ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Mavericks 11/13/2003

I can barely handle school, and Work while fasting, let alone play full court NBA basketball. I applaud that man, a real true role model.

(i did run the mile once while fasting, almost passed out 10 times and had to go to the hospital, but thas another story)

 

OK. Watch spurs game and see whether their guards need to wait for Duncan. Maybe he is one of the best big man trailers but he is still slow.

 

I watched the game. It's a bad lost. I can see lots of problems.

Our guards need to learn how to control the tempo of game.

We get 7'5 weapon with limited stimina and we have to fully utilize he. Our guards let the game play too fast, and let 7'5 weapon run back and forth without ball. His stimina should be better used in offense and defense, not running back and forth.

Rockets need a real guard to plan every play.

 

Hillboy, you and I think so much alike it is scarry! For weeks, I have been trying to call attention to Ming's sluggishness, no takers. Something is definitely wrong. He looks like he is in slow motion, like he is constantly winded. What about the "high blood pressure" flap this offseason? Wasn't that supposed to be bogus? Something is definitely wrong. Don't the Rockets give physicals? As to Francis, he is trying to fit the system, but I don't think the boy has a "playmaker" bone in his body. He makes the worst timed must inaccurate passes, and a "two on one" break is just too complicated for him. I don't know what to think. Mobley is still Mobley; on fire one night, missing the next.

 

Also, did anyone expect the Rockets do go undefeated the next seven games? We have a tough series of back-to-backs. If a game was to be lost, it was most likely going to be to the Mavericks. The Mavs are one of the elite teams. The Rockets aren't where the Mavs are . . . yet. The Rox are also younger and have yet to peak. The Mavs are already peaking. Dallas was just the better team in that game. Their offense was too strong, though it wasn't so strong that our defense was overwhelmed. We lost the game by not utilizing our offense to take advantage of their weak defense. You can't offensively shut down a team with so many different scorers, but you can hit them were it hurts--and that's THEIR defense. We should have been more careful with the ball, brought out our best passing. We should have been patient with the ball and not rush any shots, find the open man, be more willing to pass to each other instead of dribbling into a flurry of defenders.

Our team doesn't know their own offense yet. It's apparent when Yao has the ball, stops, bends over, and waits. And waits. Then tries to make a shot when his defender had all that time to be prepared for it, or worse, another defenderto come down and strip it away.

It's apparent when Steve has the ball on a two on one fast break and doesn't decide right away to pass or shoot. He draws the defender, but passes too late, and the shot doesn't go in. I love Francis to death, but even rookies like Lebron know that if you're a point guard, and if you're leading a two on one, and you're drawing the defender, your priority is to make sure the shot goes in no matter who scores. you draw the defender, and pass it out to your teammate for an easier shot.

Cuttino also needs to widen his court awareness. Several times, key times when the game was head-to-head, he had the ball, dribbled towards two or three defenders, and tried to make a tough shot, invariably missing. Or doing that same exact play while there is still plenty of time on the clock and the rest of the offense is still setting up. The Rockets have the speed to be a running team--well, they ARE a running team--but they have to know when to run and when to just set up. Part of that might be due to Van Gundy trying to make them a defense-priority team, so a compromise is going to have to be made when they play run-and-gun teams like Dallas.

Padgett made some pretty horrendous shots, and some pretty good ones, but I can't really criticize him, because he's produced far more than what was expected, and with the absence of two major players in the rotation, and two other valuable players injured, he's being asked to do far more than what a player of his role should do.

These are glaring problems with Yao and Francis and Mobley--the triad heart of the team--but very fixable. If we're going to lose because of these mistakes, I'd rather it be with a powerhouse team like Dallas instead of a sub-par team like the Clippers.

Last year, we lost to a lot of sub-par teams we should have beaten.

Who cares if the first six games were against easy teams? We're doing what we're supposed to do. We're taking care of the easy teams, and learning our weaknesses against great ones--and the latter is what will really make us better.

Despite some of the same old problems that exist, the Rox ARE a better team this year, and we're closer to fixing those problems than ever. Once the Mavs pulled away, they really pulled away. But up until the middle of the third, despite where we stood as a team and where they stood as a team, we had a strong chance of taking it to them.

We beat easy teams despite making fundamental mistakes. We lost to a great team because of those mistakes. Expect Van Gundy to tell them that they can continue beating easy teams despite turnovers and rushed shots and lack of aggression in the paint, but in order to beat the best teams, they're going to have to really study up on their faults and improve on them.

Losing to Memphis was inexcusable, but losing to the Mavs was not. We have loads to learn from the latter loss, and it will be very valuable for future games against the better teams of the league.

 

the guy is getting on your nerves because he's not playing for the rockets. nash scores on big guys nite in and nite out. he's got enough practice doing it against bradley.

 

Key is poor shooting, look the statics:
Cat:2/10
padgett:2/9
Yao also did not play strong and agreesive as he did last with mavs.
I think JJ and Steve did well this game. Less tos and more as than last year.
Rocket still need to adjust and will do well in the season.

 

Since everyone has seen the problem, I guess there is no need to do that now.

 

It's not easy to win in Dallas as the Mavs' undefeated home record shows. The Rockets had a disappointingly bad game tonight; it was bound to happen. As fans, we should take it easy and trust that weaknesses exposed tonight will be worked on tomorrow. They are still a top five team and I have faith they will stay there.

 

yao's guarding nash? how can you blame yao for that. looks like someone's not guarding their man and it's not yao.

 

As bad as Yao struggled, when he was on the court, we still got some decent shots. When we played small tonight, it was unwatchable 100%. Without Yao in there, our offense is totally unorganized against the zone.

 

Wow, I see a lot of negativity following what I thought was a good effort from an injured Rockets team.

Good points: Houston is distributing the ball better than they did last season. I like it how Van Gundy has trained the players to swing the ball to the opposite wing if the ball can't be passed into the post. This allowed the Rockets to get plenty of open looks from the corner, unfortunately the shooting percentage for the game killed any chance of victory.

Bad points: BOXING OUT. Its a very simple idea, use your butt to get position underneath the basket. Either we have players with incredibly small butts or this fundamental aspect of basketball has not been practiced. At least we dont have to rely on Stevie running into the post to get the defensive board, we actually are trying to run a defensive set.

I agree that Yao is looking a little winded, but few seem to realize that we basically have Cato, Yao, and Padgett to rely on for inside presence. Padgett barely knows the offensive plays and the Rockets play best with Cato AND Yao on the floor at the same time. This game is the first example of how much the losses of Eddie Griffin and Maurice Taylor are going to hurt the Rockets as the season progresses. We need A. Griff to get off the injured list so we can grab some more rebounds. A loss sucks but you can't deny that the Mavs played almost a flawless game... they only had 7 turnovers!!! and if you haven't seen a single NBA game this season, thats a really impressive stat. It may be argued that the Rockets didn't play their best defense but it cannot be overlooked that it was the missed rebounds and the sheer precision of the Mavericks offense tonight that caused the loss.

I pray we make it out of this little "road trip from hell" with a respectable record... PLEASE COME BACK MO TAY!

--Rocketman

 

Great post tannersearle78, are you really a lady?

 

He has to wait for the passer and the defender on the passer to clear out before he can make a move. Otherwise, he'll get stripped. He is also looking around for an open man to pass the ball to.

I'd like to see him make a quick move right after he catches the pass also, but posting up further than 8 feet away from the basket is not the ideal situation for that. Unless, he does the quick spin move.

 

this is nash you are talking about. if yao knocks him to the floor, he'll come right back at yao and hope he knocks him on the floor again. it's an automatic 2 pts. you think nash is gonna stop if he gets knocked down hard on the floor? the only thing that will stop nash is if yao swats it clean.

 

Pls chat with me thru msn. My msn :rougeking@963.net

 

guys it's not the end of the world to lose to a loaded dallas team on their homecourt.

a couple things though:

this was steve's worse game under jvg. in stretches he went back to trying to dominate by himself, particularly as the mavericks lead grew to double digits. he's not a selfish player at all but you can see the frustration still gets to him and he takes losing hard, therefore trys to do too much.

yao missed quite a few EASY shots. this is stuff we expect him to convert and he will.

not a very good game by the rockets but lets see if we can get them back at toyota center whenever that is.

 

Your arguments seem a little contradictory here.

I thought playing a slower half court game was our strength. If you agree that feeding the ball to the post is our best option, then why not slow it down for Yao? Unless you don't think we are better off with feeding Yao the ball.

Also, the Rockets should know that Yao is not suited for a more up-tempo game and that he plays better at a slower pace. You can't doing anything to improve a person's athletic ability during the game, so why not do other things they have control of and take advantage of the players abilities?

I don't see how the Rockets fast pace running game is any good with those blown fast breaks.

 

Hey, there they are! The Rockets from last year. They were missing but now they are back.

Man...that was disapointing.

 

Yao had only 1 TO, so you really did not see that!!!

It depends on the play. If the guard throw the ball into the post, then use Yao as screen to cut toward the basket then Yao can not make the move before he and his defender clear.

There is nothing wrong with inviting the double team. Yao actually held the ball and look for that as he should. If DT comes, he passes. If it doesn't, he makes the move.

I don't think we can keep the secret that Yao is trying to score from the opponents.