this rocket team is making progress in ways that won't necessarily be apparent in box scores. there were a few things that stood out in this game to me that I consider way more important than an OT loss on the road vs an up and coming team: #1: IDENTITY all game long we struggled. yet from the fourth quarter on, we absolutely locked down on defense. chuck hayes absolutely stole 7' aldridge's heart. ripped it from him one on one! aaron brooks' diminutive stature was never an issue as adelman wisely put him on the screen running fernendez and shut him down completely. tmac was relentless in the stretch. he drove and applied pressure the entire second half! defensively I saw effort vs outlaw that no one on our team could've applied to a long, athletic outlaw. I loved it. yao...what can I say other than that shot down on the block...with the foul...was shades of hakeem. that shot will carry over. trust! he showed that when we need a big shot, he can be the one of the big 3 to make it...similar to what ray allen did for boston last year. that is ENORMOUS. #2: changing of the guard aaron brooks has apparently earned adelman's complete trudst and it is, imo, a matter of shane battier coming back b4 aaron is starting. why? because shane moves ron to the bench where he can provide brooks' scoring boost. aaron's two biggest obstacles were (1) defense and (2) quarterbacking. he showed - again - that he is more than a scorer. he ran the O safely, efficiently, and without sacrificing his game, alongside the big 3. this in extended minutes. this going the entire 4th and OT. it is inevitable. he will be starting this year...as soon as his bench role can be replaced by a BETTER, more experienced scorer and defender in artest. if anyone is disappointed by this game, I understand. ask yourself this, though. in the long run, what does this performance do for our team? does it help us further define roles on this team? to me, this "win" is more beneficial than, say, the spurs 2OT "win" vs minny.
Very good analysis. I' am SO happy to see Brooks playing so well. I know Yao will come around (sooner better than later) but my concerns right now is REBOUNDING and RAFER.
rafer becomes less of an issue with battier's return. it changes the dynamic of our team. rebounding is a concern that will have to be addressed via trade. francis' expiring + filler should be enough to net us an elson-type big who can board and D. that's a deficit that everyone knows about (fortunately) and won't go unaddressed. in fact, I don't even worry about it. if we see it as a gaping wound, and chuck continues to D up, we may even move a francis/scola package to pick up a significant big on a floundering team at the deadline. in the meantime, we are witnessing players prove where they belong on this team. hayes is making one of our power forward's potentially (in the right deal) expendable. aaron is making francis an expiring contract instead of a "hope he comes back disillusionment".
in a lot of ways, I appreciate this loss more than the dallas game. that's not our identity. we aren't an "outscore you" team. we are a physical, defensive team with TOUGH matchups on offense that you have to double. we will never be a 110+ ppg team, although its good we can when we need to. this loss, imo, will multiply yao's confidence and (more importantly the team's confidence in his) play in crunch time. this will show that ron, when we need it, can D up an ELITE point guard. his d at the end of regulation was perfect...perfect! the last shot? tip your hat on a 29 footer with almost no time left. no shame in that. pick ur head up rox fans. this team is forging identity with each game.
... well said. Some of these threads are making out that Armageddon is upon us. 5 games into the season, it is far from disaster. This team still needs to work out it's chemistry, and we don't even have Battier back. We will continue to improve, however I admit that there is no way this team will with the ch'ship unless we make some minor roster moves.
correct. in the long run, we have needs which will be addressed. however, u can't identify those needs without games like tonight. so, was tonight beneficial??? of course it was!!! we saw our fundamental strength - defense - exemplified. it's still there!!! we saw another step towards upgrading our most obvious weakness - point guard play. we saw a tmac continue to do what he has NEVER done as a rocket - be relentless in his attacks to the rim. he imposed his will on the game. these bball rookies live and die by the shot...by the game. I'm looking at the big picture.
analysis so good,Brooks now is much better,Adelman let AB start and we lost too many Rebounds.last season we won ave 4+
yao can be clutch. i always know that, unlike many others. his problem right now, well, i really have no clue. i just hope it's all in his head.
Good analysis, team just got unlucky, that three was more than lucky for Blazers like I've never seen something like that in past 2 years.
they needed unconscious nights from aldridge and outlaw and a 29 foot fling from roy to win at home against a rox team still forging their identity. I see no reason to be upset.
I think scola is getting better and better, he shot more than 50% in the past two games. He should get more chance.
Lets see, you put your BEST free throw shooter AND clutch scorer on the bench during crunch time... Do you even watch the games?
scola didn't get more chances because he sent in his defensive absentee voting card. he didn't battle aldridge early for position and got roasted for it. chuck was the only rocket to effectively guard aldridge. offensively, scola showed a lot of confidence from 15-20 ft and that bodes well for yao, tmac, artest and anyone else in the low blocks.
Really well done OP. This early in the season, I'm more interested in how the team is coming together than in wins and losses. There was a lot not to like about this game, but there was a lot--out 4th quarter run, t-mac's play, brooks, etc--to build on. I think it's important in an 82 game season not to be reactionary after each game. This is a refreshing attitude.
The Rockets got burned by some bad individual defensive matchups, they did a poor job on the boards (outrebounded 16 to 5 on the offensive glass), and they couldn't get Yao going at all. I think those were the three keys to the loss.
Man, best post this week! I agree totally. I am hoping for the Yao/Scola/ Battier/Tmac/Brooks lineup as well. With Ron being our Manu off the bench but still play 30+ minutes. It will be great.
verse, Thanks for the thread - it was much needed. The first thing I thought when the game ended was the BBS and how people would overreact to one game in early November. I understand the disappointment and frustration, especially when it is pretty apparent the Rockets got jobbed by the clock keeper at the end of overtime. But Portland isn't some scrub team - they will make the playoffs, regardless how much they get out of Oden. We had 2 miserable offensive games for the 2nd straight game from Yao and Artest and it still took a miracle shot plus some generous "time" by the clock guy to beat us. I thought I would never say this but this team needs Battier desperately. With him out there, the game doesn't even go into OT. Just hope that this doesn't affect the Rox tonight as they are playing a team that they have to beat in the Clippers.
its just one of those days the shots were falling for the blazers today....almost all of them....Aldridge, Outlaw, Blake, Frye....even when there was some defense on them. oh and fernandez. its just one of those days all of them were hitting and to top it up, the last shot of the game from Roy. i think they were destined to win today. but lesson learned, lets move on. oh n landry seriously needs to improve his D n not give away too many cheap fouls. Go ROCKETS!!
and that is to be expected! right now, we are going through a change at TWO quarterbacking positions: 1: point guard our starter is being supplanted by a 2nd year speedburner who van light up the scoreboard. 2: our defensive qb, shane battier, is injured. thus we become a team of talented individual defenders that lack a cohesive direction. THAT is what shane brings. he is our defensive anchor and playcaller. ron is the maniacal, ultra-talented linebacker wreaking havoc wherever he goes, but shane is the glue that brings it all together. last night, from the 3rd quarter on, we saw the rox individually shut down fernandez, aldridge, outlaw and roy. the fact that we can do that to a team as young and athletically gifted as portland is nothing short of amazing. once we settle in as a team and learn to defend as a unit?? scary. i really don't care about wins and losses right now. we're gonna win 55-59 games on sheer talent. what we need is consistent progress from now until the playoffs because the ultimate goal is 2 be peaking at playoff time! last night was a step that way because you're seeing our identity forged. we're tough, gritty, and yea, offensively tough to match up with. let us become a unit on D and you'll see more of that suffocating D. (on a side note, wtf was portland thinking running a high p-n-r w/roy & aldridge vs ron & chuck??! did not work ONCE! our two best defenders on the court switching out?? idiotic coaching move considering yao was out there and we absolutely DO NOT rotate well w/o shane out there...) let aaron start when shane comes back & we become more diverse on O. aaron adds the tony parker to tmac's ginobili...the blurring mr. longoria to yao's duncan. when our evolution is complete, the rockets will scorch the nba. 4 now, appreciate the process because its right in front of you.
