I was starting to wonder when this type of game would occur and it just happened to be with the Celtics last night. Over the last few days to a week I have heard several Rockets players make comments along the lines of...."there are only four teams who are legitimate candidates for the NBA Championship..." and then go on to list San Antonio, Miami, Detroit, and us. Well those type of comments might be full of bravado and sound good to the fans they can tend to lead to swollen heads by the players. They start believing all the media hype and let down their guard and lose a bit of focus on the game at hand. They can also, and probably are, used as bulletin board material for the opposing teeams to give them a bit more fire in their bellies. In my opinion this is probably the best time for a subtle reality check like this. I know JVG will be using this game as a teachable moment for our team and that our players are smart enough to realize he will be 100% correct. Did you see the dischevaled looks on our teams faces last night? the pissed off look on Yao as he sat on the bench? This game could be pivotal in how we finish the remaining games of the regular season. It will be interesting to see how we play the next three games before our road trip. Hopefully this butt kicking by the Celtics will deflate our cockiness a bit and redirect our focus on being prepared for our opponents. STAY HUMBLE / STAY HUNGRY......GO ROCKETS!!!
I agree with you. Losing last night might be exactly what the players needed to get refocused. A loss to an eastern conference team isn't too bad either since it doesnt hurt the Rockets when tie break situations occur.
Interestingly enough, JVG on 610 earlier this week said the exact same thing: that he is not big on "bravado" and is not at all impressed with it. This was before the Celtics defeat. I do get annoyed as well by all the "championship" talk from the players. The fans can, and always will, keep fantasizing about things. The players, on the other hand, are more than welcome to have the confidence to know that they can beat anyone, but keep it to yourself. Humbleness is the key. Teams play better when they are constantly knocked down by the media and have more doubters than believers. That is the situation I hope our team finds itself in. I hope more and more people would call out the Rockets as "fakers" and "pretenders" and other worse things, this way the guys will have a fire in their belly and will adapt more of a "us against the world" mentality. Our guys have never beat anyone in the playoffs, heck some of them have never even been in the playoffs. Let's stay hungery, stay humble, and let's continue to have a chip on our shoulders.
Confidence goes a LONG way, my friends. I tend to agree with the optimistic consensus, even after the @ss beating we took last night. We are one of the top teams to be champs. Look at it this way: if we were REALLY cocky, we would only include ourselves and the Heat in a champ category. Regardless of our loss, we are still d@mn good. Champ good. We weren't going to go undefeated, regular season or post season. J
i agree with this for the most part, and if i was a coach, that would def be something you want to teach a team with such talent. there is one thing, we need to have confidence, i think the humble part is just not underestimating your opponent. you gotta have the confidence you are going to win, but you cant slack off...gotta stay hungry. how did kenny smith say last yr? LETS EAT THE SOUP WITH A FORK GUYS!
Well after hearing JVG's post game comments I would have to say that I am spot on. "....when a team starts looking ahead in this league they set themselves up for an A$$ kickin' like we just got...." LOL....I love how he candy coats things...
