I've been to a lot of Rockets games in Houston and other places, but never had this kind of a look at the game. Second row behind the Spurs basket in the 2nd half, Rockets in the 1st. I could see the game like I never have before. Anyway, here are a few things I observed from the Alamodome last night. 1. Mo Taylor plays basketball for more than one quarter. Mo really was solid last night. 11 points and 9 rebounds against probably the best power forward in the game. He didn't get in foul trouble either, and played decent defense on Duncan when in the game. But you don't have to stop going to him after the first quarter. 9 of his 11 points came in the first. Offensively he has some talents that no one in the league can stop, including Duncan. Give him the ball some in the 3rd and 4th instead of setting for fadeaway jumpers as the shot clock is expiring. 2. This team is one player away, imho. The guard defense is not as bad as some of you make it seem. Guys like Derek Anderson, etc. can penetrate on any guard in the league. If we get a man who can play PF or center that can play physical, defend, block shots, etc., and just let the team develop, we will contend. Too many times opposing teams guards penetrate and no one is in the lane to stop the penetration. It's for this reason I wouldn't be in favor of getting Shareef and Big Country. If you take Reeves too, your cap room is gone, and you better be damn sure that that team can make you a championship contender. Reef is a great scorer and rebounder, but he is not the big defensive presence we need inside. I'm afraid he wouldn't be "the answer" that some of you seem to think he would be. Big Country is just dead weight. Now of course if we got Shareef alone, we could still have some cap room and flexibility, and I am all for that. Esp. if you can get him without dealing Hakeem. But if any of you think trading Hakeem for him and BC would solve our problems, I think you're mistaken. 3. Cuttino talking to the refs is not hurting the team. I watched this closely last night down close-- of course I could not hear all that was said, but it was pretty apparent he was just calmly trying to talk to the refs. It's called working the refs, and in most sports it is a very productive thing to do. The leader of the team-- and as much as it may pain some of you to admit it, Cuttino at least verbally is our leader-- needs to alert the refs to what is going on on the floor and hopefully get some future calls. I have no problem with that. 4.Kenny Thomas cannot be asked to create his own shot. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to watch the team give Kenny the ball in the post in the 2nd quarter and ask him to take Tim Duncan one on one. Kenny has some decent moves, but he cannot finish them. That just isn't his game. He can rebound, play physical, shoot from the outside, etc. But I just don't think he'll ever be the type of guy you can isolate in the post and tell him to go make your move. And at least in this game, I think Carlos should be ahead of Kenny in the rotation. The energy Carlos brings to the floor is something this team desperately needs. He is bigger than KT, probably a better defender than KT, and he definitely hits the glass and hustles more. When we are playing small, that is something we need. 5. Shandon needs to look more for his shot. Shandon seems to have disappeared again. I love Shandon's defense, desire, and hustle, but he needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end. Moving around and shooting 3's is not his game. He can do it, but he is more versatile than that. As many posters have said, he really needs to start cutting through the lane more and shooting that mid range jumper. Hopefully that could jump start his offense again. 6.Small ball was not the problem. Look at the Spurs lineup they had in there. If I remember correctly, it was Porter, Daniels, Anderson, Rose, and Duncan. Rose is not by any means a great power forward. Rudy has always early in the 4th gone with a big man shooter at power forward, and many times it has been successful. It wasn't really a problem last night either. Rose didn't exactly kill us on the glass. We played with Carlos and KT at center on Duncan, but that is something we always do. They are our backup centers, and they usually get minutes in the early 4th. Duncan was just hot, and the double teams didn't work. Small ball wasn't a big problem. 7. Walt Williams WAS a problem. Let's face one thing-- Walt is not a stellar defender. He isn't going to blow people away with his quickness or athletism. When he plays well, it is because of his shooting. And you could see he just didn't have it last night, esp. in the early 4th where he missed a couple of open 3s that might have prevented the lead from going to 8. On nights like that, put Bullard or Langhi in the game instead of Walt please. Walt's role was to shoot from the outside last night, and when he isn't on there ARE other options. Hopefully we'll use them a little more in the future. 8. Why didn't someone else besides Steve try and foul with 23 seconds left? That one really hurt our chances. You need to realize when a player has 5 fouls and have someone else foul for him. Steve waited about 4 seconds before realizing no one would come and just had to use his 6th. Who knows what might have happened that final possession if he's in the game? 9. Blaming Rudy for the last possession is ridiculous. You have a young team without their superstar on the road with no timeouts. You can't expect them to run everything perfect. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Mo was over there to set a pick for Mooch. I think he assumed that Mooch would use the pick to get open for his own shot or penetrate and kick out. I didn't think he thought he would be getting the ball, and he wanted to stay out of Mooch's way, so that's why you saw him at the 3 point line and not inside around 18 feet as some suggested. 10. The Rockets and us as fans should have a lot to be proud of last night. We played one heck of a game against maybe the best team in the NBA in their place. We crashed the glass hard against the best defensive duo in the league. Mo had 9 rebounds; Dream had 8. The isolations worked all night as Steve and Cuttino took their men to the hole at will. The Spurs broadcasters after the game on the radio were going crazy about how good Steve and Cat were. We played pretty solid low post defense against Duncan, as both Mo and Hakeem made him work for his shot. Yes, we could have done better and executed the last few possessions better, but I'm not disappointed playing probably the best team in the league down to the final second on the road. Hopefully the Rockets' heads are back in the game. I still believe we will make a playoff run with a winning streak beginning Monday against New York. GO ROCKETS!!! Also, who else from here at CC.net made it out to the game? Where did you sit if you did? I saw a lot of people there wearing Rockets gear, and was wondering who here made it out. Anyway... thoughts, comments, questions? ------------------ "We're not settling for just getting in the playoffs." "We want a higher seed. There's no doubt. We expect to get in."-- Steve Francis President of the Mo Taylor and Jason Collier fan club! Teams win and lose games, not individuals. Draftsource.net ClutchTown.com [This message has been edited by The Cat (edited February 04, 2001).]
Good post.Also, on Steve's last foul, dont you think the coaches should have been screaming at him not to foul and that he had 5? You'd think they would have been more aware of personal fouls. Anything in particular they were saying about steve and cuttino? I dont think theres a doubt, that they are the best backcourt in the league. Cassell and Allen are a somewhat distant second. I was also glad to see they both got over 20 shots a piece. Thats how much both of them should be shooting every game for the rockets to be succesful. ------------------
Tacoma, They had the Spurs assistant coach on, and he talked directly about Steve and Cat getting straight to the hole on their defender all night, and how those isolation plays for those two guards are incredibly hard to defend, or something like that. You could tell on the final possession Steve KNEW he had 5 fouls, and didn't want to use his 6th. He waited for a long while, hoping someone else would come. But you have to understand, the Rockets are down 3 at the time. With the Spurs' great free throw shooting, the best you could figure to hope for is for them to make 1 of 2, then have the Rockets score and foul again. You couldn't have expected Anderson to brick both. And to foul, score, foul again, score again, etc. takes time. I'm sure Steve didn't want to foul, but after about 4 seconds you could tell he just realized that no one was coming, and that he had to stop the clock, even if it fouled him out. ------------------ "We're not settling for just getting in the playoffs." "We want a higher seed. There's no doubt. We expect to get in."-- Steve Francis President of the Mo Taylor and Jason Collier fan club! Teams win and lose games, not individuals. Draftsource.net ClutchTown.com
Thanks for the info, and thanks for pointing out Cat and Steve have been playing great D. Thats the one knock put on them, and its not true. Both of them have been playing extremely good D of late. The only problem is, if one of them gets picked, they have no inside presence to stop their man. ------------------
While watching the game, I noticed that there was a hell of a lot of cheering for the Rockets. I am not kidding when I say that the Rocket fans at the Alamo Dome were louder than the compaq center fans have been all season. ------------------ "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning how to put food on their family while being put to death."
Nice post Cat. I agree with everything except the Kenny Thomas assesment. I agree he has trouble finishing, but I hardly think that these troubles will continue for the rest of his career. ------------------ PrEsident of The Danforth Langhford FAN CLUB... He IS our future All-Star Small Forward
i've already made this argument before. teaching someone to finish is VERY difficult. almost impossible. IMO, and i know many will disagree with me, but i think kenny thomas is almost as good as he will ever be. he won't improve that much more, and should not be even considered as crucial to our future. just a pawn in the game.
KT may not be able to improve his skills much more, but he can continue to improve physically as well as mentally with expierience. I've said this many times and I'll say it again, I think Kenny could be a huge role player in the future for this team coming off the bench. Kenny has great fundamentals and if he could just bulk up a little bit more he could really use that body to box guys out and grab some rebounds, kind of like Barkley did. ------------------ "Steve is good. Steve is real good." -- Cleveland's rookie point guard Andre Miller on Rocket rookie point Steve Francis
DieHard Rocket: you do realize kt is like 260? if he bulked up too much, he might end up being the next "Hot Plate" Williams. also, i'd agree about him being a decent off the bench player. but only if just ended up that way. in other words, if there was a trade which required kt, adios. oh yea...barkley was incredibly strong and had a freakish vertical. how many times did you see barkley block a 7 footers dunk? do you remember barkley blocking SHAQ on a dunk attempt in the allstar game? kt could never come remotely close to resembling barkley. his ass isn't big enough, either. ------------------ "i still fondly remember how the Chuckster threw a basketball at Shaq´s forehead, and then, after avoiding a blow by the behemot, proceeded to wrestle him to the ground like a sac of potatoes, while throwing a fair share of jabs at that big oaf´s ear." - Thanos ah the memories... Barkley was the man.
Snowman, I think he can improve a little bit through the years, and as I said I think he can be a valuable role player for us. But I also think teaching someone to finish is a difficult task. He can improve, no doubt, but I can't see us in the future giving KT a lot of isolations in the post where we leave him alone to try and create all by himself. KT can be a solid player; I just don't think giving him the ball and asking him to create is his game, esp. against some of the better defenders like Duncan. ------------------ "We're not settling for just getting in the playoffs." "We want a higher seed. There's no doubt. We expect to get in."-- Steve Francis President of the Mo Taylor and Jason Collier fan club! Teams win and lose games, not individuals. Draftsource.net ClutchTown.com
