I'd like to thank you, the OP, and Clutch for providing some useful insight. It is refreshing to see someone say something intelligent and factual instead of resorting to silly name calling and expressing how much they hate a particular player. I think all of you are correct, tmac has always been somewhat inconsistent but its hard to watch a player of his caliber shoot this bad for this long. His percentage over this bad stretch would be even worse if he didn't get to a point in some games where he would stop shooting (sometimes he is shooting so bad that its better if Rafer shoots it). I don't think its anything new for Alston though he just isn't usually called upon to shoot when he is off. I think someone discussed it earlier but they should use more Scola post ups in the offense also to free up the shooters. They need some variation in the offense. Even when Yao plays one of the big problems is that when people figure out what their doing they don't have other things to go to. Unless you have unstoppable speed or strength, there is no way you can win going to the same play every time down the court.
The bad thing about this team is that they are only going to go as far as TMac and Rafer can carry them. Rafer only has so much talent and TMac only has so much heart. He just doesn't have the desire to put this team on his back and carry them down the stretch or through rough times. On most nights TMac could get to the line at will but he won't drive to the basket, he instead takes the pull up jumpers and settles for what the defense gives him. He did the same thing today. What's amazing to me is how he always has an injury when he's not playing well for any time. It just shows no class.
The Rockets my very well be better without Yao... I mean hey... he's injured, how could he help? IT'S A JOKE, PEOPLE!
yeah, TMac and Rafer stunk it up. Everyone's defense was pitiful, though. shocked we looked so bad after three days off
It's the network fault for putting Rafer on pedestal: "Rafer playing like an All-star" and bringing back the memories of street ball in the old days. Rafer goes wild with his tear-drops like the old days in Queens.
he just didnot put his will into 4th quater this time... and he is injured.... so..donot worry....it will be fine next time....
We need to share more.....more Scola, Battier and Landry...less Rafer and Tmac.... Move that body and move that ball. DD
oh no we've lost games since the streak??? we lost to Boston. to NO at NO. to Phoenix at Phoenix. and the spurs in SA. so in order: The best team in the league. The team atop the west. The hottest team in the NBA. And the best team in the west and the defending champs. you're right it's time to abandon ship. as a fan it's perfectly logical to expect to win every game because at one time this team won 22 straight . any losses are simply unacceptable. that's the only mature way to put it. by ranting about "fool's gold" you do realize you're attributing 22 wins and 24/25 over a QUARTER of the NBA season to luck. houston has lost EIGHT times this YEAR, including the 4 losses since the end of the streak. that includes games we didn't have yao, didn't have mcgrady, didn't have landry etc etc. you're right throw logic out the door, toss the actual schedule we played. it's perfectly correct to simply focus on the last 2-3 games (well because they were the LAST THINGS WE SAW and thus only thing we remember). it was all due to luck and other teams missing guys. wow good thing that the entire calendar year to date and a quarter of the NBA season was so OBVIOUSLY BIASED in our favor. thank you allah/buddha/burning bush of moses!!! are you high, or just really myopic about basketball? basketball is played with 5 guys on the court. when you lose yao and landry for stretches who average 30% of your offense you win ZERO games with "guys getting their average" the point production had to come from somewhere in this case it comes primarily from tmac, scola and alston. are you for real? go back and read that paragraph you wrote about fool's gold not being sustainable. basically not sustaining the superhuman play that enables 22 game winning streaks for the entire year to you qualifies as "fool's gold." no one is going to win every game quit crying. no matter how good your team is, NO ONE deserves 22 wins, it's something beyond comprehension in the NBA... the best team in league history, jordan's bulls didn't get the record. 22 wins is a special event that ties up a lot of what makes sports special including luck, schedule, and yes skill. there's no way that houston (or any team) should win 22 games based solely on their play. they're surely not going to sustain it over 82 games. if that's your definition of "fool's gold' then every team in the NBA for the past 37 years is "fool's gold." if that is the case put down the remote and stop watching basketball NOW. your expectations are wack. however if you're interested in rationally discussing it, the streak was built on defense and solid play, for the majority of the streak Houston was indeed the best team in the league. by any definition those wins were legit. do you not remember those DOUBLE DIGIT romps? obviously rafter is our PG and takes the 2nd most shots he has to play well. but games during the streak were won by a 3rd player (landry, scola, freaking MIKE HARRIS) stepping up. did you even watch these games? it's really questionable from what you're posting. did you NOT watch these games or do you literally only remember the last game you watched? when you think about the streak is it literally the celtics game replaying over and over 22 times in a row with garnett and rondo in different uniforms (garnett in celtics green, lakers yellow etc)? wow we got sooooo lucky dunno how we pulled that off the celtics looked so good in all those 22 games. you sound like national TV "analysts" who started watching the rockets game 19 or so of the streak and have no physical recollection of the other games before, after, and during the streak the REALISTS on this board never wavered. after yao went down, even while racking up wins 18,19,20 etc it was clear that houston was NOT winning a series versus the spurs or suns excepting a miracle from God almighty. we DID have a shot versus NO, Utah, GS, Denver. nothing's changed
bloop i'm pretty sure people are just disappointed they were all blowouts, I doubt there would be sooooo much complaining if they were close games.
Bottom line is we are dead when both Rafer and McGrady can't throw it in the ocean. What needs to be determined is why they are shooting so horribly and what is the remedy? To me it is very simple, quit dribbling, start moving, and start passing. We have once again broke down to relying on McGrady to dribble, dribble, dribble, then shoot or pass off for the shot. That's too simple and easy to defend in the NBA and it is not Adelman's offense. These guys ain't moving and they ain't slinging the rock around. No ball movement, no player movement leads to 9 for 38's. Combine that with Scola in foul trouble and we have NOCHANCE, in the words of our immortal Clyde The Glide. "We have met the enemy and they is us."
Tracy should drive to the rim as more as possible. Rafer should learn to create opportunities for teammates.
Tracy should pass the ball period. Then move his hiney towards the rim on a cut, then move out to the 3 point line and let somebody else cut one, then rotate around while the next guys cuts, and the cutter finishing can move into his spot, then he should cut again. And keep cutting and keep cutting and keep cutting until the defense cries uncle. Why in the world would you not want to finish at the rim with McGrady, Scola, Landry?
Those 3 dunks by McGrady in the 1st quarter were very impressive. That was truly the old T-Mac. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few minutes. He had some kind of fire I haven't seen from him in a long time. He's thrown down a few dunks this season but not quite like those. He usually struggles to get to the basket even when he does finish. He looked as close as I've seen him this season to the young, athletic T-Mac. I was very surprised to see that in a game where his shoulder was hurting. I would love to see that fire burn for an entire game, then for an entire playoff series and so on... The outside shots will come and go but that kind of explosive play around the basket is what made McGrady one of the best in the game.
I think you know that. Whan you are a scorer and good shooter (Tracy is) you just wanna get several easy baskets inside to just get your coinfidence. Than after those easy shoots you just usually get it rolling and than you j is working. Unfortunately it didn't work for Mac that game. And he said his shoulder had been fine.
I still remembered earlier during the streak, TMac insisted to start about an hour early and practise on his shots on court before the actual game starts. Does he still do that??
but WE got SCOLANDRY!!! seriously tho, i also think Rafer CANNOT be our 2nd option. It MUST BE SCOLANDRY!!! Rafer was hot during the streak, but we all know he's inconsistent. SCOLANDRY is much more consistent, more opps closer to the basket, more hi% shots. Scola needs to dunk more man!!! We WILL face a team like Phoenix, LA, Utah, NO, Dallas...SCOLANDRY is gonna have to step it up!!! I mean, we have a pretty solid frontine: Scola, Landry, Hayes, Harris. That's gotta be enough to contain Boozer, Duncan, Gasol, Amare (not Shaq, that's Mutombo's job). GET IT DONE!!!
Duhh.... What I've found is that earlier when they were moving the ball around the defense was rotating to everyone and not respecting our finishers (Scola, Landry, tmac, rafer) of plays as much as they are now. Since everyone has had time to see how we play they don't fear a Head or Battier dribble drive anymore. They seem to play pretty loosely on the guys we don't use to finish and hold our other players tighter. At this point I think the only option is to force our non-finishers (Head, Battier, Mutumbo,etc.) to score for us in order to open up everyone else's game. As far as our starting backcourt's shooting, they're streaky and it doesn't have much to do with shot selection because they were getting decent shots. All we can do is hope it doesn't last through the playoffs.
Rafer has to go anyway. well not really go just not start, he is not a starting pg in this league and he never will be
