JVG post game comments.

The turnovers have been a problem lately. But I wouldn't worry about it in the long run. They may not get 35 assists in a game like they did a couple times earlier in the season, but at the same time this isn't the Steve Francis-led Houston Rockets. They're more than capable of making intelligent decisions and sharp passes.

 

I'm not too worried about it. Our shooting has been off lately and we needed to start taking it to the hole which means more dribbling and less swinging of the ball to the open shooter. TMac did a great job of being aggressive tonight. We needed more dribbling.

 

LOL!

The NBA TV host was doing recap of the game and he kept showing the endless pretty highlights by T-Mac in the game, and said "If you thought that move was pretty, check out this one (showed the 360 move), and check out this ferocious slam, Why don't we just make this the T-Mac highlight reel?"

 

I thought Mike James had a few bad TOs caused mainly by dribbling too much. However, he shot alot better today and made up for it.

 

Mike James is a player to worry about. So far, he looks like a guy who's very much a score first, score second, and pass if it's absolutely necessary-type player.

That's fine if he's just going to be instant offense off the bench. But I think he's going to want a bigger role than that, and he's got to learn to defer more and play a team game more than he does now.

 

I look at it this way, if Jeff Van Gundy is worried about it, so am I. The guy can flat out coach. I don't believe he is worried about wins and losses anymore. I think he is looking at our playoff run and if he says that our assist numbers are low, then I see it as a problem. We've got to get back to that 100 plus points a game performances. Reason? The west scores a lot of points and come playoff time we've got to be able to beat the best of the west.

My solution: Yao should look to get more assists. He's had great vision from the start and if he can see open guys and give them the ball he will act as a catalyst.

My question is this: Who will be the catalyst to get the assist game going again? Jon Barry had some good assists today. Who will make it popular to pass?

 

Van Gundy is using some psychological ploys right now to keep his team focused and working to improve. That's fine. But I'm sure he told TMac to drive the ball to the hole and TMac needs to keep doing that to make us ultimately successful. We can't settle for just the outside bombs. The only player that really is weak in ball movement on this current team that plays major minutes is Mike James. He is just more of a natural shooter and so some of the ball movement stops with him in the game. But I would not call him a selfish player either. Gundy is just trying to make sure the offense keeps moving the ball and stays focused. Yao is one of the most unselfish players on the team. Lack of assists? He passes too frequently out of the post for me, but he always looks for the open man. I would like him to be able to recognize when a player is hot and when they are not and make his decisions on passing or keeping the ball a little bit better so he is not throwing the ball out to the 3 line to a cold shooter early before the double is really committed to him. He seems to throw the pass as soon as the help defender starts to come his way. He needs to wait a little longer and then throw the pass, so the shooter has a more wide open look. And then if the shooter is cold, Yao should just turn and shoot himself and recognize when he is hot.

This team is playing unselfishly and will continue to do so. TMac is improving drastically, taking the leadership, taking the tough shots in crunch time, knocking them down, playing D on the premier player on the other team. His work against Cleveland was great, tracking James, and running the club. This team is setting up for a good run in the playoffs barring injury. DWes, Barry, Sura, TMac, Yao.......they all pass.

The biggest problem we have with the dribble is Sura's game is dribble penetration. When TMac starts penetrating with the dribble and then throws it out and Sura has a tendancy to dribble drive instead of taking the 3 ball, then it is going to reflect on the stat sheet in lower assists. And then when shooting is off like it has been for the past few games before Cleveland, our assists are low. That's all it is. Sura just needs to get his pre-injury game back and start canning that mid range jumper along with Wesley and TMac getting their stroke back and our assists will go right back up. We've had some dismal shooting games recently. Hence, the importance of going to the hole.

 

The real question is:

Are the low assist numbers and high dribbling causing bad shooting? or is the bad shooting forcing us to over dribble?

 

I personally think its just sloppy play and laziness in general. you get sloppy and lazy and dont feel like playing with intensity, so the play gets blown up cuz ytou cant get to your spot on time, either that or the guy handling the ball doesnt recognize the spots and just continues to dribble while everyone else meanders waiting for something to happen.

 

I did notice that Sura was dribble happy, but it should be easily resolved. The rest of his game looked great.

 

Sura's problem is very clear: he overdribbles because he clearly doesn't have the confidence in his outside shot at this point. Every time (almost) he got a nice pass from one of our players (especially T-Mac) he faked and dribbled around to find someone else open, instead of taking the shot. I would like him to take that shot and make it, because in playoff time it will be bad if defenses back off him because he can't drop a shot (and I think he can, he has a nice looking shot)

 

ironically enough, his 3 pters seem to come in the flow of the offense - so he might score more if he looked to pass first !

 

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Post_Game_Quotes_032405-136479-822.html
Post Game Quotes 03.24.05


ROCKETS HEAD COACH JEFF VAN GUNDY
(on the Rockets's bench play) "I thought in the 1st half, when we first wrote the line-up, we struggled. I thought in the 2nd half, the bench was much more efficient and much better. I am concerned about our ball movement right now, assists are going down, and we had a number of possessions when we were over-dribbling the basketball tonight."

(on the play of Mike James) "He's doing all right. He made a big shot last game, and he made another one when it was right on the brink tonight where it could have gone to where the differential couldn't have been overcome, and he made critical corner 3s. The thing for Mike is going to be to find the right balance between offensive aggression and creating plays for others. He's got a scoring mentality which is not a bad thing, but it's got to be tempered with...creating shots for others."

(on the play of Jon Barry) "I was once told you can't separate the good and the bad from somebody, you accept the whole package. The entirety of the package is really good. The passion, the passing, basketball intelligence, shooting, so I choose to focus on the 99% that I really love about him and his game, and tend to try to put deep in the recesses of my memory the 1% I'd like to change (a behind-the-back pass in the game)."

TRACY McGRADY

(on taking the ball to the rack after struggling a bit shooting the last couple of games) "I just wanted to come in this game and stay aggressive -- go to the hole and not settle for the jumper. I've been struggling a little bit with my shooting. I'm just trying to get out of that slump. To do that, you just go to the hole, get your confidence that way and everything will open up."

(on what it is about LeBron James that seems to get his competitive fire
going) "Every time I face a guy like LeBron James, Kobe (Bryant) and those guys, you have to bring your A-game. Those guys are talented guys and they're going to be ready to play. You just have to up your level of intensity and focus and be ready to match their intensity as well."

(on getting two big wins before heading out for eight of their next 10 on the road) "We're just going to take one game at a time. That's what we're going to focus on. We have New Orleans tomorrow night. That's a team that has definitely been playing well and a team that we haven't faced in awhile.
We have our work cut out for us, but like I said, we're going to take one game at a time and we're going to be ready to play."

MIKE JAMES

(on the key to the Rockets's 2nd half run) "We just started playing real good defense and I think that our defense started leading to fast break points. All of a sudden, we got into a rhythm and we would get stops on one end and we were able to get some fast break points. All of a sudden, it started getting into a flow."

(on whether he's assimilating to the team and his role) "There's no time now for me not to be comfortable. We're down to our last 14 games and then the playoffs start. If I don't have it now, I will probably never get it. I just have to continue to grow and go out there and play the game the right way."

(on the upcoming game against New Orleans) "When you play against teams like that, they really don't have anything to lose. They play the roll of the heartbreaker because they still want to disappoint teams that have a chance for the playoffs. We have to go in there and play our game, play aggressive defense and stick to our game plan. We have to try to play the game the right way because, if not, this is a team that is very good and very young that could come in and get a win if we're playing back on our heels."

YAO MING

(on the comparison between Tracy McGrady and LeBron James) "People ask that question about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. I think it is a question that will take time to answer."

(on defending LeBron James tonight) "We did a good job. We were helping each other. We matched up Tracy (McGrady) with him so we always had to double-team him on the pick and roll. We tried to force other players to shoot the ball. We also had to do a good job of getting back defensively in transition. I think we did that and we also played good half-court defense."

(on the key to the win) "We moved the ball quickly and we did a better job of doing that. We also played great defense so we were able to score a lot of points in transition."

JON BARRY

(on the win) "Coach (Van Gundy) made a point to get out in transition against this team and he felt we could get some early opportunities. You can only do that if you play good defense and our defense in the 1st quarter was very poor, but in quarters 2 through 4, it was really, really good. When we defend and rebound, we're awfully difficult to beat and we got a great run there in the 4th quarter. This was a big win for us after a great win the other night. Tomorrow will be very important as well."

CLEVELAND HEAD COACH BRENDAN MALONE

(on the Rockets) "The Rockets defense is very good. Having worked with Coach Van Gundy, I know that is what he emphasizes and it is always going to be the foundation of his teams. Houston should do very well in the playoffs."

(on the game) "We lost the game in the second quarter. I thought we played well in the first quarter. Our offensive execution was good in the first quarter and the fourth quarter. I thought we stayed in the zone too long and then Houston started hitting their three's. It wasn't a lack of effort by our team and I thought our man-to-man defense was very good. Our shot selection was poor and we weren't patient on our offensive sets."

LEBRON JAMES

(on the road losing streak) "It's very frustrating. It's really crazy that we are where we are (in the playoff seeding) right now and we haven't been able to win on the road."

(on the Rockets) "It's tough guarding five guys who can shoot from the perimeter so well."

(on playing against Tracy McGrady) "He's a good defender and he gets a hand up in my face. It's really a lot of fun playing against him."

(on the key to the game) "In the third quarter Houston made their shots and we were missing. It's very hard to come back on a team who can make open shots like that."

DREW GOODEN

(on the key to the game) "The third quarter was the killer. We couldn't match their offensive intensity. We turned the ball over too much and our missed shots led to easy baskets. Mike James did a great job off their bench. Missed shots and turnovers led to easy transition baskets for them."

(on his play) "I wanted to attack the basket and finish up aggressively.
Only one free throw and that just wasn't enough."

ZYDRUNAS ILGAUSKAS

(on Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutumbo) "They have a luxury if Yao (Ming) gets in foul trouble with a back-up center as good as (Dikembe) Mutumbo. He provides defense inside and as a shot-blocker. He will help them in the playoffs."

(on their 10 game road losing streak) "Part of it is mental and at home we play with a lot more intensity. On the road we either turn the ball over too much or we shoot poorly. A lot of guys are still getting the feel of each other. Hopefully, we will get more victories on the road before the season is over."

MARK PRICE (Cleveland TV color commentator)

(on the Rockets run for the playoffs) "There are not many teams in the Western Conference that are going to want to match-up with the Rockets in the playoffs. They have great perimeter shooters to go with McGrady and Yao Ming. Jeff Van Gundy has a lot of weapons to chose from on this eam."