ClutchFans Game Thread: Sixers @ Rockets 1/15/2008

Oh yeah, that's what T-mac wanna hear !
The winner of this game is not 76er, it is Lord Tracy.
We just need one or two good players.
Through our history, he's not.

 

damn it!

 

No doubt, lately our bench player did play better than the starter. We see more energy coming from the bench than the starter. And they can score too.

Just wondering how many good player can we get with "20 million dollar?". We know that "20 million dollar man" cannot save the team but still want to keep him.

 

If I was there I will not shout also. No energy at all. Only when the bench player coming out then there is something to watch.

If the rocket still playing like this, the crowd will be lesser.

 

The problem is Rafer "skip to my doo" and Luther "gimmesome" Head thought they were Tmac and kept jacking up crazy shots and not keeping the big man hot. Then, when they lost the lead, they tried to force it into Yao. Great job. Rafer drove so many times to the hoop with two men trying to block his shot, and never once laid it off to Yao who was standing alone under the basket.

 

I know that most NBA coaches don't get in their players faces or have heated, berating huddles, a la your typical college coach, because these are million dollar athletes! No one forcefully tells them what to do! But some definitely seem to be more passionate than others, especially when their teams are in the midst of a monumental collapse which turns out to be their M.O. [Jerry Sloan and Greg Popovich come to mind].

Rick Adelman does not seem to be this kind of coach. I mean, he could have heatedly pointed out a multitude of break downs [not getting back in transition D, not putting a body on your man under the board, failure to swing the ball when the first 10 seconds of the shot clock were spent with one guard trying to get the ball into Yao while he was being fronted, etc, etc] at all points of the 4th quarter. If this did happen in one of his ill-timed timeouts, why wouldn't you see an immediate substitution the next time said player makes the same mistake? [Alston and/or Head]

When will we see AB finish a game? I think we lost the Hornets game because there was an overal mismanagement of the personal on the court throughout the game.
Yao was the only starter playing well offensively [vs. NO], everyone else in the starting 5 that game either couldn't or wouldn't make/take shots... we dug an offensive hole in the 1st and 2nd halves, the substitutions {brooks, Scola} begin and we make our runs and get back into the game, wasting energy and effort just to break even. We did the same thing this game, except it was the exact opposite... as opposed to the Hornets game where we didn't have enough offense on the floor to compete, this game we get up by 16 and don't maintain this lead with some defensive players being out on the floor i.e. Hayes... the guy can only do 2 things well, play defense and rebound, why not have him out there to do those things when that 16pt lead becomes a 9-10pt lead... and if he can't help defensively stop the other teams run, put Scola back in - they'll score on him too but at least he can get those buckets back on the other end.

All in all, it looks like RA is still trying to fine tune his 'rotation' and the one thing that's glaring apparent is this:

If McGrady is hurt, either Head or Alston will somehow hurt you on both ends of the court every 4th quarter against top tier competition or fold against crappy teams making a run. Can we please see what will happen if AB finishes a game for us?

 

Landry, I think he needs more time. He did well in him several minutes today!

 

The team has never play normally, either "over-confidence" or "no-confidence".

When they are over-confident, they totally forget about Yao, eventhough he had 8 out of 8 shooting in first 3 quarters. Two more shots would make a difference. Whenever the opponent diffend better, they will totally lose the confidence, no one would take the responsibility.

 

I can't believe.

This is horrible, horrible.

 

It sounds a really tough loss and it's a problem even the championship team of 93/94 had problems with. Look at the first 2 games against Phoenix at home, they just got too comfortable after the first three quarters and didn't give it their all in the 4th.
Does this mean they have the same problems ?

From what i hear Yao can't close out games and is 'un-clutch' as opposed to Olajuwon who could carry the team on his own in the 4th when everybody else was playing bad.
Also Sam Cassell was mostly the PG who was given the chance by Rudy T. to close out games even though Kenny Smith was hurting (you could see it in his face) because of it. Against NO Alston was in the game with Head i think and i agree that Brooks should've been in there. Now we lost again in the 4th and from i read Brooks wasn't in there in the last few mins right ? (correct me if i'm wrong). We need a guy like Cassell was for us in 93/94 and i think Brooks is the guy.

Now looking at the shooting of the guards: terrible. 2 out of 11 from three point range by Head ?? 8/26 for the game for three ??
Also the guards totall is really poor and i'm glad Battier got it going for 3/4 behind the arc cause we really need to do something about that %.
The Rockets of the 93/94 team shot really well from behind the arc and the only reason the team % was down at time was because Maxwell shot when he wasn't hot (figuratively speaking). Head shooting 2/11 is really shooting when you're not hot. At least Rafer hits 3/7 so Head needs to stop shooting the three so much. Before the game he's hitting them all but during the game he fails more than 50% of the times.

So this shows we really need a guard who can close out games because Yao can't, Battier is too unreliable, the guards stink and the only who can close out okay is Scola (from what i've seen). Some people are overreacting because after the 5 game winning streak everything was all good and now it's all bad. I still think Rafer is getting something going and getting his confidence up but if he will be the PG we need it's got to show before the trade deadline. If not, then i think a really good move would be getting Cassell back for Rafer, Bonzi & Snyder / Francis. Francis needs to be given an opportunity first at SG i think as well as PG before we even consider trading him. On top of that, i don't think any team wants him but we do need a guy like Cassell who can drop in 30+ like last night against Phoenix .
Now that's a leader right there, a veteran who can show Brooks the ropes like Elie and Maxwell did to Cassell his first year. Go hard at him and make him the PG we need to start in a few years (i hope next year) because he's not a starter yet. He's a perfect 15+ mins per game coming off the bench Cassell type of rookie imo.

Who else feels if Rafer nor Francis will prove their worth at PG, Cassell is a good option ?

The rest imo will come together and please stop complaining about Rick Adelman. Show the guy some support, it's the team that can't adjust to his system, not the other way around. I do however feel that he needs to get players out of the game when they fail to deliver. I know he's still new and want to show the starters respect but he needs to take charge and show the guys if they want to play, they have to deliver.

 

Luther Head is very selffish, he is just building his stats with paying the all team's lost.

In the 2nd quarter of the game vs Timberwolves, I noticed he tried 3 3pt shots after other teammates' hard defense, there was still more than 20 seconds left and more than 2 teammates were still in own's court, but he threw the ball. Before he shot, I felt he wasn't ready and it wouldn't fall, and it came true. His stupid and selffish behavior let Timberwolves climb back quickly.

The coach should bench Luther immediately or trade him.

By the way, one question, did Yao play through 4 quarter again? If so, that's hard to believe.

Please, please trade un-clutch Yao, I am tired of watching Yao playing 42 min and lost the game and clutch fans blaming Yao non-clutch.

The scotish Alexander doesn't want championship at all, he just want to earn money and wouldn't pay for a balanced cast.

 

Morning After

Driving home from the game, several thoughts came to me. Probably these have already been discussed.

1. I'm tired of our short backcourt. Is there another team with a shorter bunch of guards?

2. Defense was poor all game, but particularly in the 4th. I know Chuck Hayes doesn't bring much offense, but we sure needed some stops and rebounds down the streach. Chuck never sees the court in the 4th, and we so often fade in the 4th. Correlation?

3. Too much reliance on Yao going down the strech. I know that is what he is supposed to do, but it doesn't seem that anyone else is ready to step up and help. When the 6'ers drove for layups 3 or 4 straight times, why couldn't we answer in the same fashion? Drive to the basket, make the shot or get fouled, or both.

4. I'm ready for McGrady to come back to see what happens.

Thanks for the chance to rant.

 

Ughh what an ugly lost. When we were having 10pts lead, our unbelievable sloppy players like Rafer, Head, and AB practically show them how to turn over with freebie passes and unprecedented errors. I was hoping Landry to get more time to grab more rebounds and scoring punch. Instead these 3 players are "unclutch" and lost us the lead. These 3 should be seated/benched in all future 4th quarters until they know how not to lost the ball.

 

I agree with you, but there was a reason why hayes on the bench in 4th quarter.

obiously it was his lack of offense. AD figured that if they shut down Yao by fronting and our guards having difficulty shoot from the outside or penetrating. AD wanted another option out there, which would be scola. AD think now the guards can't pass it to yao, maybe just maybe they can pass it to scola. unfortunately our guards were the problems and reason why we lost. They are using scola the same way as hayes. another probelm is scola isn't playing well along side Yao. I don't see the chemistry yet between them. maybe another first or two.

alston, head lost the game for us. brooks too, but he's a rookie.

 

I don't why we rush with edgy play and some players can't make open shots particularly in the 4th quarter. Even Scola miss several open and "should score" shots and these guys just lost their nerves. I guess being rookies
have these syndrome but then you don't see these nervy plays in other rookies. If they are nervy and prone to errors, Adelman sit them in the 4th.
I also do not know why Adelman kept his team of AB, Rafer, Head, Scola and Bonzi when we are leading 10 pts when the 4th started. Within mins, we lost it. After continuous foolish plays and 10pts lost, I knew we would not recovered as those players looked shell-shocked losing 10 pts straight.

 

They pick and roll their way to a 16 point lead then for some unknown reason they stop and try to post up Yao exclusively.

9 turnovers later the blow a big lead and lose.

Uh...hello.....McFly...

DD

 

Smith, Cassell, Horry, Drexler, Scotty, and all were loads better at throwing the post entry pass. This is something the Rockets have not been able to do for a long while. hard to be unclutch when you can't get the ball.

 

It is a different league now......you can double team the guy OFF the ball....

The problem was the guards stopped driving......and the maddening part of that was that Philly was in the penalty.

Just HORRID guard play on both ends last night......I still don't understand why Aaron Brooks got taken out.....

DD

 

Adelman played 3 guys +40 minutes. Yao, Alston, Head and Battier.

Head & Battier?? C'mon! I'd rather have Bonzi, Scola, Brooks or even Landry getting more minutes.FRESH LEGS in the 4th!

 

We've had our shared of pathetic games this year, but somehow I feel that this game is the tipping point.