I'm sorry if this has been rehashed in the game thread, but I just felt the need to address it. Please feel free to lock if necessary, admins. In the past, whenever the Rockets lost a close game to a good team, I would blame the refs. The first thing out of my mouth wasn't "Dammit, we need to get rid of ______" or "We SUCK!", but something along the lines of "The refs really blew that call and cost us the game!" or "Those zebras just handed the game to them!" Now that may be just a simple case of extreme homerism, but I think in tonight's game, it would be justified. There were too many instances in which Yao got mugged in the low post on the offensive end which didn't draw calls. And then there were times when he tried to fight back and he got whistled for a foul. There were too many calls that didn't get called for the Rockets that they called for the Kings. I remember reading that the refs tend to blow the whistle in favor of the more aggressive team. Tonight's game, we were aggressive, we played hard, but still didn't get the whistles. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I watched the game with no sound. Still, there were at least 20 plays in which me and the group of guys I was watching with were like "How the hell is that NOT a foul on SAC?!" or "WHERE'S THE FOUL?!" Just wondering if any others thought the refs cost us this game...or if I'm just a homer and I didn't know it.
Did you watch what Steve Francis did to our cumulative field goal %???? The refs sucked as usual but the players lost this one, plain and simple.
Sure the refs missed alot of calls but like what was said before, we still could have won this game even with the blown calls. My opinion is that we basically didn't deserve to be bailed out by the refs. The Rockets have only themselves to blame on this loss.
There were some calls that could have been better and would have helped the Rockets, but that's not why we lost. If our PG scored more, and Center scored after the first half we would have won the game.
PG has the ball on every possesion, the Center can't even get the ball....so who is more at fault ? DD
Why passed the ball to the center when the center does not want to shoot the ball? The center's favorite move is to pass the ball. You think why the center takes 5 seconds to set up a play? He wants to pass the ball! So why bother?
Maybe cuz the center was hit with a bs offensive foul every time he made his move? Maybe the center would be 18/11 if he didn't have 6 points called back. Maybe if the center actually got a call every once in a while he'd shoot more.
The Refs got to Yao and he decided not to shoot the ball. Yao talked about having an "explosion," but just ended up letting smaller big guys have their way. And the refs were absolutely horrible tongiht, I couldn't believe the fouls that weren't being called.
OK let me rephrase. The center DID get hit with bs offensive fouls every time he made his move. The center DID have an 18/11 nights except the refs called it back. The center DID shoot when he get the chance, except 3 of them got called back and the rest of the time he was whacked.
Francis - 7 PTS on 3-17 SHOOTING, 13 AST, 4 TO (Not bad for 3 quarters of play. Even though his shot was off, atleast he was getting his teammates involved. He doesn't know how to dictate the flow of the game though. He took wide open shots and missed them, forced shots and made them more difficult then they had to be with some of his layup attempts. He also left Bibby and B. Jax to try and offer unnecessary support on defense when his own defensive assignments were burning him all night with clean open looks at the perimeter, as well as cherry picking fastbreak layups where they simply beat Francis down the court.) Ming - 12 PTS on 5-10 SHOOTING 2 AST 5 TO (Was called for a couple of offensive fouls that resulted in turnovers. Got the ball stripped by B. Jax and Bibby numerous times from him and regressed back to his old tentative play even when he had wide open shots to attempt. Poor transition defense. Most of the time his lack of good transition defense didn't burn him seeing as his defensive assignments are almost as slow as he is up and down the court. Another reason why JVG likes to slow down the game to an almost lethargic pace, which is to try and not expose our bigmens slow feet on transition defense. Something Hakeem absolutely excelled at better then our guards who were smaller and should of been quicker.) Mobley - 19 PTS on 7-18 SHOOTING. 0 AST, 4 TO (Didn't make his teammates better, took bad shots that went away from our style of play i.e eating up the shotclock and slowing down the tempo. Let himself get baited into the quick style of play that the Kings like to play. Sometimes it resulted in a 3 dropping, other times it resulted in a fresh 24 second shot clock going to waste by a 2 second 3 point jack that resulted in poor transition defense off long rebounds and open layups for the Kings.) M. Jackson - 1 PT on 0-2 SHOOTING, 3 AST, 4 TO (Opted for far too many behind the back passes, and got the ball stripped from him when he tried to post the ball up down low. His normally good decision making on the court was absent today and he couldn't stop the bleeding in playing the Kings style of ball. Normally his play means slowing the game down, playing methodically and making the right pass at the right moment for open looks. As a backup PG who was meant to slow down the game tonight and play under control, M. Jackson did the exact opposite. ) M. Taylor - 18 PTS on 8-14 SHOOTING, 14 REB , 2 AST, 2 TO (Taylor played like a man tonight. He grabbed boards, shot well, but much like Mobley forced bad shot attempts in a crowded paint full of King defenders in the final minutes of the game. He often whined about the lack of calls like he normally does but did more then his part in trying to get this team a win. He's not our 1st, or 2nd scoring option unless our bench is out there, and hasn't been asked to take the team on his shoulders all season long, but has occasionally produced like he should with the numbers he put up tonight.) Cato - 4 PTS on 2-3 SHOOTING, 0 AST, 0 STL (Cato didn't provide any defensive presence, or rebounding the whole night. Unlike his other games where it was atleast debatable whether to start him over Taylor at the PF position, it's no longer a contest. He has regressed in his past few games, and lately has no longer even provided his defensive presence. He was an offensive liability on the court tonight like most nights, unless he's getting hustling garbage points. ) Padgett - 3 PTS on 1-1 SHOOTING, 1 REB, 1 STL, 1 TO ( He's had past games where he was deserving of atleast filling the backup role at the PF position. He hustles, but most of all is smart with the ball. He knows what he's capable of and never tries to go over that. He's got great range, and makes his team better with his hustle, passing, and shooting range. He's definitely underused but like other players on this team who have had stellar performances for a few games, may just as well end being the flavor of the month like Cato was at the early part of the season. The problem is, we don't use him enough at the backup PF role enough to find out whether he's deserving of more minutes out there on the court.) Nachbar - 2 PTS on 1-3 SHOOTING (Played 9 minutes. Not much to say about him other then he didn't play enough to merit any real criticism or praise. His missed shots looked good if that's possible because they rolled in and out, and looked dead on leaving his hands. He's got the skills, but not the experience. I'm glad JVG is bringing him along slowly.) SUMMARY 22 Turnovers, poor transition defense off turnovers and long rebounds, lack of composure under the closing minutes of each quarter, and going away from the Rockets lethargic tempo was what caused the loss tonight. Objectively Francis is not entirely at fault, but definitely deserves more then his fair share of justified criticism. Yao DID NOT play aggressive nor was he much of an impact at either end of the floor. One because his transition defense was poor and he wasn't able to help the guards on their missed defensive assignments that resulted in a boatload of Kings layups. However was he was in the halfcourt set, he altered shots, but definitely not enough as you can see from the score. Offensively I could tell when he started off cold at the start of the game, that he was going to play tentative thinking he shouldn't shoot anymore. He took 5 shots within the first 6 minutes of the game and only took 5 more for the remainder of the game. Most of the time he was in 1 on 1 open post up situations, but opted to hold onto the ball to wait for a double team that resulted in his numerous turnovers. When he would play agressively he would get called for offensive fouls, but since he played tentatively for the majority of the game, those few times he would play agressive he was not rewarded for it and was instead called for fouls. If you were to tell me Peja would go 5-16 against our undersized small forwards for the night, and that we would outrebound the Kings by 19, I would of told you we won. The Rockets cracked under pressure plaiin and simple, and our star players didn't show up tonight. It's truly ashame such an almost perfect performance from JJ was a waste. The man had no turnovers, was grabbing boards, held Peja to 31.25 % shooting, and was playing his heart out tonight. I really feel for him seeing just how badly he wanted to show the Kings what a mistake it was to cut him loose.
This is my first post, and tonight's game really pissed me off. I agree with what you say, MWF, the refs really did hit Yao with a bunch of BS offensive fouls whenever he did something and tried to fight back against the number of times the defense fouled him. What's up with NBA refs, man i'm so pissed at the refs and the NBA. There's no way Yao's going to develop if the refs keep limiting him like this.
Well either the Kings played one of the best defensive games I've ever seen, or the refs simply blew it tonight. There was a lot of contact in the paint and hardly any free throws for the Rockets(then again, with the way they were shooting them it might not have made a difference). And those BS offensive foul calls on Yao have got to stop. The man is headed to his second straight All-Star game and could even be starting over Shaq. He dropped 37 on the Tragic a few nights ago. And he's been averaging over 21 points a game on something like 64% shooting over the last few weeks. When is the guy gonna get some respect from the league?! Now all that being said, it wasn't completely the refs fault the Rockets lost this game. Steve shooting 3 of 17 sure didn't help. But I do think the poor officiating in the 2nd half did have a significant effect on Houston's inability to execute late in the game.
Yep. Too many turnovers. Turnovers that were extremely high because the refs weren't calling anything. That's why the TO's were out of control. The refs did an absolutely horrid job by not making any calls in the paint and letting Yao and Mo get butchered down there. At the same time, they were calling ticky tack fouls on the guards outside. One of the most ridiculous called games I've seen this season. You can call me a homer all you want but Yao doesn't get the calls that he should be getting in the paint. And to add to it, Steve ain't getting any calls in the paint either. That's part of his shooting problem. He knows he can't go straight up and get a foul so he's gotta do some stupid dipsy do that barely taps the rim before falling off. I still say that the Rockets aren't being aggressive enough. When the offensive foul was called on Yao, they should have come right back down and gone right in to Yao and Yao should have gone right back up in Vlade's grill. Make the refs call 6 offensive fouls. Because if Yao starts getting 3 and 4 offensive fouls or more every night, the league will be forced to make adjustments. Otherwise, we have to continue to put up with the Vlade flop and then our guys backing off not wanting to get any more offensive foul calls. Because if Yao fouls out on offensive fouls, and the league office has to watch that tape, they will have to educate the refs to the quit calling the Vlade flop. Shaq bangs around down there like a bull in a china closet. Yao should just keep banging and put the refs on notice. He ain't gonna be bullied. He is getting better but he still needs more aggression at this point. Poor Steve. I don't know what he has to do to get a call. I guess somebody will have to split open his skull bone and then they might blow the whistle.
I was at the game tonight and can confirm a couple of things. 1) The refs did suck. It wasn't just the calls they were missing. It was the calls they were calling. It was bad on both ends, but doubly so on our end. Home team, more agressive team, should have gotten more calls, plain and simple. 2) Yao played poorly. He DIDN't play horribly. Not once tonight, and rarely ever, does Yao pass out of single coverage. The only times he does this is when he is looking to re-post, but we won't get into the difficulties the team has with that concept. That said, Yao was hammered with some very very very bad offensive foul calls and it made him resort to tentative play. While he was generally passing out of double or very soon to be double teams, he too frequently spent too much time allowing that double team to come. Yao, if you're five feet or less from the basket when you catch the ball, you need to take 3-5 seconds max to shoot. 3) Francis played horribly.
