Harden and Paul are Leaders, EG and PJ are the Reasons they can be Contenders
Tucker and Gordon keys to winning Game 4, series
May 7, 2019, 10:29 am
Harden and Paul are Leaders, EG and PJ are the Reasons they can be Contenders
We all know that James Harden and Chris Paul are the two best players on this Rockets team. The Beard is a perennial MVP candidate in the NBA seemingly every year and CP3 is one of the greatest point guards ever to play the game. Harden gets most of the attention and deservedly so, and Paul is next in line when it comes to bigtime players that are difference makers, especially in the postseason. The dynamic duo is the reason this squad has evened the series with the Warriors and have a legitimate shot to dethrone the champs. With all that said, this Rockets ship looked like it was stuck in the mud after two games, as questions swirled about who could be counted on to step up and step in to help these two stars compete against Golden State? The answer to that question has been two-fold as Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker have been the heroes that H-town desperately needed to complement their shining stars.
PJ Tucker has always been the man with a plan to do the majority of the dirty work for Houston. He constantly is charged with guarding the best player on the other team, including Kevin Durant in this series. He also is the heart and soul of the squad when it comes to grit, determination, and effort. He is physical and along with Nene are the two enforcers and "big brothers" that protect and stand up for the rest of the Rockets. Tucker is also a huge part of the H-town air assault when it comes to taking and making open three-point shots when Harden and Paul get double teamed and they kick the ball out to the perimeter. Tucker was 3 for 6 from downtown, made 50% of his shots and finished with 17 points in Game 4 when the Rockets were desperate for their supporting cast to score more. In this series, PJ has stepped it up and taken his game up a notch to be a catalyst to everything the team has been able to do.
The Rockets lacked energy through the first two games and needed a spark to sacrifice his body and get extra possessions, Tucker has stepped up and done so in a big way. His offensive rebounds and tipped balls led to valuable second-chance opportunities in Game 4 and his staunch defensive effort on the much taller, quicker Durant was a key to another frustrating offensive night for the most potent offensive team in the league. The signal caller for the Rockets defense was able to provide stops, rotate and pressure the Warriors all-stars both inside and out and play a huge roll in slowing down the "Dubs" while allowing Red Nation to run. Look at the tape and almost every key defensive play and it's almost guaranteed PJ is somewhere in the middle of the play.
Offensively the Rockets are a good team when Harden is leading the way and Paul is directing traffic and making the right decisions with the ball to get open shots and easy baskets. Just get them the ball and get out of the way and the Rockets would get a win in the regular season. Things are different in the playoffs and the postseason is a different animal. Sure, harden and Paul are beasts, but they needed more help to compete and beat a high powered squad like the Warriors.
Enter Eric Gordon and his arsenal of ways he can beat you with the ball and watch as this Houston team soared right back into the series. He is averaging 23 points per game in the series and has forced the Warriors to scheme for him and pay attention to him every time Houston has the ball. He has made the dynamic duo into a fearsome threesome when H-town has the ball. That trifecta of EG, CP3 and the Beard take this team to a contending level when he joins the fray is a positive way. When Gordon scores 20 points or more he turns a good team into a great team, a playoff team into a contender. offensively he has been grossly underrated and underappreciated. He has worn Steph Curry down by being physical with him as much as the rules allow and beating him up on the perimeter and pushing him through screens. He is the X-Factor offensively that makes the Rockets hard to beat and Houston has to have him continue to come up huge and fill up the hoop and the stat sheet if they plan on stealing a game in Oakland and winning this massive series that will almost assuredly determine who represents the Western Conference in this years NBA Finals.
We all know that Mike D' Antoni's rotation shrinks come playoff time and minutes are hard to come by for the reserves. They have struggled all year to find the right mix of complimnetary players to add value to his squad. Sure they have found some valuable players in the buyout market and added some youth that can play their way. At the end of the day, they need to be players the coach can trust and have confidence in. That's why you don't see D'Antoni going much deeper than Austin Rivers and a few spot minutes for Nene and Gerald Green in this post season. For the Rockets to have a shot at winning 2 of the nest 3 against Golden State and win the series, they are going to need more huge games from PJ Tucker and Eric Gordon and valuable spot minutes from the reserves. It's not about second units in the playoffs, it's all about complementary pieces and role players taking their game to another level to allow their team to step up and accomplish big things.
Soon after Lance McCullers Jr.’s family received online death threats following a tough start by the Houston Astros’ pitcher, his 5-year-old daughter, Ava, overheard wife Kara talking on the phone about it.
What followed was a painful conversation between McCullers and his little girl.
“She asked me when I came home: ‘Daddy like what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?’” McCullers told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “So, those conversations are tough to deal with.”
McCullers is one of two MLB pitchers whose families have received online death threats this month as internet abuse of players and their families is on the rise. Boston reliever Liam Hendriks took to social media soon after the incident with McCullers to call out people who were threatening his wife’s life and directing “vile” comments at him.
The Astros contacted MLB security and the Houston Police Department following the threats to McCullers. An police spokesperson said Thursday that it remains an ongoing investigation.
McCullers, who has two young daughters, took immediate action after the threats and reached out to the team to inquire about what could be done to protect his family. Astros owner Jim Crane stepped in and hired 24-hour security for them.
It was a move McCullers felt was necessary after what happened.
“You have to at that point,” he said.
Players from around the league agree that online abuse has gotten progressively worse in recent years. Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich, a 13-year MLB veteran and the 2018 NL MVP, said receiving online abuse is “a nightly thing” for most players.
“I think over the last few years it’s definitely increased,” he said. “It’s increased to the point that you’re just: ‘All right, here we go.’ It doesn’t even really register on your radar anymore. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. You’re just so used to that on a day-to-day, night-to-night basis. It’s not just me. It’s everybody in here, based on performance.”
And many players believe it’s directly linked to the rise in legalized sports betting.
“You get a lot of DMs or stuff like that about you ruining someone’s bet or something ridiculous like that,” veteran Red Sox reliever Justin Wilson said. “I guess they should make better bets.”
Hendriks, a 36-year-old reliever who previously battled non-Hodgkin lymphoma, said on Instagram that he and his wife received death threats after a loss to the Mets. He added that people left comments saying that they wished he would have died from cancer among other abusive comments.
He later discussed the issue and his decision to speak out about it.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “Like at some point, everyone just like sucking up and dealing with it isn’t accomplishing anything. And we pass along to security. We pass along to whoever we need to, but nothing ends up happening. And it happens again the next night. And so, at some point, someone has to make a stand. And it’s one of those things where the more eyes we get on it, the more voices we get talking about it. Hopefully it can push it in the right direction."
Both the Astros and the Red Sox are working with MLB security to take action against social media users who direct threats toward players and their families. Red Sox spokesperson Abby Murphy added that they’ve taken steps in recent years to make sure player' families are safe during games. That includes security staff and Boston police stationed in the family section at home and dedicated security in the traveling party to monitor the family section on the road.
Murphy said identifying those who make anonymous threats online is difficult, but: “both the Red Sox and MLB have cyber programs and analysts dedicated to identifying and removing these accounts.”
The Astros have uniformed police officers stationed in the family section, a practice that was implemented well before the threats to McCullers and his family.
For some players, online abuse has gotten so bad that they’ve abandoned social media. Detroit All-Star outfielder Riley Greene is one of them, saying he got off because he received so many messages from people blaming him for failed bets.
“I deleted it,” he said of Instagram. “I’m off it. It sucks, but it’s the world we live in, and we can’t do anything about it. People would DM me and say nasty things, tell me how bad of a player I am, and say nasty stuff that we don’t want to hear.”
The 31-year-old McCullers, who returned this year after missing two full seasons with injuries, said dealing with this has been the worst thing that’s happened in his career. He understands the passion of fans and knows that being criticized for a poor performance is part of the game. But he believes there’s a “moral line” that fans shouldn’t cross.
“People should want us to succeed,” he said. “We want to succeed, but it shouldn’t come at a cost to our families, the kids in our life, having to feel like they’re not safe where they live or where they sit at games.”
Houston manager Joe Espada was livid when he learned about the threats to McCullers and his family and was visibly upset when he addressed what happened with reporters.
Espada added that the team has mental health professionals available to the players to talk about the toll such abuse takes on them and any other issues they may be dealing with.
“We are aware that when we step on the field, fans expect and we expect the best out of ourselves,” Espada said this week. “But when we are trying to do our best and things don’t go our way while we’re trying to give you everything we got and now you’re threatening our families and kids — now I do have a big issue with that, right? I just did not like it.”
Kansas City’s Salvador Perez, a 14-year MLB veteran, hasn’t experienced online abuse but was appalled by what happened to McCullers. If something like that happened to him he said it would change the way he interacts with fans.
“Now some fans, real fans, they’re gonna pay for that, too,” he said. "Because if I was him, I wouldn’t take a picture or sign anything for noboby because of that one day.”
McCullers wouldn’t go that far but admitted it has changed his mindset.
“It does make you kind of shell up a little bit,” he said. “It does make you kind of not want to go places. I guess that’s just probably the human reaction to it.”
While most players have dealt with some level of online abuse in their careers, no one has a good idea of how to stop it.
“I’m thankful I’m not in a position where I have to find a solution to this,” Tigers’ pitcher Tyler Holton said. “But as a person who is involved in this, I wish this wasn’t a topic of conversation.”
White Sox outfielder Mike Tauchman is disheartened at how bad player abuse has gotten. While it’s mostly online, he added that he’s had teammates that have had racist and homophobic things yelled at them during games.
“Outside of just simply not having social media I really don’t see that getting better before it just continues to get worse,” he said. “I mean, I think it’s kind of the way things are now. Like, people just feel like they have the right to say whatever they want to whoever they want and it’s behind a keyboard and there’s really no repercussions, right?”