I mean, don't get me wrong. I think Lin can be a very good player if he can hit those wide open long jumpers, but I don't think the improvement will take place this season.
The whole team is shooting like crap right now except for Morris. So - seems like all the guys are having that disadvantage. Delfino - who seems to have a case of "brown rain" has not been shooting well either (the other game).
Parsons has been playing 50% longer than Lin - and yet his numbers are still not much better than Lins. Lin is on the bench and his assists numbers are still higher...
lol that's also what i mean even in NY his jumper is not really consistent. But because of the injury he wasnt able to worked on it. Im not expecting him to improve this season because there's just really no time to practice. they will focus more in learning new plays. I just hope he wont have any annoying injury that will prevent him to work on his weakness.
jeremy is a good shooter, but not a good spot up shooter like Martin and Regie miller. Harden is also a very poor spot up shooter as well. Both Lin and Harden need the ball handled before shooting.
Why is Lin on Durant, is McHale stupid? Also Douglas has no hope against Westbrook. Might as well keep Lin in there and let Westbrook actually work for his points.
I saw Lin on Westbrook every time he was on... do you mean the rotation on defence? If you switch on a Westbrook/Durant pick and roll the Westbrook defender ends up defending Durant.
If you mean on transition defence sometimes you just don't have time to properly rotate even if the transition fails and you end up with mismatches, doesn't mean they are planned
He could've done a double clutch fake like he did during Linsanity in NY. But he doesn't even try that anymore, his layups are simple and easily blocked now.
Welp, this stinks. But I wouldn't read too much into this.
This is the FOURTH game in five days. All against playoff teams.
They won the two games against fellow lower seeds. Competed against a title contender. And got blown out tonight against another title contender.
Jeremy started out well but ran out of gas. Live, learn and move on. The important thing is that Jeremy is finally back and able to dominate in MOST games, including shredding two of the best defenses (Memphis and Chicago).
This is over...the only thing the rockets can do now is pray the thunder take out their starters to let the score even out with bench garbage time play.
a journalist needs to ask mchale about his substitutions and why he yanks lin immediately after he commits a to but not when the other players turn it over.
I think for most of us here, we actually don't have problem with Mchale bench Lin, the problem we really have is that he did that quite often to Lin...and When you compare it seems not quite fair or make sense..that's how I feel. I don't Know rest of you.
I am sorry you don't bench a $25m player where your marketing campaign is built around him. You do everything you can to showcase him. Dumb owner if he doesn't take action soon.
LOL alcsd would you really be supporting Lin if Lin was the kind of person who would do the kind of stuff you say? If Lin acted like a Melo/Deron Williams/Dwight Howard, he would be so much less likeable.
Stop acting like a stupid little girl whose feeling Ive hurt. You cheered for OKC before the game started - deleted the posts - called Lin an idiot and bashed him in every aspect possible - called three other people here besides me idiots and now act like I am the culprit? Yo mamma must have given you away when you were a little kid.
I believe if Rox had kept Lamb and Martin, our record would have been pretty similar to what it is now. I'm not hating on Harden. I think Harden is a decent player, but NOT FRANCHISE! He may become Franchise in the future, we never know. It annoys me that all the announcers around the league are riding his dick. He is not a good spot up shooter, has suspect D, and wayyyy too dependent on the Ref's. The Rox need more good spot up shooters like Delfino. If only they had Novak! No one makes others play better like Lin. Because Lin is a truly unselfish player. Although, Harden is a prolific scorer, he is like Melo/ Irving/ Westbrook. They are very good individual athletes, who cannot produce a sum greater than the parts.
at this point there isn't any franchise player for the Rockets. Jeremy's himself isn't at this point, but sooner he'll be. Morey's playing chess right now with regards to his team.
damny, I know it's fashionable to bash Harden right now, and I agree that his D is bad, but in what world is Harden not a good spot up shooter. He's a 44.8% spot up 3-point shooter according to Synergy. That's a very good %.
It's pretty scary that Les chose McFail and Morey chose Samshit. Here is the article that tells about Morey recommended Samshit to McFail. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/12/rockets-assistant-sampson-could-become-a-candidate-for-nets-job/
Awful officiating. Why is Jeremy getting bogus foul calls on him even at home? That offensive foul nullifying his layup just killed the momentum. It could have tied the game, no?
Garbage time....isn't most of the time garbage time are for bench players? At one point we don't want to see Lin got bench for 4th at one point see Lin a start player playing for garbage time is really sad to me...
Don't kid yourself garbage time started in 2nd half of 3rd, meaning Harden/Parsons/etc were playing garbage time, they are just letting Lin pad his stats.
The whole team played like crap, very uninspired ball today, I didn't think they would win, coming off a tough fight with SAS, but this is horrible.
Its like soon as Lin got benched close to half game was over. OKC goes on a 12-0 scoring run with Lin out and Rox never recovered.
Lin comes back, causes 2 more TOs, and is out rest of 3rd. Well we knew Hardenball is just not going to reverse the trend, and the lead piled on, game was pretty much over.
Actually, have you considered that's why they have the best +/-. If the lead is increasing over time, then the more minutes you play, the bigger the +/-.
Cus OKC are very strong in the paint on defense. It's not easy for him to attack to the basket . That's why he needs to learn how to make some mid- range jump shots.
Some how I kinda felt this game was gonna be a blow out... I saw JLin gasping for air yesterday against spurs. He's dead tired. No excuses though, this is a subpar performance.
Tony Douglas is a good Shooting guard. He hits his spot up 3s very well and scores at will. TD is a horrible PG, +/- of -31 even when playing against other team's 3rd stringers.
I don't know why TD gets PG priority when Lin is on the court with him.
TD is good for 15-20 minutes. If he plays more than that, more often than not, you're going to lose. The most funny thing is that McHale would pull Lin at certain time even when he had it going but he would keep Douglas in longer when he made a couple of good plays. What McHale did so often right now as well as NY did last year is overplaying Douglas and it's a big mistake. Need to bench him after certain time even he plays well or he's gonna screw up moments later.
Dec31 ATL @ HoU = W or L 70/30 Jan2 NOH @ HOU = W Jan4 HOU @ MIL = W Jan5 HOU @ CLE = W Jan8 LAL @ HOU = W or L 50/50 Jan9 HOU @ NOH = W Jan11 HOU @ BOS = W or L 50/50 Jan12 HOU @ PHI = W or L 50/50 Jan15 LAC @ HOU = W or L 25/75 Jan16 HOU @ DAL = W or L 50/50 Jan18 HOU @ IND = W or L 70/30 Jan19 HOU @ MIN = W or L 50/50 Jan21 HOU @ CHA = W Jan23 DEN @ HOU = W Jan25 HOU @ NOH = W Jan26 BKN @ HOU = W or L 70/30 Jan28 HOU @ UTA = W or L 50/50 Jan30 HOU @ DEN = W or L 50/50
So we could have another winning streak for the month of January... If we can win 13 out of 18 games, we'll be on the playoffs for sure :)
I do hope they make it to play off even if it end up 8 th seed and got punk first round...at least they meet that goal..the goal of make it to the playoff. Or else everybody will be disappointed. The fans, the owners, and even the players themselves.
Just relax and enjoy the games. Don't forget that they are still a very very young team... you'll have ups and downs but I do think they'll make it to the playoffs. They're the smartest young talent in the nba i'll give that to them.
Lin has taken a couple of big shots to the head. He may have a mild concussion. Barea elbowed him hard the other day too and Tyson Chandler should have had a flagrant 2.
Lin needs to stop trying to force the lob pass into the post. He has at least two turnovers a game trying to force into the post when the defender is fronting the post man. If it's not there, just kick it reverse side. I'm fine with his turnovers when they are thing such as charging, overthrowing a fast break pass, but i hate when the turnovers are from things that are preventable: such as jumping in the air with no where to go and forcing it, getting stolen when not looking, and forcing it into the post...he'll improve...once his three point jump shots improve, hopefully the tos will come off of better situations...ie.being aggessive..
The game started out fine. JLin was schooling Westbrook in being a real point guard by dishing and getting his teammates involved. Then he started to shoot 3s and bricked twice, which is fine. He then shot another 3 an airball. For heavens sake, it's ok that you airball sometimes but JLin hasn't been shooting well so after two bricks you expect the 3rd one to either go in or just brick again, but it has to be an airball. What made matters worst is his TOs.
Like you said, JLin has a tendency to force a pass into the post. He did that today and yesterday against the Spurs that resulted in TO. His long pass ended up as a TO. His bounce pass was a TO. Everything that can go wrong went wrong.
He should have understood OKC plays the passing lane well and they are great defenders. He should have been ready for that. You just cant make the same idiotic mistakes over and over again. Granted they played 4 games in 5 nights but there's no excuses for the TOs. I can give him a pass on the shooting but not the TOs.
Sometimes, I wonder why NBA shooters are shy of using the board for their shot?! When I'm shooting bad, I always use the back board, even for three, and it has higher percentage of scoring...hmmmm....prestige?
I think it's easier to use the board if you're in close/mid range. Long range shots, especially 3s, aren't usually banked in, even at the the top of the key.
- I went to watch Les Miserables last night and I quite enjoyed it but it was really depressing so I went and listened to Monty Python's Always Look On The Bright Side of Life like 5 times. So I am going to look on the Bright Side of this Game! :)
- Lin had a very good first quarter. He wasn't swishing but he sure was dishing, setting up teammates with confident passes. He racked up 5 assists quickly, and that was probably also the best stretch the Rox had the entire game.
- OKC are a terrible matchup for the Rox. If I recall, KHuang thinks the Trailblazers are the worst match up with OKC second, but I still feel OKC is the worst. Having Sefolosha and Ibaka around basically nullifies Lin and Harden, whose games rely so much on getting in the paint. When both Lin and Harden are cold from outside the arc, like they were tonight, it was never going to be much of a game.
- The Rockets have walked away with 2 wins in 4 games in 5 days, in a punishing away schedule that had them facing Bulls, Timberwolves, Spurs and Thunder. If you had told me at the start of the season that they would win 0.500 of those games I would have been sceptical. But I am frequently wrong and I am glad to be wrong about these things. :)
- I'm not going to bash McHale because, as I have said, this is a Lin fansite, not a McHale hatesite. :) However, the Spurs and Thunder games show that a run-and-gun offence is not going to be very successful in the playoffs - and the Spurs and Thunder are more than likely the teams the Rox will meet if they get in at 7 or 8 seed. McHale - you need to come up with some decent half-court sets that actually involves motion and not have the Rox players take turns to play 1 v 5!
- I thought Lin's TOs could be partially attributed to smart double teams (the one where he threw the ball away down the middle was one) but mainly to tiredness.
- Torocan from CF believes that the cold 3-point shooting from Lin and Harden were simply attributable to tired legs. Maybe. But when you are up against an elite defensive team in the paint, you are going to be able to shoot well or there's nothing much you can do.
- Parsons going 0-5 from 3-point land indicates that he still has some ways to go before he becomes a reliable kick-out option. But insane levels of streakiness and inconsistency are to be expected from such a young team.
- The Rox are not an elite team, and we shouldn't expect them to be able to match up to OKC when the Rox had just been through a grueling back to back.
- I can't decide if going underneath screens vs Westbrook is a good idea. On one hand, you do want to encourage him to shoot jumpers. On the other hand, if Westbrook is making those jumpers, should you continue to go under the screens?
- Strangest stat of the night for me. HOU only had 3 more TOs than OKC. An example of how my perception tricks me. It felt like HOU had a 100 more TOs to me when I was watching the game!
If you ask me, there's no justification for JLin's TOs or poor shooting tonight. If we want to make ourselves feel better, 4 games in 5 nights is a good excuse. Nice summary as always.
Feel bad for Calvin Murphy. He predicted the Roxs are gonna beat OKC by seven. Man, was he wrong. I always liked Murph cause he has JLin's back. Hope JLin didn't disappoint Murph too much.
To be fair, all of his misses were in and out except for one airball.
Even Durant airballed during the game so don't be too harsh on Lin. Everyone on Rox shot like garbage, except Morris.
About his TOs: They were bone headed, for sure, but the GOOD thing was, they were passing TOs that were the right decisions, he didn't get picked off because of not protecting the ball or bad handling. Lin was bone headed in that he should not have underestimated OKC's athleticism. Maybe a product of being tired.
They really need to set more plays for Lin, they just wasn't stopping Lin when the lane was open. I wanna see more cuts on the baseline when Lin is at the corner, when he is wide open with no defenders in his way. Problem is rest of Rox isn't looking for him...He caught Duncan flat footed with that move yesterday, but for some reason there was no more production from that play.
Jeremy is so robbed on that offensive foul from Aldrich...But it was so effective, don't know why they didn't clear the lane for Lin more like that.
Guys/gals, this was a winnable game. I don't think they were THAT tired. But good Lord the lame lame rotations killed the game. Again.
Lin played good D on everyone. Sure there are times where Durant would just shoot over him, but that's just Durant...Lin was responsible for both Durant's TOs.
I'm still not sure why Aldrich got so many minutes. Maybe he wanted to give Aldrich a chance to play against his former team along with Harden.
Or maybe this was to showcase Aldrich for a trade. I don't know. He certainly didn't help much but contributed to the loss. However I think he had the size to contest Ibaka, maybe that was the plan, I don't know.
It's hard when one cannot consistently hit wide open jumpers, so Lin is really at a disadvantage when he plays good teams.
ReplyDeletetrue, unfortunately he was not able to improved on it due to injury so we will be seeing it all through out this season.
DeleteI mean, don't get me wrong. I think Lin can be a very good player if he can hit those wide open long jumpers, but I don't think the improvement will take place this season.
DeleteThe whole team is shooting like crap right now except for Morris. So - seems like all the guys are having that disadvantage. Delfino - who seems to have a case of "brown rain" has not been shooting well either (the other game).
DeleteParsons has been playing 50% longer than Lin - and yet his numbers are still not much better than Lins. Lin is on the bench and his assists numbers are still higher...
lol that's also what i mean even in NY his jumper is not really consistent. But because of the injury he wasnt able to worked on it. Im not expecting him to improve this season because there's just really no time to practice. they will focus more in learning new plays. I just hope he wont have any annoying injury that will prevent him to work on his weakness.
Deletei'll post up here because everyone below are overreacting. Too bad for patterson its his first game after the injury and they are losing bad.
DeleteHey romz! Not everyone below is overreacting. :)
Deletejeremy is a good shooter, but not a good spot up shooter like Martin and Regie miller. Harden is also a very poor spot up shooter as well. Both Lin and Harden need the ball handled before shooting.
DeleteHarden is not a very poor spot up shooter, are you serious?
Deletescrew mchale
ReplyDeletewow... lin got pulled again after he got stuffed...
ReplyDeleteI think Jeremy is in the "I don't give a shit mode" wow two more bonehead TOs.
ReplyDeleteAnd out he goes.
They were really bad TOs too. :(
DeleteWhy is Lin on Durant, is McHale stupid? Also Douglas has no hope against Westbrook. Might as well keep Lin in there and let Westbrook actually work for his points.
ReplyDeleteHe is stupid, its a mismatch from hell, Durant just shoots over Lin all day.
DeleteBut then again who should they put on Durant?
I saw Lin on Westbrook every time he was on... do you mean the rotation on defence? If you switch on a Westbrook/Durant pick and roll the Westbrook defender ends up defending Durant.
DeleteMaybe I missed something.
If you mean on transition defence sometimes you just don't have time to properly rotate even if the transition fails and you end up with mismatches, doesn't mean they are planned
DeleteTO then followed by a 'get that weak shit out of here' - that was literally as well, cuz he got sent back to the bench.
ReplyDeleteLin HAD to take that lay up though.
DeleteHe could've done a double clutch fake like he did during Linsanity in NY. But he doesn't even try that anymore, his layups are simple and easily blocked now.
DeleteWelp, this stinks. But I wouldn't read too much into this.
ReplyDeleteThis is the FOURTH game in five days. All against playoff teams.
They won the two games against fellow lower seeds. Competed against a title contender. And got blown out tonight against another title contender.
Jeremy started out well but ran out of gas. Live, learn and move on. The important thing is that Jeremy is finally back and able to dominate in MOST games, including shredding two of the best defenses (Memphis and Chicago).
I agree with this completely. You are a good poster! :)
Deleteexactly. Lin is tired. Yesterdays game he dominated. He will be back. I'd like to see him get at least 5 more minutes in this game.
DeleteSmith in. +/- watch.
ReplyDeleteman, i hate perkins. see that crap he's doing with the shove on td and moving screen.
ReplyDeleteHe deserve to go to the bench .
ReplyDeleteThis game is over, I like how Westbrook just sort of waltzes into the paint.
ReplyDeleteGarbage time.
the way this game is going i bet mchale wishes he can bench lin while lin's still on the bench.
ReplyDeletelol, nice comment.
DeleteROFLMAO!
Deletewhy does this site doesn't have a 'Like' button?
DeleteEven when Lin is on the bench the rockets didn't do well...in fact end up 18 pts lead by okc
DeleteThis is over...the only thing the rockets can do now is pray the thunder take out their starters to let the score even out with bench garbage time play.
ReplyDeleteHarden, Parsons, Douglas... they missed shots, turned it over, missed assignments, but never got pulled. Lin though is always the one to blame lol.
ReplyDeletea journalist needs to ask mchale about his substitutions and why he yanks lin immediately after he commits a to but not when the other players turn it over.
DeleteLike I always say
DeleteParsons -> son
Lin -> stepson
I agree completely with you, cara. Lin being take out of the game and bench but still the rockets didn't improve the lead even when Lin is out.
DeleteLin is more like the bastard stepson
DeleteRed headed stepchild
Delete@redbool To be fair, that's not always the case - against the Wolves he let Lin rack up an alarming number of TOs
DeleteI think for most of us here, we actually don't have problem with Mchale bench Lin, the problem we really have is that he did that quite often to Lin...and When you compare it seems not quite fair or make sense..that's how I feel. I don't Know rest of you.
DeleteI am sorry you don't bench a $25m player where your marketing campaign is built around him. You do everything you can to showcase him. Dumb owner if he doesn't take action soon.
DeleteI hope Chinese sponsors call him office and demand their money is well worth spent. Dumb owner for not taking actions on dumb and clueless coaches.
DeleteI'll be impressed if Les fires McHale and lets Sampson go to the Nets.
DeleteOne of the recent articles, Les mentioned that the reason he hired Mchale was because they have the same run and gun philosophy.
DeleteMy biggest concern is Jeremy is not a diva and he won't demand the coaches be fired. He might ask for a trade.
LOL alcsd would you really be supporting Lin if Lin was the kind of person who would do the kind of stuff you say? If Lin acted like a Melo/Deron Williams/Dwight Howard, he would be so much less likeable.
Delete@alcsd - yeah, run and gun without emphasis on set plays... and the Spurs killed the Rockets yesterday, followed by Thunder.
DeleteIf the way Lin is used, he might not get a another contract after this one is over.
DeleteIf you moron coaches are killing your career, what choice does he have?
DeleteCan't survive in NBA if he doesn't know how to make jump shot!
ReplyDeleteBruce Bowen managed it until he discovered he was a good corner 3-pointer :)
DeleteDon't say that. dillywilly, razerr, and damny is gonna come after you.
Deletethey're a sensitive bunch.
DeleteRacha why can u just let go and being a little more encourage?
DeleteGo JLin!!!! happy.
Delete@Lydia:
DeleteThat would defeat the purpose of bashing Lin :)
If it's true from ur heart, I am happy. @racha.
Delete@Ryu Ken:
DeleteParson is 0-5 - will he survive in the NBA? Delfino shot 3 of 17 or so the other day. Is he good shooter?
@Racha:
Better sensitive than completely dumb or ignorant :) Take a chill pill dude
dillywilly - just give it up mr. sensitive. im not gonna respond to anymore of your nonsense. Watch out @ryu ken mr. sensitive is now after you.
Delete@Racha
DeleteStop acting like a stupid little girl whose feeling Ive hurt. You cheered for OKC before the game started - deleted the posts - called Lin an idiot and bashed him in every aspect possible - called three other people here besides me idiots and now act like I am the culprit? Yo mamma must have given you away when you were a little kid.
Yea I know! I'm not bashing lin. I'm just pointing out fact.
DeleteBTW:
DeleteHow many screennames have you used here already? Why dont you take your posts to clutchfans? See how long it takes you to get banned.
@Ryu Ken:
DeleteIm not after you. I asked questions - based on facts.
But hey - if your just as sensitive as Racha I will stop asking questions and let you doubt that JLin is a legit NBA player...
DeleteI believe if Rox had kept Lamb and Martin, our record would have been pretty similar to what it is now. I'm not hating on Harden. I think Harden is a decent player, but NOT FRANCHISE! He may become Franchise in the future, we never know. It annoys me that all the announcers around the league are riding his dick. He is not a good spot up shooter, has suspect D, and wayyyy too dependent on the Ref's. The Rox need more good spot up shooters like Delfino. If only they had Novak!
DeleteNo one makes others play better like Lin. Because Lin is a truly unselfish player. Although, Harden is a prolific scorer, he is like Melo/ Irving/ Westbrook. They are very good individual athletes, who cannot produce a sum greater than the parts.
at this point there isn't any franchise player for the Rockets. Jeremy's himself isn't at this point, but sooner he'll be. Morey's playing chess right now with regards to his team.
Deletedamny, I know it's fashionable to bash Harden right now, and I agree that his D is bad, but in what world is Harden not a good spot up shooter. He's a 44.8% spot up 3-point shooter according to Synergy. That's a very good %.
DeleteI'd be shocked if McHale allows lin to come back in 4Q. Its all Harden now.
ReplyDeleteLinball is on vacation.
I wouldn't be surprised if he puts Lin back to play with 3rd string bench in garbage time.
Deletei'm ok with lin sitting out the rest of the game. let mchale show us his coaching skills.
DeleteJust cant understand how JLin can play such a night and day game. Really puzzling.
DeleteLin can practise hes 3s then without being afraid.
DeleteHe aint gonna come back in. I think is the single worst game he has ever played in the NBA.
DeleteIt's pretty scary that Les chose McFail and Morey chose Samshit. Here is the article that tells about Morey recommended Samshit to McFail.
Deletehttp://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/12/rockets-assistant-sampson-could-become-a-candidate-for-nets-job/
Just saying it probably won't be a bad thing to let Lin play in Garbage time. It's best practice you can get without the fear of screwing things up.
DeleteGame's already over. Time to pad his stats. Others are allowed to do it now. Why is he still on the bench?
DeleteLol the crowd looks so sad.
ReplyDeleteThey're not even trying to disrupt free throws.
Threw in the towel already?
Awful officiating. Why is Jeremy getting bogus foul calls on him even at home? That offensive foul nullifying his layup just killed the momentum. It could have tied the game, no?
ReplyDeleteSpurs and OKC got really good results forcing TOs by doubling Lin and Harden on the perimeter before they can even initiate a pick and roll.
ReplyDeleteMost teams won't have Danny Green and Sefolosha though.
Harden maybe, Lin basically gave them the ball 2 out of 4 TOs.
DeleteYou don't need Green/Sefolosha for that, you just need to stand there.
Durant must be like "Hey thanks guys."
Getting 2 TOs out of doubling Lin ain't a bad haul though!
DeleteOKC sure determined to show Harden that he and Rockets are not ready for the prime time. They made the statement.
ReplyDeleteidk about that Mchale is a big part of the problem
DeleteI thought this was a Lin fansite not a McHale hatesite! :)
DeleteGotta blame somebody.
DeleteDetermined? They didn't try very hard. They are basically coasting through 2nd half.
DeleteOKC can coast because they already did their job.
Deletejust tuned in.... and horrified with the turnovers.
ReplyDeleteThis stinks...
ReplyDeleteHowever sht the rockets look right now, just remember they are playing against the best.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right! :)
DeleteYay JLin in for garbage time.
ReplyDeleteGarbage time....isn't most of the time garbage time are for bench players? At one point we don't want to see Lin got bench for 4th at one point see Lin a start player playing for garbage time is really sad to me...
DeleteDon't kid yourself garbage time started in 2nd half of 3rd, meaning Harden/Parsons/etc were playing garbage time, they are just letting Lin pad his stats.
DeleteThe whole team played like crap, very uninspired ball today, I didn't think they would win, coming off a tough fight with SAS, but this is horrible.
Its like soon as Lin got benched close to half game was over. OKC goes on a 12-0 scoring run with Lin out and Rox never recovered.
Lin comes back, causes 2 more TOs, and is out rest of 3rd. Well we knew Hardenball is just not going to reverse the trend, and the lead piled on, game was pretty much over.
Thanks. I agree with you. They seems play with no rhyme no tactics to me.
DeleteLin and Asik, the starters with the best +/- played the fewest minutes, even fewer than their backups. Good rotation, McHale lol.
ReplyDeleteActually, have you considered that's why they have the best +/-. If the lead is increasing over time, then the more minutes you play, the bigger the +/-.
Delete+/- is a terrible stat generally.
I'm not hatin', I am just sayin'!
Good point.
Deletewow Rockets are giving assists to Thunder...
ReplyDeleteLol they have Rox long passes dialed in or what...NO transition plays for u!
ReplyDeleteTerrible Douglas layup spotted
ReplyDeletelol aldrich is back again. is he beasting on practice or something??
ReplyDeleteMchale is making sure we dont get back on this game. i guess 3 PF is not enough to know that aldrich sucks in this game he also need to rack up TOs
Deletehow does players like aldrich make it to the nba. they don't even look like a basketball players, just some random tall guy.
ReplyDeleteAldrich seems like he has very low IQ
DeleteOk so, will JLin make a trey in garbage time?
ReplyDeleteOr is he just gunna play passive?
Cus OKC are very strong in the paint on defense. It's not easy for him to attack to the basket . That's why he needs to learn how to make some mid- range jump shots.
DeleteDid that lady say her favourite Rockets player is Carlos Delfino...
ReplyDeletelin needs to redeem himself and at least make 1 three before this game finishes.
ReplyDeleteThat's bad. Lin looks concussed.
ReplyDeleteHe did before he received the last elbow. Instead of defending he looked down and held his head...
Deleteack! Nick's elbow on Jeremy's face!
ReplyDeleteGeez, Collison had his elbow high up there.
ReplyDeleteI could hear the Lin cockroaches screaming with delight now.
DeleteLooks like Lin is done.
ReplyDeleteOh well 3/8 looks better than 2/6 I suppose.
20 TOs total...Lin/Harden/Aldrich all have 4...
Can't win high school basketball like this, forget NBA.
4th game in 5 nights on the road. Against the best team in the west.
ReplyDeleteGetting 2 out of 4 is amazing if you think about it.
DeleteI'm not mad, at least now Lin, Harden and the coach knows how bad it is and will try to correct it.
DeleteLooks like Jeremy is okay. He's just resting on the bench.
ReplyDeleteIf it was a possible concussion, he would have left the building ASAP.
good to know. he needs to know how to protect his head.
DeleteSome how I kinda felt this game was gonna be a blow out... I saw JLin gasping for air yesterday against spurs. He's dead tired. No excuses though, this is a subpar performance.
ReplyDeleteThey need to drink some 5hour energy like an hour b4 the game. Haha I know I don't think it'll work.
DeleteWho do we have to thank for this merciless schedule anyway...
Spurs and OKC on a back to back... it's pretty tough. But we should be able to get a winning streak in the coming weeks.
DeleteJanuary has a lot of back-to-backs and away games. It will be a very tough month.
DeleteAldrich, smack the heck out of whoever it was that elbowed Jeremy. You owe him.
ReplyDeleteTony Douglas is a good Shooting guard. He hits his spot up 3s very well and scores at will. TD is a horrible PG, +/- of -31 even when playing against other team's 3rd stringers.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why TD gets PG priority when Lin is on the court with him.
a lot of us agree that TD's a good shooting guard. can be great scoring back-up for Harden.
DeleteTD is good for 15-20 minutes. If he plays more than that, more often than not, you're going to lose. The most funny thing is that McHale would pull Lin at certain time even when he had it going but he would keep Douglas in longer when he made a couple of good plays. What McHale did so often right now as well as NY did last year is overplaying Douglas and it's a big mistake. Need to bench him after certain time even he plays well or he's gonna screw up moments later.
DeleteDec31 ATL @ HoU = W or L 70/30
ReplyDeleteJan2 NOH @ HOU = W
Jan4 HOU @ MIL = W
Jan5 HOU @ CLE = W
Jan8 LAL @ HOU = W or L 50/50
Jan9 HOU @ NOH = W
Jan11 HOU @ BOS = W or L 50/50
Jan12 HOU @ PHI = W or L 50/50
Jan15 LAC @ HOU = W or L 25/75
Jan16 HOU @ DAL = W or L 50/50
Jan18 HOU @ IND = W or L 70/30
Jan19 HOU @ MIN = W or L 50/50
Jan21 HOU @ CHA = W
Jan23 DEN @ HOU = W
Jan25 HOU @ NOH = W
Jan26 BKN @ HOU = W or L 70/30
Jan28 HOU @ UTA = W or L 50/50
Jan30 HOU @ DEN = W or L 50/50
So we could have another winning streak for the month of January... If we can win 13 out of 18 games, we'll be on the playoffs for sure :)
I do hope they make it to play off even if it end up 8 th seed and got punk first round...at least they meet that goal..the goal of make it to the playoff. Or else everybody will be disappointed. The fans, the owners, and even the players themselves.
DeleteJust relax and enjoy the games. Don't forget that they are still a very very young team... you'll have ups and downs but I do think they'll make it to the playoffs. They're the smartest young talent in the nba i'll give that to them.
DeleteLin has taken a couple of big shots to the head. He may have a mild concussion. Barea elbowed him hard the other day too and Tyson Chandler should have had a flagrant 2.
ReplyDelete30pts blow out...worse than the spur game. Wow. On to the next one to redeem themselves then! Didn't expect to turn out like this.
ReplyDeleteLin needs to stop trying to force the lob pass into the post. He has at least two turnovers a game trying to force into the post when the defender is fronting the post man. If it's not there, just kick it reverse side. I'm fine with his turnovers when they are thing such as charging, overthrowing a fast break pass, but i hate when the turnovers are from things that are preventable: such as jumping in the air with no where to go and forcing it, getting stolen when not looking, and forcing it into the post...he'll improve...once his three point jump shots improve, hopefully the tos will come off of better situations...ie.being aggessive..
ReplyDeleteThe game started out fine. JLin was schooling Westbrook in being a real point guard by dishing and getting his teammates involved. Then he started to shoot 3s and bricked twice, which is fine. He then shot another 3 an airball. For heavens sake, it's ok that you airball sometimes but JLin hasn't been shooting well so after two bricks you expect the 3rd one to either go in or just brick again, but it has to be an airball. What made matters worst is his TOs.
DeleteLike you said, JLin has a tendency to force a pass into the post. He did that today and yesterday against the Spurs that resulted in TO. His long pass ended up as a TO. His bounce pass was a TO. Everything that can go wrong went wrong.
He should have understood OKC plays the passing lane well and they are great defenders. He should have been ready for that. You just cant make the same idiotic mistakes over and over again. Granted they played 4 games in 5 nights but there's no excuses for the TOs. I can give him a pass on the shooting but not the TOs.
Sometimes, I wonder why NBA shooters are shy of using the board for their shot?! When I'm shooting bad, I always use the back board, even for three, and it has higher percentage of scoring...hmmmm....prestige?
DeleteI think it's easier to use the board if you're in close/mid range. Long range shots, especially 3s, aren't usually banked in, even at the the top of the key.
DeleteEnd of Game Thoughts
ReplyDelete- I went to watch Les Miserables last night and I quite enjoyed it but it was really depressing so I went and listened to Monty Python's Always Look On The Bright Side of Life like 5 times. So I am going to look on the Bright Side of this Game! :)
- Lin had a very good first quarter. He wasn't swishing but he sure was dishing, setting up teammates with confident passes. He racked up 5 assists quickly, and that was probably also the best stretch the Rox had the entire game.
- OKC are a terrible matchup for the Rox. If I recall, KHuang thinks the Trailblazers are the worst match up with OKC second, but I still feel OKC is the worst. Having Sefolosha and Ibaka around basically nullifies Lin and Harden, whose games rely so much on getting in the paint. When both Lin and Harden are cold from outside the arc, like they were tonight, it was never going to be much of a game.
- The Rockets have walked away with 2 wins in 4 games in 5 days, in a punishing away schedule that had them facing Bulls, Timberwolves, Spurs and Thunder. If you had told me at the start of the season that they would win 0.500 of those games I would have been sceptical. But I am frequently wrong and I am glad to be wrong about these things. :)
- I'm not going to bash McHale because, as I have said, this is a Lin fansite, not a McHale hatesite. :) However, the Spurs and Thunder games show that a run-and-gun offence is not going to be very successful in the playoffs - and the Spurs and Thunder are more than likely the teams the Rox will meet if they get in at 7 or 8 seed. McHale - you need to come up with some decent half-court sets that actually involves motion and not have the Rox players take turns to play 1 v 5!
- I thought Lin's TOs could be partially attributed to smart double teams (the one where he threw the ball away down the middle was one) but mainly to tiredness.
- Torocan from CF believes that the cold 3-point shooting from Lin and Harden were simply attributable to tired legs. Maybe. But when you are up against an elite defensive team in the paint, you are going to be able to shoot well or there's nothing much you can do.
- Parsons going 0-5 from 3-point land indicates that he still has some ways to go before he becomes a reliable kick-out option. But insane levels of streakiness and inconsistency are to be expected from such a young team.
- The Rox are not an elite team, and we shouldn't expect them to be able to match up to OKC when the Rox had just been through a grueling back to back.
- I can't decide if going underneath screens vs Westbrook is a good idea. On one hand, you do want to encourage him to shoot jumpers. On the other hand, if Westbrook is making those jumpers, should you continue to go under the screens?
- Strangest stat of the night for me. HOU only had 3 more TOs than OKC. An example of how my perception tricks me. It felt like HOU had a 100 more TOs to me when I was watching the game!
If you ask me, there's no justification for JLin's TOs or poor shooting tonight. If we want to make ourselves feel better, 4 games in 5 nights is a good excuse. Nice summary as always.
DeleteFeel bad for Calvin Murphy. He predicted the Roxs are gonna beat OKC by seven. Man, was he wrong. I always liked Murph cause he has JLin's back. Hope JLin didn't disappoint Murph too much.
DeleteAlways look on the bright side of TOs! Haha
DeleteI try to but I'm so emotionally vested. I know everyone here wants JLin to do well, especially me. Damn, it just irks me so bad when he doesn't.
DeleteTo be fair, all of his misses were in and out except for one airball.
DeleteEven Durant airballed during the game so don't be too harsh on Lin. Everyone on Rox shot like garbage, except Morris.
About his TOs: They were bone headed, for sure, but the GOOD thing was, they were passing TOs that were the right decisions, he didn't get picked off because of not protecting the ball or bad handling. Lin was bone headed in that he should not have underestimated OKC's athleticism. Maybe a product of being tired.
They really need to set more plays for Lin, they just wasn't stopping Lin when the lane was open. I wanna see more cuts on the baseline when Lin is at the corner, when he is wide open with no defenders in his way. Problem is rest of Rox isn't looking for him...He caught Duncan flat footed with that move yesterday, but for some reason there was no more production from that play.
Jeremy is so robbed on that offensive foul from Aldrich...But it was so effective, don't know why they didn't clear the lane for Lin more like that.
Guys/gals, this was a winnable game. I don't think they were THAT tired. But good Lord the lame lame rotations killed the game. Again.
Lin played good D on everyone. Sure there are times where Durant would just shoot over him, but that's just Durant...Lin was responsible for both Durant's TOs.
I'm still not sure why Aldrich got so many minutes. Maybe he wanted to give Aldrich a chance to play against his former team along with Harden.
DeleteOr maybe this was to showcase Aldrich for a trade. I don't know. He certainly didn't help much but contributed to the loss. However I think he had the size to contest Ibaka, maybe that was the plan, I don't know.