ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Lakers 10/30/2007

I'm not a fan of RAFER's tear drops or bricking three's either..

But you got to realize, the offense running through YAO is much more fluid with Alston. They know eachother and how to play with one another. On one particular play Alston pitched the ball to Yao in the post, Yao backed in, Yao passed the ball back out to Alston, Got better position backing in a couple steps, Alston passed the ball in to Yao and then MONEY! 2 points right there.

That was a very JVG-esque play, but like I said only ALSTON knows how to play with YAO, not James or Francis.

James and Francis are looking for their own, they do not know how to play with Yao.

One more thing, Alstons turnovers at the end were because of intercepted passes not dribbling. We can all agree his DRIBBLING is far superior than James or Francis. You never see him bounce the ball off his foot. I think we need to hold onto Alston... We don't have a better option.

 

yea, he rarely doubles yao. he'll have a few players shade in to reach at the ball but not a straight up double team. oh well, kill 'em yao

 

Just came back from the game. Overall Rockets just played a OK game. You could say it's a ugly game... Turn overs again and again. mentally crashed at the end of game. So far not a championship caliber team. Can we see some actions from Stevie with his strong mental when we need him?

 

I wouldn't exactly say Francis doesn't know how to pass to yao, he has played with him for two years prior as starters. But yea, Alston is the best pg at giving Yao the ball when he's positioned in the low post.

 

Yao played too much time tonight, no? or maybe Yao's stamina is better now ...

Agree.

 

some people on this board said that he had changed his ft hitch, but tonight's try was over and beyond anything i saw last year, wow, it was ugly

 

My theory is that some small aliens got confused watching a previous AND1 highlight video and thought Alston was the best basketball player on Earth and sucked away all his basketball talent...

 

I agree with you. Yao seems more comfotable in the post with Rafer in the game. But that last play, regardless if it was a pass or dribble (and it was a pass), Rafer should have held the ball. The way the game was officiated, fouls were a dime a dozen.

 

MJ got the highest score? the 2 ast 3 TO missing 2 crucial FT Mike James?
LOL, I didnt even start talking about his ridiculous overdribbling.

 

My Analysis:

Kobe Bryant is pretty freakin good.

Sure, he took a ton of shots... and he should share the ball more etc. I can't believe after all those drives into a pile of Rockets he still had the legs for that 3.
Same goes for Shane, chasing Bryant all over the court and knocking down that 3 with Walton closing in on him. Clutch!
Yao needs more low post touches until he masters Adleman's scheme... and he needs some help. There weren't a lot of passes to be made with him in the high post.

Rafer got torched, and was a turnover machine in the last couple minutes... And James shot well but dominated the ball. Our PG search continues, I was hoping Rafer would play lock down the position, but all he did was make me wonder if Aaron Brooks might see some PT. Scola looked completely lost, but so did Yao Ming, in his first NBA game. Bonzi looks really good and should earn more playing time.

 

I think James was the best addition to this team by far. Great off the bench energy, and plays every game like his last, the guy's got heart. But go ahead, critique every little thing he does wrong, but I guarantee you I can find more things wrong with kobe's game, and he's supposed to be the best player in the NBA.

Good job rockets, props to winning first game with new system.

 

Kobe has 27 Fts compare the entire rockets team's 31FTs was simply ridiculous and yet Kobe still whined and whined at the referees. Simply shameless.

If yao continue to play at this level and finish the season with 25/10/2/2 and lead the rockets to good records, he should win the MVP award!

T-mac looked great tonight. Hope he keeps it up and we may have a co-MVP this season!

 

rafer had 1 turnover over the last 6 mintues of teh game.........sure james was effective at times, but that was only when rafer was on the court with him running point

 

One thing I took from this game is that this team will require a lot more time to get to where it wants to.....I'd say in about 15 games we'll see exactly how good this team really is. Also Adelman needs to give Scola some playing time, he's not going to learn to play the NBA game without friggin playing!!!


Also, damn Kobe is a friggin amazing talent....he RAN past T-Mac a few times w/o a hint of using his body... the man's got GAME. We need someone that can get to the line like that......

 

I completely agree with you! After making him feel so welcome, don't stab him in the back. Give Stevie a chance!

 

Only about 16 people and it wasn't the difference.

People say that kind of crap all the time.

You can't assume that because we won by 2 that if we didn't get that lucky basket the score would have been tied at the end of regulation. Every basket scored is not independent of the rest of the game. Players respond to the score dynamically during the course of the game.

For a broad example, the Lakers picked it up a notch because they were down 14 points late in the game. On a more subtle level, maybe the Rockets would have done something differently later in the game, or in that segment of the game, if that screwy basket didn't go in. Maybe if they were up by only 4 points instead of 6 points late in the game, they would not have become as lax offensively. There is no way to say for sure.

If that lucky basket was one of the last scoring plays of the game, it would have had a more significant and direct impact on the final score.

The bottom line is that a lucky basket in the 2nd quarter is not deterministic of the final outcome in an exact mathematical way.

 

I had a question on the basket that Walton made for the Rockets, who got the points for that?

oh and my thoughts...

1st game of the year, things will change (don't know for better or worse)

I think RA knew we were not truly ready for his system which is why he had the PnR plays added in practice this week and all that gave the Rockets the lead in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

7-8 TO by Alton and James are too much. Though to everyone saying "Alston did great in preseason, this is who he really is" Didn't he do well running Adelman's system, which we didn't really see today, so maybe he will play better after they gel with the system more.

T.O. needs to take it to the rack, If Kobe can those calls, why not T-mac?

Yao was rushing his shots from the high post. He was not in rythym. Which makes me wonder how good he will be when he is in rythym there.

 

Fair enough, but the guy wilts under pressure and you just can't compete well with the elite teams when you have a guy who's probably going to be near the bottom of the league in fg%. He got a lotta wide open looks like tonight and will continue to get them, because other teams know about his poor shooting too. I just don't see the Rockets acheiving their full potential with him out there. His game just has too many weaknesses.

I really think he might be the worst starting pg in the NBA, and he's on what most people consider an elite team. Alston is too much of a liability. It says a lot when the Miami Heat would rather take Smuch Parker as opposed to giving up a little more and getting Rafer Alston.

 

I think the Rockets showed flashes of how great this offense can be. But they also showed that growing pains will occur.

The biggest area of improvement needed is turnovers. I think that the passing decisions from the big men in the high-post will improve over time. It has to because it seems like that's where most of the turnovers are coming from.

 

these james huggers just dont understand that even though he's a better player than alston, his style just doesnt fit at the PG position. No team wins big with a scoring pg, it just doesnt work.

Most days james wont shoot 50% from the field, and when that happens those bandwagoners will jump right off.

beautiful 5 shot to 1 assist ratio by james, and people want this guy playing pg