86 replies to this topic

[miketheodio]

Wow, let the bloodbath begin.

 

"Off with their heads!"  This was Lewis Carroll pointing out the reactionary/irrational nature of humanity.  The whole time the "little king" is following behind her quietly suggesting that she stop and think/consider for a moment, but in her rage she hears nothing and continues with her demands for blood.  Someone must be held accountable for my displeasure!!!!!!

 

I am not looking forward to this being our forums for the coming months.  I will understand, but perhaps people will at least consider listening to that other little voice in their heads for a bit.

 

Nobody likes what is happening in this series.  Yet, to presume change would exercise some kind of control over the situation and produce a different result is as nutty as the idea that repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result is wise.  Life happens and we are 2 games into a way-off-script playoff series.

 

What is McHale supposed to do?  "James, how about you start making some of those shots, huh?  You too Chandler!"  "Omer, if you could just rip Aldridge's arms off at the shoulder I think we can slow him down a bit."  "Guys, you can't let Dorrell Wright pick a pass up off his shoelaces and go directly into a contested, buzzer-beating 3 pointer!"  "Yeah, if you guys could make it more obvious who touches the ball last before it goes out of bounds that would be great too...."

 

Things are ugly right now and I know people are frustrated.  Let's try and wait until the series ends before the executioners come out.

i respect the attempt to bring things down to earth, but it does feel a little too complacent. After the first game, we were thinking "LMA wont do it again, harden will pick it up". game 2 was the same story. I don't know if I read your statement incorrectly, but I don't get any sense of accountability if current patterns don't change. There has to be SOME accountability if the rockets get bounced in the 1st round. no major changes from the top would be inexcusable. i might not even mind losing if the team showed some heart. some amount of passion and intensity (we love the 2009 rocket story). maybe the lackadaisicalness can be personified in mchales "we need to play harder". a generic statement without any passion. where is the kobe/jordan "refuse to lose" mentality. failure at this level should hit you at the core and light some kind of fire. didn't get a sense of that from the team in the post game generally speaking.

 

you are right though. what can mchale do at this point in the season? bust out a playbook and have his old celtic friends come in for motivation a la Little Giants movie? yeah right... but this points to a fundamental problem with the rockets system. the problem with the freelance offense. the lack of structure. mchale hasn't really reigned in the bad habits. blowing double digit leads. periods of time where the defense disappears. the amount of low IQ plays on offense. 4th quarter offensive collapses. no discipline. this existed last year as well.

 

i think people overplay the midrange shot argument. it is definitely needed, but i think the freestyle offense is the bigger issue. adding midrange to the free lance offense doesn't feel like it would do much of anything. people will make the argument that we don't have the personnel for it. while true, you can also try to develop players and the system (through a playbook) to improve in that area. i don't think it can be ignored any longer. the mid range is required in the playoffs.

 

it's the lack of heart and problems at the core of the rocket's system that cause my hope to leak like fuel in a punctured fuel pump.

 

on the bright side. after all the apprehension about dwight prior to this season. questioning his heart. he has really impressed me. he demanded the ball and improved his game due to his will. while i think they overfed him, at least he showed he wanted it. not a big fan of lin either, but it didn't look like he quit last night. he had faults in his game, but at least he was trying. parsons and harden really let me down.

[Cooper]

I'm not a Lin fan but to focus on Lin's bad foul is irrelevant compared to all the Horrid errors james has made. Chucking up contested shots that can't hit the side of a barn, running into several defenders trying to get fouled and just turn it over, ball hogging and killing the offense, and finally defense just like losing Matthews to the point where he is on the other side of the court in CRUNCH time for an easy dunk (I was screaming at my television).We have been far to lenient on mchale and harden. I'm going to have to have a far better mchale rant later. One more thing, should we be worried of the continuing pattern of harden choking in the post season? This has not been the first or second time and Dwight can't carry this team.Might also need to re-analysis that rondo trade in the offseason with parsons growing inconsistency and arrogance (You don't declare yourself the best in a playoff series period).

Lin was the best perimeter player yesterday hard to blame him too much for the loss. While he's been awful this year Harden played well last year against okc, I woudlnt label him a choker just yet.

[txtdo1411]

I'm not a Lin fan but to focus on Lin's bad foul is irrelevant compared to all the Horrid errors james has made. Chucking up contested shots that can't hit the side of a barn, running into several defenders trying to get fouled and just turn it over, ball hogging and killing the offense, and finally defense just like losing Matthews to the point where he is on the other side of the court in CRUNCH time for an easy dunk (I was screaming at my television).We have been far to lenient on mchale and harden. I'm going to have to have a far better mchale rant later. One more thing, should we be worried of the continuing pattern of harden choking in the post season? This has not been the first or second time and Dwight can't carry this team.Might also need to re-analysis that rondo trade in the offseason with parsons growing inconsistency and arrogance (You don't declare yourself the best in a playoff series period).

 

On that Matthews play I believe McHale said that James was supposed to be up to trap Portland when they inbounded the ball, and the responsibility to get back was on Dwight. If you watch the replay Bev was waving Lin and Harden to pressure. James' defense hasn't been terrible. It is his offense that has been atrocious. Matthews has been much much quieter than I thought he would be at the beginning of this series. Last night he was 4-11 with 9 points. I am not at all excusing Harden for his horrid performance so far, but I also think all the knee-jerk reaction about him today is quite frustrating. As a team, our shooting has been pathetic. Nobody has been able to hit from outside. Harden was 2-5 from 3 last night. The rest of the team was 1-11! I understand we are all frustrated because things are not going the way we originally expected, and our star is not playing near the level he should be, but I am more disappointed with the reaction of our fan base then the damn team. Be pissed, be angry, be frustrated, but don't lose all logic. 

[thejohnnygold]

Two things...

 

1. please format your stats people.  It takes 10 seconds to use the space bar and enter key.

 

2.

[miketheodio]

rockets could potentially 3 ball their way out of this series, yet being THAT reliant on 3s doesn't comfort me one bit.

Edited by miketheodio, 24 April 2014 - 07:59 PM.

[timetodienow1234567]

As soon as I saw a mchale/kubiak comparison I knew that sentiment had changed in regards to mchale. Of course if we come back and win this series we will have mchale for another year.

[txtdo1411]

rockets could potentially 3 ball their way out of this series, yet being THAT reliant on 3s doesn't comfort me one bit.

 

I despise this completely false "reliant on 3s" statement... We have shot a putrid 20% from 3 and lost 2 games by a combined 9 points. If we shot anywhere near just league average, it is a completely different story. If we were truly reliant on 3s, we would've lost both games by 10+ points because of how awfully we have been shooting them. That being said, it would definitely help to make one here and there. 

[miketheodio]

I despise this completely false "reliant on 3s" statement... We have shot a putrid 20% from 3 and lost 2 games by a combined 9 points. If we shot anywhere near just league average, it is a completely different story. If we were truly reliant on 3s, we would've lost both games by 10+ points because of how awfully we have been shooting them. That being said, it would definitely help to make one here and there. 

 

i get it the sentiment. but that is the only way the rockets stand a chance which is sad. you cant depend on having to shoot the ball well from 3 to win a 7 game series. look at the games the rockets won in OKC last year. harden's 7-7 from 3 game. im not opposed to 3s. im opposed to the way we get them. it's like going into a boxing match and people saying the boxer has a punchers chance. id rather be a tactical boxer like floyd mayweather.

[timetodienow1234567]

I want wide open corner threes rather than a step back covered three at the least efficient spot at the court.

[txtdo1411]

i get it the sentiment. but that is the only way the rockets stand a chance which is sad. you cant depend on having to shoot the ball well from 3 to win a 7 game series. look at the games the rockets won in OKC last year. harden's 7-7 from 3 game. im not opposed to 3s. im opposed to the way we get them. it's like going into a boxing match and people saying the boxer has a punchers chance. id rather be a tactical boxer like floyd mayweather.

 

That's what I am trying to say though. We don't have to shoot the 3 well to win a series. We just have to shoot it better than awful. Keep in mind league average is somewhere in the mid 30% range. That is average. Shooting it well would be 38%+. We are shooting a hair over 20% for the series. That is nowhere near average, and even further away from being considered well. 

 

TTDN I do agree with you to an extent. I specifically remember missing 3 open corner threes last night. I also counted 7 threes that didn't fall that I myself would consider good looks. Harden has proven to be pretty good at the dribble up top of the key three, so I don't really consider that a good or bad look. 

[Buckko]

As soon as I saw a mchale/kubiak comparison I knew that sentiment had changed in regards to mchale. Of course if we come back and win this series we will have mchale for another year.

There were a few things here and there, over the season that irratated me about Mchale, but this complete failure by the coach in the playoffs is not tolerable. No way is mchale on Kubiack's level of bad but they both suffer the same problem of not making adjustments and now with all the issues piling up, losing the first two at home, and running a 7 man rotation has brought most to the breaking point. He is not championship caliber coach and the only way the 2013-2014 rockets become the fourth team in history from losing the first 2 at home is an absolutely ungodly performance by the individual players and LA having atleast under 30pts a night. Either way, win or lose, Mchale has to go.

[Steven]

The series is over. Fire McHale, sign Melo and lets start next season already.

[thenit]

That's what I am trying to say though. We don't have to shoot the 3 well to win a series. We just have to shoot it better than awful. Keep in mind league average is somewhere in the mid 30% range. That is average. Shooting it well would be 38%+. We are shooting a hair over 20% for the series. That is nowhere near average, and even further away from being considered well. 

 

TTDN I do agree with you to an extent. I specifically remember missing 3 open corner threes last night. I also counted 7 threes that didn't fall that I myself would consider good looks. Harden has proven to be pretty good at the dribble up top of the key three, so I don't really consider that a good or bad look. 

2 of those 3s on top of the key, Harden didn't even try to make the shot, off balance flailing trying to get a foul, at least try to make it. One of the guy Matthews got stuck on the pick and it just looked awful Harden doing his slight neckflip hoping for the contact.

[webattorney]

You are a masochist if you watch that again....   In my opinion, the only thing worth watching is Aldridge being amazingly good.

 

I don't want anyone to think I'm being anti-Lin so I will repeat what I said elsewhere.  I thought Lin played well on defense last night (outside of that play) and while his 1-5 shooting looked bad he was one of the only players who looked aggressive against Portland's D.

 

Your assessment is fair.  I am a Lin fan (an objective one), and I feel the same way.  He should not have fouled Lillard unless McHale told him to specifically foul Lillard.  Moreover, he should have shot a 3 with less than 25 secs remaining instead of dribbling into the paint and trying to make a pass or look for a 2 points shot.  However, Lin is not the reason why Rockets lost, obviously, although any hope of a miraculous come-back faded with Lin's bonehead plays.  Now, as you pointed out, Lin played excellent D. 

[webattorney]

LAD relied on 2s to kill Rockets.  Why is Rockets relying on 3s so much?  Philosophically, I don't believe a system that relies on 3s so much by the teams's main players can go far in playoff.  Anyway, LAD's play was fun to watch.  His mom looked so young also.  Batum, Wes, Lillard, LAD -- they all seem no-nonsense type of guys who respect each other and play as a team. 

[thenit]

The foul was just bad, but the thing with 25 seconds left he was trying to get the ball to Harden and became so indecisive. As to Rahat's post, things like that falls to the coach to not draw up a play in case Harden doesn't get the ball. The inbound play before where we basically needed a 3 we gave the ball to Howard who was fouled immediately, he did hit his 2 FTs but that's not an optimal play if you denied the ball to Harden.

 

There is a lack of set plays, where if we can't get it to Harden option 2 is X and option 3 is Y, so the inbounding player knows what to do.

On the play you mentioned Lin was waiting for Harden to get the ball, because of lack of coaching and muscle memory he was stuck in limbo instead of taking the shot or attacking the rim he just stood there waiting for Harden to get free and when he did get free it was an offensive foul. Its just poor coaching is when the ONLY play is get it to Harden he will do the rest. Several interviews during the season was that McHale didn't draw any 2nd or 3rd options just get the ball in this area for Harden and it will work out but it doesn't work like that. In the playoffs teams adjusts, like the post ups on Howard, they made the adjustment at halftime and we didn't do any on LMA.

[TheHolyBeardedOne]

This series is far from over in my mind.. Excited for Friday's game, HOPEFULLY they come to play and get the job done. 

[Freebird]

Well, I guess it's all been said.  We kinda stunk it up.

 

I agree that LMA can't sustain this, but at the same time, you don't want Lilliard or Batum to catch fire.  If dude's hot, then so be it, but throwing different looks is a reliable way of unsettling a shooter.

 

I'm a bit disappointed in James' decision making.  He knew he was off, and still settled for a jumper from the stripe, rather than drive it in.  I mean, FTs are points too, and he REALLY needed some confidence.  Seeing the ball go in the hole helps immensely.

 

Has Beverley lost a half step?  He hasn't seemed himself since coming back.  Or am I imagining things again?

 

Do we have a free-form defense, as well?  There's no cohesiveness.  Helping happens, but not regularly.  Why not try a 3-2 zone, with D12 and Asik on each side of the paint, Parsons front and center, and the guards on either side?  Why does this not bother me as something to try?  I may still be imagining things.

 

Oh, and Jimmy V did NOT win that game.  Coach Lewis LOST that game.  Why the hell did he try to slow it down?  Geez.

 

I'm not calling for McHale's head, but I'm a realist.  Regardless of how I feel about him, I think this is the last we'll see of McHale.  Not because of his play style, but because of how Morey will look at him after this series.  Win or lose, methinks he's gone.  I guess Dolan beat us to the punch?

[uojoe82]

A couple things about last night:

 

1) I think the Blazers are happy with the Rockets offense centered around Howard in the post. Even though Howard was a monster in the first quarter and most of the second if it wasnt for a Beverley jumper at the buzzer the Blazers would've been ahead at half. So despite Howard looking like the Howard of old (pre  Lakers) it didn't give the Rockets any advantage (in regards to the score). Robin Lopez looked like a little boy against D12 however Lopez had a +/- of +18 last night, highest of any player. Not sure what to make of this but my opinion is that the blazers are better off with the offense going through Howard.

 

2) Lin's foul at the end of the game when down only three did seem a bit stupid. Who knows what he was told or not told in the last huddle. I give Lin the benefit of the doubt on this one because he doesnt seem like the type of player to not know the score and shot clock at any given time. Who knows. In the post game news conference no one asked McHale about it so it probably wasnt as big of a play as some on here make it out to be. 

 

3) Wesley Matthews getting behind the defense for an easy lay-up at the end of the game wasn't on Harden (surprise). The bigs were supposed to be back and the guards were supposed to trap. I do blame D12 for not fouling Matthews to stop the layup. It looked like Dwight could've stopped the layup rather than try to block it.

 

4) Harden's post game comments and body language at the end of the game are worrisome on many levels. Instead of taking accountability for himself he kept emphasizing the team needing to play better defense. Do they need to play better defense to offset your bad defense?

 

5) Beverley needs to guard Lillard once Lillard crosses mid-court, not in the back court. We all know that Beverley is tenacious but he's exerting a lot of energy on the wrong side of the court. Lillard wasn't great shooting the ball last night but he was great overall (18 points, 11 assists, 8 rebounds). 

 

6) Back to Harden. During the regular season he was great at drawing fouls, but in the playoffs you have to get fouled, not draw fouls. I've noticed he's now flailing in order to get whistles. Officials are reviewed after each game and when or if they find out they've been fooled by Harden they're going to be less apt to give him calls.

 

7) The Rockets aren't a good 3 point shooting team because they have good shooters, but because they get good looks and shoot them often. Not a single Rocket regular is a good three point shooter (good as in someone who would be invited to the three point contest). Hoping the Rockets make a barrage of threes the next game is silly.

 

8) What Aldridge is doing isn't sustainable but the Blazers offensive efficiency thus far is sustainable. You can't really double LMA because he's such a good catch and shoot shooter. He keeps the ball up high so bringing help with guards wont work and he's a pretty good passer. The Blazers were the best team in the NBA early on when teams doubled LMA. I'd rather leave Asik on him and live with Aldridge if he keeps making long contested jumpers. Both Matthews and Batum have had mediocre games so far offensively and you don't want both of them catching fire. Then you have 4 players who can go off. 

 

I dont feel good about the Rockets chances for this series. I don't think the Rockets have the intestinal fortitude to come back. They also lack the veteran leadership and the coaching. Portland at home is very tough and the Blazers are going to smell blood in the water. If the Rockets get down early the Blazers will pounce. I wouldnt be surprised if this series ends on Sunday.

Edited by uojoe82, 24 April 2014 - 10:25 PM.

[kdo]

I've been a long time lurker of this forum, and love the level of intelligence brought in much of the discussion.

 

After game 2, I just had to sign up and post:

 

McHale frustrates me to no end.

 

We kept getting hammered by the same play over and over....and over, and any average coach would have called time-out to adjust and/or at least help calm his players mentally and improve morale.

 

I was literally screaming at the screen to "call time out jackass!!!". The body language of the Houston players were so obvious.

 

/rant

 

P.S. looking forward to being more of an active poster. Cheers.