I predicted this in the pre game. Lin was going to have a good game and Rockets would win.
I just hope that the coaching staff noticed the difference of a Lin controlled offense to a Harden controlled offense. Lin needs to control the offense of the WHOLE game not just parts of it. Harden and coaches need to trust Lin and understand that Harden will still get 20+ points and will be the scoring leader in the team. What will change is that the offense will be a lot more effective.
Other than not, no Lin fan should be unhappy. Just hope this opens up McHale's eyes.
JLin had a very good game on offense. He played very efficient team ball. He only shot the ball 6 times for 13 pts, but he did have 8 assists. He penetrated to either score or kick out quite effectively. I would like to see him run the offense even more than he did tonight though. Harden had a good scoring game on 8 of 15 shooting and got to the line and hit his FTs. However, he turned the ball over a ton again because he handles the ball too much. He can certainly score, but he ain't Kobe Bryant. At least he didn't take 20+ shots tonight.
Anyway, I think it would be wise to let Jeremy run the offense more because he got the team running (thanks to some decent team defense and rebounding tonight) and got everyone involved, especially Patrick Patterson who had a monster game tonight. Where's that been? One troublesome thing---despite that great dunk, Chandler Parsons looked a little lost again tonight.
I would say Jeremy had a great game on the defensive end. 4 steals is an excellent stat. And he literally took Vazquez out of the game. Did GV even play in the 4th quarter? He even guarded Eric Gordon well when he had to.
And man, I can see why Doc Rivers' kid has been called overrated. He's struggling.
Oh and can we all agree that Tony Douglas should get his minutes off the bench for Jeremy and Harden? Patrick Beverley is a nice energy player but should get spot minutes as needed to provide a spark and guard those small quick PGs at times.
Patterson had the pick and pop with JLin since the start of the season. After coming back from injury they were playing Morris more and JLin was getting less time to run half court plays, so we saw PPat kinda disappear until tonight.
Let's be a little fair to Harden. He's basically playing the Jeremy Lin role during Linsanity on this Rockets team. He had the same turnover problem like Lin did during Linsanity as a 1st time starter. Difference is that he had way more respect from refs, this got way more foul shots than Lin so he looked more consistent in scoring.
Lin forced to improve on his weaknesses like shooting and D will go a long way to help him for a long career.
PPat dissapeared in the second half. Hottest shooter during the first half didn't even have a FGA in the second half.
And, Cara, Lin never had the same TO problems Harden did. Don't believe the hype. But, yes, Lin doesn't get the calls that Beard got. Lots of Lin's TOs last year was resulting from hand checks that went unnoticed.
I don't have LP so I listen to games (not all) because of work, but do you guys know, do the Houston commentators say things like, "Jeremy should have X assists, but [insert name] hasn't been able to finish." I ask because I've heard it in several games from the commentators last year.
No that's hasn't been said. And Cara there is a big difference. Because of Harden's ISOS he gets turnovers. He led the Rockets to a 8-9 losing streak by doing that. Lin is a PG he makes his teammates look better. Harden doesn't do that much. Again, nothing against Harden is just different players, different positions, different skill sets.
I wish I were as hopeful as you. It was one game against a really bad team, the coaching staff isn't going to change anything.
To them, they probably think Harden was the reason they won in the second half. He scored most of his points in the second half, controlling the ball. To them, that's perfect. He's getting more comfortable in his combo guard role.
If you listened to Morey's most recent radio interview, he doesn't give 2 s.hits about anyone but Harden. He's their franchise guy that they're going to continue to build around. He knows that Lin is not a perfect fit next to Harden but they have to make it work because they signed him and there are no other pg's at lin's level/price currently available.
We need to start accepting that in order for Lin to be successful, he needs to change his game to compliment Harden's. They're not going to give him more control, they view him as a role player, that's all. If he doesn't change, we're going to continue to see 4th qtr benchings, not because Lin isn't good but bc he doesn't compliment harden's play.
Harden trade will define Morey as a GM. If Harden is a bust or not an all star, he is out. He knows that. He is the one that picks Harden. He seems very happy during Harden's press conference. I just noticed something, Les didn't attend Harden's press conference.
I have a very strong feeling Lin will be traded before next year's trade deadline.
Jonathan Feigen - A key to Hou late surge: held lead instead of mounted comeback. Never faced double-digit deficit for 1st time in 2013, ending 14-gm streak.
Gee and look at this, morale was high all game, because they don't have to play catch up.
Watching Vasquez sulking in 3rd told the whole story, bad body language all over the court, they were beating themselves.
The 3rd quarter drought on both sides was just hard to watch, but its much better to be the one with a double digit lead during such drought, it must of felt just crushing for NOH when they watched Rox botch 5-6 possessions and they can only score ONE basket during that time.
The real keys of the game are JLin and PPat. Lin shut down Vasquez while PPat surprisingly did a very a good job on unibrow.
Lin is much much MUCH BETTER than Vasquez to begin with. Lin is more agile and faster. When the team commit to help Lin on defense, they will also get the benefit of, they should have know better
I hope Jeremy checks this board or Twitter, as in other news:
Rarely has the coaching on Twitter, abundant as it is, made greater impact.
Rockets coaches had spoken often to Patrick Patterson about hitting the boards, but they were not alone. They had reinforcements in the form of all the coaches that fill Twitter with comments that inspired Patterson to 13 rebounds on Friday, matching his career high.
“The coaches have been talking to me about it,” Patterson said. “I saw a lot of comments on Twitter, too. They were talking about my rebounding. They were right. I see the comments. I knew I had to do better.
Patterson’s season-high had been 10 rebounds. He easily surpassed that and argued that he should have been credited with one rebound that was given to Omer Asik in the first half. He made 8 of his 11 shots to score 18 points and did not have a turnover.
“He was great tonight,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “Patrick was phenomenal and that’s kind of what we need out of him.” Stingy defensive performance
The Hornets’ 82 points matched the fewest points the Rockets allowed in a game all season, with their defense holding New Orleans in check whenever they did not give the Hornets a running start with turnovers.
The Hornets scored nearly a quarter of their points off Rockets turnovers, but still made just 38.3 percent of their shots and just 15 percent of their 3s.
“This game was probably our best defensive game all year for four quarters, really locking in,” Rockets guard James Harden said. “It’s a good feeling when you play well when you haven’t been playing well on both ends of the floor.”
JLin is the leader. A leader does not have to be the most skill man on the team. Nor the leader has to be more knowledgeable one. What a leader do is the LEAD. In other word, a leader will get his/her herd following him. For example, Grant was Lincoln's general-in-chief. Lincoln does not have superior military knowledge to commending how to fight a war. Yet, Grant and Lincoln shared the same view and eventually won the war. Who is the leader? Who is the fighter? There lies the answer.
Even Lakers is a hard team to beat when Kobe is distributing the ball like tonight -- 14 assists -- and taking good shots and getting everyone involved. Lakers could be such a force if Kobe plays right.
This isn’t an attempt to promote clutchfan site but the comment posted by Clutch just show how idiotic he is:
“Originally Posted by Clutch It's weird seeing people say Lin was more "aggressive" on a night where he had a career high in steals?
Honestly, you should go back and watch the first quarter of the Nuggets game. The ball is in Lin's hands... many, many times. This isn't all the fault of McHale and/or Harden.*
My favorite poster on that board, Torocan lectured Clutch: “Originally Posted by torocan On the other hand, when you see Beverly doing the same thing for 6 consecutive possessions (dump the ball to Harden at half court), it raises questions.
You can only blame Lin and Harden to a degree. Yes, they're players and responsible for what they put on the floor, on the other hand, if McHale sees something he doesn't like, it's incumbent on him as the Head COACH to make it clear exactly how he would like the offense to operate.
So, whether intentionally or through Neglect, the result and responsibility is the same, it falls on McHale and Co.
That's the point that Murphy was trying to make. IE, if he's Not telling Lin to dump it off to Harden to initiate the offense, then he needs to make absolutely clear to the team that the offense should primarily be initiating through Lin.
That's why the Coach gets the blame for Offensive AND Defensive break downs. Not for any single game, but because when you see it happening over significant stretches that IS within the power of the Coaches to influence, either through speaking to Lin, Harden or the entire team.
And the Coaches 100% get the blame for the rotations. They decide to play Harden 41 minutes in blow outs. They decide how much to stagger the minutes.
No, the Coaches can't do everything, but they can demand that the offense and defense unfold in a specific way and hold players accountable when it doesn't unfold in the way they want. “
They watch one game we watch another. They even credit today's win on Harden. They argue that Harden's game was "efficient" regardless of 8 TOs.
You can tell they probably didn't watch the game. Because 1st half Harden was horrible turning over the ball 4 times in less than 3 minutes and bricklaying. The catalyst was being benched and watching Lin reverse the damage he done. Be it jealousy or friendly competition, the Lin-led 10-4 run got Harden's attention.
As NOH defense adjusted on Lin 3Q, Harden was open to hit his favorite spots and shoot Js, you know what he's good at. Jeremy in essence was opening the floor for Harden, which is what it should have been. Harden had a very efficient 3Q.
And even though Harden played somewhat better help defense, he was still letting his man blow past him. Gordon took advantage of him, so did Rivers at times.
And through it all, coaching today is what made the difference. Of course, Clutch doesn't think so, he thinks Rox won because of Harden.
yes, clutch is a narcissistic moron. What was odd was that he tried hard to tone down his dislike for Lin when he was interviewed by Jason Friedman from Rocketscast live. He's never been a fan of Lin, which is fine but why be a pussy about it and pretend to support Lin with getting interviewed by a "legit" sportswriter?! Whatever.
Clutch is just as clueless and dumb as McHale. I heard that his site didn't take off until Yao came along. Now is doing well because of Lin. And yet he hates Lin and his fans.
Clutch is one creepy dude. His face scares the hell of me. I don't know what he does for a living, but I wouldn't want to be alone with him in any situation. On top of that, he has a nasty temper.
How not to get banned:
1. Stroke his ego regularly 2. Contribute your hard earned $$ 3. Lin only hater 4. Harden only fan
I don't want to be politically correct: I don't dislike Harden neither do I like him. But I'm disgusted by his selfish play. It's soooo sickening to watch him play iso - dribbling, dribbling when the shot clock is running out. So appalling!
NOH Head Coach Monty Williams: "There were breakdowns, and that’s on me. I have to get the team ready to play and try to find combinations that are going to go out there and play hard and focus on the game plan. That’s a coach’s problem.”
I guess we will never hear any of Rox coaches say such a thing, they will blame their players first, before them holding themselves accountable.
This is what Chandler Parsons was saying about Harden:
On James Harden’s aggressiveness heading toward the basket tonight:
“We definitely don’t want to settle for jump shots. He can score in many different ways. I think that he just takes what the defense gives him. If he can get to the hoop, I think that he does that instead of just settling for jumpers.”
In other words, he is telling Harden not to be selfish and settle for the jumpers and isolating others. Harden is more effective going to the hoop.
I predicted this in the pre game. Lin was going to have a good game and Rockets would win.
ReplyDeleteI just hope that the coaching staff noticed the difference of a Lin controlled offense to a Harden controlled offense. Lin needs to control the offense of the WHOLE game not just parts of it. Harden and coaches need to trust Lin and understand that Harden will still get 20+ points and will be the scoring leader in the team. What will change is that the offense will be a lot more effective.
Other than not, no Lin fan should be unhappy. Just hope this opens up McHale's eyes.
Agreed.
DeleteJLin had a very good game on offense. He played very efficient team ball. He only shot the ball 6 times for 13 pts, but he did have 8 assists. He penetrated to either score or kick out quite effectively. I would like to see him run the offense even more than he did tonight though. Harden had a good scoring game on 8 of 15 shooting and got to the line and hit his FTs. However, he turned the ball over a ton again because he handles the ball too much. He can certainly score, but he ain't Kobe Bryant. At least he didn't take 20+ shots tonight.
Anyway, I think it would be wise to let Jeremy run the offense more because he got the team running (thanks to some decent team defense and rebounding tonight) and got everyone involved, especially Patrick Patterson who had a monster game tonight. Where's that been? One troublesome thing---despite that great dunk, Chandler Parsons looked a little lost again tonight.
I would say Jeremy had a great game on the defensive end. 4 steals is an excellent stat. And he literally took Vazquez out of the game. Did GV even play in the 4th quarter? He even guarded Eric Gordon well when he had to.
And man, I can see why Doc Rivers' kid has been called overrated. He's struggling.
I'm glad there were some changes in the first half. The second half made me very uneasy though.
DeleteOh and can we all agree that Tony Douglas should get his minutes off the bench for Jeremy and Harden? Patrick Beverley is a nice energy player but should get spot minutes as needed to provide a spark and guard those small quick PGs at times.
DeletePatterson had the pick and pop with JLin since the start of the season. After coming back from injury they were playing Morris more and JLin was getting less time to run half court plays, so we saw PPat kinda disappear until tonight.
DeleteLet's be a little fair to Harden. He's basically playing the Jeremy Lin role during Linsanity on this Rockets team. He had the same turnover problem like Lin did during Linsanity as a 1st time starter. Difference is that he had way more respect from refs, this got way more foul shots than Lin so he looked more consistent in scoring.
DeleteLin forced to improve on his weaknesses like shooting and D will go a long way to help him for a long career.
PPat dissapeared in the second half. Hottest shooter during the first half didn't even have a FGA in the second half.
DeleteAnd, Cara, Lin never had the same TO problems Harden did. Don't believe the hype. But, yes, Lin doesn't get the calls that Beard got. Lots of Lin's TOs last year was resulting from hand checks that went unnoticed.
Sadly missed the game but agree re: TD.
DeleteI don't have LP so I listen to games (not all) because of work, but do you guys know, do the Houston commentators say things like, "Jeremy should have X assists, but [insert name] hasn't been able to finish." I ask because I've heard it in several games from the commentators last year.
No that's hasn't been said. And Cara there is a big difference. Because of Harden's ISOS he gets turnovers. He led the Rockets to a 8-9 losing streak by doing that. Lin is a PG he makes his teammates look better. Harden doesn't do that much. Again, nothing against Harden is just different players, different positions, different skill sets.
DeleteI wish I were as hopeful as you. It was one game against a really bad team, the coaching staff isn't going to change anything.
DeleteTo them, they probably think Harden was the reason they won in the second half. He scored most of his points in the second half, controlling the ball. To them, that's perfect. He's getting more comfortable in his combo guard role.
If you listened to Morey's most recent radio interview, he doesn't give 2 s.hits about anyone but Harden. He's their franchise guy that they're going to continue to build around. He knows that Lin is not a perfect fit next to Harden but they have to make it work because they signed him and there are no other pg's at lin's level/price currently available.
We need to start accepting that in order for Lin to be successful, he needs to change his game to compliment Harden's. They're not going to give him more control, they view him as a role player, that's all. If he doesn't change, we're going to continue to see 4th qtr benchings, not because Lin isn't good but bc he doesn't compliment harden's play.
Harden trade will define Morey as a GM. If Harden is a bust or not an all star, he is out. He knows that. He is the one that picks Harden. He seems very happy during Harden's press conference. I just noticed something, Les didn't attend Harden's press conference.
DeleteI have a very strong feeling Lin will be traded before next year's trade deadline.
something to crack about: JEREMY AND THE POPCORN
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious! Steph Curry must have taken the same pic some time earlier?
Delete@wilc, Looks like it. Darn, @Isabel, you're so fast in posting Jeremy's tweet!
DeleteCurry and Lin! Future GSW back court dynamic duo!
DeleteI think GSW already more than happy with Klay and Jack
DeleteKlay is good but not Jeremy good.
DeleteGross, hate GSW. Hope they get their butts handed to them, every game.
DeleteJonathan Feigen -
ReplyDeleteA key to Hou late surge: held lead instead of mounted comeback. Never faced double-digit deficit for 1st time in 2013, ending 14-gm streak.
Gee and look at this, morale was high all game, because they don't have to play catch up.
DeleteWatching Vasquez sulking in 3rd told the whole story, bad body language all over the court, they were beating themselves.
The 3rd quarter drought on both sides was just hard to watch, but its much better to be the one with a double digit lead during such drought, it must of felt just crushing for NOH when they watched Rox botch 5-6 possessions and they can only score ONE basket during that time.
Way go go Jeremy.
ReplyDeleteShould I bench him again tommorow for fantasy?! :-p
@Cara, if you don't mind. :)
DeleteWay to go Cara! We don't want you losing your fantasy league from benching Jlin too much!
Delete@Cara YOU SHOULD HAVE BENCHED LIN SINCE EARLY JANUARY!!!
Delete...kidding lol
it's only weird if it doesn't work :) keep up the good work
DeleteThe real keys of the game are JLin and PPat. Lin shut down Vasquez while PPat surprisingly did a very a good job on unibrow.
ReplyDeleteLin is much much MUCH BETTER than Vasquez to begin with. Lin is more agile and faster. When the team commit to help Lin on defense, they will also get the benefit of, they should have know better
I hope Jeremy checks this board or Twitter, as in other news:
ReplyDeleteRarely has the coaching on Twitter, abundant as it is, made greater impact.
Rockets coaches had spoken often to Patrick Patterson about hitting the boards, but they were not alone. They had reinforcements in the form of all the coaches that fill Twitter with comments that inspired Patterson to 13 rebounds on Friday, matching his career high.
“The coaches have been talking to me about it,” Patterson said. “I saw a lot of comments on Twitter, too. They were talking about my rebounding. They were right. I see the comments. I knew I had to do better.
Patterson’s season-high had been 10 rebounds. He easily surpassed that and argued that he should have been credited with one rebound that was given to Omer Asik in the first half. He made 8 of his 11 shots to score 18 points and did not have a turnover.
“He was great tonight,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “Patrick was phenomenal and that’s kind of what we need out of him.” Stingy defensive performance
The Hornets’ 82 points matched the fewest points the Rockets allowed in a game all season, with their defense holding New Orleans in check whenever they did not give the Hornets a running start with turnovers.
The Hornets scored nearly a quarter of their points off Rockets turnovers, but still made just 38.3 percent of their shots and just 15 percent of their 3s.
“This game was probably our best defensive game all year for four quarters, really locking in,” Rockets guard James Harden said. “It’s a good feeling when you play well when you haven’t been playing well on both ends of the floor.”
Harden take 15 shots this game but 20 shot the next game
ReplyDeleteHe actually took a lot more "shots". Free throw is not counted as FGA
DeleteJLin is the leader. A leader does not have to be the most skill man on the team. Nor the leader has to be more knowledgeable one. What a leader do is the LEAD. In other word, a leader will get his/her herd following him. For example, Grant was Lincoln's general-in-chief. Lincoln does not have superior military knowledge to commending how to fight a war. Yet, Grant and Lincoln shared the same view and eventually won the war. Who is the leader? Who is the fighter? There lies the answer.
ReplyDeleteEven Lakers is a hard team to beat when Kobe is distributing the ball like tonight -- 14 assists -- and taking good shots and getting everyone involved. Lakers could be such a force if Kobe plays right.
ReplyDeleteThis isn’t an attempt to promote clutchfan site but the comment posted by Clutch just show how idiotic he is:
ReplyDelete“Originally Posted by Clutch
It's weird seeing people say Lin was more "aggressive" on a night where he had a career high in steals?
Honestly, you should go back and watch the first quarter of the Nuggets game. The ball is in Lin's hands... many, many times. This isn't all the fault of McHale and/or Harden.*
My favorite poster on that board, Torocan lectured Clutch:
“Originally Posted by torocan
On the other hand, when you see Beverly doing the same thing for 6 consecutive possessions (dump the ball to Harden at half court), it raises questions.
You can only blame Lin and Harden to a degree. Yes, they're players and responsible for what they put on the floor, on the other hand, if McHale sees something he doesn't like, it's incumbent on him as the Head COACH to make it clear exactly how he would like the offense to operate.
So, whether intentionally or through Neglect, the result and responsibility is the same, it falls on McHale and Co.
That's the point that Murphy was trying to make. IE, if he's Not telling Lin to dump it off to Harden to initiate the offense, then he needs to make absolutely clear to the team that the offense should primarily be initiating through Lin.
That's why the Coach gets the blame for Offensive AND Defensive break downs. Not for any single game, but because when you see it happening over significant stretches that IS within the power of the Coaches to influence, either through speaking to Lin, Harden or the entire team.
And the Coaches 100% get the blame for the rotations. They decide to play Harden 41 minutes in blow outs. They decide how much to stagger the minutes.
No, the Coaches can't do everything, but they can demand that the offense and defense unfold in a specific way and hold players accountable when it doesn't unfold in the way they want. “
Clutch and his fanboys are tools.
DeleteIts been proven over and over on clutchfans.
They watch one game we watch another. They even credit today's win on Harden. They argue that Harden's game was "efficient" regardless of 8 TOs.
You can tell they probably didn't watch the game. Because 1st half Harden was horrible turning over the ball 4 times in less than 3 minutes and bricklaying. The catalyst was being benched and watching Lin reverse the damage he done. Be it jealousy or friendly competition, the Lin-led 10-4 run got Harden's attention.
As NOH defense adjusted on Lin 3Q, Harden was open to hit his favorite spots and shoot Js, you know what he's good at. Jeremy in essence was opening the floor for Harden, which is what it should have been. Harden had a very efficient 3Q.
And even though Harden played somewhat better help defense, he was still letting his man blow past him. Gordon took advantage of him, so did Rivers at times.
And through it all, coaching today is what made the difference. Of course, Clutch doesn't think so, he thinks Rox won because of Harden.
TBH Rox could have won easily without Harden.
yes, clutch is a narcissistic moron. What was odd was that he tried hard to tone down his dislike for Lin when he was interviewed by Jason Friedman from Rocketscast live. He's never been a fan of Lin, which is fine but why be a pussy about it and pretend to support Lin with getting interviewed by a "legit" sportswriter?! Whatever.
DeleteClutch is just as clueless and dumb as McHale. I heard that his site didn't take off until Yao came along. Now is doing well because of Lin. And yet he hates Lin and his fans.
DeleteClutch is one creepy dude. His face scares the hell of me. I don't know what he does for a living, but I wouldn't want to be alone with him in any situation. On top of that, he has a nasty temper.
How not to get banned:
1. Stroke his ego regularly
2. Contribute your hard earned $$
3. Lin only hater
4. Harden only fan
Slate: Asians Still Rarity in Hollywood & Sports. @Jlin7 Breaks Ground in Both
ReplyDeleteLin is playing almost as well as he can play.
ReplyDeleteIf he can push himself to 15 points consistently despite the tanking and freezeouts, then he'll have fully reached his potential.
Scoring aggressively is the only thing left for Lin to work on.
Meanwhile James Harden is A MESS. He's singlehandedly KILLING this Rockets team with his increasingly selfish play.
I don't want to be politically correct: I don't dislike Harden neither do I like him. But I'm disgusted by his selfish play. It's soooo sickening to watch him play iso - dribbling, dribbling when the shot clock is running out. So appalling!
DeleteHighlights
ReplyDeleteHouston Rockets – Jeremy Lin & James Harden Play the Right Way
ReplyDeleteOuch, what Harden is doing to Gordon looks painful...and obscene. Not a flattering pic for Gordon!
DeleteJason Friedman: Rockets Rediscover Mojo In Big Easy:
ReplyDeleteNOH Head Coach Monty Williams: "There were breakdowns, and that’s on me. I have to get the team ready to play and try to find combinations that are going to go out there and play hard and focus on the game plan. That’s a coach’s problem.”
I guess we will never hear any of Rox coaches say such a thing, they will blame their players first, before them holding themselves accountable.
This is what Chandler Parsons was saying about Harden:
ReplyDeleteOn James Harden’s aggressiveness heading toward the basket tonight:
“We definitely don’t want to settle for jump shots. He can score in many different ways. I think that he just takes what the defense gives him. If he can get to the hoop, I think that he does that instead of just settling for jumpers.”
In other words, he is telling Harden not to be selfish and settle for the jumpers and isolating others. Harden is more effective going to the hoop.