LOL!!!!!! Incredible isn't it? It's like it's hard coded in his brain to do that. Francis: "Note to self: On 2-1 Fast break, Take man off dribble, drive to lane, dunk ball." What Francis WANTS to happen: Spectacular dunk. What SHOULD happen: Easy lay-up for a trailing Mobley/JJ. What USUALLY happens: Missed lay-up, put back for MoT. What's the WORST that happens: Forced shot, turn-over, foul on Francis at the other end of the court. And then a technical for complaining to the refs for the "no-call" for the "fast-break" attempt.
We win ugly, we lose ugly. I think Jeff Van Gundy should do a better job of calling time outs. I think he burns too many, and as we have seen, down the stretch, we end up not having any to use. Down 3 tonight, with 10 seconds left, and the Roc have to go the full length of the court.
I think the problem with yao is that.... he needs his confidence early, i.e. he has to make a few shots early to get his confidence going...if he missed his first couple shots then he becomes hesistant n lost his aggressiveness and affect his whole game....
The time out thing is starting to wear on me bigtime. Why can't we ever have one left at the end of the game to advance the ball and set up a play? Most coaches save a time out for this very purpose. Not to stem the tide of a 6-0 run.
It is extremely difficult to play against a team of players & refs --- the Rox played well tonight but we sort of tasted what Sac feels every time they play the Lakers. It was ridiculous! Look at the goaltending call on SF3's block on Peja. I was about 20 feet away from a 24" TV at that time and I knew immediately it was a good block --- but the ref saw it a block??? Also, I think Sac shot 3 times the FTs as the Rox.... Either JVG should complain in the face of the refs, or the Rox should compile a tape and complain to the NBA office. Yao's play in the last two games is horrible. Seems he hesitates way to o much ---- with the pace of NBA plays (and help of the refs) you get fouls if you are a split second slower --- the only play I was when he was assertive in this game is that spin on Divac and he ended up with a 3-pt play. There is also something wrong with his shooting --- seems like he doesn't have a feeling about his shooting, sort of like what you feel like when you shoot immediately after weighlifting. ---- I have no idea how he should "fix" this though ...
We played a good game. We lost becoz of the refs. Just look at these numbers: SAC 11 PF 31 FT HOU 22 PF 13 FT
I do not know of a coach on any other team, EVER, that consistently runs out of timeouts well before the end of the game like JVG. That alone has cost the Rox several games.
Dont' blame Steve he played D today. The Free throw difference is wack. The kings just made 3's as if the hoop was the ocean.
Disappointing Loss but not a Disappointing Effort Notwithstanding the L, I was happy with our performance today. The Rox came out firing today and stuck with their gameplan for a good 30 minutes or so. 3rd was weak for us but even here, the Rox didn't buckle under pressure per se and was able to fight off the anticipated Kings run. Where I DO think our gameplan broke down though was Yao. I'm not sure what's the problem with Yao of late but he looked a bit clueless today. Maybe the Kings upped the D on the opposing center after Kwame had his way with them a few nights ago. SF played well up until the end. I thought he might have rushed the shot - that last 3 which he could've had some more time to get set. Spoon continues to impress. Mobley looked sharp but had his handful of boneheaded plays MoT shot well but also had some ill advised passes Slowly but surely, we're getting there... theSAGE
Close is not good enough. This team gets close a lot of games, but the Kings were stinking up the joint in the first half, and the Rocks let em back in. Nice effort, but a loss is a loss....no silver linings in losing. DD
with all due respect, how the hell did you come to the conclusion that steve, cat, and jackson looked like they didn't care tonight? yao i can see, mo for that Godawful "watch peja grab the rebound over you, stare at him while he strolls back to the 3 point line, stare at him while he shoots and jj nearly has to bowl you over to make some kind of challenge on the shot" might be to blame but he did play well and hustle at other times. but steve/cat/jj? one of the main problems for this team is two of our stupidest players, and the ones who play the most, are steve francis and cuttino mobley. the other problem is that we only have two players who play 110% every play, every game and they are steve francis and cuttino mobley. a few things. so everyone on hear says steve won't get any calls b/c he disrespects the refs and yet not one minute after vlade, who has possibly whined to the refs more than any player in nba history (and that is not an exaggeration), shows up the refs about as bad as you can and he gets a lame ass over the back call to give yao his 5th foul. how exactly does that work. 22 fouls to 11? ****ing a that is terrible. nice to see that play jvg set up for our last shot with that timeout. oh wait, nevermind, he didn't have a timeout again. it's not like timeouts are something you accidentally take or lose if you're careless. you have a definite amount to start each game and can take them at your leisure. how the hell we never have one to set up a last second shot is beyond me. can anyone remember a last second shot which was set up with a timeout? when will steve make a jump shot? when will mo not throw a pass away (it's a good thing he shoots so much). is peja human? that last 3 he was practically wearing steve francis and he still drills it. vlade is 0 for 9 on 3's for the season and then just calmly sinks one like it's no thing? wtf was that. that was one of the better ass-rammings i've seen a team take from the refs in a while. like someone else said, if this is makeup from lakers games for the kings, i want some good lovin' against the blazers. that last 3 was not a bad shot. damn the refs sucked. i had more to b**** about but i forgot it. hopefully we beat the blazers tomorrow and at least the nuggets lost.
I remember that play and thought the same thing. I wonder sometimes whether SF panics and expects the refs to bail him out. Personally, I thought his potential game-tying 3 was rather ill-advised. I mean, when you have better 3 point shooters on the time with time remaining to the tune of 10 seconds or so, why not place your confidence in say, Mobley??? Likewise, toward the end of the game, Francis took some ill-advised jumpers too. This impetus to be the hero seems to be getting the better of Francis. I'm starting to think that given Francis' atheletism, it's easy for him to get a shot off. But the problem is that he often settles for low quality shots even if he CAN get it off. The discipline thing championed by JVG must be driving him crazy. But I DO see Francis ease up on the throttle more and play a more controlled game. Today was a moral victory, IMHO theSAGE
Meanwhile Wiley Coyote Divac got the better of Yao Divac really knows how to play the refs. Even though he got that technical, you can see how he was working the refs, and working the crowd and working the crowd to get on the refs. Anyone who's been to ARCO knows how rowdy the crowd can get... and if there's ever a better place to see "home court adv" as due to biased officiating its ARCO and the Delta Center. Yao's fifth foul was atrocious. Refs, late in the game should have let that one slide b/c it was a moot point. The sixth, i could see happening. But it was unfortunate that Yao couldn't assert himself on either end b/c of foul trouble. A lower foul count and we would have seen Yao challenge more shots late in the game. theSAGE
Pretty much agree with everyone else regarding tonight's game...... Steve can not run the break, Mo didn't run the length of the court to watch you blow a layup, wisen up you no talent assclown. I say that with as much love as I can muster having just watched what transpired. Also please leave the refs alone, we might get more calls if they didn't hate your freakin guts. JVG has no clue how to use timeouts, let the guys play through the the little runs that happen every game and save the timeouts for the end. We might win a few more games if you drew up a play at the end instead of relying on the intrinsic natural abilities of our genius players. The refs the past few games have completely blown. It makes me wonder if there is not some greater interest by the league at creating storylines during the season and using the officials to orchestrate this.
While I agree a loss is a loss, there is a silver lining. (Usually silver linings are found in losses, not wins, if i'm not mistaken.) We have all known that the Rox cannot close out games. This game proved that. However, we can hang with the best in the west, and so we should be confident that we can hang with just about anyone in the L. My .02.
hell, sometimes it's a 2-0 run on a dunk or layup and jvg will just call a timeout b/c he didn't like that particular defensive set. like i said, it's not like timeouts are like turnovers where you do things in the heat of battle or something. you know exactly what you are doing when you call one. hell, i'd be happy if he would learn to wait until it got to 6-0. wow, 31-13 on ft's, and that's with only 2 coming on purpose fouling at the end of the game. unbelievable that such a jump shooting team can get that many more ft's than a team with two driving guards and a big center on the inside (who just happened to get fouled out by the refs while they gave us no calls).
