ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Lakers 2/21/2019

They were trying like hell to keep him from keeping that 30 point streak from continuing too. They almost did it. I never seen so many bad calls. A foul from Harden to Rondo nose? He didnt even get touched.

 

of course silver's just going to send a replacement fixer, we can write that in stone. but at least we won't have to see foster's ugly ass!

 

Absolutely both can be true and damn sure was !

 

Now who is being dismissive? Don't tell me to relax. I don't care if you disagree with me, I'm also expressing my opinion. I'm not pulling sh-t.

 

Ok. Peace. I'm irritated about the game, not you. (Homie bummed me out a bit, but I will pretend it was a compliment). All good.

 

One thing that is obvious is this team is harden, cp3, capela, and a bunch of BUMS.

Even Eric Gordon can’t put together 2 good halfs.

I’ve never seen guys who are supposedly capable shooters brick the most wide open 3’s.

It’s frsutrating as hell seeing Middleton, Lopez, Brogdon, Bledsoe, Mirotic, etc hit open shots and the rockets role players brick everything with an open contest.

 

INTERESTING

 

I'm going to say this without reservation....we can win, and have won,without any player not named Harden. Take him away and this team is laughable....I mean 20 win laughable. Jimmy out there game after game playing ridiculous minutes and we talk about PJ has been worn out...now that's a joke. Why must he play all 82 games while we only need CP3 during the playoffs according to some. Why is Jimmy more often than not playing D on the other team's best player? Hell, maybe a little rest for him might be helpful. Now, I like CP3 big time...but 40 mil ? You kidding ? You have to let either CP3 or Jimmy walk...who do you choose ? It is a very quick answer for me. In 34 minutes,PJ had 3 rebounds and 3 points....there were 4 players with more rebounds than Tucker including Faried with 6 in 18 mins. as well as CC(11), CP3 (10) and Jimmy (5).

 

Amen Space City ! Lotta folks doggin out Jimmy tonight and he certainly didn't have a great game. But, don't get on him when he's heating up the rest of the season. And you nailed it...few, if any, would would win with this supporting cast of characters.When jimmy dishes off for wide open 3's and you get bricks, what do you do? We don't have a damn post up player on the team..even Capela is an alley oop scorer.

 

Yeah this was not on the refs. They kept their poise even when the crowd was going nuts and the players complained like crazy to get calls overturned. The Rockets play stupid, cannot hit their threes, play not enough tough defense and just played around. Harden with his usual dribbling out the shot clock, ughh...they deserved to lose and I could see it coming a mile away.

 

Absolutely agree and it leads to ugly basketball where Harden has to carry these bums on offense. I love this team but I have a hard time watching them play. Harden and Capela's play are the rays of sunshine that keep me from just box-score watching.

 

You have bullock hit that go ahead three to blow the game wide open.

You have capaela shoot over 50 percent which that in itself represents capaela best shot on offense.

Yeah harden took a bunch of three's and scored 30 plus which at the time harden was shooting over 50 percent.

Cps had a career night just in rebounds with 8 rebounds plus his shot was on and cp3 hit a three with under a minute left. Cp3 shot over 50 percent as well.

But then Ingram and James did more than rockets bigs.

The moral of story on the road is if other team bigs outplay our bigs, there ain't nothing harden can do.

I guess harden has to do like kobe when Kobe's team got out played by other team's forwards and center.

 

"good teams don't win close games they avoid them"

Refs sucked? Ok. If you make your damn WIDE OPEN SHOTS you win and everyone can go suck an egg.

This team for all the outside shots it takes has inconsistent outside shooters. Slashers and "defenders" but no true deadeye shooters.

The whole Ray Allen Jokey joke was in fact a cry for help from Morey. Doesn't take a MENSA member to see that.

 

I don’t know about plenty but there was a stretch that the rockets played really well beating those top teams. I’ve mentioned it in this board before. Again the team had house at the starting 3 spot. Austin rivers was very aggressive offensively. Tucker was shooting corner 3s. And harden looked very different driving more to the hole and shooting better. I hope this streak Ends to be honest so we can focus on just playing ball again and not chasing records. The focus doesn’t seem there and no house are just a few of the rox problems.

 

James Harden says Scott Foster shouldn't officiate Rockets games

**** Foster!

 

The situation is pathetic to say the least. The PF/SF problems are huge, in particular. The players should have done better despite the atrocious referring in the 4th quarter. TF and DM don't give a damn about the team.

 

I saw the loss coming too even late in the 3rd quarter. The Rockets built that 19-point lead and then just started settling for 3's. And a lot of them weren't even good 3's. They were contested and often late in the shotclock. They have to stop with the dribble, dribble, dribble for 20 seconds and then just launching 3-point attempts. It's predictable and allows the other team to get back into the game quickly. If Harden or CP3 is just dribbling around, the opponent is conserving energy on defense since they get to stand around as well. And those missed 3's turn into long rebounds which lead to easy transition hoops, especially given how p-sspoor the Rockets have been all year at getting back down the court on D.

We can blame Foster all we want and he was horrendous. But he wasn't officiating that OKC game where the Rockets blew an entire 22-point halftime lead in the 3rd quarter. He wasn't in either game in Minnesota when the Rockets choked away double digit leads both times. He wasn't in Dallas when they coughed up an 8-point lead with under 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. He wasn't at Toyota Center when the Rockets lost to the Pelicans despite that team missing everyone besides Holiday and having a 15-point lead. He wasn't there when the Rockets choked away an 8-point lead and 7-point lead to the Nets in regulation and OT. He wasn't in Orlando when the team blew a 10-point lead in the 4th quarter.

You get the point. This has plagued the team all season and it's not because of the officials. It's because they're playing lazy, predictable basketball, they're being outhustled on the boards, and they're not trying on defense and instead just switching everything which plays right into the opposing team's hands. Personnel is another issue with injuries, an inept front office, and a cheapass owner. But in spite of those limitations, they should easily have at least 5 more wins right now.

 

Not a good look blaming the refs. Yeah they sucked but you still blew a 19pt lead . Good teams don't do that. I can't wait for next year.

 

It's really odd that Harden is struggling more now (with CP3 and Capela back) than when he had less help. I don't know if it was a post-AS slump or what, but he didn't really seem like himself, last night.

With the amount of attention that a healthy CP3 and Capela gets, Harden should get easy points. Yet, the Lakers really full-court pressured Harden all night, daring Chris Paul to bring up the ball.

That's Chris Paul - point God. Teams would rather a HoF PG bring up the ball, than Harden. So crazy.