I predicted a win tonight, and it was close, but... We've gotta look at the freethrows. Houston coulda won if it could've cut its FT misses down a bit. Stats haven't come yet, but I have a feeling that'll turn out to be the difference. Good game, but a good game's wasted when the younguns miss their FTs. These guys have GOT to practice more on their FT shooting; that's what makes the difference in the playoffs. And I'm confident that we'll get there... But it pains me to see a good team (we are a good team) going down after such a hard fight when simple FT shooting could have gotten a win without OT play. Hats off to Cat and Kelvin.
Tree, Good points! I didn't get a chance to watch tonight's game, so I taped it, and I just finished it. <CENTER>Heartbreaker! </CENTER> <CENTER>Hard fought game! </CENTER> The DARK side: FT shooting has been killing this team, which is a good team as far as I'm concerned. Cato made the most important basket in his Rocket career in the last seconds, but missed the clutch free throw, which led to Longley's game tying free throw due to Barkley's foul on Longley while fighting for the rebound. We were lucky an 80+% FT shooter missed one of two. And 22 turnovers ... is it too much? The BRIGHT side: 1. Run, run, run, ...... The game was so fast. 2. Shandon still didn't get quite involved in the offense, but his defense has been very impressive. 3. Cuttino picked up his shooting touch. He got several BIG shots in this game. His defense was also decent. 4. Charles is so willing to run the floor. He opened up the lane for the youngsters to drive and slash. His defense was not excellent, but smart, I can say. Only bad thing is the team went back to a back-it-in offense down the line in the 4th quarter. 5. Cato is capable of scoring. It showed tonight. I predicted a WIN for the Clips games. Please WIN it! And you know what, I also believe the Rox will go to the playoffs!
Adding to the bright side, the TOs didn't really hurt us that much tonight. What hurt us was the... well, you know that. The simple fu*king FTs that we shoulda made... But I liked the intensity. Run, run, run, as you put it - maybe Hakeem's injury was a good thing (tho I hate to say or even think it). Shandon's D was great, and I expect him to step that up and add some O to it against the Clips... Cat's still showing us he's awesome, and that he deserves a big star by his name in any lineup (probably the most underrated player in the NBA)... Kelvin's showing us that he CAN score... And Charles... Well, he's Charles, and we're still wondering why he takes that occasional outside shot?!?! (I know Rudy says "Ffffuuu..." every time he sees Chuck shoot from the outside....)
