I don't know, from what I saw it seemed way too far back. Allowed Dion to reach over the back and knock it away.
the easy answer would be to blame dwight on that play, but if you watched closely the pass was bad. Blaming Dwight is just cool nowadays I guess.
The pass was awful. Dwight's going up for the alley oop and the pass is one foot inside the paint, five feet from the basket. He had to jump backwards with his momentum carrying him towards the basket, plus add in Waiters's loose ball foul and that's a difficult catch. Assume Dwight did catch it that far from the basket. There's no way he'll have an uncontested shot without being hacked by Adams, Westbrook, and Waiters. It was a poor pass that was too wide from the basket.
I agree with OP regarding the team committing the same mistake with the inbound play 2 games in a row. That's inexcusable and really projects that this team or franchise broken. That play changed the momentum of the game!
One thing that play does show us is that even when it looks like Dwight is wide open, when you have to pass over a 7'er (Adams) standing between you and Dwight, the pass must be almost perfect, because the defense has time to recover. And it does have to be perfect for an actual slam from Dwight. Love the people who said, "Harden should have thrown a laser, instead of a lob." What? A laser right into Adam's head? imo, it wasn't a lob, either. The pass was about as fast to get over Adam's head as you could do, but off target. And as others have said, the defense will try to wrap up Dwight even if he catches it. Although, that is fairly dangerous, cause it can result in an AND-1 for the win, especially in Dwight's younger days. bottomline: This should be a reminder next time we see screen shots or videos from people saying Dwight is "wide open".
I like the call but the execution (from our two leaders) was pathetic on both ends. Maybe Billups and half the damn analysts were right, you cant win a lot of games with these two as your leaders. Both tremendous players, but both mixed together trying to lead a team might not be it. That's just my hot take of the day, here's to a better 2016 =/
Whats so puzzling is this team is healthier and more talented than last year. Hence its a chemistry and coaching problem. I've never seen anything like this
the play call was questionable, too, in my mind. i heard the play was a designed one. but i am not sure if the idea was to let harden draw double teams and then pass the ball to AN open rocket, or it was specifically meant for dwight under the basket. in any case, a lob that far from the hoop is very difficult to execute and has a far less chance to succeed compared to a lob in a, say, p&r situation. so if that was the call - either designed by jbb or a improvised call by harden - it wasnt the best play we'd come up with in that situation.
this is my feeling, too. coming off a good season, why the team would have chemistry issues? it's a myth.
Season started slow, Morey and Les panicked and canned McHale. McHale, while not the greatest coach in the world, was way more competent than JB. Writing's on the wall - JB is not head coaching material. Maybe one day, but he's not ready.
For what? To get the 14th pick and draft the next Sam Dekker, Patrick Patterson, Marcus Morris, Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, or Terrance Jones? Because that's what the Rockets have gotten recently when not making the playoffs or taking a pick from 18 down. Why chose to lose today just to get the opportunity to likely lose again? I'd rather take a chance with the slim odds of a deep playoff run then take a chance on the slim odds of drafting a difference maker with the 14th pick.
