Rafer doesn't belong in the game at the last 5 minutes

Rafer Alston stabs newborn bunnies and puppies with a blunt pencil to get up before games. Rafer Alston spikes the team gaterade with mercury at halftime. Rafer Alston gets 7 boards, 8 assists, and makes a clutch play preventing OT just to cover up the fact that he makes us lose whenever he's on the court.

Mike James is clearly the superior player because he had one less TO than Dameon Alston.

Evan

 

Tmac was still making some plays towards the end, rafer was screwing around, plying no d and commiting costly turnovers. You cannot even compare the 2

RAFER WAS TERRIBLE LAST NIGHT, I knew he would come back down to earth. Francis will be getting his time soon

 

I think this guy must be a marvel in practice for the coaches to play him so much. He locks up in real games.

Coaches have a love affair with him.

This is the grossest thing since Gundy's crush on Bowen.

 

that one made me lol. maybe you're just an assistant poster and should let the more sane people post instead of you.

those kind of threads are just plain awfull. especially with this kind of new insight.

 

steve can't run point... everyone's tried to make him a 2 guard... and i'd think NBA coaches would know what they're talking about... he's a 6'3" tweener.... but that's fine... we don't really need a pure point guard in Adelman's system... the motion offense should take care of that... remember how Bibby used to take all those shots and put up 20+ a game?

all we need is someone who can take the ball up w/o turning it over too much, and run the fast break when we get it... i think rafer does a fine job in those regards. and he's a decent 3 point shooter... just sucked it up yesterday.

 

The Rockets if this guard thing does not become an effecting threat should trade for Wilcox, have Scola play backup F/C. I also was hoping the Rockets would go after Blake, but Im not whining about changes, Im just suggesting if we make some changes sometime this year.

 

I think rafer is the best option on this team to play PG in the clutch. Mike james dribbles the ball too much and looks for his shot first. With stevie we dont know what we are going get. He might revert to old ways and try to win the game on his own. So that leaves rafer as the best option to play point.

 

Alternatively, one person might begin humming the melody line to "Give Peace a Chance".

It could rapidly morph into thousands singing "All we are saying, is give Steve a chance".

 

Not sure what Rafer brings to the team that would justify a starting position and his contract.
The offense led by Rafer last night had a horrible start and put us in hole. It wasn't until James came into the game that we started to pick up the pace.

Then Rafer almost loses the game for us when he comes back in with his TOs. He did his best to keep the Lakers close. He's very lucky that his foul on Kobe at the end of the game was a no-call by the official or it would have likely been a Laker win.

I know Adelman likes Rafer cuz he pushes the ball up the court fast, but at what cost to the team?

 

It costs us the game usually. We were just lucky last night.

 

Did you some of you even watch the game?

After Rockets took a 92-80 lead with 1:36 to go, this happened:

McGrady Turnover:Lost Ball (3 TO) Steal:Walton (1 ST) 1:26
Yao Turnover:Lost Ball (4 TO) Steal:Fisher (3 ST) 0:59
James Free Throw 1 of 2 missed 0:35
James Free Throw 2 of 2 missed
Alston Turnover:Bad Pass (4 TO) Steal:Fisher (4 ST) 0:22

Maybe we should take out TMac and Yao in crunch time as well because they basically opened the door for the Lakers. Rafer is one of the best decision makers on this team along with TMac and Yao, period. That trio+Battier should always be on the floor at the end of the game.

 

ya dumbass rafer almost cost us the dam game...smh

 

Yeah and you seemed to miss why they were able to pressure T-Mac and Yao to get turn overs in the first place. The last two minutes I saw Fisher leave his man (Rafer) and double Yao and T-Mac. Also, Rafer gets a turnover because he is doubled. The dude didn't pick up his dribble, so he could have dribbled through, he could have called a time out to slow the momentum, he tried to pass through two defenders which is dumb, you never do that when you are as short as he is.

Point is that Rafer main strength, which was low turnovers, didn't show up. As I expect, they played off of him, forcing him to create his own offense which he can't do.

How many years must we endure him. I remember last year when they were talking about how he practiced his jump shot all summer and he was going to be so much improved last year. Yeah, well he did great in the pre-season, then went back to the old Rafer which is exactly how he did this pre-season.

 

I'll just reiterate what others have said already. Everyone played poorly down the stretch there, and we were fortune enough that we had a nice lead before that and made 1 more play than they did.

We won guys. Rafer will have good and bad games. Rafer hit a big shot for us down the stretch. He made a good pass to Yao down low for an easy bucket. He also turned the ball over. If you are going to dissect his play, do it for every single player, b/c our whole team was a mess last night at some point.

 

Rafer also does not belong in the game the other 43 minutes.

 

I say Rafer does not belong in the game at the first 5 minutes too. If he and Hayes are still our starters, then the Rockets are not much upgrated at the starting position except a much deep bench. Soon or later James and Scola have to play more mintues, then deep bench means not much.

 

A starting PG shot 1/6 total. It is bad no matter how you look at it. It is going to hurt Rockets big time.

 

Agree but damn he's still the best playmaker. I mean we should use him only to pass the ball. He got 8 asists last night.

Mike James can shoot, he can score.