I hope DM is freaking out too. because i know iam. -PJ has fallen off a cliff, really really bad basketball on both ends, you would expect the defense to always be there but i think its a little over rated to be honest. his hustle is always there but hes an average defender at best. -There is Only home ryno now. So we dont have any PFs now which is a formula for disaster. -Ariza has been slowing down bigtime which was expected given the hot start, but man he looks as bad as tucker some games. Way too inconsistent If we dont sign Gerald Green we probably wouldnt have won one game after the injury, thats very very worrying. CP looks healthy though which is a major plus. But we should def be working the phones to find replacement, this messing with chemistry BS doesent fly.
Yep, problem is i'm not sure what we can get with a trade as today... The only thing i disagree here is that i think Paul is not evenclose to be 100%, i might be wrong of course, but the way he played pick & roll and the way he was losing the handle in these last games was...just not right imo.
Rockets staying calm despite recent slump With the Rockets slumping, with losses in seven of nine games, but also with a record that is the fourth-best in the NBA, they said they have to maintain a mix of urgency and confidence. "That's what we're fighting with right now," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We're fighting as coaches, is what we're doing good enough? Is it tired legs, injuries and we need to hang in there, or do we need to change something? It's a fine balance. I can't say a coach always knows. I can tell you afterwards. We'll try to play with a swagger and confidence." D'Antoni said he does not want to overreact, especially on the offensive end, because the Rockets' analysis showed Saturday's game was their seventh-best game all season at creating good shots, their fourth-best at taking the shots they want. "We're doing what we want," he said. "Is it a matter of the past couple games us shooting below normal and the other team shooting above normal? But where we get in trouble is thinking we can just outscore them. You think unconsciously, 'Oh, that one basket didn't matter. We'll go down and score.' Then we miss an open 3. After a while, you're not playing with the same urgency. It gradually erodes. We have to get that back." That could amount to playing with confidence offensively, urgency defensively. Overall, the Rockets offense has been solid, if not where it was, ranking seventh over the past 10 games. The defense, however, has ranked 28th in that stretch. "We know we have the ability and the talent in the group we have (healthy) to win," forward Ryan Anderson said. "We just need to come together and battle harder, play harder. I want to look myself in the mirror regardless of how many looks I get, if shots fall or not, I want to play harder. We just have to clear our heads and put all this, this little stretch, behind us. We know we can play so much better." Believing that, the Rockets insisted that their issues are not too great to be corrected. "We can't do is over-worry about that," forward Trevor Ariza said. "We can't just focus on the things we're doing bad. We're doing good things as well, but we need to go back in and work on some of our schemes. The thing we have on our side is time. It's early. We'll be all right."
The offense isn't the problem and will be fixed whenever the team is at full health. The problem is that the defense has fallen off the cliff and I don't think getting Luc back is going to magically bring us back to where we were defensively early in the season.
A mid season slump is definitely no reason to panic. Rockets early success has other teams bringing their best against us as a measuring stick of what their team is/ can be. This combined with recent injuries has translated to some losses. As long as the team is healthy (crosses fingers) come playoff time we have a good chance to beat anyone. Spurs have been known to intentionally rest players during the season in the process sometimes dropping a few seeds. Never seemed to bother them much in the playoffs. Although not intentional for Rockets right now the result should be similar...have everyone healthy and mostly rested for playoffs. One thing I think IMHO they can improve on is shot selection. Too many times it seems they settle for the three early in the shot clock. What I mean by "settle" is a defender closing out quickly. Unless it is wide open pump fake and move the ball. Get the defense chasing/catching up. It tires the defense out and should translate to a few more layups. I'd also like the team to incorporate a little more mid range so defenses don't simply clog the middle and guard the three point line but that's another story. Just my two cents. Overall happy with where the team is at this point in the season.
