As a Pelicans fan, it was nice to see Eric Gordon brick a wide open three and have a terrible turnover in the final minutes of the game. As a fan of basketball, it was nice to see the refs not completely buying Harden's crap.
It is good to know you are still alive. I've been worried about ya. I haven't seen you around here since the Rockets beat the Pelicans by 30 points during Boogie's debut...lol I know it must suck seeing those ex-pelicans doing well. Meanwhile, the ex-Rockets that you have are absolute trash (Terrence Jones and Omer Asik).
Decent comeback. I have nothing but well wishes for Ryan Anderson. Get that money, dude. Eric Gordon is a prick. Man, that brick he threw up there with the game on the line was pathetic. Why didn't Harden take that shot?
Kawhi out for game 6! Sprained left ankle. "He would rather play", said Popovich. If the Spurs win this it's going to be incredible defence and team ball or a massive night from Aldridge and Patty and Pau. Can the ex-D-Leaguer, Simmons, really be that effective tonight? He's got fresh legs, that's for sure. But this is a Rockets team, at home, with their backs against the wall.
James Harden is choking in a huge moment. He's only taken 2 shots from the field in the first half?!?!? That's gotta be the least he's ever shot in a half in his career!
That's not even a choke, that's just a never showed up. To be fair though, this isn't the first time the Spurs took a great player and made him disappear with that Popovich voodoo
Keep saying it, ain't no D in Antoni. Brilliant offensive coach but clueless on D. Though to be fair with that roster, he did a hell of a job getting them to 55 wins and They got to get a Of who can play D and not disappear (both criticisms of Ryan Anderson)
I don't agree with that at all. Wins are generated by teams not by individuals; that's what watching the Spurs should be teaching you. Now maybe why you can explain why you feel that way?
Probably because Harden did nothing to help his team today, looked like he didnt want to be there, checked out way too early. This reminds me of that lakers/suns game 7 years ago .. when the series is on the line your best player must step to the plate.
Vertical Limit answered the question. Don't get me wrong. I hate the way the Rockets and Harden play ball. He's the key to that team's success and he completely was absent. Shockingly so. Yes, good teams win as a team. The Rockets were never gonna contend for a title. But I don't get the hatred of Dantoni. Of course, it could be both, but what fun is saying something like that on a message board???
He looked to me like he was trying to be too unselfish. To me that's hardly a criticism, especially after he was criticized for keeping the offense too stagnant in overtime of G5
I agree, I hate the Rockets play ball. I don't hate MDA. I hate his "defensive system". If you ever had him coaching your team you would understand why. Granted my team hasn't exactly had a myriad of players come through NY the last two decades or so that would make Jeff Van Gundy and Patrick Ewing proud but MDA doesn't even coach defense. Amare Stoudemire basically said as such when Mike Woodson was here when he said that was the first time he was ever taught defense. It's just maddeningly frustrating to watch your team lose because they can't stop the other team and its 122-117
Thank goodness I'm a Dolphins' fan...I've learned to cope with pathetic performances. That's all I got. I don't even know what to say. Our bar turned that s##t off in the 3rd quarter and we watched the '94 Rockets' championship. Still had a good time. Congrats to the Spurs fan. I will now root for LeBron.
Looked to me like Game 5 might have killed the Rockets in terms of their short seven-man rotation. If D'Antoni is going to build the Rockets on a seven-seconds-or-less fast-paced offense, then he's going to have to find ways to extend their ability to keep moving at pace, especially late in the season and in late game periods. You can't just expect them run on after-burners the whole game forever. I wonder if it wasn't somewhere demoralising seeing someone like Jonathon Simmons, who is extremely athletic, coming on with fresh legs since he hadn't played much all season, and that for the rest of the bench. Maybe?
I give Dantoni very little blame for that crap I saw last night. Sure, he should have played Sam Dekker more, but it really didn't matter. Trevor Ariza was the only guy that did his job yesterday. I lay most of the blame on Harden. If you want to be the leader, step up when It counts. Houston radio is killing him today. He deserves all of it. He and every one of those guys should be embarrassed...not because they lost, but there was 0 effort. As Ariza said post game, NO EXCUSES.
To be fair, this is why i always believe that having your PG as your best scorer makes it easier to defend your team particularly when you face an excellent defensive team. Who else really scares the opponent on that team? If the 3s arent galling. No one aside from Harden has opponents shaking. So when he spends the first half trying too hard to get his teammates involved instead of carrying the load himself he gets best up for doing things the right way? And if he scored 40 and they lost by 20 then the narrative would have been "Well he didnt get his teammates involved". Sorry, not buying it. He didnt have his best game but i think its being overstated that he played poorly. He had a few bad TO's that in the scheme of things didnt matter. The fact is the Spurs pasted them and nothing Harden did or didnt do mattered a lot because like you said, no one else besides Ariza did squat anyway. Hopefully the Spurs knock off GSW and then Cleveland.
UD is the best. This goes right up there with KG is such a fake tough guy "he wouldn't throw rice at a wedding". If a role player ever deserved to get his number retired, UD would be the one.
I hear what you are saying, but I'm talking about effort. The Rockets have been a PG-led team all year and finished with the #1 offense in the league. Scheme isn't the problem. That nonsense that I witnessed last night was all about leadership and effort. I agree...they all stunk it up. But, if Harden sets the tone by being aggressive (like he did in do-or-die game 5 when he had damn near 25 at halftime), the troops would have followed. I still believe he's the MVP, but I can't and won't defend what I just witnessed. He has to be better. I am the first person to defend him if he gets disrespected by media or fans for no good reason. I am also going to be the first to give an honest assessment when he doesn't show up in a big moment. If he drops 30 points and 5 assists, at least I know he gave a damn. He barely scored 10 points against a Spurs team without Kawhi in a do-or-die game at home. Even Coach Pop said in the post game that the Rockets in game 6 weren't the team he saw all year. Pop was just as surprised as Dantoni as to what happened. They quit.
Two things people need to realize.. 1. Pop is MDA's daddy. I think he tied Phil Jacksons playoff record for wins over an opposing coach last night (Jackson over Jerry Sloan). 2. MDA's fun and gun works fine during the regular season. The playoffs is a different level of competition and youre facing a team like the grizzlies or spurs for example every night. Only the elite teams can get away with that style.
Some Harden lowlights from Game 6 Seriously guys, we should give the Rockets a break. Did you see their effort on D? It was like Leonard and Parker weren't even out there!
I've been a D'Antoni critic for a while, and Pop is obviously the far better coach. That being said, I think D'Antoni deserves credit for a great job this year in Houston. He got more out of that team than most people thought. And I didn't think they had a prayer against the Spurs, but they really could have won that series if a couple bounces go there way in game 5 (or if they decide to use their brains and stop chucking up 3s). It will be interesting to see where that team goes in the next couple year, though.
Arrogant (with ONE title) Shimey doing classless bad for the NBA Warriors over the Spurs in 6 Cavs over Wiz or Celts in 5
Man. Padilla was doing all he could to put a foot or leg under Leonard this entire game. ESPN loves the Warriors so not sure you will see much of an uproar. But if you were watching? You could tell. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Meh... That's breaking an unwritten rule. You don't deliberately try to take someone out like that. It's the equivalent of intentionally diving towards someone's knees. It's shady as hell, and it worked because they were going to be in deep trouble in this series. Now? GS will likely sweep em Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
