I don't think Hayes played enough down the stretch. He seemd to be having some success on the defensive end. The lineup of Scola, Battier, Novak, Tracy, and Rafer/Brooks gets pushed around a bit much.
I attribute the poor defense largely to Adelman's decision to keep Novak in the game throughout the 4th quarter. He thought he could get away with putting Novak on Korver instead of a big, but it still worked against us on multiple possessions.
that's why jvg hesitated to play him. he might make shots here and there, but on the other end, he's a HUGE liability.
Rockets will need to make a move to bring in shooter. T-Mac, Yao, Landry, Scola, Brooks, Alston, Deke, Bonzi, Francis, and Battier are not going anywhere. That leaves: Hayes, Snyder, Head, MJ, and Novak to get someting in return.
we just can't execute at the end. this is getting too common, i think i'm getting used to this. no matter which coach, which role player, which all-stars, it is the same story. our offense hasn't looked great. we end up messing up the first play, wheter it is the players fault, jazz's defense, or a stupid play made by adelmen, it just sucks. we end up having 7 seconds left on the clock, and that's when you just shoot randomly. rafer's streaky shooting will win us games and lose us games.
No team ball. The Rockets came back in the third passing and cutting. Then in the fourth T-Mac starts jacking up long jumpers early in the shot clock and the Jazz win.
posts like this are just r****ded. it's a tough loss to take but considering all the missed free throws and yao being out, id hardly make any proclamations one way or another after this game, especially considering weve already beaten utah this season.
It is Tmac he dominated the ball and everyone stood around and watched him shoot jumpers.. MOVE people...move...and if Tmac is in there as the primary ball handler, Rafer should not be....got to put a better shooter, rather have Luther or Brooks in there to shoot off his passes. DD
Doesn't really matter if everybody stands around if T-Mac jacks up a long three early in the shot clock.
I dont mind the decision to play Novak but not against a tough gritty team like the Jazz. And if they are going to play Novak he MUST shoot the ball. Novak playing 8 minutes in the 4th without taking a shot is about as wasteful as waste ca be. Cuz he gives you NOTHING past his outside shot.
Today I am only happy with Battier, he actually stepped up when he needs to. Rest of team.... I shouldn't blame them, they just suck, they can't make shots...... everyone is too used to open shots when Yao got doubled and when they are faced 1-on-1, they can't shoot any more. And T-Mac actually had a fair game...... he didn't lift the team but neither Boozer... Just one thing, when you tried so many open shoots, could you focus a little bit on your free-throw? Thanks, T-Mac
we missed 6 POINT BLANK layups and a gazillion fts and it was a tight game down the stretch. u don't think that was a primary reason we lost?
The Starting Point Guard Comparison: Rafer - 4-13 (his usual 30%) 0-4 threes, 3 rebounds, ONE ASSIST, 8 points. D. Williams 5-10, no threes attempted, 4 rebounds, 12 assists, 17 points. Rafer isn't the reason the Rockets lost, but his performance didn't help much. My point: Rafer does not match up with any starting point guard in the West. Baron Davis is up next.
I think a better option than giving our rookies that many minutes tonight would have been to play our Veteran Center Mutumbo at Ctr. He's at least a defensive nightmare for them. He would have blocked shots, stopped them from driving into the lane and grabbed a ton of rebounds and either get an easy putback or kick it back out to a shooter.
Bah, without Yao, this game went from 'tough' to 'dang near impossible.' No biggie. 5 - 2 in the next 7 puts the Rox back on track. Hopefully, Yao's back for the Warrior game, although that's a tough game, too.
