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The Rockets lost to the Warriors 115-106 on Monday night and with the loss, they are now two more losses from being able to start summer vacations.
The Warriors opted to sit Stephen Curry and it was all setup for the Rockets to go home with the series tied one-one. They just could not find a way to get it to done. The game was close a few times, but the Warriors found a way to send the eight seed back home with their tails between their legs.
Below are three takeaways from another sad, and disappointing loss.
Rotations
I mean how many times can you say the same thing over and over again... At least once more! J.B. Bickerstaff continues to drive people insane with his crazy and wild rotations.
Game to game it drastically changes. How on earth do you expect guys to get into any sort of rhythm or flow if you are consistently changing things around on them?
Last night early on, the starters weren't getting it done, so Bickerstaff went to the bench. Josh Smith came in and nailed three three-pointers, and five seconds after the third three he was pulled. Look, I'm not the biggest Smith fan, but he was cooking, and J.B, pulled him while he was on fire!
Clint Capela has been able to spell Dwight Howard and do it at a high level this season. His energy and quickness is something the Rockets could have used. He played six minutes. In game one he came in and was a big factor, yet he was lost on the bench.
Michael Beasley is a scoring machine! He causes miss-matches on the offensive side of the ball. He can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim nearly as good as James Harden. He played four minutes in the second half (all in garbage time) and only 11 minutes total.
Please don't even get me started about the almost criminal misuse of KJ McDaniels and Montrezl Harrell.
Shaun Livingston is tall
If there was only one thing that was crystal clear in Game 2 was that Livingston was tall and Patrick Beverley was short. I am not going to blame all the points Livingston scored on Beverley, there were also a lot of breakdowns on defense that caused him to have a lot of really good looks. Not even Gary Payton would have done a better job trying to defend him.
If any game was tailor made for McDaniels to get some minutes, it was against the Warriors 6-7 point guard. I can understand why Bickerstaff didn't want to take Beverley out of the game, but he used a three-guard lineup of Jason Terry, Harden and Beverley. You're telling me the defense wouldn't get better subbing Terry for McDaniels?
Defeslifjnsdgfasdlkdsvlsdkvb
As tired as I am about talking about the wild rotations of coach Bickerstaff I am even more tired and annoyed about the deffsmfgnsdf (I am even done spelling it, if they won't play it why should I spell it).
It's not coach Bickerstaff's fault either. I may want a jellyfish not to sting me when I go swimming in the ocean, but I can't yell at it to get them to not do it. Like coach, he may want these guys to play on both sides of the court but yelling at them won't change anything.
Like the jellyfish, the Rockets just kind of beat to their own drum, kind of wafting and floating through the ocean or the basketball court.
The TNT crew last night while as usual buried the Rockets, everything they said about the defsfgkjnl was completely accurate. The Spurs move as one unit, the Warriors move as one. The Rockets are moving around so much no one is sure of anything and the confusion causes holes and breakdowns which other teams take advantage of.
Beverley is a really solid defender, and because he is doing everything he ends up looking bad. Harden has those rare few moments when he looks like an all-world defender then on the next drive rather then get in front of some he tries to poke the ball out and gives up a free run to the rim which will cause someone else to go help and when that happens it's a WIDE OPEN shot.
This is all you need to know about the Rockets defensfgukwrg
If you run fast they will get confused and you will have a wide open look somewhere on the floor.