I don't know where to begin. The Rockets nearly always play well enough to beat the other team, yet they always shoot themselves in the foor in the 4th quarter. Cuttino Mobley made some careless turnovers that really hurt us. The Rockets on the whole made some careless turnovers. On one particular play, they lost track of time and ended up with a 24 second violation. Kenny Thomas missed all of his 3's including one important shot that would have brought the game really close(or given us the lead, I forgot). And most importantly, we pretty much gave the game away when we let Scottie stop and drop those 2 killer shots on us. The 2nd shot by Pippen really killed us. There is no excuse for giving him the space to shoot, especially after he made the shot before that. Well, I have got to hand it to the Rockets. They are the best 8-18 team I've ever seen. I was really impressed by the Rockets' defense. The defense was something that the Rox really needed to work on. It seems that the last few games, we've been playing some pretty good defense. It seems like our half-court plays are being executed much better now, especially the pick and roll. Shandon Anderson is starting to play very well lately. Cato and Rogers are playing well. Devin Gray seems to be pretty good(even though he didn't play that well today). It WAS his first NBA game you know. He is pretty good at free throws also, something this team needs to get better at. Everyone's playing better, to sum it all up. Now, if only we could get Walt Williams back on track... <center><strong>CONCLUSION</strong></center> The Rockets have to work a bit more on those pick and rolls. A few times, it seemed like Carlos had no idea what he was doing. For example, one time he did a nice spin move, but ended up throwing it away cause he didn't know whether to shoot or pass. Kenny thomas and Cato need to work on free throws a bit more. And Cuttino needs to stop trying to make the fancy play, and start to make the basic play. If this was any other team(besides maybe the lakers), we probably would have won despite our 4th quarter collapse. I am not upset at the Rockets. They nearly beat Portland. But the only thing that I'm worried is whether the Rockets will lose their confidence. I still have confidence in them. They are playing better every game, and like I said before, if we were playing some other team, we would have won. This win would have been huge for us. We had a bit of momentum by beating the Celtics, and we would have made a statement to the league and to ourselves that we are still good. This win would have been a huge confidence booster; too bad it didn't work out. I hope the Rockets continue to hustle and to play good defense. They're offense will naturally improve. The Rockets will be OK, but I just hope this loss doesn't get them too down.
Guess I didn't see the game the same way. Our defense stinks! The other team always easily gets open shots or in other games they have gotten layup after layup. While on the other end, we have to struggle for open shots. I don't think we ever had control of this game or were anywhere near close to winning it. At least it wasn't the slaughter I thought it was going to be when the score was like 14-4. I'll hand it to the Rockets that they did come back (and pretty quickly too). Cuttino was a large part of that. He was hitting those shots early. Real Clutch. Carlos Rogers is another who made a difference. He should have played most of the game cus he was doing lots of good out there. He certainly should have played in the 4th quarter. No doubt. So, we came back and hung with them throughout most of the game. My disappointment comes from the fact that Portland played last night and traveled half the night to get to Houston. Why didn't we press (instead they pressed us) and try to wear them out? Why didn't we take advantage of our fresh, young legs? Hastle them on defense - use that energy. I would hate to think the rest of the season has been conceded and that we are just practicing for the future. I have almost always supported Rudy but in previous years he didn't make enough substitutions, now he makes too many. And our best players are not always playing in the 4th? I wanted this game tonight but it really seemed like it was an exercise agreed upon between coaches of each team. The 2nd quarter was mostly subs on both teams. Think people pay $75 and up to see that? So I am disappointed! We needed to win tonight. But most of our players were out there playing their hearts out. I will keep watching as long as that is the case. And I think Rudy is the right coach for our team but I was just not happy with tonight's substitutions. That is usually always my only complaint about Rudy. I think he is a great coach overall and we are lucky to have him.
Well, well, well, I'm not very disappointed by the Rockets performance. I mean without the existence of veteran players, the inexperienced Rockets have done what they could do. The game was close for 3.5 quarters, and they had been down 10 points at one points. I was impressed by their ability to turn the game around even without a veteran playing for them. But sure, there is something they can do better - turnovers. Our backcourt twins combined for like 8 turnovers. Yes, they are overconfident. But I would rather see them overconfident than being too hesitant. Shandon was showing he's the consistent defensive force of this team. Francis and Mobe were fantastic, shooting and driving and slashing. Carlos Rogers was a surprise, ummmmm ......, has been a surprise. Did you noptice the dunk? And the rebounds? His inside game is what we need, if not as good as Barkley's. If Hakeem is going to play with fire when he comes back, as he mentioned in the Chronicle article, then we are not far away from a winning team. I still believe we are a good team. Right, making the playoofs may not be very possible, but I am still hopeful. The team has a bright future. <CENTER>Gooooooo Rockets!!!</CENTER>
