ClutchFans Game Thread: Cavaliers @ Rockets 2/25/2004

It seemed like there was less ball movement, or movement in general, for the Rockets' offense today than in other games of theirs I watched on national TV this year... Strange considering it was the Cavs. Then again, maybe it was because it was the Cavs...

 

Yao shakes hand with James.

 

Guess who grasp the ball first?

 

what are you talking about?

Yao (7 of 18) outplayed both Lebron (5 of 18) and Ilgauskas (6 of 19). We are all very happy about Yao's shooting percentage.

 

ESPN is replaying the game right now.

 

We are unhappy with Yao since his FG% is usually over anyone on court and we take it as granted. When his % is 60%, nobody got shocked since that happens day in and day out...

 

Yes, that was my impression as well. Even in the best of times, they simply don't move the ball or themselves well at all. They appear to still be playing a lot of one-on-one basketball - Mobley & SF & Taylor trying to score on their own instead of working more together as a team. And their shooting was simply awful as usual. I know that fatigue played a factor here but that's life in the NBA.

Still they did squeeze out a win but what has to be disturbing is that they have been taken to the limit by Cleveland & Atlanta - two Eastern Conference teams who would never be confused for being in the top tier of the NBA. When they faced two Western Conference teams, Dallas & San Antonio, they were easily blown out. They are simply not competative against the really good teams in their conference yet.

As has been his history, Mobley had his one good game and will now promptly disappear for the next 5 or so games. Let's see what they do with Portland on Friday.

 

We played just good enough to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers...oh well, at least we didn't need three overtimes...

 

I didn't want to rain on anyone's parade, but, these were my sentiments exactly. Struggling with the bottomfeeders in the East and getting waxed by the West is not a pattern worth celebrating. Constipation is a word that best describes our offensive "flow."

 

mo missed dunk because booz's foul, but no call

http://www.yaoming**********/forum/viewtopic.php?p=56210&highlight=#56210

 

Well for those that think the Cavs game was an easy one are just crazy Lebron, Ilgauskus, and Boozers are players, besides the Cavs are on the rise in the East after getting their roster solidified, and they just beat San Antonio last week. Yeah, I'd like 'em to beat San Antonio and the Mavs, but at least we thrashed Minn. and LA.

Besides, the Rockets have played 4 tough games in 5 days, so hats off to them for playing hard:

Great game all around. Cat played hard d and made the shots. Francis pushed the tempo, having 4 steals and 7 assists, besides just mixing it up at all times, knowing his shots weren't falling. JJ being JJ. Yao and Spoon holding down the paint. Great game!

Hope they can do the same Friday night.

 

A fulsome hyped game (head to head within two No.1 pick)ended with a slapstick scene. ah... James Phenomena!

 

It shouldn't have been that close, but I'm glad we won...

 

What r u talking about?

 

Cavs ball movement was much better than Rockets. There is possibility they may get playoff spot in east, and Rockets do not. Last night, Yao's doing so so, Mobley did wonderful job. I enjoyed his last dish to Yao, which caused a dunk. We should see more like that, with Mobley and steve's penentration ability and Yao's height. We should prohibit outside jumb shot if it's not open.

 

Well, Yao was 2-9 in the first half and 5-9 in the 2rd half.

He made some adjustments during the break and it showed in the stat.

On the otherhand, Big Z was 3-10 in the first and 3-9 in the second half, including a lucky 3 at the end of the game.

SF3 made some beautiful passes (driving the lane and kicking out to JJ for 3, alleyoop to Pike for easy 2) and was active on the defensive end. His last pass to Yao should have been a lob which would have resulted in an easy dunk.

 

Did you guys notice that Yao has played the last two games with 0 TOs?

That's just an amazing stat that got overlooked. SF3 also have toned down his TO dramatically recently.

 

This was a quality win. Z is one of the top 5 centers playing today, and the refs were letting him grab and push and hack Yao with inpugnity. They also let Z dislodge Yao on offense, while calling fouls against Yao for the same thing.

Cleveland has been jelling recently and was on a win streak coming into the game. They have some quality guys and a very good coach. There is absolutely no comparison to Atlanta's scrubs right now.

Cat (who had a great game) and Spoon were the only players who took more than a few shots that had a decent shooting percentage. When you can beat a quality team when shots aren't falling in general, is a quality win.

Steve shot poorly, but I thought ran the point pretty well, especially in the second half. It seemed like when he was sitting in the first half, watching the offense flow better with MJ in, that he adjusted his game in the second half. Or, it could have totally been coincidence.

BTW, I think this game illustrates again, the Rockets don't have to have big numbers from Francis to win.

 

As much as I would have to agree, the Rockets are winning games without momentum. Cleveland has been on a nice run, beating the Knicks and Spus, but it was nice to see the Rockets pull out 2 wins after 2 hard losses.

Hopefully this game will give us some momentum for the rest of the season.

 

I know that Atlanta is horrible, but they routed Philadelphia just two nights ago.

My point is a win is a win in the regular season. This is NBA and mostly any team can be beaten is they don't show up.