ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 4/2/2024

We can't beat the Mavs but Warriors can.

It means our season is over.

 

That's why Draymond Green does not care Rockets at all?

 

Told ya lol

 

Well, great run to finalize a promising season. Lots of talent on the team.

 

Great job handling the string of mediocrity, but once the schedule stiffened back up the team starts looking more their level. Only difference is the defensive focus is on Green instead of Alpi.

Season has been a resounding success and I'm thrilled with the talent heading forward, but lets stop this nonsense about being better without Sengun..we just faced an extremely soft portion of the schedule when he was out.

 

Only thing is I don't like the schedule thing. That's a good win streak regardless. This team has had plenty of quality wins over quality opponents. Minnesota is and has been a terrible matchup for us, Luka went nuclear (which was partly our fault), but overall the team has played the top teams very well this season.

The thing is Rockets lost a lot of games they should not have middle of the season. That late Jan-Feb we dropped games to the Bulls, Nets, Blazers, Raptors, Hawks, Grizzlies.

That's where we lost the play-ins really. So the win-streak actually was a good sign of growth because they realized they can't drop games against teams worse than them, at least not regularly. Even the best teams are around .500 against other playoff teams, those games are pick-em's, but I think the Rockets have played the top teams pretty well this year...

Outside of the Celtics and Minny, those two teams have just been really bad matchups for us. Only reason Minny was beatable tonight was because KAT is out otherwise they probably easily win this game the tip. They are just too big for us but we should be bigger next year with Adams being on the team.

 

The team actually started playing better immediately after the break when Udoka let them push the tempo. The losses were all to good teams, a few of them were games we easily could have won.

The winning aligned with the drop in competition, not some big jump in performance when Sengun went down, which is what some people want to point to. The team was playing just as well in the 9 games prior to Sengun going down, the wins just weren't there because the competition was stiffer.

 

For someone who is a good defender, Dillon has made a TON of late game defensive mistakes while with us. The foul on Lebron, gambling in clutch situations, the dunk by Ant today…his constant aggression is not always to our benefit

 

I missed the game, were we a defensive terror without Sengun?

Did our center not get hunted on switches?

Jabari at 5, that's the way?

 

Tickets for Thursdays game should dip

 

It's too bad but at the same time to be in this situation is a massive win already.

Rockets are 38/37 AFTER Sengun and Tari Eason had season ending injuries. Are you kidding me? Not even the most optimistic fans had the Rox winning over 40 games in the preseason. If we had everyone healthy Rox woulda made the playoffs.

 

That's just in theory in reality the shooters we can get are still inferior to the non shooters we have on the time re: Aaron Holiday. There's like the core six then FVV, Brooks, Adams that's a 9 man rotation already. Add Jock Landale and Unc Green for spot minutes I dunno how other role players make it in.

The only guy we can prob drop in the rotation is Dillon Brooks but even then his shooting isn't terrible (35%), he does other things and his minutes will drastically reduce once Tari comes back.

The best solution honestly is get everyone to start working on their shot. If freaking Dort, Herb Jones and Lonzo Ball can become +40% three point shooters there's no excuse for the Rockets players not to hit their open threes.

I thought Ben Sullivan would do a great job on the shot rehab but the Rox have been horrible since before the ASB. Maybe Rox should start bringing in additional skills coaches that dude on the Pelicans who gave Lonzo and Herb Jones a deadly 3 pt shot would be my first choice. They could also look at the skills coach in OKC OKC is the best 3 pt shooting team and even Giddey is starting to be money from 3.

 

Every team drops against mediocre teams as Boston Celtics managed to drop 2 in back2back games against the Hawks. And 1 against Charlotte.

The problem was they dropped games against bad or mediocre teams and lost against the better teams therefore made it look like the team was going to forfeit their plans for the Play In.

Injuries, inconsistent efficiencies, stamina issues before the ASB, the inexperience of youth etc. you name them.

No way you can fight injuries and mental fatigue.......that is part of the NBA.
For better or worse sometimes you catch good luck with those 2 evils.....sometimes you do not.

 

i agree with you...you can say what you want but 11 straight wins in the NBA, regardless of schedule, is an achievement.

I do....any win for a very young team is a win. And making the play in would have definitely been a win. My thought is that you've gotta be in to win it. It's like a friend told me once about buying lottery tickets. I asked him ...do you know what the odds are of winning anything? He told me "NO, but I know what the odds are if you don't buy a ticket."

But, yeah you're right about what hurts us. We definitely blew some wins that ended up costing us. Still, to be talking about playin with 8 games left made us somewhat relevant...with people talking about us pressing GS. We have a bright future...and, yeah we want to be the top 8 going forward. But, I always hold out hope until there is no hope.

 

Naz Reid is a force. If Dillon Brooks plays a game where he's at 12 - 15 points with low amount of turnovers we win.

 

We lost the game on offense, imo. Defense was fine. The theme of the game was both teams bricking shots - with the Rockets often bricking wide open shots - and then Minnesota starting to hit their shots in the second half of the game while we kept missing them.

 

To get to .500 we need to take care of business against Utah and Portland and pick up one more win against a good team (some of whom might rest starters against us). I think that's doable. .500 is a massive leap over last season.

Getting to 42 for a winning record would be even better, but might be tough the way we're playing now.

 

I was hoping for a 41-41 record back when they started 6-3 and 13-9, but that was assuming everyone was healthy and Jalen played well all season.

For them to have a shot at finishing even better than that despite all the injuries and Jalen playing like crap for more than half the year is a huge accomplishment.

Missing out on the play-in sucks, but they were still playing meaningful games in late March/early April. And they've already turned the corner on winning away from home, Jalen is playing so well that he's now drawing double and triple coverage(the Jalen Rules?), the foundation has been laid to hit the ground running next season, plus we get to add back Alpi and Tari and throw in Adams and whatever we get with that Brooklyn lottery pick.

The future is very bright. This could be a Top 5 team in the West as soon as next year.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that while the West is a tough nut, a lot of these teams are old and have star players on their last legs, and the teams behind us mostly don't have a clear path to pass us in the standings (Memphis, maybe San Antonio). We will be a top 6 team soon and in the playoffs year in and year out after that. Something to look forward to despite the disappointment of not making the play-in.

Expansion is also coming soon which may result in two new bottom-feeder teams in the West (most likely Seattle and Vegas).

 

I'm was pretty bummed out about this loss. It was exciting believing we had a chance at the play-in. I'm still excited about our teams future, but I guess it sucks not to be quite there yet this year.