We lost first few games cus our coach didn’t understand exactly what you are saying. It wasn’t our young core that was the issue. It was Tate, Capela. Neither of which have seen the floor since game 3.
Oh without a doubt. Brooks was unfortunately a consequence of having to get rid of the utter garbage Failen Green. People can check the receipts - I said Brooks would be the player many on Clutchfans would fall in love with, after an off-season of hating on him because the media wanted them to after he called out LeFlop. Low and behold. If Failen wasn't so incompetent, maybe we'd be able to still see Dillon's output on this team. Unfortunately, Failen was just so utter f'cking garbage Dillon caught a stray as a result.
Yeah well I guess we have to agree to disagree - I think it's fair to blame the players for playing like **** for the first 2.5 games and going down 0-3 vs a terrible Lakers team, just like I'll give them credit for winning the last 2 straight. Conversely you blame the guys who weren't on the court. To each his own
I think the players you want to blame while they may not have played up to your standard played well enough to win. Sengun is getting flamed yet we won all the minutes he was on the court in every game. Same with Amen. Our young core is showing out. But their bench literally scored less points than bronny James… if we could replace Durand 50 million with any half decent player. We would have won the series already..
I wouldn’t mind if he came back in Game 7 off the bench as a scoring punch. A wrinkle the Lakers have to worry about.
KD is not a leader. He cusses too much and is riding the pine. I don't mind a good cuss word timed appropriately, but KD at times sounds like he came from the gutter.
I'm not a KD apologist, but where was this energy when this young team lost 2 games. This forum is so weird sometimes. The Rockets barely reached 100 the past 5 games and now they have better chemistry? No, what they did the last 2 games was abandoned the offensive rebounding scheme to limit transition from the Lakers, made some shots , and forced more turnovers. Teams usually come together, when their backs are against the wall. The Rockets still had turnovers in the clutch and still couldn't buy a basket in the 4th when LA went on that 11-3 run. Bottom line is we are the better team as far as skill set goes, but saying this team is better without KD is absurd.
No, game 1 and game 3 were the worst games. Game 2 was bad, but 1 was even worse, because Luke Kennard and Smart were all stars. Game 3 was bad because we should have won, but bone headed,common sense errors, lead to our demise in 30 seconds.
He shouldn't play at all the rest of the way. See how the young core does without him and then evaluate where to go next. You aren't beating OKC regardless, and you already know what you're going to get with him playing, so might as well experiment a little.
I would say he wasn't at 100% but since he's KD they tried to defer too much to him (see also: Season, regular) and it jammed up the offense. Especially when the Lakers swarmed him and he coughed it up 9 times.
The Rockets had an effective FG% of 43 (the lowest of any game in the series) in game 1, they shot 37-33-68% from the field (the lowest of any game in the series) and htat number is inflated by Tari Eason going 7-7, mostly in the 4th with the Rockets desperately behind. Reed Sheppard, starting in place of Durant, managed to go 6-20 with 4 TO. This is a game you are using as a *positive* data point on how the Rockets are better off without him.
But we got so many more hustle stats without KD out there and turned it over way less. Why would shooting stats be the determine factor now we played. Fact of the matter is we only scored 94 points in game 2 with a KD offense. And we have beat that number in every other game no matter how bad we shot.
Buddy, the Rockets offense rating without Durant was 106.2 in game 1 - that is putrid, well below the regular season Rockets with Durant in game 2 - also putrid! 106.0. Rockets without Durant in game 3 - the worst of all - 104.0. The Rockets offensive rating with Durant on the floor during the regular season is - 119! Even during the one playoff game he played and had 9 TOs it was 112.8 during his minutes. I have a hard time blaming Durant for an 0-3 deficit. A very hard time given the bed crapping everyone else did in 3 games, even including his TO fest in his one game. I don't mind that people dislike Durant, I don't like him! But at some point people are just making stuff up. Like here.
Yeah - I don't agree on some points. While I respect the Rockets playing hard and well in games 3-5...... they still played a Lakers team that was very up and down this year, and were without their two best players. Beating the Lakers without Doncic and Reeves (for 4 games), is vastly different than beating them with those guys... even without KD. The effort and confidence of the young guys has been awesome -- but we shouldn't think that erases all or even most of the problems on the team. If the Rockets beat the Spurs or Thunder, then sure... but the Lakers are somewhat a middling Western Conference team, that is without one of the 3 best players in the world, and had a 2-0 lead... that then stretched to 3-0.
