ClutchFans Game Thread: Cavaliers @ Rockets 2/7/2008

because we beat a varejo (?), gooden, and partial gibson-less cavs? c'mon.

we're making headway for sure, but this team is still nowhere near hitting it's potential, and the west is as brutal as it's ever been.... that being said, the west is also as balanced as it's been in a long time (w/o seeing the new suns or lakers), so anything is possible.

but i'm not ready to say this team is primed to make it past the first round yet.

 

Tracy McGrady received his NBA Care recognition during intermission.

And photos of him and the other players in action, on their way to notch an important morale-boosting win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in home court, extending the winning steak to 5.

 

Mayne you r right, the injury killed yao's potential

 

Bulls have a 13pts lead at Warriors, lets see whats gonna happen.

 

thanks for the pics, pryuen

 

only 13pts ! not enough !Warriors are full of lunatics

 

rafer has a message for the entire western media..."They should keep their pens ready to continue writing bad things about me. "

postgame interview:
http://media.switchpod.com//users/vladthegreat/rafer.mp3

 

One thing I would like to see is guys going to Yao more, it gets Yao going (who needs to be involved early anyway) and opens so many opportunities for other guys (cause its an automatic double team). In addition, when the centers from the other team spend their energy guarding Yao, they produce less on the offensive end. We see timelessly when the rockets choose to ignore the big guy, the opponent center goes off like an all-star and Yao looks like a clown (or a big defensive liability if youd like to address it that way), which requires a Tmac-allmighty for the savior. The truth is, if we are gonna hanging on Tmac's J, how far away we are from the JVG ball and another first round or 2nd round exit?

 

Actually, if we were 31-18 this year, we would still be battling for home court position. Just goes to show you how tight everything in the West is. We're sitting in the 9th spot, with virtually the same record as the 10th spot, and we're still only 5 games out of FIRST. The West is absolutely brutal.

 

Agree!
In this summer, Rocket was favored as the champion to be, not because of TMac, but because of Steve. It was unblievable (also unforgivable) Adelman forgot this fact and stated with exact the same line-up as last season. Otherwise, we already had every chemistry needed by now if SF had enough time to play.

 

It's ridiculous. How can you be 9 games over .500 and be out of the playoffs?

 

Apologies if this has already been answered, but:

If GSW loses to Chicago tonight:

They'll have the same record as us, 29-20.

Denver would move up to 7th.

GSW would still hold the 8th spot since they have the edge in the season series vs. us at 2-1. Correct?

TIA

 

perhaps the chinese media wrote that. not here

 

It scares me when Tmac plays and everybody just magically falls back to their role-player mode, including Yao, no matter Tmac dominates the ball or not. Alston is a clear example. Why in hell can't they keep their level when you have a much better option than Luther Head?!

 

did you watch the game tonight? rafer handled the ball and took a lot of shots

why do you b**** after a win?

 

Right on, we can't ignore the fact that Yao is our most efficient scorer and on most night will have the advantage of mismatch. In addition Yao is an excellent passer to cutters, and open jumper. However, Yao more willing to pass and less aggressive under Adelman's offense to keep ball moving which is also good.

 

Yeah....it's getting pathetic that Big Yao still got that kind of diss and bash after he played a great game to lead his team mates for such an emphatic and morale-boosting win over Lebron James & Co.

Did you see the game tonight? Or was it the first time that you learnt that this team had changed a head coach that had requested Big Yao to play more at the high post, and lesser on the low post?

Most of his missed shots tonight were not those point blank shots/dunks he used to score. They were mostly contested shots on motion and 10 to 12 feet away.

But did you notice all those great assists that he provided to his team mates, including 2 consecutive ones at the start of 3Q that stretched Rockets lead, as well as the assist to Shane Battier for that nail-the-coffin 3-pointer towards the end of 4Q?

Give the Big Man a break. He played great tonight.

 

still better than the last 3 sorry teams the rockets won ugly against? maybe t-mac dominating the offense less throughout the game the rockets function better?

 

Dude, Tmac is not "playing" tonight, credit his effort though...that is why Alston is effective. Did you watch the game? And I am not complaining.

 

Rafer, Bonzi and Shane really stepped it up tonight.

When you get 17 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds, a block and only 1 turn over from the PG position we can beat anyone. Unfortunately that is more exception than the rule. Brooks still needs play time to continue to develope, but he clearly isn't ready to start at this point like some suggested a week or so ago.

Shane was big with 15 points, 8 boards, 2 blocks, and Bonzi going for 13 and 10 without committing alot of silly turnovers was great. We out rebounded the Cavs by 20 tonight with most of their bigs out with injuries. Goodto see the Rockets finish out the game in a must win situation, especially with Tmac sick.