15 replies to this topic

[Red94]

New post: Houston Rockets @ Washington Wizards on 2/23/13

[Rahat Huq]

Motiejunas had some really nice moments in the third.

[Sir Thursday]

Man, I wish I hadn't been right about this being a trap game .

On the plus side, Motiejunas and Beverley both had excellent games. They both have a kind of gangly energy to them that's really fun to watch.

ST

[feelingsupersonic]

The back end of a back to back with about 7 players (some playing too many minutes, some with little experience, and some out of position) by the end of the game will always be a loss.

Motiejunas is the silver lining here, I think he could be the second best player but even if he improves quickly he will have some stinkers.

[Red94]

New post: Washington Wizards 105, Houston Rockets 103: Having big men can be fairly useful.

[Jeby]

ST is so right. Everytime I thought of this game yesterday, Admiral Ackbar popped into my head... http://m.youtube.com...h?v=piVnArp9ZE0
Can't take it too hard though. We thought we'd lose to OKC and beat the Wiz, but it just ended up the other way around. Still looks the same in the standings.

[amacbrooks12]

I know it was a back-to-back game and we are missing players, but this is the type of game we HAVE TO WIN no matter what. We can't be giving away games to teams well under .500 with just about 25 games left of the season. We have a very favorable schedule coming up for us and we have to take advantage if we want to make the playoffs.

[thejohnnygold]

I don't feel bad about this loss. There were just too many hurdles to clear....the fact that we almost won it is impressive to me. It's gonna be a bumpy ride the rest of the way with all the kids learning how to defend....at this point, trial by fire is the only way to go.

[thenit]

Lin had a terrible game. Usually I think he is a decent one on one defender, but can't handle shooting pgs due to going under on screens. Today he just looked like he lacked energy on both ends of the floor. He settled for jump shots and I don't recall him attacking the rim more than a couple of times. Whether that was because of the Nene and Okafor or just lack of energy I'm not sure.

Even Harden looked a little tired, even though he got 27 points he took a lot of 3s and jumpers instead of driving to the rim. 4 FA is low for his standard, but when your best player has a low energy game and can still put up 27p, and thats a bad game, you kind of accept it. The main reason we did have a fairly big lead was due to Parson's hot 1st half, but once he cooled down we didn't really have someone to bring the team home with the win.

Beverley played well off the bench and I usually want Lin to finish the 4th and play through his struggles for experience, today it was the right call by Mchale, do ride beverley and brought some energy to a tired rockets team. It was a winnable game, but with a short bench and back-back and 3games in 4 days with only 4 subs really, I'm happy with 2 wins out of 3. hopefully the new players will be ready to go next game.

[rockets best fan]

I really don't like whinning about officials, but this was the worse I have seen this year. I could swear washington hired them personally for this game. felt like we were in utah of something harden couldn't get a call and at the same time wall was being treated like lebron. I don't care how they call the game just call it that way on both ends. that clearly didn't happen in this game. if it wasn't for the officials this game would have been a blowout

[Sir Thursday]

thenit, on 24 February 2013 - 04:58 PM, said:

Lin had a terrible game. Usually I think he is a decent one on one defender, but can't handle shooting pgs due to going under on screens. Today he just looked like he lacked energy on both ends of the floor. He settled for jump shots and I don't recall him attacking the rim more than a couple of times. Whether that was because of the Nene and Okafor or just lack of energy I'm not sure.

As the recap mentions, Lin was suffering with a cold last night, which was definitely sapping his energy. I thought something might be up when he was subbed out earlier than I expected in the first, and it was noticeable that whenever he was running the break he just couldn't get the speed up to breakaway from the defence.

I heard somewhere (Feigen, I think?) that Parsons was also struggling a bit, although you wouldn't know it given his first half performance.

ST

[sircharles]

with wall back washington really isnt a bad team, i knew it would be a close game.

[tombrokeoff]

we were up 17 early. we should have never let washington get back in this one. the fact that all we took were outside shots for a good stretch late in the game was upsetting to me. no excuses rockets should have handled this team.

[feelingsupersonic]

I think the high amount of outside shots was a direct result of fatigue. If this team had some defense to it then yes I would have expected a win after the offense faltered despite playing with about 7 players but this team is not known for it's defense so there we go. It's the NBA gentlemen, you are going to lose some games like this. At least we got the OKC win so we are where we should be since the break or for February. The team has a good 3 days between games so lets see what happens Wednesday.

(I do like the 'we have to win no matter what' attitude that amacbrooks wrote about above and I think Harden and the Rockets showed that they have that in the OKC game.)

[ale11]

Ariza played like it wasn't him but someone else wearing #1 in Washington. But it's true, Wall makes this team so much better. I'm not saying they truly have a chance of making the playoffs but only because they really fell behind without him.

It's also true that Wall got some calls that Harden didn't at the other end and that shifted the balance slightly to them. Let's not forget that Beal got a crucial rebound....why was Asik with him instead of anybody else???? The rebound fell to the other side and both Parsons and Delfino were worried about boxing out their man instead of getting the rebound themselves, of course Beal is gonna run faster than Asik, that's miscommunication!

 

I know we had some excuses, but we can't lose this game. I mean, in paper, you can lose any given game, but not when you were up by 17 in the first half!

[thejohnnygold]

I disagree slightly with amacbrooks, this was most definitely a game we "could" lose.  We don't match up well with them---especially with the PF issue...but before that too--and their coach implemented a good game plan that we had no answer for except to make 3's.  We didn't make enough.  If we want to point at anything that let this game get away...how about the 3 ghost passes in the fourth quarter (2 of which were back to back) combined with the abundance of offensive fouls....too many sloppy turnovers.  The Rockets played poorly as a team and still barely lost.  I'll take that as a positive.  And for anyone who doubts it, Washington (with Wall) is one of the best teams in the East right now.  Except for Ariza, their starting 5 are all draft lottery players.