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[MartinToVaught]

Still not missing him. That free throw he made at the end to give the Warriors one last chance says it all about his composure in clutch situations.

[Quake Griffin]

Still not missing him. That free throw he made at the end to give the Warriors one last chance says it all about his composure in clutch situations.

I can imagine the GSW clock operators moving a tenth off the clock or none at all if they cleanly grabbed a rebound.

I was okay with the make.

[og15]

Still not missing him. That free throw he made at the end to give the Warriors one last chance says it all about his composure in clutch situations.

Meh, that's happened to so many players that it doesn't make sense to say that it says all, or even anything about a players clutch composure. I mean knowing he missed the first and the second now became even more important, he easily made the second because tyring to miss can mean and airball or backboard which gives the Warriors a chance to win as opposed to only a chance to tie. The rim space can fit two basketballs, the rim itself is tiny in comparison. Inentionally missing off the rim is a lot harder than people seem to think, you should go and try it. The clock doesn't start until a player touches the ball, so with the refs anticipating the timeout and GS yelling it as soon as the ball comes off, they probably still get at least 0.4 seconds which is still technically allowed for a catch and shoot, and now they can win with a three.

The whole game was a clutch game for Houston, the whole 4th quarter was basically crunch time for both Houston and GS, and Paul made a lot of big plays not just when it came to scoring, and sparked critical runs. Like I've said many times in the past, players are always more "clutch" , at least perception wise when their team can play better defense and rebound better, etc.

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Watching that game and got me thinking though, that even after concluding that Harden is better than Blake, if the Clippers had the bigger defensive minded personell that the Rockets have, we don't lose to Houston in 2015. Might still have that terrible quarter offensively, but instead of giving up 40 points, you give up, I don't know, 28 points and it's a victory. Clippers weren't the first team to have such a bad quarter, GS just had a terrible one too, but the teams thst did didn't also give up 40 points.

The Rockets are playing 6-7 guys vs GS, those 4-5 guys outside of Harden/Paul are not better simply talent wise than what the Clippers have had in the past at tines, but they are far better when it comes to length, size and defense.

Nothing new as I've said this many times before, but there's such a huge benefit to a team when you can win with both your offense and defense and the Clippers teams in their limited health window were never a team that could consistently win games on both ends. The best teams are the ones that can do that because your shot isn't always going to fall.

[MartinToVaught]

Still not missing him. That free throw he made at the end to give the Warriors one last chance says it all about his composure in clutch situations.

I can imagine the GSW clock operators moving a tenth off the clock or none at all if they cleanly grabbed a rebound.

I was okay with the make.

That's conjecture, though. Making that free throw definitely gave the Warriors one last chance.

[MartinToVaught]

Meh, that's happened to so many players that it doesn't make sense to say that it says all, or even anything about a players clutch composure.

CP3 is supposed to be smarter and savvier than most players, though, always making the right play. In that moment, the pressure seemed to get to him and he made the wrong play at the worst possible time. Fortunately for him, the Warriors failed to take advantage.

You know what last night's game reminded me of? Game 6 against the Jazz last year, when we thought we had the win on lock and then CP3 started turning it over down the stretch. We ended up winning that game anyway, just like Houston did last night, but it was scarier at the end than it needed to be.

[og15]

Meh, that's happened to so many players that it doesn't make sense to say that it says all, or even anything about a players clutch composure.

CP3 is supposed to be smarter and savvier than most players, though, always making the right play. In that moment, the pressure seemed to get to him and he made the wrong play at the worst possible time. Fortunately for him, the Warriors failed to take advantage.

You know what last night's game reminded me of? Game 6 against the Jazz last year, when we thought we had the win on lock and then CP3 started turning it over down the stretch. We ended up winning that game anyway, just like Houston did last night, but it was scarier at the end than it needed to be.

To your second part, that's what happens in basketball, that's why it is exciting, but also stressful. Those moments happen to every player, and great teams win despite those types of errors, that's why a team that truly wants to contend can't rely on one side of the court.

To your first part, I disagree, I consider making it to be the right decision. I don't think you're reading what I wrote thoroughly. If Paul missed there was a much higher chance of the Warriors getting the ball back in position to win instead of only being able to tie with the make, and as opposed to the clock running down after a rebound. You have to make the safe play which is worst case scenario they tie. The worst case scenario with missing is that you airball or hit backboard and they get the ball down 2 with the same time and can now win, or still tie with a two. Best case is an offensive rebound, though you have like a 5% chance of offensive rebound on a FT, and you don't want to risk fouls up two, and most likely scenario is Warriors rebound down 2, call timeout and have 0.4 or so seconds on the clock. He chose the right odds.

The panic move is actually the move you suggested and the one that many fans instinctively thought, "just miss and the time runs out", even read people saying just throw it at the backboard, not aware that hitting backboard without rim is a violation, no time goes off and the Warriors get a shot down 2 with 0.5 seconds.

[Quake Griffin]

Still not missing him. That free throw he made at the end to give the Warriors one last chance says it all about his composure in clutch situations.

I can imagine the GSW clock operators moving a tenth off the clock or none at all if they cleanly grabbed a rebound.

I was okay with the make.

That's conjecture, though. Making that free throw definitely gave the Warriors one last chance.

For OT.

To miss that 2nd one at that point adds the possibility of Steph, KD, and Klay hitting a GWS.
You see the look Steph got at the end?

[og15]

I can imagine the GSW clock operators moving a tenth off the clock or none at all if they cleanly grabbed a rebound.

I was okay with the make.

That's conjecture, though. Making that free throw definitely gave the Warriors one last chance.

For OT.

To miss that 2nd one at that point adds the possibility of Steph, KD, and Klay hitting a GWS.
You see the look Steph got at the end?

In those situations the teams players and coaches are calling timeout as soon as the ball is in the air, clock doesn't start until player touches the ball, there's a reaction time difference in the operator starting the clock.

The other issue is that intentional misses as we've seen through the season are quite hard and there's a risk of backboard or airball which is the worst case scenario. You have to play the odds, you can't gamble. Missing is a gamble.

[og15]

Wow, and here is what I've always argued as Paul's biggest downside, not the choking rubbish, but the fact that the man's body cannot keep up with the intensity of how he plays through a long playoff run.

[esqtvd]

Still not missing him. That free throw he made at the end to give the Warriors one last chance says it all about his composure in clutch situations.

Meh, that's happened to so many players that it doesn't make sense to say that it says all, or even anything about a players clutch composure. I mean knowing he missed the first and the second now became even more important, he easily made the second because tyring to miss can mean and airball or backboard which gives the Warriors a chance to win as opposed to only a chance to tie. The rim space can fit two basketballs, the rim itself is tiny in comparison. Inentionally missing off the rim is a lot harder than people seem to think, you should go and try it. The clock doesn't start until a player touches the ball, so with the refs anticipating the timeout and GS yelling it as soon as the ball comes off, they probably still get at least 0.4 seconds which is still technically allowed for a catch and shoot, and now they can win with a three.

The whole game was a clutch game for Houston, the whole 4th quarter was basically crunch time for both Houston and GS, and Paul made a lot of big plays not just when it came to scoring, and sparked critical runs. Like I've said many times in the past, players are always more "clutch" , at least perception wise when their team can play better defense and rebound better, etc.

-----

Watching that game and got me thinking though, that even after concluding that Harden is better than Blake, if the Clippers had the bigger defensive minded personell that the Rockets have, we don't lose to Houston in 2015. Might still have that terrible quarter offensively, but instead of giving up 40 points, you give up, I don't know, 28 points and it's a victory. Clippers weren't the first team to have such a bad quarter, GS just had a terrible one too, but the teams thst did didn't also give up 40 points.

The Rockets are playing 6-7 guys vs GS, those 4-5 guys outside of Harden/Paul are not better simply talent wise than what the Clippers have had in the past at tines, but they are far better when it comes to length, size and defense.

Nothing new as I've said this many times before, but there's such a huge benefit to a team when you can win with both your offense and defense and the Clippers teams in their limited health window were never a team that could consistently win games on both ends. The best teams are the ones that can do that because your shot isn't always going to fall.

Ace. You're onto something here. And I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but I am going to unbeat a dead horse--Doc traded 6'5" knucklehead cancer Lance Stephenson for 6'9" Jeff Green to try to shore up the SF spot.

We had Luc as the only true SF, and he's only a space-filler. The rest of the minutes would have gone to Jamal, Austin, or Lance.

that even after concluding that Harden is better than Blake

Yeah OG, but they're both 1st half players, yes? Chris is still all on his own when the chips are down.

[esqtvd]

we never had this level of devotion

this is what real fans look like

we suck, let's face it

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[og15]

Rockets added Paul to be the leader and the guy who will keep clawing and fighting. It has at least rubbed of to Harden competing on defense heavily despite his offense being off.

I wouldn't say Harden is just a first half player, but Paul is certainly carrying a lot of the second half load. The game is still 48 minutes though and you need the first half performances. If Harden doesn't show up in the first halves, they lose, but Paul wasn't expecting to just cruise to wins, he was going to have to be the best player at times still, and basically he's been doing that half of their games.

[QRich3]

While it's probably better to play alongside Harden than prime Blake, I don't think the difference is that significant between say 2015 Blake's postseason and peak Harden. There is however, a big ass difference between having Ariza, PJ Tucker and Luc at the wings, and having Jamal, Matt Barnes and 22 y-o Austin as your 4-7 men. That's the main difference between Paul's better Clippers teams and the current Rockets. That and not having the worst possible luck at the worst possible moments.

But it's been really fun to finally watch Paul being able to go toe to toe against the Warriors, hope his hamstring is ok and he can play in the next couple games to close them out.

[og15]

While it's probably better to play alongside Harden than prime Blake, I don't think the difference is that significant between say 2015 Blake's postseason and peak Harden. There is however, a big ass difference between having Ariza, PJ Tucker and Luc at the wings, and having Jamal, Matt Barnes and 22 y-o Austin as your 4-7 men. That's the main difference between Paul's better Clippers teams and the current Rockets. That and not having the worst possible luck at the worst possible moments.

But it's been really fun to finally watch Paul being able to go toe to toe against the Warriors, hope his hamstring is ok and he can play in the next couple games to close them out.

Though they haven't been able to use Mbah due to his injury, even Gordon while no great defender can play much bigger and defend better when putting his all than Redick is capable of due to physical limitations. The Clippers could never defend like this consistently. 15-16 was the closest, but they would still have had matchup / size issues, the Rockets defense has been a treat to watch.

[QRich3]

Yeah exactly, and more than anything is the ability to keep throwing long hard defenders everywhere you want to move the ball, if we had that in 2015 I have no doubt we could be talking about our first championship. Of course we were never close to having that, so it's silly to even talk about it, but I think or main core was championship quality for sure, and better than the current Rockets core. Redick can't defend like EJ but he was good enough for me in that aspect, and he offered other things. The peripheral pieces are day and night though, and that's the difference between having Morey and having Doc making personnel decisions.

Luc can't play right now but he's been huge in getting them home court advantage, and even Green is giving them good minutes now. I like that they don't even bother playing Anderson and D'antoni is basically using a 6 man rotation right now. It's a weird series and I've been enjoying all the quirks about it, hope it's not ruined by Paul's umpteenth hamstring injury.

[Akklaim1]

While it's probably better to play alongside Harden than prime Blake, I don't think the difference is that significant between say 2015 Blake's postseason and peak Harden. There is however, a big ass difference between having Ariza, PJ Tucker and Luc at the wings, and having Jamal, Matt Barnes and 22 y-o Austin as your 4-7 men. That's the main difference between Paul's better Clippers teams and the current Rockets. That and not having the worst possible luck at the worst possible moments.

But it's been really fun to finally watch Paul being able to go toe to toe against the Warriors, hope his hamstring is ok and he can play in the next couple games to close them out.

Though they haven't been able to use Mbah due to his injury, even Gordon while no great defender can play much bigger and defend better when putting his all than Redick is capable of due to physical limitations. The Clippers could never defend like this consistently. 15-16 was the closest, but they would still have had matchup / size issues, the Rockets defense has been a treat to watch.

I think our 2014 team was better than the 2015 team. I'd say our chances at the chip were taken away in 2014. We had a better chance at beating the Spurs in 2014 than beating the Warriors in 2015. So the chokejob against OKC hurt more than the one the next year against Houston IMO.

[og15]

While it's probably better to play alongside Harden than prime Blake, I don't think the difference is that significant between say 2015 Blake's postseason and peak Harden. There is however, a big ass difference between having Ariza, PJ Tucker and Luc at the wings, and having Jamal, Matt Barnes and 22 y-o Austin as your 4-7 men. That's the main difference between Paul's better Clippers teams and the current Rockets. That and not having the worst possible luck at the worst possible moments.

But it's been really fun to finally watch Paul being able to go toe to toe against the Warriors, hope his hamstring is ok and he can play in the next couple games to close them out.

Though they haven't been able to use Mbah due to his injury, even Gordon while no great defender can play much bigger and defend better when putting his all than Redick is capable of due to physical limitations. The Clippers could never defend like this consistently. 15-16 was the closest, but they would still have had matchup / size issues, the Rockets defense has been a treat to watch.

I think our 2014 team was better than the 2015 team. I'd say our chances at the chip were taken away in 2014. We had a better chance at beating the Spurs in 2014 than beating the Warriors in 2015. So the chokejob against OKC hurt more than the one the next year against Houston IMO.

The matchup was better against the Spurs even if they were rolling that post-season, the Warriors matchup was definitely iffy, especially since it would be an already fatigued team with poor depth in that WCF, don't think we win that by any means. With how mentally and physically fatigued Blake and Redick reported themselves to be at the end of the Houston series, I just don't know how they now beat a team where the matchups just aren't great.

The OKC series sucked, though a game 5 win guaranteed nothing except for a better chance. Just like we beat the Spurs in game 6 and 7, considering OKC ended up still winning game 6 on the road, it isn't that unlikely that they could have still won down 3-2. I don't think we win game 6 if we win game 5, which means it comes down to a game 7 on the road and those are historically very difficult. I know some would argue that the game 5 loss demoralized them, but I don't but it when the Clippers were up 8 at half, lost by just 6 and it was the 2nd half thst did them in. They game out gunning with that 30-16 first quarter, that's not a demoralized team.

[og15]

Yeah exactly, and more than anything is the ability to keep throwing long hard defenders everywhere you want to move the ball, if we had that in 2015 I have no doubt we could be talking about our first championship. Of course we were never close to having that, so it's silly to even talk about it, but I think or main core was championship quality for sure, and better than the current Rockets core. Redick can't defend like EJ but he was good enough for me in that aspect, and he offered other things. The peripheral pieces are day and night though, and that's the difference between having Morey and having Doc making personnel decisions.

Luc can't play right now but he's been huge in getting them home court advantage, and even Green is giving them good minutes now. I like that they don't even bother playing Anderson and D'antoni is basically using a 6 man rotation right now. It's a weird series and I've been enjoying all the quirks about it, hope it's not ruined by Paul's umpteenth hamstring injury.

Yea, we were still a couple of moves away from having a roster like that which I've always felt was the way the Clippers could become top contenders, not more offense, but more defense. Sadly we missed the window, those don't come by as often as we might think, so it does suck, but Houston has really made this series very interesting.

[Quake Griffin]

Out for Game 6.

SMFH.

#NotOurTrainingStaffsFault

[Ranma]

Out for Game 6.

SMFH.

#NotOurTrainingStaffsFault

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