didn't read the entire thread, so I'm sorry if this has been covered, but taking Carl Landry out of the game at the 6:11 mark of the 4th quarter was a bonehead move. Carl was 8 for his last 8 at that point and the Lakers had no answer for him. Forget the refs, forget the missed 3s, that was the reason we lost... why NOT put your hottest player on the pine as the game is winding down?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?
just got back to Waco from the game..Brooks should of called a TO when he was trapped..we had 1 left..
lack of go to guy in crunch time.., that's the importance of McGrady. everyone on that lineup doesn't want to take the shot!!! but great effort to the rockets giving a great game
No the issue was the ball was in Aaron Brooks hands. As good as he was and will be, he panicked on the last play. Dribbled himself into trouble and then gave the ball to Ariza who was in trouble. If Tracy was on the floor he would have either created a shot for himself, or drawn the double team and hit the open player.
My thoughts... It's not 100% Brooks fault for not passing out of the trap well. It takes someone to pass to, you know. Seemed like everyone just stood around or made bad cuts to the ball that were easily defended. We couldn't shoot 3s or FTs for crap last night. Normally those shots fall. Last night, we were pushing too hard and rushing things a bit from 3. Shane looked tired since most of his corner 3s were short. Maybe working so hard on guarding Kobe took its toll there. We really could have used Budinger. The FTs...well, there's just no excuse. Ariza pushed too hard and tried to do too much, despite what he may say in interviews. He needs to play within himself and let the game come to him. Chuck is awesome. Refs...sigh. Back to back offensive foul calls on Scola came back to be huge at the end. Ugh. Hand-checking, body-checking, and shoving out front threw Brooks off a lot too. He's got to learn to fight through that somehow if it's going to be allowed like that against certain teams. How that wasn't a shooting foul, I'll never know. Landry was a beast. Overall, if we hit a few more free throws (70.8%? Ugh) and/or another 3 (29.2% from this team? Really?) it's another ballgame. We showed some growth and also showed some areas we need to work on. Rick will get it figured out and the effort will always be there. Had you told me before the season started that we'd lose by 1 in OT to the Lakers after having off games from Ariza and Brooks, I'd have called you a dreamer.
You can't really blame Brooks because he is only a 3rd year guy, and these guys are basically learning on the fly, hopefully they take the experience from this lost and improve with pressure defense
Thought these comments by John Hollinger in the Daily Dime were interesting. I guess us houston biased fans were not the only ones who notced. Houston had a chance to regain the lead, but will rue two missed opportunities. The first came on a drive by Aaron Brooks where Lamar Odom fouled him along the baseline just before Brooks flipped a shot into the underside of the rim. Although it seemed a clear continuation call, the foul was ruled on the floor, denying Brooks two free throws that could have put Houston ahead with 13 seconds left. Of course, that may have been Adelman's other source of "frustration" -- Fisher's strong-arm tactics against the diminutive Brooks on the perimeter. Given an inch by the referees he went ahead and took a mile, using his superior strength to shoo the quicker Brooks away from the basket.
touche just like he made the team better last year... tmac is done. just like francis is done. and these players wouldve never taken us anywhere other than first round exits. and those of you who say we get past portland with tmac in place of artest are delusional. you think artests defense was bad on roy just think of tmacs "no defense" defense. anyway, this loss isnt as bad as it seems. we were lacking three major scorers (CBud and two stars) and no real bigs (altho they played big). and the lakers needed the refs and overtime in order to escape us. if CBud or (yes i know) Tmac were there then we win easily.
That's ok. Its just a regular season game. I would like Brooks to hold the ball and make plays in clutch time.. that's the only way he is gonna develop composure.. even if it costs us the game.. it doesnt matter .. relying on T-mac is fool's gold.. nobody knows how good he will be.. and most importantly.. nobody knows how long he would last..
I dont know if its been posted (sorry to early in the morning to sift through the replies lol), but I want to say I am very proud of the fight the rockets put up even though they didnt pull the W. This could have gone either way, Aaron didnt break the D in that last play but I believe I'm hear Ariza got fouled hard on the last play, but last play fouls are not commonly counted, so its all good. I got to say we are really starting too look more of a threat than everyone is anticipating, which to most rockets fans, that is not a suprise
McGrady had two triple doubles last year and came 1 rebound short of another 1. in games where he had 2 or more days rest, he averaged 22.7 points 6 boards 5 assists on 46% fg. the probleem was he's knee was damaged. it was'nt he's game. it was he's body. to say he is francis done is retaded. if that knee is 70% healed, he'll be very good.
why wasdnt landry in the game in the 4th quarter until scola fouled out. scola had a bad game, so did brooks but landry had a monster game. if he's having a monster game why wasnt he playing in the end? they could not stop him. was i the only on that notice that? and cook may have more minutes than pops but does that truly mean he should be in the game. we need that high energy from pops. he may not have a lot of offence but he's a high energy guy thats going to go to the rim, he gets after the ball. im sorry but this lost could be blamed on coaching from my viewpoint. it was a tough loss but HOW BOUT THE CHUCK WAGON. that guy is fantabulous....we should have won that game but its early, budinger was out and maybe, just maybe adelman will decide to play based on performance as oppose to experience this season.
Didn't see it posted. Daily Dime on ESPN featuring last night's game. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-091104 nice read
tmac did well but how did the Rockets as a team do in those games? as i recall, we lost a few because of tmac. there was no offensive flow and it became the tmac show "win or lose it's on me". tmac has rarely backed up his promises. i'll believe that he will help our team (by playing rather than via being traded) when i see it. until then, i am not going to whine and cry about "if only tmac were here, we would be a true contender!" we can contend decently as is. i'm not completely sold on how far we can go playoff wise until we beat the celtics but it looks pretty good so far.
Great game last night by our guys. They fought til the last play. Can't ask for anything more than that with this group. Stop passing judgement on certain players. They are already being asked to play outside of their comfort and skill level right now. I think they did a great job. Give LA credit for making an adjustment at the right time of the game to stop us (they still are the best team in the league you know). AB is a little guy and they used taller players to trap him.. We already KNOW he is not a playmaker, he is a scorer. Ariza is not a playmaker either so you saw it coming. They will learn from this and hopefully get better from it. They have to go through some tough losses like this. It's part of the process. I just hope they bounce back and this gives them confidence so they keep moving forward and get some wins til we see LA in a couple weeks. They will have Gasol by then so it will be even tougher for us to beat them then. This team will be ok. They have to understand their success comes with moving the ball and their bodies. That is what Adelman is preaching everyday. They are smart, they will get it soon enough.
Turnovers and Free throws. Control the things you can control. We do that we win which is great for this team going forward. I thought not having Chase hurt the rotation guys seemed a little off on the perimeter especially late in the game. I love our Front court guys. Chuck Hayes for MVP. When he played here in Albuquerque you saw someone who got it. Now you are seeing someone who is getting it again. Just have to improve on what we did last night. Bleed Red Rockets Red.
It was a good game, I find some of the calls questionable but I think we showed this team can stand up with some of the best of them, even when we are having an off night and a bunch of turnovers. I honestly don't want to get into a McGrady debate but I find it funny when people say he lost us games last year when during nearly all of December, Battier was slowly coming back from his injury (and didn't play most road games) along with McGrady and Artest claimed to be playing hurt. There were a lot of reasons including chemistry issues as to why the Rockets got off to a slow start last season.
