ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Blazers 3/20/2018

1 loss was decided by 2 points
2nd one was decided by 3 points.

Easily could've been 41-0

 

Pretty sweet after all that bullshit Lillard and McCollum were talking on ESPN. Really proud of the way Harden went at them tonight. Let your play shut them up.

 

The Rockets just keep evolving. 3rd road game in 4 nights was our weakness and we lost to Toronto. Happened again and this time we won.

 

Our defense has been superb, couldn't remember the last time we had this great of a defensive team in the past, shoutout to Bzdelik

 

Lillard got owned so bad tonight he should name his newly delivered baby James. Or Jamie if girl.

 

Dang he was asked a question and he answered it

And the answer was an inside joke on tnt

What did you expect harden to say anyway??

 

Btw on another note, coach Nick has a nice video of why AD isn’t the MVP. And he gets into coach Alvin Gentry’s rant about the officiating as well. It was a good video. Alvin even said Harden is the MVP.

 

Guess whats hardens % on those stepback 3s this year. They aint luck hes been working on it all these years. 3s and stepbacks. But this year he combined and unleashed them.

Aminu was the one who made umbelievable shots not harden

 

What did they say?

 

Clint didn't play up to his potential. Aminu and Harkless went bananas from 3. Made up a little for Lillard and McCollums misses.

 

any update on cp3 injury?

 

Yep Harden basically said that as a shoutout to Shaq and Shaq recipricated seconds later on inside the nba.

 

Aw man, that was an awesome win and I love we - Harden - again showing that Clutch factor!!! So happy we got forced to play Gerald Green, he was very key in that stretch with instant 3 pointer and played some amazing defense. He got a block and boxed out Collins I think it was and just provided that energy. Joe Johnson is a calm factor, but you need that energy sometimes. Ariza, Gordon, Tucker and Joe were either not shooting or missing so really wonder why it took so long for Green to get in, but glad he did. Finally Ariza, Tucker and Gordon hit some key threes in the 4th!! They make it when it matters most. Tucker was amazing, that defense and that offensive rebound.

I am disappointed by Capela, looked nervous and just had nothing on their bigs. CP3, oh my, those threes and those plays were just great down the stretch. Mbah a Moute with his drives was also very key for us. Just a great team victory!!! Harden lead us though, some of those lay-ups were crazy difficult and those threes in the 4th. The one over two guys was very Maxwell like! Great adjustments by MDA too throughout the game, although I still don't like small ball all the time since we switch small guys onto bigs too much to my liking.

Some questions though:
- do you think it was the game plan to let their role players shoot threes and just focus on their backcourt? To me it was so infuriating to see Aminu get wide open three after wide open three, especially since he got us last time. It was like we took our chances and at least a defender should've stayed within a few feet to contest it, but if it was part of the plan to double hard on others then it's alright.
- why did we not play Nene? Small ball the game plan I guess?

 

Just finished watching the game, bwahahahahahahahahahha...... portlands starting backcourt are terrible defenders, mccollum should of shut his mouth , just made him look even more like a fool.

 

Still not sure how it all happened.

I mean it was a wrap folks. Harden got blocked in the first quarter and that was supposed to be it. At least that’s what I heard.

 

hey man where have you been? hows the kids?

 

1. I do think the plan was to rotate off Aminu in the first quarter as he usually only makes two 3s a game. But the Rockets changed strategy as they couldn't bother his shot.

2. No idea about Nene. He doesn't match up with the Blazers very well though.

We need to give a shout out to Gerald Green and Eric Gordon for their effort on D. The advanced stats show that the Blazers didn't make a 3 while they were defending (0-3 for Green, 0-1 for Gordon) and overall the Blazers were 2-9 from the field against them. This explains their strong +/- scores (Gordon +6, Green +8).

Lillard going 0-7 from the 3 pt line was partly our D and partly an off shooting night. Clearly Harden had all the answers tonight. MVP, hands down.

 

It's an embarrassment. I think the league is so happy with all the scoring that it doesn't want to enforce stuff like that.

 

D'Antoni " he (James) is the best offensive player I've ever seen "

Umm. Wait. Huh? He's throwing around reckless superlatives lately.