West have made moves to improve their rosters. The Warriors clearly don’t have many holes in their roster, but do you see them making a move before the deadline?  Possibly involving David Lee, seeing as the Warriors are projected to be way over the cap next year? 

The Warriors will be taking calls, but I don’t see them making any major moves come the trade deadline. They recently brought up former University of Carolina Tar Heel James McAdoo for some spot minutes, and it’s these type of moves that this team will continue to make. The roster is fairly set given the improvements of the bench and role reversals (Lee and Iguodala). The team will indeed need to shed salary given their cap situation heading into next year, but I can’t see that happening with what Kerr is building and the success they’ve had so far this season.

Jalen Rose has been making pretty bold claims that Draymond Green will be wearing a Pistons jersey next season. Is he Important enough to the Warriors to warrant big money? Will they be able to afford him if they don’t make a Lee move?

How many different forms of the word “ABSOLUTELY” are there? Anyways, Draymond Green will be worth whatever his next contract brings him, and his importance to the Warriors can’t be overstated. A defensive stalwart who can guard all five positions, Green single-handily bumped David Lee to the bench. Kerr even acknowledged that he took this job with the assumption that Lee would be the starting power forward, but Green just outplayed him. His shooting has gone down since his early season success, but he’s still a threat from beyond the three-point line and given space when Curry or Thompson are trapped.

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Watching Harden square up against his old teammates is always exciting because it still conjures up feelings of what could have (should have?) been for the Thunder.  Typically, Harden feels like the underdog in these match-ups with his more acclaimed ex-teammates; the third banana gone rogue. But this year has been different, with Harden playing at a pace-setting MVP level, and the Durant/Westbrook combo stuck in second gear after injuries derailed both their first quarter-season.

On a night when the Rockets were playing their third game in four nights, traveling up and down the east coast before returning home, Harden was one rebound away from his second triple-double of the season.  The Beard easily outclassed Durant and Westbrook, who had just 40 points and 12 turnovers combined (the Rockets had 12 TO’s as a team, Harden only 2) and hadn’t played since last Friday.  Some call that rust, I call it rest.

But even with the Thunder coming in so fresh, the Rockets came out scorching, scoring 40 points in the first quarter (their most in any quarter this season) and leading by 22 after one.  In fact, Houston took the lead for good after a James Harden catch-and-shoot 3 made it 7-4 just a little more than two minutes into the first.  The Thunder never even got back inside a ten point deficit after the Rockets made it 14-4 with eight minutes still to go in the opening period.

There wasn’t a defender on OKC who could stay in front of Harden.  And even when Serge Ibaka and Russell Westbrook, only two of the most athletic players in the league, trapped on the pick-and-roll, Harden crossed-over and split the defense before jamming it down for the dunk of the night.

But this wasn’t just about Harden looking like the best player on the floor, it was also about the rest of the roster following his lead.  The slash-and-kick was out in full force, with nary a missed extra pass to an open shooter.  Dwight Howard couldn’t really find the ball on offense, but Trevor Ariza and Pat Beverley knocked down a few threes while hounding Durant and Westbrook all night.  D-Mo was his usual crafty self, dropping in 14 (which could have easily been 20 if he hadn’t missed a few bunnies) and connecting with Dwight on a nice big-to-big alley-oop.  Although the real treat was getting to watch Josh Smith do what he was brought to Houston to do.

J-Smoove only played 19 minutes, but he managed 13 points, 7 rebounds (4 offensive) and 2 assists.  Which might not seem like much, but what made it so…relieving?…was how seamless he looked in his role.  He still took three shots outside of his range, two missed 3’s and a made 18-footer, but he attacked the basket aggressively, made a few skip passes to the corner shooters, and was a menace on the boards at all times.  He even ran a couple nice fast breaks off long rebounds, and played a sweet give-and-go with Papanikolaou for an easy lay-in off a turnover.  This is the Josh Smith Daryl Morey was hoping for: stay in your role, fill in the gaps, and defend.  There aren’t many teams in the league that have a player of Smith’s ability coming off the bench, and much like Harden’s defense last year, it’s too easy to take potshots at Smith and his (somewhat) overblown narrative.

Last night was also coach Kevin McHale’s 200th win as a head coach.  It’s a nice milestone for a coach that just signed a three year extension last month, and who should pile up many more wins with the future of basketball on his roster.  Speaking of the future of basketball, the Rockets shot 16-36 from deep last night, marking the 11th time this season that they have had 15+ 3-pointers in a game this season.  Not impressed?  On January 15, exactly one month BEFORE the All-Star break, the Rockets already set the NBA record for such games in a single season (Shoutout to EJ for that stat).

Chuck and Shaq may not believe this team is a true contender, but McHale still has time smooth things over after his roster additions.  Plus, if Terrence Jones ever gets right, the Rockets could be adding another starting quality player to an already deep team.  And with two of Houston’s next three games coming against the league-leading Golden State Warriors, James Harden will have more chances to prove that he’s the best player on a star-studded court (and prove the big fellas wrong).

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HOUSTON ROCKETS | GRADE: C-

Round 1:Clint Capela (25)

Round 2:Nick Johnson (42)

Analysis: The Rockets are busy trying to clear cap space for a run at LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Again, I’m not sure how likely it is they land either guy, but both players are worth the effort. So the Rockets took a player in Capela, whom they can leave in Europe to develop — and he needs the time. Capela is long and athletic, but very raw. His analytics numbers were off the charts for Kevin Pelton, but watching him in games was pretty painful. He has a ways to go.

Johnson, who is tough and super-athletic, could help now if the Rockets have a roster spot. He defends and can shoot it a bit. If he were a few inches taller, he would’ve gone much, much higher.      

After conversion, Capela’s translated 2013-14 performance features 54.0 percent 2-point shooting, a 16.1 percent rebound rate and a 3.7 percent block rate. Check out the NBA big men who have cleared similar bars (52 percent shooting, 15 percent rebound rate and 3 percent block rate) before age 21:

Player	Team	Year	Age	2P%	Reb%	Blk%
Andris Biedrins	GSW	2006	20.1	.638	.160	.034
Andrew Bynum	LAL	2008	20.5	.636	.193	.051
Tyson Chandler	CHI	2003	20.6	.531	.155	.042
Anthony Davis	NOH	2013	20.1	.521	.170	.051
Andre Drummond	DET	2014	20.7	.625	.226	.040
Dwight Howard	ORL	2006	20.4	.532	.206	.030
Serge Ibaka	OKC	2010	20.6	.543	.171	.055
Al Jefferson	BOS	2005	20.3	.533	.172	.039
Amir Johnson	DET	2008	21.0	.558	.183	.084
DeAndre Jordan	LAC	2009	20.7	.633	.180	.057
Jonas Valanciunas	TOR	2013	21.0	.557	.150	.042

Usually, getting a prospect such as Capela requires a lottery pick. Of the 11 players in the group listed, eight went in the top 15 picks. But because Capela struggled in front of NBA scouts at the Nike Hoop Summit in April, and has performed poorly in workouts, his stock — once lottery-worthy — has slipped down the first round.

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Capela will probably be stashed overseas for seasoning and also to avoid any kind of a cap hold while Houston pursues the big names in free agency.  G.M. Daryl Morey said that he believes Johnson will have no problem signing with the team and should be a part of all the Summer League activities.  As for Gentile, Morey has had little contact with him or his agent, as Gentile’s Italian team, Milano, is currently preparing for Game 7 of the Italian Lega A Finals tonight.  Morey believes Gentile could help the team this year, but said he will have to meet with his agent after the Italian season is over and will decide from there.

But never mind where the draft picks will be playing this season – what exactly did Houston get? 

When the Rockets picked at number 25, just about all of the top-prospects had been taken.  There were a few names (P.J. Hairston, Glenn Robinson III, etc), but when Shabazz Napier went of the board one spot before Houston’s pick, there was no clear-cut name for who should go next.  The Rockets went with the guy that they thought had the most upside out of just about anyone in the draft.

Morey on Capela: “I thought he had the top upside outside the top few picks. Right outside the top 10, I think he has the most upside.”

— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) June 27, 2014

Besides fitting the “no new salary” edict that the Rockets were operating by, Clint Capela is a 6-11, 222 lbs marvel with a 7’5 wingspan that has to have Jay Bilas drooling.  He’s a little thin, but at only 20 years old he has plenty of time to grow into his frame.  His ESPN draft profile draws comparisons to a young Serge Ibaka.  Like Ibaka’s profile read back in 2009, Capela is incredibly raw.  He’s got quick feet, can play in transition and finish above the rim, and he is already a plus-defender and excellent rebounder.  He lacks the aforementioned strength and a jump shot, but with time could become a fearsome rim protector.

As for Nick Johnson, Morey couldn’t say enough.

“We think he was the most productive player on the best team in the country, Arizona. He’s a multi-position defender, can defend the one and the two. He’s a big-time athlete, Pac-12 Player of the Year. He’s a great, high character, tough guy and really has driven Arizona’s success the last couple years.”

Johnson would more than likely have been a first round pick if it weren’t for his 6’3 (in shoes), 198 lbs frame.  He doesn’t quite have the handles and offensive IQ to be a full-time point guard, but everything you read describes him as one of the best athletes in the country and capable of playing the 2.  Johnson’s profile is short on weaknesses, save for the lack of height.  But what it does include are phrases like “uber athletic” and “explosive leaper”.  It also labels him as a “tenacious defender”, something that clearly is not lost on Johnson.

“The one person that I’m going to latch onto is Beverley,” Johnson said during a conference call with the media shortly after his selection. “I think we have a lot of similarities. I think his grit and grind that he really plays with is something I have in my game. I think that I can come in from day one and be that person that he’s being: the defensive player, the energy guy and stuff like that. I’m going to come in and listen, work hard and do whatever I can do get on the floor.”

To me, Johnson sounds like a Monta Ellis/Patrick Beverley hybrid.  He’s an undersized 2-guard, but has qualities that would make him the perfect backcourt-mate for James Harden.  He’s got Beverley’s defensive tenacity, competitive fire and above-average rebounding ability but in a longer, taller, more athletic body.  And like Ellis, he can get his own shot and has the ability to get to the rim with ease (albeit a little recklessly at times, also an Ellis trait). He is an absolute terror in the open court, pushing the ball himself or scoring from the wing.  But unlike Ellis, Johnson is best out of the catch-and-shoot, shooting over 38% from deep in those situations.

So you’ve got a point guard-sized 2 with length and elite athleticism, who is a ferocious defender and has legit 3-point range but doesn’t need the ball to be most effective…doesn’t that sound like the ideal compliment to the Beard?  And if he’s not ready to earn a starting spot so early in his career, his game and versatility should pair nicely with Jeremy Lin as well, assuming Lin isn’t dealt to clear space for another superstar.

*BOLD PREDICTION ALERT*  I think Nick Johnson will eventually replace Chandler Parsons as Morey’s prized-find in the second round.  I could not be more excited about a guy that didn’t even go until pick 42.

And lastly, Alessandro Gentile.  Morey described Gentile as “Delfino-like”.  He’s one of the best young scorers in Europe despite not being an elite athlete and, at only 22 years old, is already the captain of the best team in Italy.  Speaking of Italy, with his team facing elimination on the road in Game 6 of the Lega A Finals, Gentile led all scorers with 23 points on 8-15 shooting (2-3 from deep), and chipped in 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals to send the series back to Milan for Game 7 tonight.

Gentile can be somewhat of a no-conscience gunner, with a streaky stroke and poor shot selection at times, but he uses the threat of his shot to make room for the rest of his offensive arsenal.  He’s not a very explosive athlete, but he’s got good strength and excellent range that he knows how to manipulate to help him get into the paint, where he finishes with craft and a smooth touch.  He will probably never be a plus-defender, but his effort and basketball IQ help negate his lack of lateral quickness.

The Rockets and G.M. Daryl Morey did exactly what they wanted to do in this draft.  They got potential, defensive improvement and shooting.  But most importantly, they avoided the cap hold that comes with drafting first round picks.  Morey may have found another stash of coveted-but-overlooked gems, or he may have found more trade fodder should a mega-deal be his next course of action.  But as always, Morey was creative and intelligent in getting exactly what he wanted out of the board.

The post The Rockets Daily – June 27, 2014 appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

The Houston Rockets have agreed to trade defensive specialist center Omer Asik to the New Orleans Pelicans in a deal aimed at clearing salary-cap space to chase LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony in free agency, sources told ESPN.com.

In exchange for Asik, the Rockets will receive the Pelicans’ 2015 first-round draft pick. The Rockets also will include $1.5 million in cash as part of the deal.

…

The draft pick included in the deal has protections. It will go to the Rockets if it falls between picks 4-19, sources said. 

This trade is good for the Rockets on so many levels, but first and foremost it is a show of good faith that they can clear enough cap room for one of the big-money free agents that might consider Houston this summer.  And according to USA Today’s Sam Amick, the Rockets very likely already have a Jeremy Lin deal lined up should they need more cap space to pursue LeBron, Melo and company.  But by all accounts the Rockets will keep Lin (and save any trade-sweetening assets) if they are unable to land any of the big fish.

For more good news we turn to Kevin Pelton, who weighed in with his trade grade (ESPN Insider):

Houston Rockets : A-

The December 20 “deadline” for the Rockets to move Omer Asik is now six months past, and with the benefit of hindsight, Houston GM Daryl Morey did the right thing by waiting. It’s now clear that having the cap space this summer to aggressively pursue free agents like Carmelo Anthony and even LeBron James is better for the Rockets than any of the players they could have acquired for Asik last season.

…

Because the Pelicans will contend for a playoff spot, this isn’t quite as valuable as the pick Houston got for Lowry — one of the key pieces in the James Harden trade — but it’s likely to be better than any Rockets selection for some time to come. There’s an outside chance dangling a possible lottery pick could get Houston back in the mix for the other superstar on the trade market, Kevin Love.

That Lowry/Toronto pick, which the Oklahoma City Thunder eventually used on Steven Adams at number 12, was top-3 protected for the first year, top-2 protected in the second year and top-1 protected for years three and four, before it became completely unprotected in the fifth year.  But what really made that pick valuable was that it also had a lottery-floor, meaning that if Toronto made the playoffs the pick was rolled over to the next year for five years.  I haven’t seen anything yet that has indicated what will happen in the future should the Pelican’s pick fall outside of the 4-19 range, but I’m sure those details will leak out as the actual trade date, sometime after July 10th, approaches.

And can you imagine if the Rockets had caved last winter and traded Asik at the deadline for any of the Thaddeus Young/Ryan Anderson class?  Bye-bye cap space and bye-bye Big-3.  Not to mention, the Portland Trail Blazers might have swept the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs if Asik hadn’t been around to help out on LaMarcus Aldridge.

But that’s been the true genius of G.M. Daryl Morey.  He hasn’t been perfect (*cough* first rounder for Terrence Williams *cough* Marcus Morris over Kawhi Leonard *cough*), but he knows how to play the market.  CSN’s Adam Wexler summed it up perfectly with a tweet:

Rockets end up paying roughly $10 mil for 2 yrs of Asik (plus $1.5 cash on deal to NO), then flipped him for likely late-lottery pick in ’15

— AdamWexlerCSN (@awexler) June 26, 2014

THAT, my friends, is getting maximum value out of an asset.

But I agree with Pelton that New Orleans should be a contender for the playoffs next season.  It’s a shame that Morey couldn’t strike a deal with a team that didn’t include Anthony Davis.  The Pelicans superstar-in-waiting should continue to improve exponentially, while the team itself will look to bounce back from a rough year.  Point guard Jrue Holiday and sharpshooter Ryan Anderson played in only 56 games combined last season.  With the expected improvements from Davis, the addition of Asik and a healthy lineup, the Pelicans could very well push into the 50 win range.

So the Rockets have made two of the biggest moves to start the summer with the Parsons decision and now this.  They will probably get a meeting with LeBron, but I’m not sure how interested he really is in Houston.  Melo will definitely give them a serious look.  And I’d still like to see what they do on the Kevin Love front.  Clearing Asik’s salary and gaining a real asset in the process brings all those scenarios and more inches closer to becoming reality.

Whatever his goals are, you can feel Daryl Morey sorting his chips.  And after three summers of this, you just know that he’s about to push them into the middle of the table again.

The post The Rockets Daily – June 26, 2014 appeared first on Red94 | Houston Rockets news and musings.

Houston has made the first big personnel move of the not-quite-here-yet offseason by declining the final year of Chandler Parsons’ rookie contract, making him a restricted free agent this summer.

The Rockets hold a $960,000 option on the fourth and final year of Parsons’ contract for the 2014-’15 season, but want to avoid letting Parsons, 25, become an unrestricted free agent next summer. As a restricted free agent in July, the Rockets can match an offer sheet and retain Parsons on a long-term contract.

The Rockets have until June 30 to formally decline the option.      

There are many schools of thought as to what Morey might be thinking with this move.  The simplest is that Morey just wants to avoid a big-money auction next summer when Parsons and his agent, Dan Fegan, could be looking for the highest bidder.  I agree with Rahat completely that Parsons is not worth $12-13 million a year, but small market teams that need the kind of talent and marketability that Parsons brings can’t be counted on to spend wisely.  Couldn’t you see Orlando (only Chandler’s childhood team) offer Parsons 4 years, $48 million to be their veteran presence and the face of their young roster?  Or a young team (Cleveland, perhaps?) that thinks they are finally ready to make a move into playoff contention could see Parsons’ do-it-all game as the missing piece.  I don’t know what would happen were he to actually hit unrestricted free agency next summer, but I do know that if Tyreke Evans can get $11 million a year from the Pelicans, Chandler Parsons would make a pretty penny in the open market.

Another theory (cosigned by Mr. 94 himself), is that by temporarily clearing Parsons’ remaining $964,750 from the cap sheet, the Rockets are that much closer to freeing up the space needed to acquire Carmelo Anthony.  While I do believe Houston is one of the top 2-3 potential landing spots for Melo, New York’s hiring of Phil Jackson makes things tricky, as the old Knicks regime was surely higher on Jeremy Lin than the Zen Master will be should trade options ever be explored.

But the ways in which Houston could acquire Melo are numerous, and with a creative genius like Morey doing the maneuvering, contemplating the possibilities seems pointless.  The other major move the Rockets could make can only happen one way, a Morey specialty: a big-time trade.

While others are seeing potential Parsons-sign-and-trade possibilities in exchange for another All-Star, getting him to commit to a frozen basketball-hell like Minnesota or cap-hell in New York seems like quite a hurdle.  What I’ve yet to see anywhere is the off chance that Morey is planning on waiting-out Flip Saunders and the Timber Wolves on the inevitable Kevin Love trade.  For now, the Wolves are dead set on keeping Love and will almost certainly go into the season with him as their starting power forward.  But unless Minnesota starts out blazing like Portland did last season (pun intended) when they saved their relationship with LaMarcus Aldridge, the Wolves will eventually come to the conclusion that everyone else in the NBA did long ago: they have to trade Love.

Parsons would be available for trade by mid-December, right about the time you’d expect an 11-games below .500 Minnesota to come to that dreadful realization.  And while Minny would more than likely prefer a top-draft pick to anything Houston can offer, unless teams get the nod from Love that he’d be interested in resigning with them, no team is going to give up that kind of hooch for a rental.  That’s why I just don’t see anyone in the top-6 of this year’s draft getting a deal done; Love would not resign with a single one of them.

If this scenario plays out like the past few small-market defections, Love will provide a short list of teams he would resign with, and the Wolves will be forced to negotiate with those teams for the best deal.  So, assuming Minnesota can’t get the type of pick protection they want from a team, could an offer of Parsons (at, say, $11 mill.), Terrence Jones and a picks-package be enough to make Saunders blink?  If you recall, two years ago it was Minnesota who tried to outbid Portland for Parsons’ most comparable doppelganger, Nic Batum, when he was a restricted free agent.  ‘Sota still needs a small forward and Parsons is certainly better than having to take back David Lee or Carlos Boozer in other popular trade scenarios, although Chicago does have the Nikola Mirotic chip that could win the day.

It would be a ballsy move by Morey, matching any Parsons deal this summer and ending his love affair with a flexible cap sheet, with the intention of trading him for the most (realistically) sought-after player in the league right now.  But the Wolves would never have a shot at a guy like Parsons in free agency, and with the ink still drying on his contract, he would have no choice but to report and hope Ricky Rubio finally figures it out.

Then again, Daryl Morey might have something else up his sleeve.  Maybe he just keeps Parsons outright and uses his remaining budget to strengthen the bench; let the James Harden/Dwight Howard experiment breathe a little before making anymore major moves. Or, Rajon Rondo, Dirk Nowitzki and Kyrie Irving among others could be had either this summer or in the next 12 months.

Signing Parsons without Melo or Love in tow would cramp the Rockets’ cap sheet and hinder future movement, but if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that Morey is always thinking two moves ahead.  The man’s got a plan.

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