If you notice in the first half Rafer was burning the Spurs with 3 pointers, fast breaks, and pass distribution and became an effective 3rd scoring option. However he all but dissapeared along with the rest of the Rockets. What bothered me the most was how impatient the Rockets became when they received pressure on defense. I give credit to the Spurs for making good weakside collapses on Yao when he would go for a shot (seemed like he got blocked from behind against a weakside defender so often) however that 3rd quarter collapsed seemed to fluster them the rest of the way as though they had no idea what got them the huge lead in the first place. Regardless if they had ended up blowing out the Spurs it wouldn't have meant much. It's still way too early to make a judgement of how this team will fair in the season vs other playoff teams given how early in the season it is.
that's why SA is better/worse than Miami. they looked like really nice guys with all the dirty tricks. Pop is the master, he must have 10+ plans to 'defend' yao using none BBall techniques.
it's disappointing to me that Battier has not taken up the mantle of the "third scorer", I mean I thought that's one of the roles that we had for him and that he would at least be cracking the low to mid double digits, scoring wise. Instead he's only at 9 and change and has taken about 25% fewer shots than Alston (though in fairness to Rafer - the wheels have not come off his shot....yet.)
I think this loss is being blown out of proportion. San Antonio IS the best team in the NBA or at least the team playing the best ball right now. Is too early in the season and right now we are still working with the rotation. The Rockets made some mistakes in last nights game that can be fixed. I don't think there is anything wrong with the current roster. When Hayes and Bonzi come back we will have a complete team. I'd take this current roster against any team right now. I' am starting to get worried about Bonzi though. I have a feeling there is more to this story and we might not even see him again this season. I hope I' am wrong.
here's my concern, if tmac is hot and has 25 shots, and yao has 20 shots, it's hard for the 3rd, 4th, 5th options to have enough shots to warm up.
I don't think it is blown out of proportion. We had a 19 point lead at home and were incapable of changing momentum once a few adjustments were made. The roster out there last night is not a serious NBA championship contender. I am impressed with Alston. He is playing at the more optimistic projections for him. I don't see his play as a problem. On Battier, he is not a 3rd scorer. Not a guy to create his own shot. If a guy is on him he won't really do damage, but if you can draw his man him he can do a lot of damage. A good defensive player, all around player, and bad player to double off of is more or less what he is. But a good team will not double off him much unless absolutely forced to, and right now there are other options for them to cheat on Yao/Tmac. Yes. Bonzi is a proven match up problem causing NBA player. Now he does have some issues, he isn't a distributer, he isn't a 3 point shooter and can be chemistry trouble, but his individual half court skills are 3rd best on the team, by a wide margin. For us to have title aspirations, we absolutely need him, and it was never so obvious in the 2nd half. We needed a guy to draw fouls when our Js are not falling, he can do that. We need someone to go to the hole when opponents are overrotating their wing players to take away clean 3s, he can do that. We need a guy to take some of the overall pressure/burden off of Tmac and Battier--keep them fresher throughout the game, he can do that. If you remember last playoffs Bonzi and Artest gave the Spurs wings fits. All of sudden Bowen is wasting away having to go all out on one or the other, and Manu got expired having to guard one of them a lot of the time. You have Wells and Tmac out there those Spurs wings just got an entirely different dynamic to deal with and no breaks. We are going to need a major half court punch (not to mention he is a good defender and great rebounder) from Bonzi. We do need all the pieces to fall. With a lot of minutes to Bonzi and Hayes last night teams is a whole lot more physical, tougher and relentless. So it is absolutely critical Bonzi gets worked into this team. As complimentary as Snyder, Battier, Hayes and some of our other athletic players have been to Yao and Tmac, Bonzi brings another dimension.
I doubt he's going to continue shooting 40% from range if he continues to play a career high 39 mpg. I fear a downward spiral as the minutes and shots pile up (plus his mediocre 2 point shooting is not helpful, the guy has a serious problem with layups taht I don't understand, he's actually a WORSE shooter this season from in the paint than from distance ). I think it is mental. He scored in college and some his rookie season, then he just decided to be a complement and will always view himself that way seemingly. [/QUOTE]
Yes. You can put some of the blame on Bonzi for this loss. He practically chose to to play and is being paid.
We lost cuz our main 2 scorers shot 36.9% from the field. Also, our bench was non-existant and you can blame that on JVG. Some guy said Beno is not a rookie but Pop still played him 14.2 mins (80 games) in his rookie season. JVG is really coaching like his job is on the line thats hurt us in the losses. Panic moves like leaving Yao and Battier in the game when they are in foul trouble and having practically a 7-8 man rotation has resulted in 3 losses.
Very nicely put. 36.9% (17 of 46), went to the line a COMBINED 13 times, making a COMBINED 8 freebies. Honest to God, I don't expect to beat the Charlotte Bobcats with those numbers, much less the Spurs. Now, I'm not saying that teams are not capable of putting together a defense that would make Yao and T-Mac shoot 36.9%. What I'm saying is that teams cannot possibly have a defense which limits Yao and T-Mac to 36.9% AND does not leave the role players WIDE OPEN shots, hence creating the need for a 3rd creator. It is impossible in basketball. It is unheard of. I blame the loss on 3 things: 1) T-Mac's poor shot selection: As you know, when he gets hot, he can't miss. That is precisely why he has never learned to take GOOD shots. Because when he has scored, it hasn't mattered where or when he took the shot. Now, more than ever in his career, it's important to select shots because he is not the focal point of the offense anymore. 2) Yao having a bad night: You must be wondering why it's poor shot selection for T-Mac, but just a bad night for Yao. Well, forst of all, it's because I watched the game and formulated that opinion from what I saw. Second of all, Yao has been a high % scorer his entire career, rarely taking bad shots. T-Mac has been the opposite. 3) How can a team go well over a quarter without making more than 2 shots? JVG should have shook the team up. He should have brought in subs for longer. Go with an all-defensive team or an all-offensive team. At that point all we needed was a difference, on any side of the court, to hold on to a lead. Bring in Novak, Spanoulis, Lucas for some HUSTLE plays! he got outcoached. I know that he took a risk, and no one would know the outcome, but I think there were safer options than what he went with.
Thats where bonzi is supposed to come in and help but another person has to be novak I mean what are u going to lose if he is in the game
Do you really think he will be playing again? I worry that we are not hearing anything and it has been 3 weeks or so... DD
you can't teach an old dog new tricks... JVG will continue to play his "veterans", and the young players on our bench will continue to lose interest in playing basketball.. then... they'll leave.. and go to NJ and start producing... wait, that's nachbar. whoops hopefully novak and vspan are given minutes.. b/c if they're not, i guarantee another coach out there is itching to get them on the floor for their teams.
Yeah I heard he already tried to trade them, in fact they cleaned out their lockers this afternoon and are at IAH waiting for the next flight out. For christ's sake, get a grip. Maybe this post will be valid in two years, although Nachbar might be out of the NBA by then so it might be even more funny.
Even shooting only two field goals in the last 17 minutes, we should have won this game. There will be cold spells. There will even be freezing spells, like what happened Tuesday night. In a close game, a long freezing spell will kill you. But when you're up 75-58 more than halfway through the third, you ought to be able to win with defense alone. If somebody told you you'd only score 9 points the rest of the way, you ought to be able to hold the other guys under 26. We gave them 34. More scoring? Hey, that'd be great. But it won't happen every night. And when it doesn't, and you've got a big lead, you've gotta hold it.
you get a grip.. i was being semi-sarcastic. I understand you can't just play rookies whenever you want, but geez.. at least try it out when starters aren't working.. you feel me??
I put together a real nice recap of the 2 minutes and 36 seconds collapse on the bottom of this page: http://bbs.clutchfans.com/showthread.php?t=120221&page=64&pp=20 It only took 2 and a half freakin minutes to make a 17 point blow out into a 4 pt lead with no confidence and momentum. PGab, I agree that Bonzi coming in as a 3rd scorer would definitely help, because somebody needs to nut up when the chips are down and be able to put the ball in the hole when Yao and T-Mac are hounded or off. Rafer tried to take that role during the end of th 3rd. I thought that was wrong though, not just because Rafer failed miserably then, but I don't believe Rafer has the ability to drive the lane for big buckets consistently. The need for the 3rd scorer was more of a 4th quarter problem, already after the epic collapse, when morale and momentum was already shot. Read the recap. Here's a summary of the recap: The 2 and a half minute collapse was about TMac and Juwon missing 2 easy shots, Yao getting hammered once causing a missed putback and missing also missing another easy putback, Rafer making decisions to take 2 terrible shots, Rafer making a terrible pass for a TO, Rafer late on an off-ball screen to defend a 3pter, Rafer going around an on-ball screen leading to an open 3pter (the screen was set by elson, so Yao/Jho/JVG was at fault here for not stepping out on Beno by accident or on purpose), Yao not getting to Horry on the 3pter (this is either Yao's, Jho's, or JVG's fault because Yao shouldn't have been on Horry in the first place), and also Deke being late covering Finly when Duncan set the pick on Snyder. So a freakin 13-0 run in the last 2:36 of the 3rd quarter!!! That had nothing to do with a 3rd scorer. That was bad decision making on Rafer, misses on good shots by TMac, Yao, and Jho, and bad defensive decisions by Deke, Yao/Jho, Rafer, and JVG. Out of the timeout Popovich inserted Horry and ran 2 great plays to take advantage of the Rockets D philosophy. JVG should have called a timeout to adjust, but he didn't. The Rockets should have won the game and didn't need a 3rd scorer to do so. They did enough things right and the Spurs did enough things wrong. JVG talks about defensive intensity and smarts. In the post game press conference, he talked about the beginning of the 3rd quarter and letting the Spurs score too easily. I don't think JVG emphasizes momentum enough. He talked about taking each possession separately, but basketball is a game of runs and timing. He could have mitigated the run by taking a timeout and adjusting. I was screaming for it doing play-by-play in chat. I don't care if there's only 1 minute and 30 seconds left in the 3rd, it was still a 9 freakin point lead! They just made back to back wide open trays because of either defensive mistakes or a bad defensive strategy. You need to stop the momentum and possibly change the philosphy and adjust. But yeah, there are many reasons why one team loses and the other wins. It all adds up to points. And yes a 3rd scorer who can create points when Yao and TMac are down would really help. But it's not needed. The Rockets can play well enough to win without a 3rd scorer, but they just need to make fewer mistakes.
