ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Raptors 12/9/2007

You need to watch the games. Even though this season Rafer is a little better he gets very few assists from passing to Yao Ming. Many times I have seen Rafer refuse to pass the ball to Yao Ming when he was set up and calling for the ball! I have watched every game they have played together!
I don't hate Rafer I just wish he had the talent of being a Playmaker Point Guard!

 

I think all the criticism Steve has received over time has killed his game. He wants to please his coach and his critics and when he is on the court he just doesnt know what the hell to do. He is thinking too much and his instincts are shot. Maybe Barkley is right to say that he had the wrong coach as a rookie but getting on his case like this at this point is counterproductive. Its too late.

 

Actually, if those are true fans, shouldn't they have observed from 2002 on, Steve has never been a good PG. Alas, people have short memory, they just forgot.

Anyway, Rafer is the the best PG on this team although he also has a fatal weakness which is that he can't shoot the ball. But nobody else can run the team. So whom do you blame?

First, I still blame CD for construct this team. This is Morey's first year so he is excused.
Second, I blame JVG for playing hard in 2006 when both T-mac and Yao went down. As a result, Rox missed drafting Brandon Roy. Even though Roy is not a PG, his decision-making is so good that his existence on the court would compensate for a so-so PG.

Where does this leave us?
1. Trade for a true PG with shooting ability or a scoring PG who can penetrate. SF3 and MJ are past their prime.

2. If the first choice is not possible, trade for a player that can pass and score. This would add another player that fits in Adelman' system and help T-mac. Right now T-mac is the only player that can pass and score while Rafer can only pass.

 

You don't teach old dog new tricks.
Basically Steve is done. If he can learn, he will stay in Magic or the Knicks.
MJ is also done, he is past his prime.

Rox needs another distributor, better to be a PG who can also shoot, but a non-PG who can distribute and score could be a temporary solution.

 

one thing i noticed about francis was he couldnt bring the ball up as comfortable as rafer could. francis has good "crossover" handles but he doesnt have good "up and down" handles if that makes sense. he looks nervous when pressured.

 

Yup, thats one thing Skip does better than all our guards. Steve looks like hes scared to make a mistake. Like he doesn't want to mess up. Passed up too many open shots. He also must have party hard last night because he didn't bring the same energy he brought in past games. Can't believe I'm getting on Steve for passing up shots.

 

Why blame a PG for this loss? We cannot and will not win many games if we
can score only 80pts. Can Rafer contribute another 13-15pts via defense or offense? I don't think the main problem is with the PG. It's with the energy
in preventing your opponent from getting offensive rebound and I personally
felt we did not practise our shooting AGAIN.

Look at the %FG and %3PM. Why go to game without a practising any shooting and lack of energy in stopping offensive rebounds.

Tmac 7-21 1-6
Mike 1-6
Landry 1-6

Rocket 8 Off Rb 27 DRb
Toronto 18 Off Rb 30 DRb

That's the reason we lost.

ROCKETS BETTER BEWARE AS THE 76ERS HAVE GOOD PF/CENTER (D'Lambert)
AND OTHERS WHO ARE VERY GOOD IN GRABBING OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS!

 

* T-Mac 7-21 1-6 8-10 23
* Yao 5-10 0-0 5-6 15

you can find what's the problem?

When T-mac managed points with more than 20 attempts,
Did Rox win most of the game,NO!!!
Otherwise they lost most of them when T-mac with more than 20 attempts .

Does T-mac really have to ... ? but the ball is still in a person's hand.
The ball is belong to the 5 players.
Does ROX fan really think T-mac is the God of the team.
so please trade YAO.

I don't think Yao have the patient to stay here.
Yao need a change,ROX need a change too....

 

TMac & Yao for D.Howard. We win a championship in 4 years.

 

Maybe

 

don't know how many such games still ahead... so sick.
the problem is still pg. tmac shouldn't be used as a pg. he got double team and nobody else can pass and no offense can be runned. can we get somebody who can at least pass to yao so that no double team on tmac???

this team is not going anywhere without a pg!!

 

just yao for D.Howard, and a decent pg. we are king no time.

 

Me too!

 

Ok, so I'm watching the first half over again and the first thing I noticed was the energy. The team that started the game, and the team that came out to start the 2nd half were completely different. The offense was running smooth, Steve was making the right passes and shots were falling. But then again, the Raptors weren't trying hard on defense yet. 16-2 run and we blew it. Inexcusable.

 

I agree ! Rockets have to make some change .T-mac can't be the God of the team. he must decrease his attempts ,and need not possess all the ball privilege!

 

We started losing that lead beginning of third when Tmac started taking quick shots and Toronto got hot. It was almost like Tmac wanted to bury this team early but couldnt do it. i think it was down hill from there. The whole team started sucking after that. Francis was hesitant and had hard time getting team into offense. No one could shoot, rebound,etc. Overall, team just choked. Rockets just not a cosistent team right now.

I'm not sure why people are bashing Steve after hist first start. The whole team deserves bashing.

 

Wow people, calm down. Yes, two different teams played for the roxs today. Team 1 (1st half) is what you will see down the stretch this year and team 2 (2nd half team) is the team you will see here and there during the first half of the season.

I still believe!

 

I think Clutch is right. TMac looked that he was trying to throw Steve under a bus. Although nobody played well in the second half, TMac was the one who started the slide by jacking up long shots over and over again.

Then after the game, he talked about missing Rafer, blah and blah. That just seems to be too obvious he does not like Steve that much.

 

Steve wasn't the problem at all. He made a three,he took the ball to teh hole with speed and got fouled. Yao wasn't the problem either, they couldn't stop him when he got the ball down low and when they double teamed him he kicked the ball out to shooters and shane was recepient to alot of open looks from Yao creating the doubles and the rockets moving the basketball.



The proble came when Tracy decided to go 1 on 5 which he does every other freakin game. He also was tripping with the rock, He would get the ball and force a pass into chuck hayes when steve would be open in the corner.20 seconds before the end of half time tracy forces a pass to a INVISIBLE teammate and he had steve wide open in the corner. Seemed like Tracy was PLAYA HATEN hard.Yao has low post position Tracy demands the ball to be swung to the other side and he goes 1 on 3. He demands steve make a forced enetry pass to the high post and they are overplaying him. He comes down 3 and 4 seconds into the shot clock taking three pointers. He then get's mad as he has mest up the rythym from the first half that his shooters couldn't knocked down the open shots. This is after 5 straight posessions of him forcing jump shots.



His selfish offensive play not only kills the offense but the defense as well. Guys stop playing D, they are standing around from the rythym of standing on the offensive end watching tracy.When the offensive was clicking and they were sharing the ball guys got confidence and they stepped up the TEAM defense.But as soon as tracy went 1 on 5 they lost all rythym defensively and offensively.




Tracy went for himself with a personal agenda wit hsomethig to prove. Yao looked at everybody crazy on one play when he had low post position with the little dwarf on him and Tracy demands the ball to be swung to the other side for 1 on 3. Tracy killed the whole team's rythym, He doesn't like sharing with steve and he has a pattern going of Team ball after a bad loss and then back to stuffing he stats for his scoring totals.


The incosistency lies with Tracy saying okay today I will share the wealth and score 17 points and get a near triple double but tommorrow I will hog the ball and go after my scoring title. In consistency lies with Tracy mcgrady and rick adleman because what tracy does hurts the entire team and makes everybody look BAD.

 

The problem with Yao is he cannot take it up to TMac. I thought he played really well in the first half, althoug he did not score much. In the second half, once TMac started jacking up long shots, Yao just kind of gave up and felt helpless. That's the biggest problem for Yao and for the team. For a short while towards the end of the third quarter, Rockets started to play inside again and Yao was good. But Coach took him out and when he was back again, it was just too late.

I wish Yao could scream directly at TMac, because he is the only one who can do it. But unfortunately, he probably won't do it.

Really, the culprit of this loss is TMac. It should be so obviously, even to TOFs.