I love this team. Although we had several bad executions, we did very nice jobs on defence. Jazz is tough, as always. Yes, they played dirty. But admit that Deron's dunk and AK's steal showed something there. But I still believe in this team. The reasons: 1. We never give up. We were down by 14 early 3rd qtr, then we came back without hesitation. The back-to-back 3's by Shane and Rafer are even more impressive. 2. Carl Landry is advancing every game. If Scola and Brooks can do a little better, this team will become stronger in the following games and in the long run. 3. Even this year we cannot make it, we will fight back WITH YAO next season.
I really have to question whether that was a real rebound by Okur. It looked to me like he got away with a shove on Landry.
P.S. Its not on TMac its on BJax. That guy SUX. Hell Mike James could have gone 1 for 10. And we would still have Bonzi inside playing physical with these guys. And the coaches for not getting the right personnel in the right situation. RA was probably thinking about the play they were gonna run after the rebound but the assistants should have put a bug in his ear to make sure we got the rebound. Coaches fault. And Refs. But staying with BJax was not smart.
Deron does that to a lot of people. You can't complain if another team's superstars outplay individuals who are better than them. Really, Utah should be beating us much more handily, what with our injuries. We just can't lose one of your best players and think it's not going to make a difference. If I'm a Phoenix or Denver fan, I have every right to be furious. If I'm a Dallas fan, if they lose game 4, I also should be very angry. Houston? We really don't have much reason to be very angry. I hope they can win game 5, but hey, it was a fun season regardless. Just think- next year, Scola, Landry, and Brooks are all going to be better. Woo!
No wonder they sucked, they only had one heart between them. In all seriousness, we did play hard tonight (if not smart). I still believe.
The one suggestion i would for the Rockets is... if you are behind, dont take forever to take a shot please. Its the Jazz's job to eat up clock, not yours.
It may not be a vast difference in talent but there is a difference. Add the fact that they are bigger than us and that we have no answer for Deron Williams and it starts to make sense. One thing is for sure, T-Mac is not the problem. He is the only reason we are even making it look close out there.
The truth of the matter is we were outplayed most of the night. For some odd reason, we cannot get our heads on straight when playing against Utah. They seem to know us like the back of their hands and can always pull out a win. If you notice from last and this year's playoff games, we win only by a hair normally while they can either win by a hair or quite a bit more. Yes, there were a lot of issues in this game. 1.) Tmac disappearing in the 4th again. 2.) Horrible officiating 3.) Missed free throws 4.) Terrible backcourt shooting percentage. 5.) Coaching substitution patterns The list goes on. Clutch was right... it defies logic that we were even in the game at the end. I also believe that there are a lot of problems in the core makeup of our team in that we still lack a strong 3rd scorer behind Yao and Tmac (which is even more evident as Yao is out now). And no, getting smaller backcourt guys is not going to cut it (although I like Brooks and his possible development). It may take 5 but it takes at least 3 real stars to pull it together that are consistent. As much as the announcers apparently jocked the Jazz all night, they were right. To win, we need to be perfect in our offensive schemes and that's just not the way it should be. We need individuals that can consistently create and shoot. Unfortunately, Tmac doesn't always fit the bill. Nor does Rafer. The NBA playoffs is a different animal from the regular season and you need different guys to step up. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I look forward to seeing what type of talent we are able to add in the next year (not that I think the series is over already - just my thoughts). One thing is for sure. We should unload Jackson and Head (and possibly Hayes) for some premiere talent, if possible. Great job today Rockets. I know you played your hardest.
I do not think so, the long offensive droughts that this team experiences would be lessened if Yao were playing. For instance, tonight, during the second and third quarters we could have dumped it down to Yao to establish an inside game. When both he and TMac were healthy this year Yao would step up in those games that TMac's shot was missing. The one thing that Yao needs to improve upon however is the turnovers, he seemed to have 4 or 5 turnovers every game. If we would have had Landry and Scola last year, we would have beat the Jazz. Finally, it is amazing how bad Head performs against the Jazz, he only played for a few minutes tonight and was terrible again. \they took tu
Alston showed some guts, but the OP is exactly right. He got into a pissing match with Williams and wasted a couple of offensive possessions. Dribble, dribble, no pass, shoot. Seriously, wtf? I thought this was supposed to be some kind of motion offense. Where's the freaking passing?
The jazz got away from a jumpball from battier as well. The refs screwed it, I KNOW IT. There was one ref who wasn't as bias, the slickback hair and the brownass guy screwed it over. I especially hate that slickback hair guy, jackweed.
we do lack in talent. outside of tmac, can we honestly run any plays for anyone else more than 2x in a row? they can go to deron, boozer, okur, ak, even korver. we can't. we win with hustle, heart, passion, and sometimes those things make up for talent.
look, i know one call doesn't decide a game, but we fought hard enough to get it back to a 2 point game, and then they make that terrible call on shane for fouling korver when korver clearly stepped out. and then you look back at that game 2 flop by kirilenko, it's really ridiculous. we should play better so it doesn't come to down that, i know, but it did come down to that, and it's really frustrating. also, can you please explain to me why Adelman didn't sub in hayes and deke to get the rebound off the free throws. why t-mac and landry on the block? they tried to block out, but okur is just bigger and stronger. i thought that was a huge blunder on adelman's part.
McGrady, Rafer, and BJax a combined 16 for 53 for 30% from the field, the three most shot takers on the team. The rest of the team took 26 shots and hit 13 of them. That's 2/3's of your team's shots at a 30% clip. We have got to get a wing player that can take about 15 - 18 of those shot attempts and hit them at a 50% clip. Luther another 0-fer. Brooks gets two minutes and hits a shot. Gets the pine the rest of the time. Sure, he made a defensive mistake. When are we gonna let Brooks have his head and create and score? How bad does our shooting have to get before we realize we have to get Brooks in there and let him take about 10 shots? Or at least Novak. How bad does our shooting have to get before we give Novak about 5 shots? My god man. If Novak gave us zero defense, at least he'd be hitting 2 for 5 from distance and giving us an extra 6 points. And he could actually hit a free throw.
Your right, they missed a couple of violations on the Rockets. However, there are two differences between the Rockets transgressions and the Jazz. First, when you call a phantom foul, it forces players to the bench and takes them out of the game in addition to causing a turnover. Second, when your elbowing players and throwing them to the floor and not getting called for fouls, it causes bumps and bruises at the very least, injuries at the worst, and defiantly prevents the other team from trying to get into the paint. These repercussions are increased exponentially because three of the Rocket's four best players on the court have pretty significant injuries already.
