ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Warriors 12/14/2006

I'm sorry that game was total bs for the Golden State warriors, especially that shot at the end. Give me a break.

 

Im actually fine with this loss... lets put it this way...If Yao can continue to put up monster games... if Tmac can play 100% in the playoffs, Bonzi gets back into shape, and Luther turns into a real legit third option... then we have a outside chance at best to win anyways...

id be happy if we made it past the 1st round for that matter...

but... we cant fault the game plan...

Yao played too many minutes....continuos minutes....

when we were up by 13 and our guys couldnt hold the lead... Yao had to come back in...

but we got the ball to the guy we wanted taking the final shots...

question weather Yao is Clutch or not... we shall find out over time...

today he wasnt... and we loss because of that...

 

I'm fine with loss as well, GS may not even make the playoffs and we're fighting for home court advantage. There's not a doubt in my mind who the better team is, I took the PHX loss much harder because that is a team that I use as a "measuring stick" to ours, not the Warriors, lol...

Give them Richardson and us T-Mac for for this game and it would be a laugher, EVERYTHING went right for them in the final minute for them to win...

Heck, if Yao's hookshot even hits rim the game might be over, the time it would have taken for the ball to get rebounded (maybe by us) may have ended the game!!!

 

I saw two threads Named: "Rafer needs to be benched",
"Bench needs to play more".
I am confused.

 

1) 1.2 seconds is not enough for the inbounder to shoot. If you touch-pass it back to Head, he'd still be outta bounds.

2) assuming you were able to give it back to head, he would be taking a high pressure shot without a good look. We didn't need a 3. We needed a high percentage 2 near the basket.

3) It isn't what happened. JVG drew up a poor offensive scheme that was either too complicated to execute, or too assinine to free a shooter for the inbound.

 

3, 4 , 5 is imminent.

 

We should start a thread, "What would you have done with the last 1.2 secs?"

See exactly what the clutchfans can come up with for that last play. Everyone knows that we want Luther to take the three if you are going for the win.

If you are going for the tie, that's a whole other situation.

Personally, as a former coach, I wouldn't have had the shortest guy (okay nearly shortest, I think maybe Rafer is like an inch shorter) on my team who is on the court taking out the ball.

It's always easy to play the monday morning quarterback though. The play worked once before... maybe he just thought it would work again.

 

People keep harping on Yao missing that hook with 9 seconds left. Some are saying this proves Yao's not a clutch player. This is patently false. He actually did hit the clincher on the previous possession, putting us up four with only 30 some seconds to go.

The heartbreaking part is, on defense, we actually got the stop we needed when Monta Ellis threw up the brick. If Shane secured the Ellis miss, this would have been an easy win coz the Warriors would have been forced to foul and we would've gone up six and Yao would've been the hero he was in DC.

On a side note, as much as I love the way Luther's been playing of late, has anyone else noticed his recent trend of f-ing up fast breaks? Seriously, in the last few games, I've seen Head botch about five or six breakaways with bad passes, missed layups or turnovers. WTF?

 

anyone have game quotes?

 

My prediction was pretty close to Yao and Luther's performance.

I got a feeling Yao will drop 35 and 12 today, Bonzi breakout with 23 and 9. Yao always plays great when on national coverage. Bonzi has to impress the media and coaches if he wants to get paid more. Today is his chance.

 

dam he could have been a hero

 

Here's my take -
I am AMAZED that we finished the game the way we did after the dismal way we played the 1st quarter. For those of you that saw it - I'm sorry. I was thinking we'd be lucky to get 70pts in the game.

Luther steped it up big tonight. He was like T-Mac light. He has the 3pt shot and is now building the rest of his game. He will be really good in another year or so. The downside is that we used to get this production off the bench. Now we have a whole lot of nuttin' off the bench.

When we are successful Yao is productive 1st to 3rd quarters and T-Mac mid way and finishes off games. That way when Yao's endurance starts to fade than T-Mac will take us home. We're missing that piece right now.

Still, we scored over 100 - our offense wasn't the issue. This is a night where we needed the defense to clamp down and it didn't.

At the start of the season I was thinking we had one of the deepest benches we've had for years. Now, not so much. The rookies (and I'm lumping V-Span in here) are playing like rookies. They will come along, but it'll take time. Bonzi needed a stepladder to try to complete his break-away layup. And Snyder is still injured. No conclusion here, just rambling.

The bright spot for me is that it's still early in the season. Our injured (please, oh please let T-mac get better) will get better. And we're still fighting hard, even on the games we lose. Our team will only get better as we start developing some chemistry.

 

what I would've done?

I would've done anything BUT get Yao to shoot a 30 feet, fadeaway, 3 pointer with a guy on him.

I know it's only 1.2 seconds, but what the hell was JVG thinking? last time I checked NBA coaches prepare the team for such situations (down 2 or 3 with under 2 seconds to go) and have at least 3 to 4 plays (even though TMac is out). I wanted to see Luther shoot it, or Alston, not Yao. JVG did a great Job last year in a similar game against the Warriors where he gave Luther that play. I dont know what happened this time (after taking 2 timeouts, I was thinking we got some really good stuff drawn for somebody, just to see Yao MIng take a fadeaway 3) I mean, let Battier shoot it. how about, drawing a play for Bonzi where he come from 2 screens and shoot one from the left corner, the same spot where he won a couple games for the kings last year.

 

Luther has been able to hit the 3 since the beginning of the season, that was no surprise. but 4 TOs, 3 times getting blocked, and 2 missed layups were not very impressive. even though he came through in scoring and had a couple drives to the basket, I still think Luther should do a better job in TOs. thing is, I think Luther is great but he is trying to do so much and he is trying to "push" the ball and create fastbreaks but too bad he is the only one running, and that actually hurt him.

I think the only player (other than Yao, which, by the way, had 5 TOs) who played a great game was Rafer Alston. I know y'all might think I am r****ded, but I actually thought he played a great game. even though he started out 0 for 6 or something, he came through later in the game and he hit some great shots. plus, he had NO turnovers. yes, that's right, 0 turnovers. when your PG has 0 turnovers, he is pretty damn good.

what killed us this game was turnovers. I really dont like to think of it as a "bad luck loss", because if we did what we were supposed to do, we wouldn't have been in a situation where you are up 1 with 10 secs to go.

turnovers:

Alston 0
Head 4
Hayes 3
Battier 4
Yao 5
Howard 3 (oh, in 25 minutes by the way)
Bonzi 0
VSpan 0
Motumbo 1

 

I would've done anything BUT get Yao to shoot a 30 feet, fadeaway, 3 pointer with a guy on him.

I know it's only 1.2 seconds, but what the hell was JVG thinking?

it was a busted play. it was suppose to go to luther but he was covered so yao took the shot

 

Criticizing Yao and saying he isn't clutch for last night's loss just baffle me. I'm not going to use cliches such as "without him, we wouldn't even be in the game" since without Head or other players we would've lost more too; but instead, I'd like to point out he made a critical fadeaway jumper with 33 seconds left that should've sealed the deal. I'd argue making that shot was even more critical because everything had to go absolutely right for Warriors to win; unfortunately, it did.

Yao gave his heart out last night; if a 100% TMac is playing but Yao sit out, we won't win many games either. The team is built around the two superstars, and we need them both to be a contender.

 

I know this is lame, but if only Kirk Snyder was available last night, we could have won the game. He could at least pretend to hang with Baron Davis. Luther and Rafer aren't strong enough and Shane is just too slow. Also, Kirk Snyder is the only guard outside of Tmac who can consistently penetrate and finish strong around the rim, that would bring more variation to our otherwise quite predictable offense. It's also dissapointing to see that Bonzi was mostly standing around the arc last night, maybe he is just too out of shape to do what he does best.

 

Tmac, Synder, Sura and an out-of-shape and ineffective Bonzi. This team is severely depleted now.

 

All of you who thinks we should have won is correct. BUT this is the NBA and these things happen. B Davis hit a 3 pt shot from what 30 ft? Was he guarded? Yes, Was it a wise shot to take down 1 with 2 second left? No Way. But it went in. Yao did everything he can and I know he wish he didn't airball the last 2 shots but it's going to happen to a tired Yao who sho 32 times and had 18 rebounds.

Davis did a TMac to us just like TMac did it to Spurs in that 13 in 35 sec game.

Good game to watch and it's the NBA. Dam Yao is good. Now I hope they have something left in the tank for LA. But I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty tonight.

 

Anyone still think V-Span should get more minutes? The guy is the worst shooter on the team, worse than Alston. Every time he shot the ball, I had to cover my eyes.