Wow, I'm surprised you're defending him.......If he is entitled to call out Tmac.........then we can certainly disagree with him.
I agree that we some godawful possessions were we couldn't get the ball closer than 30 ft from the rim. But I'm not sure I am as concerned as you are. If this was something we'd been seeing game after game, than yes, but I'm willing to chalk this up to "one of those games," for now. Let's see how the Rockets bounce back.
The key here is that Novak did make the shot so that it looked weaker about my argument that Novak should not be playing so many minutes and kept Scola on the bench. Novak needs to be left open. For his seven minutes on the court, no one was creating an open shot for him. And they were forcing the ball to Yao even he was highly given attention by the Kings and got doubled or even trebled. Think back. Scola was the only one who was good at finding opening spaces and nail the mid-raged shots. He is also comfortable pairing with Yao down the stretch. If we could make several shots earlier, there is no need to test my HEART in the closing seconds by Novak....
Man, I was saying the same thing in chat..... Also, I don't know why Scola only played 11 minutes, he was 2 for 2 from the field and the line. When the offense bogs down he needs to be in there, he is probably our most creative scorer from the PF position and moves to open space better than anyone on the team. Adelman almost blew this game. Glad we won though. DD
I agree with you, partially. The Rockets are known to have issues compared to other contenders when it comes to closing out games. However, since the Rockets have played well in recent weeks, I would also chalk this up as one of those quarters/games where things just fall apart. The Rockets will have plenty of games against the better teams in the West after the break. Those games will tell us a lot about this 07-08 team.
I think you mentioned this earlier, but what the hell is RA doing playing McGrady the entire second half game after game?? It's insane.
People say the difference between RA and PJ is the the real difference between that Kings team and Lakers team. I kinda agree.
I was thinking why isn't Bonzi trying to drive and punish them ?. I feel he loses his confidence against tough defenders and scores only when he thinks he can exploit a mismatch. I was very disappointed in him today. Not giving more minutes to Scola was a big mistake too IMO. Foul trouble makes him hesitant but he still tries even when he is struggling.
Kind of interesting that T-Mac said this before tonight's game... ""It's the last game for us before the All-Star break," McGrady said of tonight's game against the revitalized Sacramento Kings. "It's going to be one of those games you don't want to cash in early. You don't want to go on the break early."
As they say, talk is cheap. What can the Rockets do to improve upon this weakness? Do we need to make a trade? Can we expect Bonzi to bring it on a regular basis? I am glad we won but we need to do something to improve this team's ability to close out games, whether that comes internally or through some kind of personnel change.
always Rocks make a game that leads his fans to get heart-attack.win heart-stirring ,lose heart-broken.Thank God!
In the fourth quarter, if (1) our shots are not falling, (2) no one is able to drive to the basket on a consistent basis, and (3) Yao becomes a stationary target and the guards start force feeding him the ball, then we are doomed. So we desperately need someone that can do the (2) above to avoid this kind of fourth quarter collapse. The Kings have Artest, the Warriors have Davis, we have no one at this time if Tmac can not do this for us in the fourth.
Just because somebody is in disagreement doesn't mean we are not rocket fans. This board is always quick to pull that "We are not rocket fans card" And it's totally ridiculous.
Such a long long long time no see the last shoot---comes from the Bench !!! Such a long long long time no see the last shoot---comes from the Bench !!! yes, it is a long time no see~~~~!!!! in our memory,only Head did the last shoot as the bench, But today, ----- we only can say " yesterday once more" Steve Novak....shooted the 3 points,the win ball, the hero. Hope more and more bench players can finish the task in the future day. Go ahead~~!!! Rockets... Happy all star weekend...
For whatever reasons, the Rockets offense just disappeared in the 4thQ. For almost 11 minutes, we threw up enough bricks to build an expansion to the Toyota Center. Everyone, and I mean everyone, couldn't hit the ocean with their shots. It's inexplicable and inexcusable. The offensive meltdown, together with the Kings seemingly unable to miss anything, almost broke the hearts of us fans. But wait! 14.2 seconds left after a smothering Kings defense knocked the ball out of bounds nder our basket. No doubts, the final shot was going to end up in the hands of either T-Mac or Yao. We barely got the ball inbounds and Tracey was heading down the paint looking for Yao. And the entire Kings team collapsing on T-Mac and Yao. T-Mac made the second most important play of the game by not following through with his original plan - instead, sending the ball to a wide open Steve Novak. What a great, great clutch basket!!! Yeah, we should have never been in that position, but the fact was, we were. No panic among the Rox though - the guys know - and trust - that Steve could and did make that shot. Lots of time in the near recent past, the Rox would have folded the old tent and gave up. I think that's the difference this season. We're winning those heartbreakers that we missed out on time and time again. The Rockets refused to lose! IMHO, thst's what we got out of this game besides our 8th win in a row
