ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Heat 10/25/2006 (PRESEASON)

First- This team rocks and can beat any team in the NBA. It's a lock that we are going at least into the 2nd round of the playoffs. I haven't seen a more talented, solid Rockets team since the Dream era. The way they are zipping the ball around brings a tear to my eye.

Second- The surprise standout to me is Snyder. His moves to the basket last night were scary. I expect very good things from him this year.

 

That was an awesome second half. The starters on this team were clearly better than the starters for Miami. And with Hayes, Novak, and Spanoulis wreaking havoc for whatever minutes they get, this team could be really, really good. One question though: Where was Haslem? He's the Heat's best defender, and I would expect that the backdoor cuts wouldn't have been available with him on the floor.

 

I thought Snyder looked good rebounding and slashing. His shot is not there yet, but I'm sure it will come.

Yao didn't look that good tbh. I'm not complaining about missing his shots, but the way he played. He was just out of sorts. TBH, I'm not a big fan of stat lines, I focus a little more on the impact a player has on the game. When Shaq was on there, Yao looked frankly on the defensive for the majority of the time. Don't take me wrong, I huge Yao fan, which is also why I'm slightly frustrated.

 

My 2 cents:

Yao looked OK. He's still a little off, especially his shot. Nothing to worry about.

Tracy: Needs to find the J. I thought is was obvious he was experimenting and his shot selection wasn't indicative of things to come. He completely sleepwalked the first half IMO. I think JVG lit a little fire at halftime.

Shane: What can you say? Very solid game and looking forward to more of the same. Whether you like the trade or not, this guy is good for our team.

Rafer: Great game. If he plays like this during the season we are a VERY dangerous team. The key is his jumpshot.

Snyder: His 3pt shot won't win us any games, but does this guy know how to attack the basket or what? He is the slasher we need so badly. When he has a lane, it's either 2 points or a foul. When the season starts, he should junk the 3pt shot and pick his spots to attack the rim. Wade destroyed him but Wade destroys all taller players because they have no hope of keeping up with him.

The above players are clearly our starting lineup, no doubt.

Novak: The guy is just deadly on the short 3pters from the side, plus he rebounded well. Did I see him guarding Wade a few times?

V-Span: Not his best game at all, but it's just preseason. He hit one good jumper. On offense, he needs to dial back the recklessness a notch because crazy turnovers don't fly when the games count.

Hayes: Not bad for 12 minutes. Did OK guarding Shaq. He and Padgett are on the cutting edge for the active roster.

Padgett/Deke: Only played 3-4 minutes and neither did much.

Juwan Howard: JVG made a lot of people happy yesterday.

I think we saw the starting lineup and 9 man rotation yesterday, just plug in Luther in place of V-Span. I'll leave Bonzi out for now. Our defense destroyed them to the point they were forced to give Wade the ball and watch. Defense will be key to us starting the season strong because I still don't know if our offense is up to snuff yet. You can assume Yao and Tracy will find their touch by next week but what if they don't?

Miami Heat: They are in big trouble, if you ask me. Wade has moaned several times about how "tired" he is and it's just preseason. He even said one time that sitting out a regular season game for rest is possible. Shaq didn't look good. The role players looked awful. Gary Payton is way beyond being a starting PG. 'Toine is a joke. He looked silly trying to take advantage of Novak. The Heat are very old and of all the final 4 teams, they are most likely to fall off significantly. I don't think Wade has the energy to carry this team on his back the whole season, which is what they need. Of their top players, he and Posey are the only ones who won't decline this year. I'll go against the grain and pick Miami to finish the regular season no higher than 5th seed in the EC.

 

Vspan did not play as well this game, but there was one possession when he had a beautiful pass to yao that was an absolute gem. Nobody, except for t-mac could of made that pass.

Good to know we have so many options this year. Think of it this way, we blew out an above average team with our two superstars playing sub-par. How often do you think that would of happened in the two previous years?

The great thing about this year is that we don't have to play particularly great to win. We have the ability to nudge out these ugly wins. Also, I think we do have an edge over Dallas, because of the way we play. Even though it is only preseason, I feel that we have much more cohesiveness, and much better bball IQ than Dallas, who really just overwhelms teams with their abundant amount of "individual talent."

I'm glad that of all people, Tim Legler actually gave the rockets some props and said they were the dark horse in this year's season with the ability to go all the way.

 

Well, practice makes perfect...

 

agreed with heat's obsersation, however i doubt pat railey is planning the heat to finsih it off as the top seed. Which they don't have to and they didn't do it last season so why should they now? Heat is a team that assemble for the sole purpose of final runs. they don't need to finish as the top 5 teams, as long as they can make it to the playoffs, they are good. they will eventually need to play all these top teams anyway, so why bother to be the top dog and waste all your energy?

 

I agree the Heat are overrated, A LOT of balls had to bounce thier way for them do what they did in the Finals... They peaked at the right time and Wade played the best basketball of his life and there you have it. I'd still take Dallas over Miami if they replayed that series a week later...

The Heat will not have the same fire that they had last year, everyone is a year older on an already ancient squad, and everyone will be gunning for them...

Barry said that 60 wins for them wouldn't suprise him...

 

Come on dude. This is a free country and if you don't like ESPN just don't watch them.

 

Don't forget, we are talking about an eastern conference team. They have a lot easier time then western conference teams throughout the season and playoffs. So it is no crazy for people to predict that they will come out in the East, cause, essentially, they only have to play well in 12 games during the stretch of 21, that's if all of the series they play go to 7 games. I'm not so crazy about the Cavs or the Pistons. The Pacers might be the dark horse, but who knows when Jackson will decide to shoot someone again.

If you put them in the west, it becomes another story altogether.

 

There are a lot of crazy predictions in this thread based off of one preseason game.

 

I wouldn't say just one, the preseason's almost over... This is the culmination of events starting back in June IMO.

 

Good results overall. But the espn recap of the game was ridiculous. All Heat highlights, Dwayne Wade is a god! Shaq is Shaq! Oh yeah, Heat lose by 25 to whoever they were playing last night. But I'm used to it as a a lifetime Browns/Cavs fan.

 

Hey, I'm excited, too. I meant moreso that people were predicting that the Heat are finished. Please.

 

Yao: That layup by Wade was amazing!

 

It seems to be typical bball fans being overoptimistic, ow, that might apply to all sports

My $0.02 is that it is only preseason, I think rockets is dangerous team this season, as for the relative strength, man we have Mavs and Spurs to climb over, remember how we did against Spurs 3rd team days ago? More realistic goal for rox is to win one game at a time and put better performance for the home games this season, and in the end we will be amazed for how far they can go.
Way to go Rox!!!

 

I can understand your hate.. .. but you just have to relax with that.. When the Rockets start to beat everyones ass.. then they will start to show more respect. Im just happy knowing that we are good and we are going to win..

 

Who on this Rockets team could Haslem guard? Battier? Yao? Haslem is a paint defender. That's one of the reasons why this team CAN be so good offensively. Put in shooting 4s like Battier and Novak and all of a sudden opposing teams have a quandary -- guard the 3 point line and leave Yao in single coverage (bad) or double team Yao and get burned from outside (double plus ungood)? Haslem isn't exactly an offensive threat either.

Speaking of which, I think the Heat got exposed last night. They probably won't be this bad during the regular season because I believe they have a starting 5 that's as good as any in this league, and Wade is simply unstoppable at times. But that bench is incredibly thin, man. And they're old. They couldn't stand a chance against Houston in a seven game series, that's for sure.

Even though it's only preseason, what makes a win like this significant is that we blew out Miami by 25 points even though they had Shaq, Wade, Walker and Posey all playing very significant minutes. And Wade was in postseason form, simply unstoppable. And BOTH T-Mac and Yao had terrible offensive nights. And we haven't even seen Bonzi Wells yet.

Quoth Pat Riley: "Their defense dominated our offense."

 

Wooo, what's this little bug in the middle?

 

yao vs shaq... i believe it's more psychological than physical at this stage. yao's having problems playing shaq all along, despite getting better and better. you can still see, especially from last night, when playing shaq, he hesitated, almost like he didn't know what to do. then he forced the shot and was blocked, twice. he forgot his shanghai shakes, his spin, his fadeaway j's... but i'm confident he'll do better next time. it's like a bottle neck. once he passes this stage, he'll totally dominant shaq.