Around the NBA part 2

[SelbyCobra]

Kyrie Irving is so serious. Damn.

[Butch718]

Ken Berger ‏@KBergCBS

Kevin Love has refractured his right hand and will be examined in New York later this week, the Timberwolves announce.

That hand hasn't been right all year. Even when he came back. Just look at his shooting percentages. Love is nowhere close to being that bad.

[GettinitDone]

^^You know you can score when you score 30 pts and barely break a sweat. It looks so easy for him. He's unstoppable and he's only in his second year.

[sirdeadcat]

^^You know you can score when you score 30 pts and barely break a sweat. It looks so easy for him. He's unstoppable and he's only in his second year.

He took twenty something shots. I wouldn't call that barely break a sweat.

[ibraheim718]

Rocekts with win number 19.. even I'm a little surprised.

Oops.. my bad win #20.

[JustaKnickFan]

I wonder if Kyrie will eventually want out of Cleveland....

[Wolfgang]

Rockets with win #20. Lin had a good game and Harden recovered big time in the 4th after stinking it up prior.

[Thugger HBC]

The Spurs dont have to take it out on the Sixers like that.

They have to have the worst offense in the entire league.

[dreamer3kx]

Rocekts with win number 19.. even I'm a little surprised.

Yea Harden has been a absolute beast over there, they are also hurting teams with their fast pace style.

[ibraheim718]

Since I've only really been watching nationally televised games I haven't seen Golden State play.. who is tuning in to GSW-LAC? I think I'll give the eyes a little strain and watch the game.

[GettinitDone]

Rocekts with win number 19.. even I'm a little surprised.

Oops.. my bad win #20.

Watch Rox games and you know aside of Harden's scoring forte, Toney/ Delfino's outside shooting, Asik's quietly impactful interior offense, Parsons' all around game, and their running game, it's Lin who architects their spacing and unselfish ball movement. As soon as Lin passes the ball to a teammate, he moves away from him to give him room to operate. You see the Rockets have excellent spacing and excellent both player and ball movement when Lin's on the floor. Toney has been great for them this year, but when he's on floor (and Lin on bench) the spacing and player without the ball movement is not as crisp.

For a player in his third year (really his second year), Lin reads the game extremely well offensively and defensively. He knows where to be at all times. If you play for the Rox, you have the ball and you're trapped, you can be sure that Lin is going to be "open" for you to pass the ball.

The way the Rockets are playing is like Duke/ Coach K's system now, they're playing without the diva attitude that comes from millionaires/ millionaire lifestyle, they play together, they trust one another, they know their roles, they pass the ball fully trusting they'd get it back when open. They accept they win/succeed together, they lose/fail together. For the youngest team in the L, it's pretty damn impressive... it's a feat that some of 10 year vets in this L still don't understand because they'd been playing one-on-one basketball their whole life and almost exclusively rely on their talent alone (as opposed to teamwork) to succeed.

Celebrating a team's success is a lot more rewarding than personal success. Lin is in the middle of everything. Not convinced this is Lin's doing? Earlier in the year, the Rox coaching staff heavily ran iso Harden (with Lin giving the ball to Harden almost every possession) and they lost many games. Then Lin had a breakout game against Knicks and ever since, the Rockets wanted him to have the ball more and they have been successful racking up wins. It's also similar when Lin was in New York when we blew out teams under Woody, Lin was the guy setting the tempo early in first quarter of those games. Our ball movement, spacing, and player movement were fluid and smooth... just like the Rockets' offense nowadays.

Lin, our last ray of hope of "playing the right way" that we let go. When Coach K said "playing for innocence", this is it. It's everything Lin embodies and gives to a team.

[Butch718]

What do you mean he was our last ray or hope of "playing the right way" that we let go? You mean a team that's 23-10 isn't playing the right way? I like Lin and wish him well, but that has to be the biggest load of over-romanticized crap that I've seen in a while. He's a 12 and 6 player with upside. The way you make it sound he's the second coming of Jason Kidd. Sure he's a part of their recent success, but you sensationalized it to the point of making it seem like he's the heart and soul of that team. Fact of the matter is Houston just found their groove and have a ton of young players that play an exciting brand of uptempo basketball.

[ibraheim718]

All I do is go out and get me a little chips and salsa and it's 35-12??? WTF?

[Butch718]

Clips are nasty this year. That's the team that Antoni wishes he was coaching.

[ibraheim718]

Clips are nasty this year. That's the team that Antoni wishes he was coaching.

They get on my nerves a little bit though... I wouldn't mind seeing like a Memphis-Clip playoff rematch with Memphis winning this time.

[ibraheim718]

Oh! I used to love to kiss the window like Curry did there...

[Butch718]

I like the way they play. I just hate the way Griffen flops trying to sell calls. A player that talented and athletic shouldn't have to resort to bitch tactics.

[GettinitDone]

What do you mean he was our last ray or hope of "playing the right way" that we let go? You mean a team that's 23-10 isn't playing the right way? I like Lin and wish him well, but that has to be the biggest load of over-romanticized crap that I've seen in a while. He's a 12 and 6 player with upside. The way you make it sound he's the second coming of Jason Kidd. Sure he's a part of their recent success, but you sensationalized it to the point of making it seem like he's the heart and soul of that team. Fact of the matter is Houston just found their groove and have a ton of young players that play an exciting brand of uptempo basketball.

We're 23-10 because we played the right way in most of those wins, but we still have players who tend to take matters into their own hands/ having personal agendas when things do not go their way, like Felton among league leaders at PG position in shot attempts, like Tyson not contesting shots, like Melo scoring 40-45 getting further from the system we played early in the year when we shared the wealth effortlessly.

The key to Rockets playing uptempo basketball is because they always make sure the open man has the ball, and it all started way back in November when "Lin was struggling big time" when all he did was setting the tempo/ standard that unselfish ball is the way they have to play. When he exploded for 38 pts in Spurs game, it kinda clicked for them, now they know Lin chooses to sacrifice his own scoring for the sake of ball-sharing, player-movement. The point here is Lin took initiative to sacrifice for the team, and when it's "proven" that iso-Harden (if you re-watched Rockets games in November you'd see they hardly ran) was not working for the team, and when his teammates saw for themselves what Lin was capable of doing (38 pts vs Spurs) they understand first hand what "sacrifice" means, how to do it, and why. This stuff does not show on Lin's mere regular season stats of "12 and 6". It's uncoachable. You'd think George Karl's all-time favorite player is his own superstar he coached like Shawn Kemp or Payton or Melo, but it was Nate McMillan. Some things that are really valuable don't show in stat sheets. The Rockets would not have won their previous 2 games without Lin even when he scored only single-digits in both, because of the team defense, spacing, and timely assists he provided late in those games.

I'm just saying the last ray of hope is the fact that if we still had Lin, his unselfish brand of basketball, personality, easily would have eliminated all the remaining personal agendas our team often still has in dire of moments/ in face of adversity.

[ibraheim718]

Lin with another stinker. Where's Bill Bradley with his "upward trajectory"?

Him and Ibraheim only come around when he does well. So you will see them again in a month or so when Lin plays well for 3-4 games saying "see we gave up a gem". Lin will then go back to his usually scrubness and they will be nowhere to be found.

It is actually quite sad.

You not getting the attention you need at home? Need me to lay you down and tuck you in?

[Thugger HBC]

I loved Lin here as well, but I've never seen an "unselfish" champion, and a team that hasn't even incurred a three game losing streak couldn't possibly have adversity.

I do wanna see what those guys do when they have to play more games against the West.

My most impressed player on the Rockets has been Chandler Parsons.

Cheap contract, huge production, and statistically is the second best player on the team.