ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Raptors 3/16/2007

rafer alston is king

 

This game is to be noted. It is one of the very few games played in recent years that can be truly described as team basketball.
Just very few shots taken without being set up first. Down considerably from our usual games. Alston shows that he is beginning to see the light! Go Rockets!

 

Not his type. Not thick enough.

Maybe Luther's skinny ass would want her.

 

hey guys. Piston beat the Suns with defense! 105:81

 

They did it by crashing the boards...not by shooting defense.

 

Also, they forced a lot of turnovers too. Offensive rebounding and forcing turnovers are 2 keys to beat the Suns. Unfortunately, those are not our strength.

 

I'm so glad Rafer's doing well all of a sudden. He doesn't need to keep it up now as long as he can summon his shooting touch in the playoffs. I've always loved Rafer for his defense, but when he hits a few shots, he's just plain sexy!!! Oh, and Utah lost their 3rd straight and Phoenix lost. Dallas barely won against the Celtics. Oh the joy.

 

That's not it. That's part of it, but they have bigs who can keep up with Phoenix's.

Webber/Wallace/McDyess aren't as slow against Amare and Diaw as Yao is. That's why they won IMO. Their bigs played very well.

 

I watched the game between the Suns and Pistons last night. Besides the great performance by Rasheed Wallace, Chris Webber and Ronald Murray (stepped in for the injured C. Billups), I think the main reason that the Piston won the game by such a large margin (105:83) in Phoenix was because they did a great job in controlling the pace of this game and never tried to run with the Suns.

During the game, when the Pistons were on offense, they always seemed to have someone (like Chris Webber) hitting the board hard after every shot, so that the Suns could not get an easy rebound to start a fast break. On their own end, the Pistons played great perimeter defense to stop the Suns 3-point threat. If they got a defensive rebound after a Suns’ miss, the Pistons’ guards simply took their time to walk the ball up the court, and set up their half-court offense patiently. They never seem to have the urge to rush their shots, as we so often see our Rockets do. In other words, they played under control throughout this match, and did a great job to force the Suns to play a slow-pace half-court game instead of a fast-pace running game. And even with Steve Nash’s superb passing skills, unstoppable penetration, and his great two-man game with Amare Stoudemire, the Suns were only able to stay close to the Pistons for two-and-a-half quarters. By the end of the third quarter, the Pistons extended their lead to double digits; and the Suns’ game completely fell apart in the fourth quarter.

I really hope the Rockets can watch the tape of this game and learn a good lesson from the Pistons, and see how important it is to play to your own strengths, not to that of your opponent!

 

Pistons didn't try to run with Suns, who is probably the best at running games. They force the Suns to follow their pace.

 

strong first post, thanks

I let JVG know

 

I don't think he can do much. I think we might be ranked 1st in defence for the NBA but realistically the Pistons have so many all Nba 1st defence players. They are able to control the pace of the game with their one on one defenders wrapping up the opposing players. WE don't have anyone capable of realistically defending Amare and Marion at the same time. The pistons have Billups who can wrap up Nash. Wallace who can take Amare, Prince who can ably guard Marion too. Heck the Pistons can defend most of Dallas too.

 

I agree with most of what you say, but the Pistons won because of their efficiency on offense and the TO differential.

Flip Murray played out of his mind. That was his best game on offense ever, I think. He can't play any better than that. Plus his hands were everywhere on defense. The guy was almost Superman. The other reason was Delfino. I have never seen him shoot so well. I though Detroit was in trouble when Chauncey went down, but it helped them win last night because Flip was unconscious. We all know the Suns can fast break after made baskets on occassion, but it's much harder for them. It seemed like Detroit scored on every possession and the Suns eventually gave up on fast breaking. I felt sorry for Diaw getting humiliated by Rasheed. He had no chance guarding him down low at all. The spring that Chris Webber showed in his legs blew me away. He's not as bad off as some say though his lateral quickness on defense is still very poor.

Another reason was the Suns were never in sync on offense. Amare had 7 TOs and never got it together and Nash made several ill-advised passes. It's hard to believe he had only 4 TOs. Raja Bell was 0-5 and Barbosa was 1-6 from long range. The Suns just didn't have it tonight and were ripe for the taking. The Pistons were more than up to the task.

 

If Rafer will only have 8 something assist and min. 18 pts a game. wThere is no reason we should loose everygame. Although Yao and Tmac should do there part.

 

what you have to do is order it off the NBA store, pick the customizable jersey, adn in the color box next to it, chose whichever player you want....they are all on the list.

http://store.nba.com/gp/product/B00...356570-8107202?ie=UTF8&n=14199831&league=core




btw

The game and pre/postgame vids are on the tracker

http://www.rocketredrockers.net:6969/index.html

I havent gotten to watch the game yet, so the clips arent even started yet.

Ill post my thread later today, got some errands to run right now..

 

Just got back home from the game(I live in montreal),really great game.We blowed them out and I got the free pizza,can't ask more,maybe JVG won't like it,since we let them score 100 points.Met alot of rockets fan there.Every time the raptors fans did "lets go Raptors",we went "Let's Go Rockets",it was really fan.

Got some pictures and videos of the game and the cheerleaders,hopefully I can get them uploaded by tomorrow.

Got to get some sleep now after all the travellings.

Go Rockets.

 

You are right, both Murray and Delfino played great last night, and this certainly helped the Pistons' scoring and defense in the second half. I think the main reason that the Suns scored only 83 points last night (probably way below their season's average) was because they were forced to play a slow pace game which is not their style, and they also did not play a solid perimeter defense as the Pistons did.

For example, in the second half, whenever the ball was passed to a Suns’ perimeter player, there always seemed to be a Pistons’ player nearby; whereas Pistons’ 3-point shooters like Rasheed Wallace, etc., were often left wide open at the 3-point line by the Suns. Also, in a slow pace half-court game, it’s hard to fight back when you are falling behind by double digits, especially late in the game. With the 3-point line well guarded by the Pistons, the Suns started forcing things in the middle and led to many turnovers by Amare and Steve Nash, and this contributed to the Suns’ final collapse in the fourth quarter.

Besides his turnovers down the stretch, Amare actually played a decent game - grabbing rebounds and hitting mid-range jumpers as he did against the Rockets. As someone pointed out earlier, one of the surprise factors last night was Chris Webber, who played the center position well for the Pistons, and he seemed to have more left in his tank than many of us previously thought.