This is not the first we relaxed when we have a huge lead. We did this with the bucks but came out lucky. We need to stop letting the other team's bench beat us like that. This is ridiculous. Bright side? I don't see a bright side. We are a team does doesn't fight from start to finish. We would either star the game lax and try to make up for lost ground near the end or we would start off the game strong and then cruise. This makes me feel sick.
Beating the front is something that the entire team has to work on, not just Yao. He can't be trying to physically outmuscle stiffs brought in for just for hacking and banging all game, he'd run out of gas in a hurry. Basically, when they front, they have another guy sitting on the other side of the lane ready to pick off the lob/draw an offensive foul if Yao catches it. So, the Rockets can do one of a few things. They can lob if the guy on the weak side is not close enough, but this is dangerous since once Yao gets the ball the double team is there already, so Yao is in danger of turning it over or committing a offensive foul. They can pass it to a guy at the top of the key while Yao spins and breaks for the basket, and have the guy at the top of the key pass it to him. This takes coordination and didn't happen today. Or, they can swing it around to the weak side, force that guy that's standing on the other side of the lane to come out and play defense, and then yao has one-on-one coverage. This latter option seemed to be their choice, but when the person in the weak side corner got the ball, he chose to drive right towards Yao rather than pass it to him, when there was only one defender on Yao. I think that was a mistake, that guy in the corner (Head or Snyder usually) should have passed to Yao when he had deep position and only one man to beat.
The best way to beat the front is to not have a 43% shooting PF stand inside the top of the key. Make the PF a garbage man and drop him clear down to the baseline or make him a 40%+ 3 point shooter that has to be defended at the 3 point line.
I heard T-mac was good in the first including two killer 3-pointers, did he have any eplosive drives to the basket or dunks?
Tonight's game is not about Rockets relaxing. It's about Spurs stepping up a notch in their defense and aggresiveness, and us playing more cautious to run out the clock and maintain the lead. You can almost see it that suddenly Rockets is a step slower in everything (especially passing), and Spurs is a step faster in fast break, steal, and aggresiveness. In response to that? Rockets lose confidence, play even more cautious, and kept being pumelled by Spurs. Spurs is just a team with champion mentality, that's what separates them with all wannabes. I don't know if Rockets is ready to become a champion. It's really all psychological issue.
Dammit!! I was looking at the bright side! It was the bright light of a train steamrolling towards the team... Ahh well. Steamrolled but rise up to face another day. Just take it all on the Bulls. Beat em to pulp.
I thought the bright side about this terrible loss was that now maybe JVG will be force to change his patterns up a little. Now maybe when we are up with a big lead late in the game, there really is no harm in bringing a high energy defensive player like vspan and a deadly shooter like novak in to lighten up the load on our starters.
As much as blowing a huge lead sucks, the fact that we're able to build a huge lead over the Spurs show what we're capable of.. Losing to the Spurs isn't such a big deal, but the way we lost, by going cold and blowing what seemed like an unblowable lead definitely is sour.
We have to figure out why we always forget how to play after a 20 points lead!!! It happens several times.
Yeah. I'm not freaking out even though it really sucks. Clutch City was built on the Rockets blowing 20 point leads, two games in a row during the playoffs. Our lead showed what we are capable of, but it also showed how far we have to go. I'm fine with that. The Spurs are a veteran team that have played together for a while. We are still learning. We just need to continue to supports this team. I think we are still moving up. I also think Hayes would of been a difference maker in this game and helped us keep the energy we needed to finish them off. And I could only dream about an in-shape, hustling Bonzi.
We lost to a well coached San Antonio Spurs team......the way we lost is pretty hard to swallow but they have all been together pretty long and know what to do in those type of situations. Besides that Chuck nor Bonzi played....we would have won easy with those two.
If you want to look at the bright side, perhaps JVG could learn a lesson or two and change the rotation. This is not the first game when we are leading by 20 and losing the big lead. This is due to the starters are tired by playing defends of every minutes, when the lead is big, it is a natural for a tired player to step back and plus, the lead dissipate faster than you think. JVC really need to add fresh leg to the rotation and allow our starters to rest and play the 4th Quarter to finish the game. If JVG do that, this will be the bright side. We will win more games and cut down injuries.
I didn't think we played that horribly. I am very disappointed with the loss, but it was not totally unexpected. I thought we still moved the ball around pretty well. We were just missing shots that we usually make. Also, there were so many non calls from the Refs from Oberto, Elson, and whoever that was guarding Yao, it was disgusting. I was watching in disbelief at the murder the Spurs got away on defense. Also, there were a couple of crazy foul calls on Yao, like Ginoboli falling over Yao's leg, Robert Horry getting his shot blocked cleanly, yet Yao getting the foul. I think these all contributed to the loss. Maybe it was just me, but tonight's loss didn't look as bad as many put it. Yao was off tonight, but it was to be expected - Everybody has their off nights. if the Spurs didn't suddenly go off on a hot streak, we would of beaten them, even with our dismal offense in the second half. They pulled together a string of threes, with most of them being challenged. I don't necessarily disagree with the DNP decision for Novak/Billy in this game, although I do wish that JVG played his rotation a little bit more. It is true that the best teams have a tight 8-9 man rotation, but those are all proven commodities. We still have quite a few question marks left, therefore, before we have those questions answered, we should definitely play out our rotation.
