Just face it, we played terrible today no matter how good the Lakers truly were. Tmac didnt show up again, i mean hes suppose to be our superstar, our go-to-guy and now hes become just as unreliable as our role players & possibly worse. Yao is not playing like the best center that he is and instead is becoming the most soft player in the nba. I dont even feel like talking about the other players because there was only one player that actually came to play tonight. Now all that aside, I say we recuperate and bounce back with the kind of defense that JVG instilled in this team and run that motion offense with our big 3 playing like a big 3.
how can the rockets score consistantly if the lakers "small fowards" are taller than the whole rockets team. (except for yao). the lakers defended the paint very good, and they got 10 freaking blocks tonight.
I think 80-90% of people around here have faced it. Did you read any of the previous 200 posts? And, it does matter how good the Lakers are. That was a real factor last night. If they stay relatively healthy, I wouldn't be surprised to see them win 65-70 games this season. On top of that, if they keep the core of that team together for the next several years, we could be looking at the next dynasty. They are that good. I'm not saying the Rockets can't get there, just that the Lakers look like the best of the best. I knew they would be good but they may end up being better than I thought. Maybe, I'm wrong.
That is painful to realize but absolutely true. Ariza, Walton, Radmanovic and Odom are all as long or longer than our entire team other than Yao.
Kobe in the post game said it best. The Lakers length and athleticism was their advantage and why they got so many blocks and defensive stops. Also they opened up their transition scoring on the 2nd unit and took it away from there... Speed, length, athleticism, along with talent. Rockets will have to get extremely cohesive to overcome that combo. Pau Gasol and Kobe came off very smug in the postgame talk. Rockets fans would not have liked it at all. Wouldnt be suprised if the whole team's like this. You'd swear THEY were the champion team from last year how they're promoting and presenting themselves. I expect there to be a big love-hate connection with this year's Lakers. Hope the Rockets can whip the crap out of these jokers next go around.
They were acting cocky DURING the second half when they started opening it up. Staples Center was dead quiet after the Rockets came out strong. We had a chance to make the Lakers and their fans believe we were for real. In the end, though, their superior speed, length, athleticism and talent took over. The Lakers really are a complete team. Nobody is going to be able to beat them easily if they stay healthy.
I agree that they are a pretty tough team in terms of skills and ability but they are prone to some pretty awful mental lapses-especially defensively. I watched most of their games after they acquired Pau last year and though they were winning against bad teams, they had quarters and halves where they were complete boneheads on D which was why I was certain they wouldn't go deep in the playoffs...but of course they pulled it together long enough to get to the Finals where they again had the lapse I talked about. As good as the Lakers can be, their weakness is their mental toughness. They have the toughest player mentally on the planet but after that it's a pretty steep drop. We will see if they mature a bit or if Jackson can instill urgency in tihs team to stay focused but I have the feeling the worst thing that can happen to these lakers is for them to coast through the regular season and go on auto pilot and then get socked in the mouth in the playoffs by a physical veteran team stepping up there game like the Jazz or Spurs or (hopefully) Houston.
I didnt see the game....but the stats look TERRIBLE Rockets need to get their act together and start winning games if we are a hope of living up to the expectations as soon as we acquired a 3rd superstar..........
I'm sick of hearing excuses this early in the season. "Yao is recovering from his injury, he's tired from too many minutes." We haven't even played 10 games yet. If your going to be beaten by every center in the opposing team, what good are you? "Tmac has a bum knee and shoulder, he has a cold." STFU and come to play tmac, Kobe scored 27 points or so last season with a flu. Or if you can't play, sit out and rehab your knee and come back. "Artest is too busy chasing the opponent's main scorer," this is also BS. This never stopped him before from scoring. "We're still learning the system..." Come on Adelman, you had a year+ with the team... Bah, maybe im just mad cause i live near LA surrounded by friends who are Lakers fans and they continue to smack talk about the Rockets. I wouldn't be this mad if we lost by like 4 but almost 30??
yeah me too..when Houston was up by 16 and our defense, most of us would have expected a win is possible.
once battier's back i think he will ease the pressure on everybody....his basketball IQ has been sorely missed this season, as much as his defence
I agree. And I think in this game, having Battier defend Bryant would have freed up Artest and allowed him to concentrate on his offense. That plus having McGrady at 100 percent would have made it more of a game. The blowout hurts but it's too early to judge this team. We'll see in a few months what we've really got.
lakers are better than the rockets, plain and simple as that. what needs to happen is we need to get Aaron more minutes!!!!! rafer is garbage, and he should be the one playing garbage minutes. it was down right embarrassing that he is a starting point guard in the nba and no one respects his shot. i dont know what to say about t-mac or yao, its a long season, hopefully they pull their stuff together soon
