ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Grizzlies 11/13/2007

We didn't come to play. We lost.

We didn't even shake hands with them at the end of the game -- Lowry even tried to initiate it but we walked straight away. That shows just how much we were into this game.

Just a terrible loss that should never have happened. The team needs some discipline, and it looks like we're still missing heart.

 

This game reminded me of that one Jazz game where only 4 Rocket players scored in the entire game.

It really felt like Yao and McGrady on offense and everyone else just bricking it up. Alston needs to stop shooting even if he's open.

Also I know its too soon to make any definite claims but this team still has the same problems they suffered from last year.

It really seems like every year we're raving about the offseason acquisitions we've made and they all seem to sort of flounder. Worse yet, they're usually low Basketball IQ, undersized or flatfooted. Sometimes both.

The James, Francis, and Brooks acquisitions have been good on paper at least in drawing names, but really all of them are fairly undersized at their position. James and Brooks are quick, yet Alston and James had a tough time against the Grizzlies PG doing his best Tony Parker impersonation.

Scola is a decent sized individual but he's a bit flat footed and still adjusting to the NBA tempo and rules. He's not really going to ever wow you with his athleticism but tonight he got beat on plays against taller and more athletic players. Hayes got manhandled aside from a few nice deflections on entry passes and was a foul machine tonight.

Pair two guys that are slow against athletic players at all positions and its no wonder Memphis was getting easy shots all night long.

But what's more crucial to worry about is in the playoffs the game is quicker and more physical even in grind it out games against teams like the Spurs. Yao really didn't establish anything defensively or on the boards, and that goes for all our bigs tonight. Yao produced offensively but on defense he was getting blown by smaller guards or matched evenly against Darko who at least on TV sizes up as evenly to Yao better than anyone in the league right now despite the height difference. Darko is barrel chested and did really well against Yao who seemed more nonchalant on D.

It's one game and the season is early but these are my observations so far.

 

actually he did get benched tonight. he only ended up playing 19 minutes.

i think Mike James' best days are behind him. there is a reason he was downgraded to third string last season.

oh yeah....the refs suck

 

so Bonzi should have covered Gasol?

okay

 

Yup...

 

I wish I didn´t get upset that we lost to the Grzzilies of all teams.

 

if you look at the stats, our 2 stars didnt do half bad. yao needed about 8 more shot attempts, but i think tmac did well. i dont get how you can say he played poorly. he almost singlehandedly got us back into the game again ... but the crucial point of the game was when we could have taken the lead with that battier shot in the corner. tmac did what he does (drawing defenders) and he kicked it to the open man in his sweet spot. battier missed, we fouled the rebounder, ball game. the shift of momentum was rising on our side but that miss sealed the game.

lets not even go to how bad our high fire power bench played. you guys saw what I saw.

 

First, that game could have gone either way at the end.
Second, you come on the game thread and start calling "book-it" for a loss and you will lose each time rook.
The only thing you should be sorry for is your arrogant idiotic first post on the game thread. You got lucky, just like the scrub griz got lucky on a night where Tmac and Yao got no help from anyone else.

 

role players gotta step up. battier has been terrible the whole season, and rafer seems to have gotten worse from last year. matter of fact, most of our role players from last year got worse... luther, battier, rafer, ... wtf? and their getting some of the same looks as last year, esepcailly for battier. we're in a MAJOR shooting slump... if this is going to happen consistently, we still have long ways to go.

 

omg... its called a newborn baby... if you ever have a chance to start a family you would know

 

I think the role players will find their shots. I'm not that angry with them.

Unfortunately McGrady couldn't pull it out for us. I thought they could post up Yao late in the 4th quarter as a counter play to all the McGrady iso's they'd been running, since they went back to playing behind him, and he only got 12 shots tonight. But his defense was ATROCIOUS. I think his horrible D may well have cost us the game. If the team didn't want to go to Yao, I'd completely understand, since I know when I'm playing pickup I don't want to give it to the guy who repeatedly gets burned on defense.

 

yao was too slow to catch anything in the post.. espcailly in the 4th when they were all fronting him. they tried force feeding him the ball a couple times only resulted in turnovers. Grizz did a great job w/ Yao tonight.

 

When it comes to Basketball IQ Mike James is "special".

 

we just didn't shoot well...like 4-17 from 3 point line...

that won't win games...

 

Looking at the +/- stats for the night, Wells, James, and Scola played the worst.

Bonzi: -15
James: -11
Scola: -10

And Rafer Alston? +5.

And I don't want to hear this "but Rafer gets to play with T-Mac and Yao!". Nope. James played with them too, and still found a way to have a double digit negative +/-.

 

Rafer and Luther should not be given any more chances. Bring on AB and Steve. I don't understand how Rafer and Luther get pt after 10 games the pg situation has not been resolved.

 

I knew we were going to lose -- we play poorly against the grizzlies because pau gasol generally is able to cause matchup problems, we saw it in preseason when we tried using our normal rotation

 

rafer played bad, but james was just as bad, maybe even worse. 28 minutes of brick heaven.

 

can not agree more. Wonder what is going on?

 

Man, no way scola can start over Chuk. scola is slow and soft, doing nothing on the court. I now realize Spurs are not that stupid to give up scola, where nearly everyone here though Rox got a good steal.