Thoughts And Takeaways From The Rockets Game Four Loss

Apr 27, 2014; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) reacts after making a basket during overtime in game four of the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs against the Houston Rockets at the Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

Ok. I’ve finally had time to take a step back and relive game four in my head. What a frustrating loss. Many things I’ve already said on our Twitter account, @HouseOfHouston, but there’s some more as well.

I’m going to include many of the tweets from yesterday and add a few notes following each tweet.

Really needed John McLain to chime in here. Absolutely pathetic showing by Harden defensively late in the game. And I was planning on ending my rant there, but as it turns out, I was just getting started.

I feel like there’s a non-stop GIF going on in my head all day of Nicolas Batum turning around Parsons and then nailing that three late in the game. Not to mention the several blowbys (probably made up that word) that Harden as already made famous.

So frustrating. 

Absolutely WETTTT last night! We’re talking about a rookie who spent most of the season in the D-League this season, and he’s arguably been the team’s third or fourth best player in the series. Unreal. The three pointers were sick, but the fact that he knocked down three huge FT’s late in the game, his first FT’s in any NBA game ever, was truly unreal. Love Troy “Trey” Daniels.

At least with Brooks you get a guy that you’re confident can hit a three, and he can hit them in bunches. With Lin, you hope he gets hot and makes the right passes. Rather have Brooks off the bench for the scoring he could provide, than Lin, who can maybe do a few things a tad better, but that’s about it. I mean, check out Daniels’ shot chart. That’s Lin stealing some of those minutes. 

That’s it for the tweets, but here are a few more quick thoughts:

• Keep feeding Dwight Howard. People think it may “ruin our balance” on offense. I disagree.
• Rockets are doing a great job defending LaMarcus Aldridge these last two games. He was bound to come back down to earth.
• Rockets continuing to get owned when they’re forced to put Terrence Jones on Robin Lopez. Rockets need to continue to get Lopez in foul trouble.
• Though the Rockets shot better from beyond the arc, they need to hit the open ones, and had a few big opportunities late in the game that they couldn’t get to fall.
• The officiating isn’t a reason that we lost, but they certainly didn’t make it easy. It’s been terrible all series. Horrendous in game four. Remember that Dwight Howard technical for doing nothing? Yea, the Blazers hit the FT and the game went to OT. Think it made a difference? So many other ones too. Ughh…

That’s all for now, but there’s sure to be a lot more Rockets/Blazers talk over the next few days, and hopefully even longer.

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