Walk over the debris, recognize the pain, and recollect the confidence

Houston Rockets woke up in a nightmare at Salt Lake City. Jerry Sloan beated JVG with 3 rookies playing major minutes and Rockets never lead once since 5 mins after the open quarter. The two-superstar-best role player-improved outside shooters co. simply collapsed into debris in an opening game of 06-07...

Hence there are the disappointments, and even desperations. "Mutomob no longer an answer" "TMac, took the back seat" "JVG Sux" "GAY, the worst trade ever" "Yao, played too soft even though I am your fan". The bright side was listed in "positive things I saw in game I", which I like a lot. But what is the real pain and what needs to be improved in the long term? ----I know, I know, this is only one game. If one game generates the great veriaty of comments listed above, yeah, it tells you sth, seriously.

I get the lackness at PF and C part, Mutomob, Hayes, Scott and Novak aren't the answer; I get the wrong player execution part, especially TMac, I cursed when he missed the jumpers after jumpers instead of going the rim; I didn't like the ref either for the busht 2nd foul call on Yao. But the real pain for the rockets is their coach, JVG. You can feel it from the very first quarter. First of all, his offensive plan is simply r****d. Everything needs to go through Yao, if not, then TMac. The long term effects are: the Rockets offence are predictable; let alone the role players, they are here only to pass the ball to the duo, if they shoot and score, JVG will yell at them, if don't score? JVG will shoot them. Yeah, the real pain is quite simple, under the current JVG offence system, role players are frightened by their own coach to step up, they will simply lose their confidence to shoot bearing an ugly shouting face of JVG in their head. Secondly, JVG is too chicken to yell at Tmac, at yesterday's game, as a coach, you need to tell TMac to drive to the rim instead of settling for the jumper, no matter you are hot or cold. Sloan is killing Rox when his players constantly hit down low and restrict Yao and Battier in foul trouble, why can't we do the same to Boozer, Okur and AK47?! Tmac has the ability and hell who knows what he was thinking in the game? Jazzs actually prefer the mid-jumper from Tmac cause they can get the ball back and run a fast break and maybe cause some foul as a bonus. If Tmac chose lay-up instead of jumpers two or three times more yesterday, rockets could have won the game. The way JVG coached yesterday is unacceptable, as a coach, he couldn't even tell his player to do the right thing. Thirdly, let's talk about the weakness, PF and center, it is a real issue and it will be a long term issue as deke is not gonna be any younger and Hayes is not gonna be any taller. So Jazzs don't have any problems? What about the unstoppable Yao in the low post? I dln't think Jazzs found an answer to that when Yao was on the court but they ran him into foul trouble and also, SCORE MORE POINTS to make Yao's effort worthless. No team is perfect, but cry out loud---the lakers won without KB against Suns, so let's face it, PF and C will be a long term issue. But the fact is that JVG haven't found the way to cover our weakness. Will he? Never know---and that is THE real pain. Finally, defence---the best thing JVG can come up with. Rox couldn't build up an effective defence until the fourth quarter and by that time, it was already tooooo late.
The way I saw the game, Tmac could have attacked the basket more, Bill should have commanded the floor for some time, Novak should have played more than Scott, Snyder...he was the real Best player in the rox's team even his FT was ugly. And then, I don't care even if we still lose. The positive ends are Yao's definitely back, we get a great deal in Snyder and we still have a Bonzi. Speak of Bonzi, he could have changed the outcome of such a game easily. But in the long run, it is up to JVG again... If he continues his style...I say forget about it, WCF; if he changes, even a little bit...until then, cheers!!!