Warriors vs Rockets || First Take gm6 ||

teams have taken away a lot of his tendencies. they've figured out he tries to bounce pass into the key when doubled. his 7 foot dribble might be easy to steal. and when he's doubled, he often forces a shot rather than pass. so this is a good question i've wondered too

creuset

He doesn’t eat right... you can just look his body and tell. That combined with style of play and not the strongest of wills...

Athletic Alchemy

That rocker dribble has become very effective for him. I think he handling more out of necessity.

Athletic Alchemy

We should! Remember KD knee injury last year, it was the bruise that took longer to heal.

Athletic Alchemy

For G7, I hope they don't let their guard down. And watch out for the refs.

Bailey

at minute 1:20 of the video pause it. You see KD drive to the hoop harden helps of Klay if KD slows downs and looks up he had klay wide open for the same three that he got after KD gets stripped. Obviously this is only one sample I was wondering how often this happens with KD, because harden is either on steph or klay some times and there have been several times when KD got blocked or striped by harden, and i wonder if any of the guys are open. I wonder if KD is being rushed and if he should slow down to survey the field. In the Pelicans Game 2 at the end of the game the worriers had a a lot of movement while KD was in isolation, in the rockets series the splash bros stood around while KD posted up Alchemy is there a reason for this or are splash bros being to conforming or assuming that KD is going to score? the way i see if there is not a lot of movement in the perimeter during KD's iso its easier for the double team to come and disturb him.

No, CP3 can do it too for some reason

Aiden Burch

Also want to say.. I havent watched James Harden a ton. But is he the only player in the NBA thats allowed to shove people with his forearm constantly to make room?

Jim

one thing i thought was interesting was before Game 5 the announcers talked about Harden putting in late night hours. Then in Game 5 he was pretty bad. Even saw his eyes do that weird flutter that he does anyway but this time i think he was truly in his head w fatigue. Figured he wouldn't be dumb enough to do that prior to Game 6, but he may still be gassed. You dont make that up with one night's sleep. And he didnt have a superb game.

Jim

Hey Alch. You're killing it bro. Love your takes. Something I haven't heard talked about is Klay being more of a ball handler in this game. It seemed like he was running the offense a lot more than normal. Was it a fluke, or do you think this is something Kerr did to exploit a match up?

Manhar Dalal

<a href="https://youtu.be/eQ70BkPkANM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/eQ70BkPkANM</a>

Forgot to say, should we be concerned about Ig? He can't even run without pain and when he comes back it might affect how well he can move and dunk and take away so more of his aggression, and it's already lacking. Speaking of aggression, why does Shaun Livingston not shoot more? I guess 5 shots is okay, but half of them were probably dunks. Is it because now Steph is in the second unit so Livingston will feel guilty shooting? We need him to be more aggressive in game seven, especially because Klay probably won't be as good. Livingston and Draymond each need to be more aggressive. Draymond gets a pass for hi defensive effort, but not Livingston.

Funny how Chris Paul finds a way to complain and whine to the refs even when he's not playing.

There was a few minute stretch in the 4th where KD was benched and The Splash Bros just took over the game. Reminiscent of the Pre-KD Warriors

Branden Edwards

After Game 6, I would roll with Young over Cook if Kerr had to play either of them

Yeah KD was really bad defensively specifically with Gordon. I mean the second 3 Gordon took at the start of the game, KD gave him way too much room to jack up a 3. MAKE Gordon a driver, don't give him that much room. KD also lost Ariza in transition a couple of times.

I forgot to say, I think both Iguodala and CP3 try to play Willis Reed style.

Steven Stanley

If game 7 is played at a pace that will yield a score in the 90's or very low 100's then the Rockets will stand a good chance in game 7. The farther the score progresses past 100 the better the chance the Warriors will win in Houston. I don't understand D'Antoni's obvious decision to not play his bench but for game 4, 5 and 6 I watched the entire games with a running box score open monitoring Houston's player minutes and he's clearly decided to only play 7 players in this series. If the pace of the series creates more fast breaks and more possessions I honestly believe Houston has to play more players more minutes or they will run out of gas. If CP3 doesn't carry the Rockets in game 5 with multiple impossible shots when they were running out of gas the series would have already been over now. Will D'Antoni suddenly trust someone else off that bench now.....it's clear that Kerr will but the Warriors have to push the pace to make fatigue as large a factor as possible.....it's now a 5 set tennis match....in the sun....and we want to get it to a tiebreaker of the 18-16 variety (Borg/McEnroe).

Steven Stanley

I think Livingston will be a key player in G7. I'm assuming Iguodala doesn't play. I think he will get more minutes. The issue with Looney and Bell is that Houston is hardly defending them bc they aren't scoring threats, so this messes up our flow on offense. We can play Liv + the 4 all stars since Houston plays so small. I don't know how much we can trust Young in a G7 on the road, he's just too mistake prone. Kerr may have to go with our 5 best players and he trusts them bc they are battle tested.

I don't know what's going on with KD but he needs to get himself right for G7. KD was the main reason our defense was so bad in the 1Q - he was messing up on switches, not closing on shooters. He just wasn't engaged on defense at all. Third straight poor shooting game. We're talking about a guy who can get an efficient 25 pts in his sleep. For G7, I think the key will be how we start the game. Harden is clearly running out of gas in the 2nd half. So Houston will be at their best in the 1Q, like tonight. We gotta be ready to play from the tip and not fall behind. As the game goes on, we want to be in a position to keep building more and more of a lead. We do not want a close game down the stretch against Houston on the road bc they are so good at deciding games at the FT line in crunchtime.

If we can run them off the 3-point line. All their shooters, I think it bodes quite well for us. Also, even if a hand in their face the Rockets take rough contested 3's. There have been spurts where those 3's go in, and then spurts when they don't. Overall if we can ran them off the line, and make 'em keep taking rough ones, probability is on our side there.

WarReady

Really agree with this and has me concerned how the referees will call things given it’s AT Houston. Warriors will just have to stay disciplined.

The start of this game was just ugly by the Warriors, the defense was non-existent, letting Eric Gordon walk into some wide open 3 pointers in rhythm. I was happy they got to half time only down 10, but was starting to doubt them coming out of this because of their poor performance for most of this series. What you said about the Rockets playing looser because of playing with house money, versus the Warriors coming out nervous and tense in an elimination game makes sense. The playing field will definitely be more even in that regard on Monday. The refs really decide the games in this series though, because there have been more games for the Rockets where the roles have been reversed and Houston could be very physical without getting called for anything, while the Warriors couldn't return the intensity because anytime they tried to do the same thing the whistle was blown immediately. Game 7 really comes down to how the refs call it, which really bugs me, just let them play and see who really comes out on top.

Sarah

Given that Rockets got house money and there is no more “next game” we CANNOT start the way we did tonight or it can get ugly. I mean it was really ugly the way KD was turning the ball over and how the Harden, Tucker, Ariza, Gordon were draining 3’s early because of fast-breaks and bad switching. Idk how you feel about KD but he has been dreadful from 3 this entire series and when we made our run, I was really questioning if KD should come back in. I mean when he touched the ball, I felt like it was a momentum killer. He post up, make or miss, it would kill the momentum. KD owes us one BUT Klay needs to the absolute focal point however I don’t want him to be the ball handler as much. A couple times he was up top and he had to get by Capela which can and cannot wort. If was so clear that the refs were favoring us for most of the 2nd half. That’s what gets me worried in Game 7 though, how it will be ref’ed. Here is the key though, make Harden and Gordon work their asses off in the 1st half BUT don’t yield the 3. Make them drivers but punish them when they come in, hence Jordan Bell should be effective. It was so clear that after Gordon attempted that dunk on our 3 guys, he was gassed, absolutely nothing left in the 4th.

Telling you he is due!

Athletic Alchemy

Won’t be able to recover in the road.. Kerr needs a new trick pregame.

Athletic Alchemy

My gawd you must be exhausted. I am from my coach!

Athletic Alchemy

This is the brand of basketball we’ll need to play in Houston. Hope KD finds the right balance of getting his own and dishing it to the splash brothers. If that happens, we should win soundly.

As I said, before. Limit turnovers, and don't foul. Even when they go up 17 on us, we still can win by not turning the ball over (equals more shots on goal) and getting Harden tired by not stopping the game with fouling. I understand that even still, the Rockets are told to-and they do-shot a lot of 3-pointers, so that is a point of concern going into game 7. In this game 6, we saw Warriors basketball, and if we see it in Houston. We'll be good. And I agree, KD is due for an ultra-efficient game.

WarReady

Saw it live! My throat is hoarse and my ears are still ringing. Loud like being inside a jet engine, and the engine is carrying the team through the sheer force of the sound waves.

Abe Tenley

Came out moving around in mud, making mistakes, and missing shots. The reason we're former Champs is we learn, adjust, trust ourselves, and trust each other.

Boy we needed that one

Antonio lee