I know a lot of you guys are pissed like hell after this lost, yet again, to a scrub eastern conference team, but be cool, if you think about the facts stated below, you may feel better. because we still have a lot to improve despite of the hyping winning streak of ...6 games. 1. Our PG position is still the weak link. We talked a lot before and after Rafer was traded, and some of the fans thought that Brooks/Lowry is actually a better combo compared to original Rafer/Aaron. I will say maybe for the future but not for now. They are too young and inexperienced, also not like Rose or CP3 or Deron, they do not have that much of talent and are still going to be our weak link at least this season. Brooks left us with the impression that he can hit shots, big shots to win games, but don't delude yourself, he is shooting only 40.2% this season. Yes, better than Rafer's 36.7%, but still sub-par. he shot 1-7, 8-20, 3-9 for the last 3 games, and this game he goes for 2-9... despite of his low assist number, REALITY is he is not a solid STARTING PG material for PLAYOFF team. Teams with strong 1 will keep exploiting this weakness like Rose did tonite, especially in playoffs. 2. Rick Adelman is a good coach, but he sucks some times. Waits to long to call a time out, not enough control over the players, etc... that's why, after JVG been gone for 2 seasons, there are still fans missing him here. this is just another game displayed Rick's inability to make instant changes on court. Reality: good as he is, he has never won a championship... 3. Management has started to looking forward to the future, maybe since Tracy's drama began. Obviously we are giving up either Yao/Tracy duo or the "big 3" and is switching from WIN NOW to "let's rebuild quietly". Reality is, they have no high hopes for this season anymore... so be cool guys, enjoy it when the Rox play nicely but don't curse or faint when they play ugly, because they are who they are, not suddenly becoming a contender after the 6 game winning streak, not a scrub team after they lose to Bulls/Raptors/76ers. the Rox is a western conference playoff, 2nd tier. 60% w/l team. that's it. PS: We've been choking in the 4th Q for numerous times,a 6 winning streak doesn't cure it, we had it with or without T-mac, with or without Rafer, with JVG or with Rick Adelman. Why? if you watched those collapses, most of them were started by, yes, the other teams' fronting strategy of Yao which has been discussed here and still effective. I don't know whether it's Coach's fault to not design certain plays to beat the fronting strategy or it's our players inability to run the play or just Yao's lack of athlecticsm?
I agreed with point #2. Adelman sucks at time management and substitution. He failed to rest his starters properly, that's why they were tired while Bulls making a comeback. Scola were overused, that's why he missed open shots. Artest were overused as well. What Adelman should do is call timeout often so as to give the starters more rest because when you call timeout...you got TV commercials in between and that buys time and give your players more rest because this Rockets team don't have anyone off the bench that can sort of be that go-2-guy. They don't have that...so he needs to use timeouts to rest his starters so they can get back in the game quicker. But the problem Adelman is the type of coach that don't like calling timeouts...so iam sure he ended up with a bunch of timeouts at the end of the game that he never used. So why not use them......
I admit the Bulls got a lot talent in Rose/Gordon/Deng but...so are the Thunders. They are a talented scrub team i have to say...
No they have a really talented team. Just look who comes off the bench...Hinrich, Salmons, Miller, Tim Thomas. Their bench outplayed ours tonight, they are just poorly coached really with not enough experience.
5 stars. I knew as soon as this game was over there would be a flood of frustration on ClutchFans. Rightfully so, but it's good that some threads stay grounded while we wade through all the despair. I heard multiple claims in the game-thread that we won't win a series this year based off of this game. .... honestly? If the guys on the team acted like people around here they'd never win squat. Brush it off and get back up, folks. It's a heartbreaker to be sure, but it's a new team.... have some hope.
I didn't understand why he didn't sub Yao when he was obviously gassed (can't remember if it was the end of the first or second quarter), although most of his substitutions seemed timely. He seemed to put Wafer in at the right moment, Lowry as well. My questions are; why didn't Chuck play and where was Deke when we needed defense? Not saying that they would have made a difference, but since we lost - could they have? IMO, Bulls are a much better team than their record alludes.
well. maybe it's just our definition of a scrub team is different...As for me, no matter how talented a team can be and can beat some good teams occaissionally, it's a scrub team as long as they ranked 10th in the weak east... However, thank you for agreeing my other points
Looking at it simply, I would agree with you. After all they did lose to the Wiz. BUT the fact is they have enough talent to be amazingly streaky. Rose/Gordon/Deng/Salmons/Miller (i refuse to mention Kimmy Noah) will get you some good moments.
For the substitution, i think it's either health problem(maybe Deke is not prepared for more than 10 min but Chuck i don't know) or just Coach's decision. However, i think it's more of a PG/SG defense problem. Rose bullied Brooks like mad in the run which Yao can't do anything about. Yao always have big problems with guards that can penetrate and score ala CP3, Harris, and Rose of course.
You're right! But where were Deke's 10 minutes? Or at least, where was Chuck? We crumbled defensively more than than we did offensively in this game. No way we give up 17 more points than we score in the 4th quarter (although we did). Never should have happened!
Yes, where was Chuck? I think that may be why Scola and Yao seemed wore out, Chuck was not playing. Was his shoulder bothering him. Will he and Landry be back? We still had two big men to use though, Deke and Cook.
They are a dangerous team on some nights as we witnessed. I think they'll make 8th seed (only one behind the Bucks who have no one healthy) and surprise some people next year. Rose is only going to get better most likely and Tyrus has been getting better week by week.
All we had to do was hold them to 16 or less points than we scored in the 4th quarter! That's it! If we held them to an 11 point quarter (a la Cleveland) then it didn't even matter if we even scored in the fourth quarter. In fact, they still could have scored 5. Not targeting you, just making points. This game was a major let down.
