No, I'm not a hater. I'm just looking at it statistically and realistically. I like each one as a player, I really do. But just because we have 3 good/great/superstar (however you want to classify them) players doesn't automatically lead to a championship. I can name plenty of teams in the NBA (and other sports as well) of teams who have all of the right players but doesn't lead them to a championship. Some of it is talent, some of it is chemistry, some of it is luck, some of it is ____________. I think the blank is what the Rockets are working on figuring out to get the program back to where it was in the mid 1990s. I am a Rockets fan, no hater. So please don't accuse me of hating a team I grew up loving.
I thought the refs were great. They were letting both sides do what they want. I saw some flopping by the Jazz and the ref ignored it. What was bugging me was when Yao missed 2 shots within 1 foot of the basket. He leaned back to avoid contact instead of leaning into the defender. He needs to practice leaning into the defender and dunking that ball. After being dunked on by Nate Robinson, I thought he knew to go for contact.
The referees were actually fairer to our side throughout most of the game.. problems tonight were: not calling timeouts when we needed it, not taking advantage of the times when jazz were going cold, shot selection (..artest), and inexperienced PG's on Deron Williams.. I hate seeing us play this way when playoffs are just around the corner
I'm with you that Deron is a "good" player, probably just behind CP3 in the entire league, but I don't agree that he is the Jazz's only good player. They have "waves" of good players. Good grief, Harping didn't even play. Boozer is an All Star, Okur is one of the best shooting big men the league, Korver is a three point specialist, Millsap is ever bit as good as Landry, Brewer is a upcoming talent, and AK47 is a defensive specialist, and I could go on. They can keep a team on the floor at all times with size, speed, and shooting. And they beat everybody at home, and the Rockets just about anywhere. I despise them as much as anyone, but I will give them their due.
I don't care if it is on their home court, we have no excuses for rushing the ball up the court time after time into a 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 situation and forcing the shot up rather than setting our offense. We gotta teach our young players that a fast break only works when we're outnumbering them and they're not already clogging the lane. They think their speed will help them but they get going too fast and throw up junk! This was as out-of-sync as I've seen their offense, but then again, in CA, you don't get to see a lot of Rockets games. I thought Deron Williams was starting to showboat his passes just to piss the Rockets off, and the worst part is it didn't seem to work. Rick has got to convince the other players to keep a steady diet of Scola and Yao j's to spread the defense and give them open looks rather jamming it into a crowd of defenders. High screen pick & roll or pick & pop - nuff said. Jazz did it to us - we should have done it to them.
Wait till we get Landry back, then we should be evenly matched, and at least it won't be terribly one-sided like this game.
