[ClutchFans] Rockets show Melo he can win in Houston (by moestavern19)

Completely agree here. Great column, Moes. You uncorked another one! I love that Clutch is having some members writing for the site this season, more than I think he has in a while. Excellent reads from you and Bima.

 

no i thing he's laughing pretty loud.

 

He who laughs last........

DD

 

I say we have 1 win at least if we kept Ariza.

We shed his contract though and I'm still hopeful that DM will use that money wisely.

 

More than teams hitting 3's late in the game has been the fact that we have lost the game in the 4th quarter each and every time.

3 games is too small of a sample to form any judgements truly, but the last game had defensive intensity, it was just futile none the less. We were out executed as their goto players (i.e. stars) stepped up. Melo, Harrington, and Billups hit the shots they had to.

That's what stars bring to the table. We don't have that as Yao clearly is not his old self by any stretch of the imagination. Scola is our best player. Brooks is good but inconsistent still. Martin needs more help and can't carry the load by himself. He just isn't a goto guy from what I've seen.

That's why Melo is so appealing. He has the balls and ability to take big shots and make them. That helps immensely in the 4th quarter when teams tighten up their defenses and our offense struggles.

This team hasn't shown it can stop the other team offensively. I am sure we'll get better but never be great at it. Our defense didn't cost us the game...it was our offense.

 

If anyone had told me that 3 games in, Luis Scola would be averaging 27 points per game, 14 rebounds, a block, two assists, and one turnover, while playing 36 minutes, I would have told them they were crazy, and that's coming from a huge Scola fan. That's also why you don't hoist a prayer of a three at the beginning of the shot clock in the 4th. You get the ball to the guy who's on a roll.

 

The quick 3's by brooks, lowry and martin were really disappointing. We were still in the game only down by 3 or 4. Why not go into scola? Why take a 30% 3 pointer when you got scola shoting 70% at 2's? And RA said nothing. Just said nothing.

I miss JVG so much.

 

If any of those go in though......

We just missed makeable shots....hard to whine about wide open looks....

DD

 

There is when Adelman specifically put Yao in there to take some of the scoring load because our outside shooters weren't connecting.

When Yao came back in the game we were down 1... He came in for Chuck and touched the ball exactly twice in the next four minutes.

 

I am not making an excuse for them not going to Yao, he certainly needs to get more touches.

This is 100% what I am talking about when discussing identity, last year, there was no Yao, so they have to get used to having him.

Hell, this was the first time in any game that Yao was in at the end......

DD

 

Melo can win in houston...not as a rocket though.

 

I'm glad you spelled it out for him.

 

Hard to get turnovers when you don't pass the ball.

I'm just playing, I agree, Scola has been great a bright spot.

To be fair I remember us going to Scola a lot in the 4th quarter of the Lakers game. Almost exclusively.

 

Martins' attempts looked good. They were open 3's off the pass. But both Brooks and Lowry shot off the dribble. I know Brooks is pretty electric and last year a lot of those went down...but Lowry? He's not a great 3 point shooter to begin with.

You want to know what the difference is between great teams and good teams?

Good teams say things like, "we just missed our shots". Great teams find a way to win even when they aren't hitting their open shots.