ClutchFans Game Thread: Hawks @ Rockets 12/20/2023

Well better luck next time. Goodnight.

 

I saw the score as I was leaving practice. Ugh.

 

Just a learning moment. Alpi f***ed it up on those lobs. Hopefully he'll accept responsibility and work to do better next time.

 

One hell of a game, and a lot of fun to watch.

The young man made a big step in his career, in my opinion. Now he knows that he can uncork this kind of performance, and against a good team. Coach Udoka needs to focus more on Jabari, come up with some set plays for Smith within our offense, in my opinion, that will reward him…. build upon this game. Fortify his confidence.

 

He has been able to recover on Lively and Luka PnR's, Warriors P&Rs and the coach was the one that called him a versatile defender just 5 games ago. But he looked stuck in quick sand today, like a linebacker biting hard on play action. Still time to learn.
I mean they started the game with Alpi on sniper Hunter and Jab on Capela.

 

There bigs are literally rooks who are still
Learning. Not the case for atl’s bigs. Clearly it’s a big difference bc he struggled mightily with it tonight. Another learning experience

 

That's his job. He's been saying he wants Ime to be rough on him. He's benching him now so he needs to show some sign of life on defense. That was an inexcusably bad quarter. He was straight up 1/10 on defensive end. If Okongwu is not setting any screen for Trae why are you not staying close to the rim but following Okongwu? It was such a r-tarded 5-6 minutes by him. He couldn't make any adjustments.

 

One last note before I hit the sack--if Tari plays instead of Tate, we win this game.

That is all.

 

Probably because we could have easily won the game if that guy didn't take 26 shots, coming up empty way more than anyone else. All we needed was 8 more points, and we could have easily gotten them without one of our worst shooters taking most of the shots.

 

did ee win?

 

Well said. I'm seeing some members really down about the outcome. Sure, I dislike losing as much as the next man, but I'm excited about our performance. I'm not down at all. I'm imagining some hellacious practices, and some changes in the rotation wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

It's not at all unusual in NBA basketball for a role player who puts up 12 ppg to occasionally have a monster game.

See Eason,Brooks, hell even Jeff Green, just in the last few weeks. It's a positive sign.

It's the ability to do it consistently that separates the stars from the role players like Smith Jr (who I like quite a bit).

But like I said, his more limited style of play, makes it less likely for him to repeat it - hopefully I'm wrong! But maybe/likely I'm not, he reverts back, and then we can do this again in a month and you say THIS is the real deal

 

You know our last home loss…Tari also missed that game…dude is a stud and I sure hope he can go against the Mavs.

 

It’s amazing how Tates struggle continues to get ignore by the fans…


Or am I the only one thinking Tate is rotation worthy player?

 

I think here's the deal....the Rockets are not asking him to be a primary,first option scorer or even 2nd option. Can he ? Absolutely, he could if called upon. Rather, they have slotted him as a CONSISTENT Rebounder and defensive presence. Can he score more than his 13 ppg average...absolutely. Is he going to average 20 something a night...no, certainly with his current usage. He will be a lot better than you think he will be and probably not as good as I think he will be. You are seriously underrating him though. JMO. I realize that we are looking at a guy who has had 25 games in his 2nd year and is still trying to find out where he fits.

 

I think unlike Jalen, or ****, even Alpi, who when they struggle tend to struggle very loudly and noticeably, Tate's bad play has been kind of quiet. He's still giving effort, still making hustle plays, but his offensive game has sputtered to a halt and his minutes are slowly being eaten up by the younger guys.

Just the natural evolution of things, I guess. I thought his three-ball would come around, because that's what's going to give him a place on a contending team. It's completely abandoned him

 

trust the process kind of game. A lot things to highlight on our side. Credit to the other guys. 17 threes, 3 guys shooting +50% from outside. The backup center outplaying Capela and all of our big men.

Keep growing

 

Just got back from the game. Sengun had his worst showing of the year. Not only was he awful offensively and much worse defensively...but Ime was on him throughout various timeouts during the 4th and he just looked despondent. Not sure what's going on with him but he just looked disengaged.

Glad I got to catch the Bari game though. He looked like the best player on the court tonight. Single handedly made that loss easy to stomach. We win that game if Tari plays. Need a backup center. Landale isn't it. Come home Capela.

 

What I was worried about in the early going seems to be happening.

It's really easy to have defensive intensity when a season is fresh and the coach is new. Making it a permanent thing isn't as easy.

Defensive intensity has been terrible the last few games, far too many people getting to scoring spots easily. Hopefully it's just a rough patch.

 

Nice growth for Jabari Smith!