i know everyone is sad, but tommorow is another day.

I like your post.
Thanks for not acting like alot of loosers around here who are happy as long as the Rox are winning but one loss against a very good team and they all come out flaming every player on the team, come up with dumb a$$ trade proposals, blame the coach etc....

 

Also, did anyone expect the Rockets do go undefeated the next seven games? We have a tough series of back-to-backs. If a game was to be lost, it was most likely going to be to the Mavericks. The Mavs are one of the elite teams. The Rockets aren't where the Mavs are . . . yet. The Rox are also younger and have yet to peak. The Mavs are already peaking. Dallas was just the better team in that game. Their offense was too strong, though it wasn't so strong that our defense was overwhelmed. We lost the game by not utilizing our offense to take advantage of their weak defense. You can't offensively shut down a team with so many different scorers, but you can hit them were it hurts--and that's THEIR defense. We should have been more careful with the ball, brought out our best passing. We should have been patient with the ball and not rush any shots, find the open man, be more willing to pass to each other instead of dribbling into a flurry of defenders.

Our team doesn't know their own offense yet. It's apparent when Yao has the ball, stops, bends over, and waits. And waits. Then tries to make a shot when his defender had all that time to be prepared for it, or worse, another defenderto come down and strip it away.

It's apparent when Steve has the ball on a two on one fast break and doesn't decide right away to pass or shoot. He draws the defender, but passes too late, and the shot doesn't go in. I love Francis to death, but even rookies like Lebron know that if you're a point guard, and if you're leading a two on one, and you're drawing the defender, your priority is to make sure the shot goes in no matter who scores. you draw the defender, and pass it out to your teammate for an easier shot.

Cuttino also needs to widen his court awareness. Several times, key times when the game was head-to-head, he had the ball, dribbled towards two or three defenders, and tried to make a tough shot, invariably missing. Or doing that same exact play while there is still plenty of time on the clock and the rest of the offense is still setting up. The Rockets have the speed to be a running team--well, they ARE a running team--but they have to know when to run and when to just set up. Part of that might be due to Van Gundy trying to make them a defense-priority team, so a compromise is going to have to be made when they play run-and-gun teams like Dallas.

Padgett made some pretty horrendous shots, and some pretty good ones, but I can't really criticize him, because he's produced far more than what was expected, and with the absence of two major players in the rotation, and two other valuable players injured, he's being asked to do far more than what a player of his role should do.

These are glaring problems with Yao and Francis and Mobley--the triad heart of the team--but very fixable. If we're going to lose because of these mistakes, I'd rather it be with a powerhouse team like Dallas instead of a sub-par team like the Clippers.

Last year, we lost to a lot of sub-par teams we should have beaten.

Who cares if the first six games were against easy teams? We're doing what we're supposed to do. We're taking care of the easy teams, and learning our weaknesses against great ones--and the latter is what will really make us better.

Despite some of the same old problems that exist, the Rox ARE a better team this year, and we're closer to fixing those problems than ever. Once the Mavs pulled away, they really pulled away. But up until the middle of the third, despite where we stood as a team and where they stood as a team, we had a strong chance of taking it to them.

We beat easy teams despite making fundamental mistakes. We lost to a great team because of those mistakes. Expect Van Gundy to tell them that they can continue beating easy teams despite turnovers and rushed shots and lack of aggression in the paint, but in order to beat the best teams, they're going to have to really study up on their faults and improve on them.

Losing to Memphis was inexcusable, but losing to the Mavs was not. We have loads to learn from the latter loss, and it will be very valuable for future games against the better teams of the league.

 

I want 1 thing to be a repeat of last year...
Last year Rox were very good in winning the 2nd of back-to-back games. Hopefully that trend will continue and they get a win tomorrow...

I hope todays loss pissed them off and they go out there tomorrow and destroy the Suns.

 

Good analysis, tannersearle78.