This game clearly showed that the rockets lost in playoff was not because of Yao. VGD let him defended Boozer was because Yao can defend the paint well. I truly believe we could win this game with Yao. He can defended the paint and also can creat 3-point space.
um, that 3rd quarter, it was A LOT of tmac pick and roll too. we only ran the offense once or twice. the shots novak got off, it was the pick and roll. we scored 54 POINTS in the 2nd half. if u wanna complain about 54 pts in a half, then your expectations for this team must be 65 POINTS in a half.
Oh he knew where AK-47 was. I watched that same play and he left his man wide open in the corner to try to trap. Stupid cause he should have stuck to AK like glue and only rotated off him in the event of a pick and roll.
Novak came in, got a couple 3's, went 4-4 from the floor. Either keep feeding him the ball or say thanks for a solid 10 minutes tonight, do that next game. Rox could have used him Korver style like the Jazz did against us. I just don't see how its a good move keeping him in without using him. Head and Bonzi were hardly seen in the game. Its not like Novak all of a sudden bettered them and deserved all the minutes, like Landry eating into Hayes' minutes. I dont question substitution patterns but that one's got me puzzled...
Rick Adleman needs to stop being so unconsistent with the lineup changes. I wonder if it throws off the players rythm.
The problem with ball on Tmac's hand has been very clear, yes, he is capable of creating open shot for teammate, but it took so many times on the shot clock, beside, we don't have good shooter. that is why last season we shoot that many 3, and lost to jazz. RA is trying to change this problem, he oftenly put 2 pG on the floor, try to set up play fast. but TMAC never want to give ball the second option PG, unless, there is no way to go. RA has nothing to do with that, because as you say, sometime it works because TMAC's ability.
come on scola and t-mac, practice your fts, failing to make fts have costed games before and will cost us even more games if we don't improve. we need a tough-minded badass coach to challenge our current group of players...not a gentle old dying man....
I really like the idea of having Novak on the floor more with Tmac and Yao. When teams double, he would have some great looks.
I dont think its fair to blame our defense for this. The Jazz were well defended but time and time again they would make the shot. Sometimes thats just the way it is, a team gets hot and just doesnt miss. They got their shooting touch going when it counted the most. This game was close till the end. Oh well. As for the free throw shooting... that is just one of those skills that either you have or you dont. Technique only gets you so far. For some people shooting without jumping is pretty much the same as if they were jumpshooting and they will get a similar percentage. What can you do? The Rox are just gonna have to find ways to win despite their FT shooting. All in all im ok with the loss. You cant win them all.
The bench Yao crowd am sure are happy to see the offense against the Jazz. Yao averaged 25pts and 10 rebs in the playoffs agains the Jazz, yeah Yao can't play against the Jazz.
we lost last yr b/c we had no finishers around the basket so we relied on the 3. and we had nobody to guard boozer (we had hayes but we had to play yao or why have yao if you're not going to play him). scola was like hayes in the first half, missing gimmes everywhere.
This game was tied with 6:53 to do. I don't think that you could expect better even if Yao was playing. During the last 7 minutes of the game, when it came down to execution, the Rockets got outscored 25-17 on their home court. After what happened last year in the playoffs, one has to be r****ded to not see the pattern here. Utah is a system-oriented team; the Rockets don't have a system as far as I can tell. Hence, Utah is the better team. In the win in Utah earlier this year, TMac went crazy and had one of those briliant games that makes him a superstar. However, those games are rare and far in between and we can't count on them. Utah is the better team. If the Rockets don't establish a system that they can rely on, they will never beat this Utah team in a 7-game series.
