I looked at the top two threads this morning and thought a combination of the titles might be more appropriate. Wish I had something more to say than that. My daughter, who spent the day puking, has said it all for me. She's young and will get better. The Rockets, I'm not so sure. The only good thing to come out of these two defeats is that they'll kill us in any "power rankings" for the rest of the season, so at least we can stop being lulled/distracted by that kind of silliness.
Puking? Was she hanging around Tracy? or did you force her to watch the game? BTW - Stinky - I like it. another suggestion, which ive made before somewhere along the line, is the "post mortem" thread. Losses like this are living death.
IBTL What do you expect? Losses like these are almost inevitable:- The Rockets is without its best duo The rest of the Rockets have all been close to the limit due to almost 2 months long fighting, with only a 8-men rotation The Rockets lives and dies by the 3, with or without Yao Ming, and when your guards kept laying bricks to the extent of 2 out of 20+ something, how can you not lose? But at least, there are 2 bright spot: Bonzi Wells stepped up and played well And as Yao Ming said afterwards, he thought the Rockets had made a wise move of acquiring Big J, who will become a strong back up centre for him, come the playoffs. You just can't win them all. So why upset ?
will, I've watched a lot of your posts for a very long time and never responded. you're possibly the most pessimistic rockets fan ever. this post is ultra-knee jerk. the hawks, we shouldn't have lost to. it's arguable we shouldn't have lost tonight also but uh...we didn't have tracy or yao. it's not a secret that our team is mediocre at best without them. what did you really expect?
one thing i was wondering is if this was a playoff game would tmac have played? i'm not sure but i suspect he would. so everyone thought that this was an easy game and they could afford tmac-less and win, before the game even started. this is the kind of mentality that will get a team no where, let alone a really contender.
We are not mediocre. We stink. We lost to the worst team at home. We lost despite the fact that the opponent shot worse than 35%. We are unwatchable without T-Mac running the offense.
The only thing lamer than losing a 13-point lead in the 4th quarter to the league's worst team is pleading that this should be expected when you're missing 2 guys. The league's worst team. 13 points. 4th quarter. At home. Due to fouls and rest alone, we will be without Yao and McGrady for crucial minutes in the playoffs. We can not afford to play like this -- or to excuse ourselves for doing so.
Color me as the guy that is totally unsurprised that this team, as good as it is, can still lose painfully to the hawks and celtics. Not because of any deep-down weakness, not due to injury, but rather because they are a Houston team. Houston teams never EVER do things the easy way. Get a nice schedule, you'll blow all the easy games. Have a rough mix of games with a big man out - you'll go 18-8. Totally frustrating for the fans. EDIT: But not as frustrating as Rafer - he's as consistent as the decimals of pi.
I agree that losing a 13 point 4th quarter lead is garbage. But I will say that of the two teams that played last night, Boston had more NBA talent. That, and of the two teams, Boston had the best player. Just the facts. I think that honestly the Rockets have been playing over their heads riding on McGrady's back for the last two months. I wish they had won, but I figured this type of game was inevitable at some point, especially when the team has been living by the three pointer so much lately.
imagine if they only went 3 for 22 from 3 point land. if all things stayed the same, we would of have won. but good god man, how can you only go 1 for 22?
Well, we really lost this game, I mean we literally gave it away with the showing our 'core' players put on. At least this will put a rest to some of the delusional fans who think we're 'loaded' with talented role players who can consistently fulfill their roles. Rafer, Head, Battier, and Howard...none of these guys are very consistent game to game. Some nights they score, some nights they defend, and some nights...well...they help bring about losses to the Hawks and the Celtics. We will be badly exposed come playoff time. Spurs, Mavs, and Suns are consistent teams with playoff experience and chemistry beyond anything the Rockets have. Even with Yao and McGrady, we're heavy underdogs to any of those teams. I am just glad that the Spurs are starting to get themselves ready for the stretch and play like it, that way it leaves the Jazz with the fourth seed and the Rockets with the fifth...the only team we can beat in a first round matchup is the Jazz at this point. Then, if we win, we get to avoid a Suns matchup in the second round, and hopefully the Spurs can take care of them for us assuming we can finally knock out the Mavericks. I am very happy with the fifth seed, and I have been saying that for a while now. Had we drawn a favorable matchup in the playoffs a couple of seasons ago instead of the Mavs, we would have at least gone to the second round. Matchups are everything, forget the seedings...
I expected a win. The Celtics suck!!!! We should have beaten this team by double digits without Tracy. Our starters should have been resting in the 4th Q. Losing to NOK, ATL, and now Boston-the rest of this week is going to be rough- Toronto, Denver, and the Spurs---we should have won the easy ones.
I just hope that losses like these are a wake up call to our front office to make better personnel decisions in the future. Our team was basically gutted to get Tmac and we have the same problems in 2007 that we had in the 04-05 season. We don't have anybody that can create offense on their own and our power forward spot is probably one of the worst in the league right now. Why was our team in 04-05 so good? Because we had 2 players outside of Mac and Yao that could create their ow offense- James and Sura. Also, we had a tremendous 3pt shooter in Barry. We need players like that!
Problem is, can the rockets hold on to the fifth seed. They are losing steam fast now! Mac is tired, Juwan is tired, Deke is tired.... the rockets are just not looking good right now!
Read on CNNSI NBA rumour section that this Thursday is the last day for teams to buy out a player and that player can be on the playoff roster. Key names mentioned in the buy outs are Steve Francis, Flip Murray, and Chucky Atkins. If this is true which player should the Rockets pickup??
Only the franchise [Steve] will give his heart , soul and mind to be back with the Rockets ! So the choice is easy.....I feel sure that if he comes back here he will have learned his lesson and will try to play the team game. Welcome Home Steve!!!!!!!!!
Front Office? I think CD did a great job the past two years. I blame this loss to JVG. Why 1/22? Simple, if you looked at the way Luther shot the 3 ball, it either got blocked or he had to throw up the ball with higher than usual curve, why because he's short and don't have Mac/Yao create the space for him? Yes he's great 3 point shooter, ONLY WHEN HE IS WIDE OPEN. Otherwise he is useless or even hurts the team because his poor PG skills. So why JVG had to keep both him and Rafer on the court for such long time when it apparently didn't work really pissed me off. Especially after PP had the fifth foul, he should have had both Kirk and Bonzi on the court and one of them would have the chance to go one on one with PP to foul him out. The other mistake would be to sub Jake with Dike late in the fourth. Jake played great last night yet JVG replaced with slower Dike, I remember right after the sub, they got the scores even. If you think Rafer doesn't trust the big Jake, it all started with JVG. As for Luther, the problem is not he doesn't trust Jake or not, it's his court vision, he couldn't see any other teammate at all. Ahhhh!!! And after all the fantastic thing Billy did the last three games he played, he still gives the spot minutes to JL3. JVG's ego is hurthing this team! Free VSPAN!!!
