ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 4/23/2018 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 4)

loved that steal cp3 had on rose. cp3 was like you're dribbling my ball biatch. determination

 

Neither did the Timberpuppies in shocked horror.

 

Yeah it sucks, its going to be like that all through the playoffs.

 

So how is the league leader in RPM not considered a superstar?

 

Most of Minny outside of Rose went back to normal mode, especially Teague and Wiggins.

 

Well obviously cp3 and his ability to generate steals has been rubbing off on harden because I doubt hardens hands ever been this active outside of his strip clubbing escapeds

 

He hasn't watched Hornets CP3 against Duncan, Parker footage, lol. I forgive.

He said never. Dude singlehandedly made a good player an Allstar, David West.

Blake Griff turned out to be a complicated partner in crime in hindsight.

 

yep cp3/having cp3 has allowed harden to improve from 1.5 steals last year to 1.8 steals this year

 

He looks like better overall on defense. I think he doesn’t want to let his big bro down in cp3

 

yep plus not having to do everything/not having any rest

 

CP is a teamplayer and Top 4 or 5 PG of Alltime. He makes peeps around him much better, he just is not a pure scorer. Pure distributor!

Personally I put him ahead of Nash, Payton, TParker. Because his D and O in his early days.

If that's not a superstar, who is?

Curry has lot of help. Zeke Thomas I probably would put ahead of him because of his Finals performances.

 

so curry can defend cp3 or harden one on one?

 

BASKETBALL JESUS

 

We got no beef with Minnesota..... our Milk Hair was their executive and probably has his family there.

Cassell had success over there.

They can say whatever they want - it won't make them real rivals.

 

Source? Stats? I seem to recall at least one Harden mid-range step back jump shot. Or was it technically in the paint?

 

I totally agree. MDA mentioned that we got to see their brilliance, and yes, he's right. But offensively, it was only an occasional brilliance. Like so many other games this season, we played an average game and scored 119 points.

Does anyone else remember that Phoenix game in November that we destroyed them with 90 in the first half (11/16)? This game reminded me of that onslaught. In Phoenix that night, Harden exploded for a monster quarter, 3s rained, and then...not much. The second half of that one we shot 33 percent. Lots of parallels between those games.

However, the Rockets have figured out how to run a defensive game plan, and our effort on the glass against Minnesota is off the charts. The numbers here can't go unmentioned:

84 shot attempts by the Wolves
10 offensive boards and only 29 offensive rebounding chances
4 offensive boards by KAT in the third quarter; zero for everyone else
1 offensive rebound allowed in the fourth quarter
92 shots by the Rockets
10 offensive boards and 34 total chances
​

Between our rebounding and the Wolves turnovers, this is a fairly easy start to the playoffs. I'm ready to close this out and move on to more meaningful games.

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/game?gameId=401029422

this was the closest thing to a mid range, but he had a foot in the paint

 

Chris Paul hit a 10 foot jumper with about 10 minutes left in the 2nd.

 

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
http://www.startribune.com/wolves-learn-the-hard-way-you-do-not-poke-the-beard/480639551/

Wolves learn the hard way, you do not poke 'The Beard'
In Game 4, Harden became a human torch, erasing a Timberwolves lead and any shadow of a doubt as to who will win this playoff series.

In Game 3 of the Timberwolves-Rockets playoff series, Karl-Anthony Towns threw actual shade at James Harden, cupping a hand over his eyes after a Harden airball.

In Game 4, Harden became a human torch, erasing a Timberwolves lead and any shadow of a doubt as to who will win this playoff series with the kind of self-assured, scenery-eating performance that remains the province of true NBA superstars.

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape or James Harden’s beard. Monday night, Harden missed his first seven shots, then scored 36 points, including 22 in the Rockets’ historic 50 point third quarter, in a 119-100, series-defining win.

That’s right: The Houston Rockets scored 50 points in one quarter of a playoff game against a team that was just starting to feel good about its defense.

You must fear the beard when your defense has trouble getting near the beard.

After another Paul three-pointer, Harden made a two-point jumper, finished a drive, hit a three-pointer, then swished another floater from the lane.

It was 70-54 and Wolves defenders had lost their way. They began cutting underneath screens, allowing Harden open three-pointers. When Harden drove, Wolves defenders looked so worried about potential lob passes to Clint Capela, that they often let Harden shoot floaters, uncontested, from three feet away.

“The first six minutes, we gave them everything,” Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said of the third quarter. “Paul and Harden were a load.”

Saturday night, playoff basketball returned to Target Center, and by the end of the Timberwolves’ victory, the crowd had grown loud, as if it had begun to believe.

Monday night, the atmosphere changed, for the better. The crowd was intense from the start, as if understanding the the Wolves’ appearance in the playoffs might be more than an experience-building exercise.

“He was pretty good,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said.

The Timberwolves had slowed Harden in the first 3½ games of the series by contesting his three-point shots. Harden began the third quarter with a drive for a basket, then drew a foul at the three-point line and made all three free throws. Sandwiched around a Chris Paul three-pointer, those plays gave the Rockets a 58-49 lead.

This feeling was bolstered in the first half. The Wolves put on a burst early in the second quarter, with Derrick Rose running the floor like a halfback, finishing one-man fast-breaks. When Jamal Crawford hit a jumper, the Wolves took a 36-29 lead and the arena was as loud as it has been, rock concerts excepted, since 2004.

Then Harden returned to the game and demonstrated the difference between the Rockets and the Wolves. Harden gives the Rockets a superstar, and certainty. The Wolves can’t match either, and won’t until Towns learns to assert himself against a good defense in a big series.

Regardless of his shooting percentage or the score, Harden continued to do what probably will make him the NBA’s most valuable player, and what made the Rockets the NBA’s best team this season.

A Timberwolves victory in Game 4 would have ensured one more home game and would have placed a modicum of pressure on the Rockets. Instead, Harden left little doubt that the Rockets will win the series, and less doubt that they can get the shots they want whenever they want.

The Wolves had a lead in the second quarter, faced the narrowest of deficits at the half ... and by the end of the third quarter trailed 100-69.

What happened?

“We came out lackadaisical,” Jimmy Butler said.

“We just got hot,” Paul said. “It was our defense. We were getting rebounds and we’re tough in transition.”

Paul’s gamesmanship irritated Wolves point guard Jeff Teague, who confronted Paul in the second half.

Harden, conversely, rarely irritates or gets irritated. While the Wolves looked anxious, Harden remained calm, shredded their defense and led his team to a 50-point quarter.

“We scored 50 points,” Harden said. “What else is there to say?”