If you can take something positive from tonight's horrendous display is that the Rockets have a lot of things they can fix in the next game, and most of these things are under their control: 1) Take care of the basketball. 19 TO's won't get it done, especially on the road. 2) Attack the basket. Sure, we won't get as many calls in Utah, but if the jumper isn't falling, diversify your offensive game. 3) Make a damn open shot. Yes, the Jazz are closing out on the 3's pretty well in this series, but T-Mac, Shane, Rafer, Juwan, and Luther are getting lots of good looks. Other than Shane(after he started 0-3 from behind the arc), no one could throw it in the ocean tonight. 4) T-Mac needs to step up. His shooting percentage in these first 3 games is terrible. Aside from the 3rd quarter in Game 1 and the 1st quarter tonight, he's been horrendous from the field. And he's got Derek Fisher and Gordon Giricek on him most of the time. 5) The bench needs to contribute. They don't need to score 25-30 points. 15-20 oughta get it done. But Luther and Juwan are shooting so bad that the Jazz were almost running away from them tonight. If the Rockets can correct even 3 of these things, Game 4 is right there for the taking. And that's all they need to give themselves a chance to close it out at home on Monday.
the bright side here is that as horrible as the rockets played, they were still within striking distance til the end.
Bright side... 1) We still have HOME COURT ADVANTAGE 2) We are still up 2-1 3) We played excellent defense 4) As bad as we played, we were still pretty much in it until the fourth
A 6-point game halfway through the 4th. The Jazz have struggled in the 2nd half of all 3 games. All the Rockets need to do is shoot 42-43% and they'll win running away.
The Rockets were in this game until there were about five minutes left in the game... That is pretty ridiculous, but pretty hopeful for the series.
Mac was 39% tonight. Not great but not TERRIBLE. But I agree with you totally here. T-Mac does this way too much; he settles for jumpers when he should be attacking the basket. Dirk Nowitzki (and the rest of the mavericks) did this during the Finals last season. People, remember something before going all crazy go nuts tonight: We haven't lost the series yet.
Maybe they are going crazy to celebrate in the locker room....Yah... keep smiling... coz they just woke up the giant. And 2 straight wins are coming to us.
The brightside is that the Rockets played what possibly was their worst game of the year and still had a chance to take over the game in the 4th.
What really worries me is Luther. As bad as he was tonight on both ends, and through out the series, he had 0 turnover tonight. What if he starts turning the ball over in game 4? Man, after every game in this series, you thought he can't be worse. Somehow ...
The bright side: - We get to see one more game in Houston - If we lose this series, we get rid of Grumpy - Most of the team had the day off, so they will be rested for the next game - The game was not on national TV, so many Rox fans did not have to suffer by watching this game - I just saved 15% by switching to geico
One thing is we cannot allow Jazz to lead us at the end of the third quarter. We are 1-22 when we trail before the start of the forth quarter.
I knew the game was over after the 3rd quarter exactly for that reason. Here's another stat: the Rockets always bounce back after a double-digit loss. I forget the exact numbers...
As bad as we played tonight we still have the chance to win if our bench contribute some points. Tonight was the battle of the bench favor Utah. 33 to zero. How you win game like that without bench support. Time like this I hope we still have Bonzi Wells he might contribute something of the bench.
One thing is for sure. The Rockets bench WILL score more points in game 4 than in game 3. The Rockets are also getting the edge in FT's, which is pretty good. Now if they can try to make more than 80% from the line.
Defense was great...Rebounding was good until the 4th quarter. Yao stayed out of foul trouble, and Mcgrady looked great in the first quarter. Other than that, we really stunk tonight. Yao must play better, Tmac must play better, and of course the other guys have got to pick it up. Shane missed too many wide open threes, Head is playing poorly, Juwan cant get anything to go, and Mutumbo can't catch a pass. Hayes was also exposed inside. How are we going to respond?
as long as stupid Tmac learn not to only shoot stupid jump shots every time and drive to the rack then we are straight, cause He will get his damn free throws... If stupid luther head and howard make his shots for goodness sakes, then we will win...
If the team you support is to go anywhere in these playoffs it will largely be because of this person you call 'stupid'. Some fans just suck.
Hey guys come on...I mean stop being so negative. It's just a loss..you didn't really expect the Jazz to be swept by Houston, did you? It is a series between the 4th seeded team and the 5th one, both strong enough to reach 7 games... Don't get me wrong, Rockets are better than Jazz but dont start accusing Yao and TMAc. Remember, just a loss nothing more...We will eventually win the war, we just lost a battle. As for the bench, they really played horrible..we all saw that. JVG should use a bigger rotation in the regular season...so we knew you can bring something to the tea and who doesn't. Anyway, cheer up. We will the next one and then win the series back in Houston
Hey guys come on...I mean stop being so negative. It's just a loss..you didn't really expect the Jazz to be swept by Houston, did you? It is a series between the 4th seeded team and the 5th one, both strong enough to reach 7 games... Don't get me wrong, Rockets are better than Jazz but dont start accusing Yao and TMAc. Remember, just a loss nothing more...We will eventually win the war, we just lost a battle. As for the bench, they really played horrible..we all saw that. JVG should use a bigger rotation in the regular season...just to know who can bring something to the team and who can not. Anyway, cheer up. We will the next one and then win the series back in Houston