Wonderful comeback by the Rockets. Every player who stepped out onto that court had their time to shine and I'm proud of them.
I dearly love Scola, so I was beyond thrilled to see the Luis I'm used to seeing; he's as much of a beast in his own way as Landry is...just not as fast or explosive. Really, tonight was a showcase of a number of our solid performers, God Bless 'em. David certainly looked as good tonight as he's looked in a long time, and of course CBud was a fun watch...but yeah, Luis, Carl and Kyle were the big contributors tonight. It was nice seeing some of the pieces that we might potentially get in the rumored Tmac/Knicks trade. I've never really seen them play, or if I did really didn't pay attention. Lee was hot and on fire tonight, liked Jefferson and Chandler too...although I had to laugh at how mad he was at Lowry's steal. He never saw that one coming!!
I haven't watched all games this year, but has Ariza turned into a somewhat ball stopper? The whole team was much more fluid with Ariza out of the game.
And budinger had issues finishing tonight in traffic and taking Lee off the dribble...i still like his style, but that's just an example of why he's not goign to be a go to guy or all-star like some believe.
Always said, defence wins the game. Chuck Hayes defending over David Lee in 3q made comeback, and Lowry with some steals made us keep going. And look at Shane Battier's +/- stat. +24. wow.
CBud played great imo. Lot of good passes that should have turned into assists. Even coming off an injury one can already tell the man is our future starter(sooner the better). He did make one bad pass that turned into a fast break but nobody is perfect.
Ball stopper and incredibly poor shooting combined with high shooting rate makes him an unpopular Rocket 'round these here parts. Some hints of poor sportsmanship too, but that might be people looking at him extra hard.....
Ariza's attitude today was better. Passing the ball inside, better body language on the defensive end, stealing... Anyway, it was a good decision to keep Lowry and Shane on the court.
i think saying he played great is an overstatement. He had some mistakes tonight, that bad pass, and 2 poor finishes in traffic where he looked like he just threw it up and prayed for a whistle. He did a solid job overall since he made up for it late, but he didnt play great.
Realistically, our starting unit will be outmatched by the starters of most teams out there. We are a bunch of role players, so we have to win by effort and smarts. If we try to be the traditional starting unit with isos and no ball movement, we're toast! Our 2nd team, however, is something else. It has speed, inside and outside scoring. The only downside perhaps would be defense against the top guns of the NBA which is why they are not the starting unit yet. But we do have a winning combination. It's good that the bench is challenging the starters to play better.
No doubt,but the Knicks were 14-3 and the offense from Luis and the bench made it easier for the defenders and vice versa.
