Houston Rockets (30-28): On target The Rockets play with energy and emotion at home, and are usually listless on the road. Talented, quick and selfish, Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley have sticky fingers and only look to make touchdown passes. Rudy T. is always looking for mismatches. When he finds one, he'll call for an iso -- and he'll milk a successful play until it comes up empty. Otherwise, the Rockets like to use S/R with a re-screen, and to take 3s in any and all situations. Their favorite strategy is to let Francis drive and kick. On defense, the Rockets like to sink, play soft on the wings, and force their opponents to beat them from the perimeter. Despite their overall team speed, the Rockets are sluggish when transitioning from offense to defense. Houston is a scrambling type of team that utilizes Yao Ming mostly as an afterthought. This is a foolish notion, because when the ball is posted, the feeder will speed cut, squeeze or drift, and Yao is highly adept at making interior passes. Generally, the Rockets win because of their athleticism, and lose because of their stupidity. Can't agree more
Spot-on analysis. And yet whenever any of this gets mentioned in the chats to Aldridge or Ford or whomever, the response is invariably, "The Rockets' coaching staff doesn't want to put too much responsibility on Yao Ming blah blah blah."
Houston Rockets (30-28): On target Already pointed this out in the other thread, may as well do the same here.