To beat Dallas or Phoenix or Spurs or Detroit, Tmac and Yao needs to score combined 60+ points. Our role players and bench arent as good as these 4.
Who do those teams have to content with Tracy and Yao? If Tracy keeps going to the basket. . . and Yao plays low we Win. Playoffs are won inside. . not by speedy guards I think . . . Advantages of Tracy and Yao >>>> deficiencies of Rafer and Jho Rocket River
The 4 problem is easily solved by the fact that EVERY team in the league except for Miami and Houston (and possibly Utah and Dallas, but Utah has a good PF/C combo at the cost of a horrific SG/SF hole now that AK is sucking and Dallas has Dampier and Diop but we already know Yao's going to destroy those two.) have a problem at the 5. Teams league-wide try to plug that hole; Duncan playing C, Amare playing C etc. etc., but its still a glaring hole no matter how you look at it.
yeahh but all those games except the PHO game we didnt have yao...it would of made the game better... and as for the PHO game.. back2back, yao was tired... and i think he was talkin about Clutch shots at the end of games
Funny how you fail to show when we blew out SA basically twice without one of our stars. Blew out dallas with a full squad. There is no shame in losing a close one to the best team in the league without your biggest equalizer against them. The only team i am worried about is PHX.
You are really discounting our 4's. Yea Duncan had a 30 against us and Brand did, but outside those two games, what makes people freak out so much about our 4's? Dallas- If Dirk really gets it going, put Tmac on dirk. The End. of course in order for this to work, yao has to take advantage of Diop/ Dampier. BTW this season, we hold Dirk under his avg ppg. SA- If Yao gets it going as he did in SA this year, they then have to put Duncan on him, which takes away from his offense. Chuck Hayes did a good job on duncan 3 out of 4 times this season if im not wrong. UTAH- Boozer had 24 on us the first game of the season, when Shane was at the 4. Then had 15 the next time we played. As far as the suns go, Amare hasn't destroyed us and Marion is a 3, not a 4. Too much is made of this pg and pf weakness. All rafer needs to do is drain open 3's and play solid D come playoff time.
I agree Honestly Is Nash scores 40 with 3 assist. . .that means we THRASHED the suns Keep him out of the Paint. . .and we will be fine. what other PJ . .will give us as big a difference between our PG and theirs? Tony Parker? Rocket River
I understand. Not to make excuses but not having Yao makes the Dallas and San Antonio losses mean nothing. I always pose this question to Mavs fans that brag to me about the season series. You think you guys can beat us without Dirk or Jason Terry? Against the big 3 in the West, you must be healthy and playing very well to beat them. Same thing can be said about us and the JAzz.
My post was about the rockets hitting outside shots and I'm just saying against top teams we don't. What I'm really saying is that Rafer and Head have not displayed clutch city when they need to yet.
You forgot to mention the Utah Jazz without Yao, Clevland Cavs without Mcgrady, Miami Heat(Defending Champs)... lol
And Shane has shied away at times. Im not worried about Head. It's Rafer. He really seemed to rush it against Phx. I just think its live by the 3 die by the 3 for us. Fortunately we are 6th in 3%. That 1-22 game against boston dropped us from 2 to 6 by itself. You are right though, Luther, Rafer, and Shane have to step it up come playoff time. If they are around 37-40% from the 3 during the playoffs, We will go to the conference finals.
Without the Mavs, Suns, or Spurs, I think the Rockets are a Championship team; however, this team is going to have to get lucky to win it this year. Anything is possible, just not probable. Based on this year's record, our best shot is against the Spurs. Against the Suns and Mavs, talk is easy, beating them isn't.
Yes, everything is possible. Can't wait for the moment when Yao & Tmac become the co-MVPs of the Finals & Rockets win the title of course.
I believe we are built for a championship run. That 3 Luther hit against the clippers was clutch city through and through. I love have Chuck in the game along with Yao. Rafer may not be a lights out shooter, but he manages the game well with the exception of the PHX games. I'm not worried about SA or Dallas or Utah in a 7 game series. Those series I think seem to favor our lineup. But JVG will have to come up with some sort of gameplan against them. So how would the matchups go. Phx plays 7 seed, then who? Would it be Dallas or SA?
