The Pocket Rockets VS Milwaukee Roadkill

[90sAllDecade]

They need to shake this off, chalk it up and focus on practicing to beat Orlando. I hope they don't let this affect them and the coaches get them mentally strong to beat the Magic.

We're still above .500 and the other teams have been losing too (luckily). One game (granted a **** up game), but if we win the next and take advantage of our spread out schedule it won't matter hopefully.

[90sAllDecade]

Yes, he has knee contusion that he aggravated earlier in the game.
That should be the more reason he should have share the ball in close game such as this.
If there was some type of ball movements and he uses his one and only "powering towards basket move" then I have no problem but all of those 4 shots came from the arc running towards the basket with limited ball movement in same predictable manner which cost us the game.

If the other team knows he's hurt and he can't get separation because he's injured how well can he draw coverage to kick it out?

No one else was hitting threes or creating their own shots. Parsons was bricking free throws, Delfino wasn't hitting anything. We also lost the game much earlier when we blew a 17 point lead.

Everyone has the right to their opinion, but I put this on our defense, lack of free throw and three point shooting.

[TMACFORMVP]

^
Yep. This game was lost much earlier.

[panarama]

Yes, he has knee contusion that he aggravated earlier in the game.
That should be the more reason he should have share the ball in close game such as this.
If there was some type of ball movements and he uses his one and only "powering towards basket move" then I have no problem but all of those 4 shots came from the arc running towards the basket with limited ball movement in same predictable manner which cost us the game.

If the other team knows he's hurt and he can't get separation because he's injured how well can he draw coverage to kick it out?

No one else was hitting threes or creating their own shots. Parsons was bricking free throws, Delfino wasn't hitting anything. We also lost the game much earlier when we blew a 17 point lead.

Everyone has the right to their opinion, but I put this on our defense, lack of free throw and three point shooting.

The Rockets is a weak defense team to began with especially Patrick Patterson is gone and it's not like Bucks were playing any better defense than us today to begin with.
This wasn't the first game that I had this observation about Harden this season.
I understand he is our go to guy but he is too predictable with his one and only power drive to the basket move from the circle without any ball movements late in the game.
We are successful because we play team basketball not rely on an isolation play with one predictable move that by now all the players in NBA can easily defend especially late in a close game.

Anyway, our team struggle evenly for sure but I hope if he wants to take over the game at the end of close game all by himself since others also were struggling like you said then I think he should at least create moves other than all so predictable top of the key straight to the basket move.

[Guy986]

No we are successful because of the drive and kick game.

The drive and kick game works because we have James Harden. Asik's job is to rebound and make the occassional layup. Everybody else's job is to space the floor.

Statistically the James Harden drive is our most productive and effective play. If Harden misses a layup its just part of basketball. I'll take a James Harden layup at the rim over any shot you can generate in the game. ANY SHOT. Now stfu.

[panarama]

No we are successful because of the drive and kick game.

The drive and kick game works because we have James Harden. Asik's job is to rebound and make the occassional layup. Everybody else's job is to space the floor.

Statistically the James Harden drive is our most productive and effective play. If Harden misses a layup its just part of basketball. I'll take a James Harden layup at the rim over any shot you can generate in the game. ANY SHOT. Now stfu.

Drive and Kick is a part of team game.
The last four possession we had didn't even have proper spacing nor drive and kick back.
It was again all predictable Harden run straight to the basket from the arc hoping for miracle shots with two or more defenders guarding him at all time which cost us the game today.

[rockmanslim]

Rockets have adopted "play not to lose" as their strategy judging from the last two games.

This game and Washington could be very costly.

Fire Kubiak!

I blame Schaub.

[Guy986]

Back to Harden: Houston is scoring 1.51 points per possession on trips in which he drives at any time in the shot clock. That is easily the highest mark among all players in the 15-team database with more than a token number of drives. It is a mammoth number; keep in mind, teams average just about one point per possession overall. Harden has drawn a foul on one-third of his drives, which is among the highest numbers in the data set, and sort of amazing when you think about it.

http://www.thedreamshake.com/2013/2/8/3 ... -grantland

He makes 1.50 points per possession on each drive to the rim. He gets fouled on one -third of his drives. He makes 86% of his FT.

When defense collapse on Harden, he kicks it out to open 3 pt shooters. We dont have a better play than a James Harden drive to the rim.

Thats why why Jeremy Lin drives to the rim and misses. I never fault him for that. He's not nearly as good a finisher as Harden but you can never blame someone for making a strong play at the rim.


If he misses layups he misses layups. Its just part of basketball.

[panarama]

His efficiency rating is phenomenal when he drives to the basket when he is in transition.
But the scouting is out and his predictable driving to the basket from the arc without having other players involve can be use against us in the close game such as today.
We are fortunate to have such player in our team but his style of play in close game is an achilles heel in the long run if he doesn't involve other players by kicking out the ball when guarded by 2 or more defenders or have others create for him to drive since his move is so predictable.
And technically on the last 4 possessions those weren't layups. He was trying to shoot over two or more defender all by himself without kicking the ball out to other open teammates.

[madbucky]

parsons slacked on defense for just a split second and gave ellis enough space to shoot.

Parson was admiring Lin.

Can't blame Parsons for a split second of lapsed defense when the entire team (minus the Judge) did everything that they could to ensure that they would not win.

No, definitely not blaming the loss on Parsons.

In fact, I blame Lin, because had Lin not smothered Jennings, Jennings would have taken the last second shot and missed of course. =)

[MaxRider]

san antonio lost at home to phoenix :/
don't underestimate phoenix
on paper we look like we have an easy schedule
but it's actually not
we are not as good as our record show
march doesn't look easy at all

[TMU]

So, no one wants to talk about how horrendous this team was on defense? It's catching up to this team.

Congrats to the Brick Bros for shooting lights out against one of the worst defensive teams in the league.

[TMACFORMVP]

Yeah, Monta picked apart our "defense" like it was nothing. Almost everything that happened in that quarter was a result of Monta either getting the assist, or creating a shot for himself. Then consider we couldn't grab a damn rebound in the final minutes to save our life, this game wasn't even lost in our offensive execution down the stretch. We had a 6 point lead with 3 minutes left, that comes down to getting defensive stops, and rebounding the ball...neither of which we did tonight.

You know what though? I'm not even mad. I'm getting used to this sort of disappointment. I think today is the first day I haven't been as depressed as I usually have after a Rockets loss because the reality is that us choking is inevitable. This marks the 15th game we've in some way given the game away, whether it'd be underestimating an opponent, giving up a big lead (this one primarily), or missing FT's, making bone headed decisions, you name it, we've lost that way.

[panarama]

Yeah, Monta picked apart our "defense" like it was nothing. Almost everything that happened in that quarter was a result of Monta either getting the assist, or creating a shot for himself. Then consider we couldn't grab a damn rebound in the final minutes to save our life, this game wasn't even lost in our offensive execution down the stretch. We had a 6 point lead with 3 minutes left, that comes down to getting defensive stops, and rebounding the ball...neither of which we did tonight.

You know what though? I'm not even mad. I'm getting used to this sort of disappointment. I think today is the first day I haven't been as depressed as I usually have after a Rockets loss because the reality is that us choking is inevitable. This marks the 15th game we've in some way given the game away, whether it'd be underestimating an opponent, giving up a big lead (this one primarily), or missing FT's, making bone headed decisions, you name it, we've lost that way.

I'm not even surprised how we play our defense today since we have no interior defenders who are feared by other teams. Only thing that's going for us in defensive end is our help defense which we did poorly today. No matter how well we play our defense with players that we have now, we are not going no where deep into the playoffs unless we have some dedicated players who are known for their defense capability. As for today, of course we could've won if we play lock down defense but we could've easily won with our offensive capability. Overall, the Bucks played worst defense than us and won the game due to our bone headed play down the stretch in offensive end.

[jwise44]

Rockets have adopted "play not to lose" as their strategy judging from the last two games.

This game and Washington could be very costly.

Fire Kubiak!

I blame Schaub.

Harden needs another receiver

[inquisitive]

san antonio lost at home to phoenix :/
don't underestimate phoenix
on paper we look like we have an easy schedule
but it's actually not
we are not as good as our record show
march doesn't look easy at all

i think with our somewhat different look, no game is gonna be easy....DMO needs a few more games under his belt...same for TRob, etc... just got to take it one at a time. No doubt that if we hadn't made the trade, we would definitely be in the playoffs, but we had to do it. we might experience some bumps now, but i think we should be fine tomorrow against the Magic.

[moofs]

His efficiency rating is phenomenal when he drives to the basket when he is in transition.
But the scouting is out and his predictable driving to the basket from the arc without having other players involve can be use against us in the close game such as today.
We are fortunate to have such player in our team but his style of play in close game is an achilles heel in the long run if he doesn't involve other players by kicking out the ball when guarded by 2 or more defenders or have others create for him to drive since his move is so predictable.
And technically on the last 4 possessions those weren't layups. He was trying to shoot over two or more defender all by himself without kicking the ball out to other open teammates.

I think the big problem with the play is that it's really our ONLY truly efficient option that we have as a go-to. Our other is 3P shooting. Relying on that doesn't work consistently (duh).

If we got a true 2-way post presence, I think a) we're almost going to have to give up Asik b) we'll be deadly if we can pull it off with most of our current cast within 3-4 years.
Omer's close to a 2-way post player, and might even be able to get there, but he's not there yet.

Now to just find a 2-way post player. You suppose the Spurs are trading Duncan and a lifetime supply of geritol?

[spolgar]

With Harden, he made a few bone headed plays last night. Of those 7 turnovers, more than a few of them were avoidable. It's not really indicative of anything, however. A lot of players who have just improved to superstar status will sometimes forget to play within themselves. It doesn't take long for them to move on from the incident as they figure it out.

But the rest of the team should share culpability as well. TRob looked horrible. Motie is great on the offensive end, but not so much otherwise.

For Harden's game to be the most effective, the rest of the guys have to be good at spacing the floor. We shot a pedestrian 30% from 3 last night, and it was much worse than that before the 4th quarter. Add on the banging of Harden's knees, and our drive and kick game suffered.

If there is any one player culpable for losing a game, normalized against their usage rate and minutes, Harden would rank as one of the least frequent super stars to do so. Even the Heat lose at home, it's not the end of the world.

There are good things to take away though:
Motie is better than advertised. He needs work on defense, especially on moving his feet quicker, but he's gonna be good.

Patrick Beverly is a ridiculous on the ball defender. He has absolutely no fear and he comes across as mean. He will set picks on centers. Is it just me or does he look wiry as hell?

[Zubby]

i think with our somewhat different look, no game is gonna be easy....DMO needs a few more games under his belt...same for TRob, etc... just got to take it one at a time. No doubt that if we hadn't made the trade, we would definitely be in the playoffs, but we had to do it. we might experience some bumps now, but i think we should be fine tomorrow against the Magic.

No we didn't have to do the trade, we could of just kept Patterson and have Dmo split time with him.
Being "fine" against the Magic means nothing... that team is the worst in the league right now.

Patrick Beverly is a ridiculous on the ball defender. He has absolutely no fear and he comes across as mean. He will set picks on centers. Is it just me or does he look wiry as hell?

Bev is just nasty he **** on everyone... except for Monta Ellis, I mean Bev was all over him and I fell like Ellis was still draining everything.