Does anyone else feel this way? maybe i'm just cynical.. I really feel we can beat any team we play. The only thing I'm afraid of, with all sincerity, are the referees. Playing the Jazz seems the alleviate this fear much more than the Spurs or Mavs. Against the Spurs/Mavs, you know Dirk and Duncan will get these ridiculous calls and that Yao will get ridiculous calls/non-calls against him. It's almost like a prophecy these days, with the way the refs treat Yao and the Rockets.. I just keep thinking about games 3 and 4 in '05 against the Mavs. With good refereeing, we would have won at least one of those. And Duncan is no better than Dirk, in terms of being ref'ed. T-mac and Yao rarely get this treatment. I may be biased b/c I watch more rockets' games than mavs/spurs, but I don't think my observations are flawed.. What do you guys think?
I just hope Yao can play 35 MPG on average against Utah. I also hope he regains his MVP form. If he does, and Tmac is clicking, I think we can win. Forget about the refs. They're always gonna give Yao bad calls. Plus we don't have Mark Cuban this time putting pressure on the refs to call those "moving screens" against Yao
instead, i hope Yao will get more ASTs,25MPG is enough,if he can asssist more, the team would be better,other guys can score
I don't know about you guys, but I have the same confident feeling as the one I had in our second championship. I feel that we are a complete team and a team that's very mature and capable of winning it all. Even with our PG situation, I like our chances against anybody in a 7-game series.
I refuse to blame the referees. Make the game safe. Don't give referees the power to decide a game, that's the best way to win. The Mavs can argue all they want about refereeing but they are Finals losers, and will always be remembered for losing in the Finals. Does anyone here care that Jordan fouled Bryon Russell before sinking the game-winning shot? No one gives a damn. The ring is on Jordan's finger. I believe we can beat any team, with our biggest challenge being: patience against the Suns. The Suns play fluctuates ridiculously, and we have to be able to maitain our composure by having patience when they turn red-hot for a few minutes and continue executing our slow, half-court, grind-it-out style for 48 minutes.
I too, refuse to blame the referees. What will prevent the Rockets from advancing is their streaky shooting. When they go cold, they can t hit the ocean from the beach.
im sorry but we cannot beat the mavs,suns, or spurs even with yao. as dominant as yao is he cant beat a team by himself. sooner or later role players have to step up and i cant envision rafer and luther head doing that.
Agreed. Plus, Yao doesn't get screwed by the refs. Thats just paranoia on our part. And in a 7 game series, we are not beating the Mavs and Suns.
I think that is over. Yao is actually getting calls this year. He was one of the leaders in FTs per game untill he got injured.
I think so too. There isn't much difference in the way Yao is being officiated as compared to say, Shaq, the only difference is, defenders blatantly foul Shaq. Draping themselves over him or something like that, because that's the only way to stop him. Yao's hard to stop, but you don't have to throw your body at him the way you do with Shaq, simply because he's not a power player. Tmac, on the other hand, is a different case. If you look back, he got the most free-throws attempted in the '02-'03 season. Contrast that to now, he was aggressively going to the rim and trying to dunk on people everytime he drove then, and now, he's trying to make shots, and visibly shying away from hard, physical contact. The refs aren't gonna give you those "benefit of the doubt" calls like that. If he'd just take it strong to the hoop, he'd get much more calls in his favour a la Wade and Kobe.
I am with you here. Obviously no one wants an injury to any player in the playoffs especially the 2 stars. As far as the best team wins in a 7 game series..........that is all how you look at it. If 2 teams are pretty even, it can come down to how the games are officiated. One or 2 missed calls can decide a close game and hence determine the outcome of a 7game, 7game series. So yes, I have to agree with you on this. I never used to think this but after the clevland tackle on Yao and other calls or noncalls like that....plus finley coming from out of bounds to make a play on the ball in the mavs-roxs series.....I think this is a factor.
Ive always believed that you just can't blame refs for losses...maybe when they screw up exponentially in a game but overall, the bad calls go both ways. We just notice the bad calls that go against us more bc it affects us. Blaming the refs is a cheap excuse in my opinion. You are right...we can beat any team but the refs are not what would hold us back. Some games we fail to execute properly and make stupid mistakes. That is the biggest playoff fear; playing upto our potential the whole series.
My Biggest fear is the health of our team. I think though Tracy has been playing great, he's been reserved in attacking the basket for fear of his back. I think he'll play more aggressive in the playoffs. And if Yao and Bonzi can regain their conditioning and we go into the playoffs healthy, I honestly feel we can beat anyone. Yao Mutombo Hayes Howard Battier Bonzi McGrady Snyder Alston Head I think if this group is healthy, we can match up very well with any team in the league. I'm honestly not scared of Dallas or San Antonio. I think Dallas has been without any injuries this year and have meshed very well. Their deep bench is more effective in the regular season than the playoffs. I think San Antonio is ripe for the picking as they're relying too much on the sporadic games of Ginobili and Parker, who have shown they can't bring it every night. I think the Road will be: Utah - Dallas - San Antonio - Detroit I don't see a team there that scares me. The only one that really has our number is Phoenix, but i'm pretty sure they can't get past San Antonio.
Oh dude, we got this guy called T-Mac... He does a pretty decent job so Yao doesn't have to be all alone. In case you haven't noticed, we split the season series with the Spurs, and our two wins were one without Yao and one without T-Mac. Your statement is a stretch.
I pretty much agree with you there. If we lose because the other team played better than us, then I won't be as pissed, but if it comes down to some blatant missed call that is not subjective, then I'm going to be super pissed. Subjective calls would be foul calls and are okay because those are at least debatable. But blatantly missed calls like stealing a ball while you're out of bounds at a crucial point in the game is ridiculous. One bad call can be a huge momentum swing. Using the refs as an excuse is cheap, but as we're playing now, we need things to go our way to get far into the playoffs, or atleast officiated fairly. Yao and T-Mac don't get the calls that other superstars do (especially Yao). Dallas and San Antonio are already so good, but put that with Dirk and Devin Harris's flopping, Manu's flopping, Duncan's whining to the refs, and the home-court officiating, it's not going to be easy getting by them in the playoffs.
