2 wins over solid teams. 2 games where the offense was consistently initiated, whether by pass or simple player movement, before the :16 mark on the shot clock. Coincidence?
well rudy finaly got through to the players that you cant dribble untill there is only 7 seconds left on the shot clock and expect to win.
These last two games have given us such hope: the offense running through Yao, getting the offense set up quickly, everyone playing smart team basketball, and (most importantly) two wins over good, quality oponents. The only thing that's left is for all of us to BEG steve and cat and mooch, DON'T FORGET!!! If this team plays this kind of team basketball for the rest of the season, we could be a serious team to deal with in the playoffs. I don't neccesarily think that we can get to the finals, but a first round win and maybe an appearance in the conference finals is definately within reach, IF we play this kind of basketball. Just imagine this team with a healthy Glen Rice coming off the bench, Nachbar and TMo getting experience, a fully healthy Mo Taylor adding some inside offense and everyone "getting it" and buying into the team game. If that happens (a huge IF), f*ck Elton Brand, Andre Miller, Lamar Odom, Shareef, Gooden, and all those guys we could ruin our chemistry by trading for.
There are times when the team is intentionally held up on the offensive end, but I agree that doing it TOO often is a problem. I heard an interview with some coach on ESPN radio and they talked about "walking the ball up the court" and he said that it is necessary to do that about 1/4 of the time just to allow players (especially big guys) to get a few seconds to catch their breath. But, overall, a much better effort from the Rox to get into the offense sooner.
I'm surprised that Yao is getting a lot more minutes even when he is fatigue, with the absence of Kelvin Cato. During the third quarter while the offense were being made to Yao in the low post, either Divac was hacking him or Yao was too tired to hustle and retrieve the loose ball. But anywho.. what was I talking about... oh yea.. I was checking out Sport Sunday and had a session with Matt Bullard. Matt made a good point of watching the team closely after the Sacramento Kings game (hince the poor performance after the win over the Lakers). So I hope the Rockets continue to play hard over the lower teams to keep a consistancy going. -Tony
I wonder if Matt Bullard would be a good guy to hire on as an assistant coach. He was always the captain on the team while he was here, so obviously he was well liked. But I have also heard him doing color commentary of some of the Comets games, so I know that he has a good knowledge of the game... Just a thought.
