RMR Game One Notes... coming soon...

DarkHorse,

If push comes to shove, screw the stats... we can get stats the next day online. Just get a rough estimate on stats. I think most people want to hear about the game itself - who was Eddie guarding, descriptions of plays, what position everybody was playing, did you see zones, are our PG's "bad" play affecting what could be a better Eddie Griffin, etc.

Here's some stuff I'd like to know :

• How well does Griffin run the court?
• Does Morris look for his shots or is he content just hanging around and being one of the last options?
• Does Griffin move well without the ball? One thing that simply left me with my jaw dropped was watching Darius Miles in the McDonald's high school all-star game. I've never seen anyone except maybe Kevin Garnett run around like a madman like that and still be breathing at the end of the game. Is Griffin like this or is he more of a methodical player?
• Have you seen explosiveness out of Griffin? If so doing what? Driving to the basket? Blowing by defenders? Running the court in transition?
• Keep an eye on Griffin and, if you can, tell us if he ever shows frustration. For example, stupid turnover by a Rocket leading to a transition basket by opposition - what is Griffin's response to this? I'm asking because younger players tend to be more demonstrative or get frustrated more easily. From what I've heard Griffin shows very little, if any, emotions.
• Who is Langhi guarding; what type of player? SG? SF? Tweener-type?
• Has Langhi been able to keep up with his man when he's far smaller? Is Langhi's lateral quickness up to the task of defending players possibly much smaller?
• What kind of shape are Langhi, Morris, and Grifin in? Are they able to run for the entire game (even if they're not in for all of the game)? Do they seem winded? One thing I read was that Griffin was getting winded because he wasn't in basketball shape yet. I'm trying to gauge whether or not many of his airballs and clankers I've read about are due to his being out of shape, or if he's still got butterflies like some say.
  

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"I'll tell you this, the older I get, the less I trust people. It's true. It's damn true." -- gr8-1 going through some growing pains.

 

Dr., I'll try to answer some of your questions. I thought Eddie ran the court well. His shot wasn't falling for the most part, but he was aggressive at both ends. He had some trouble with Harvey, but let me tell you, Harvey was relentless. When he was in the game, the ball went into him most of the time. He would get the ball in the paint, & if he missed, would just pound the glass and keep after it. He had 20 points for the game and in my opinion was the dominant player.

T-Mo started at center, and I would definately say he kind of hangs back. However, I don't think this is a bad thing in his situation. I think when he comes into the game in reg season, they won't be looking to him as 1st or 2nd option, and he will be opportunistic away from the ball.

Dan started at small forward and I never saw him get burned defensively during the game. He played a little shooting guard during the fourth qtr, and again, I didn't see him get burned.

In general, the offense never got going. Except for Dan's hot streak in the 3rd qtr which took the lead for the Rockets, they just didn't get into any kind of flow. At a 1st half time-out, Coach Boylen was on the guys for settling for too many jumpers. He told them to get more movement and run "1 X". He said big men cross. There's a tidbit for Crispee.

One other thing, the refs called the defensive 3 second rule about three times, I think. It is a technical, and I think there's no warning, like the old illegal defense. If there is, I missed the warnings.

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Does anyone know where I can find a box score? Proexposure.com didn't have the Rockets.
j

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Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!