One thing I've noticed about Rockets games in general

astute observation my friend.. the two games were against the celtics and lakers

 

weren't we down the whole game to the Blazers as well? before fighting our way back and taking the lead, and then OT and then eventually losing on the Roy shot?

Anyways, yes it's nice to have the lead most of the game. But it makes losses like @ San Antonio even more frustrating than if you came from behind but lost by 2.

 

that's why i'm not too worried about the team, especially considering my belief that the team will drastically improve with battier's presence.

look at our losses:

*boston - close loss to the defending champs in which we were leading late before t-mac got burned by allen. that doesn't happen with battier.
*lakers - demolished by LA but had a healthy lead in the first half.
*portland - this was a win. roy's shot didn't count.
*spurs - we just choked.

none of these losses really concern me. it's not like getting thrashed at home by the sixers or something of that nature. obviously, one can go back and selectively make excuses for any loss for any team, but the point here is that performance-wise, i think the team will be there. we just need to stay healthy.

 

I can bear 3 of the losses,only spurs,we need persist our offenses,spurs is a team full of experence,their old guys'3 point shot is very accurate even on critical moment

 

and T-mac will have a high quality of performance is the games is broadcast on National TV.

 

The way we're playing right now, I think it would be reasonable to consider a 2nd round playoff a success. No matter the potential of this team (and even if they reach it) no way rockets win the west. THe lakers are just crazy good this year. You can tell they are a notch above everybody else.

Yao >= Bynum (yao's durability??)
Mcgrady <<<<<<<< Kobe (no question)
Artest=Odom (more or less the same)
Rafer<Fisher (shooting)
Scola <<< Gasol (no question)

brooks<farmar (no question, farmer does everything brooks does AND he is a playmaker)
landry<ariza (do all landry does, except shoots threes and a lot faster)
battier=radmanovich (defense, shooting, height...cancels each other out)
barry<vujacic (pretty much like barry but a lot younger and consequently more athletic)

oh my god. I mean we are outmatched physically and in talent. THe lakers are just loaded. Fourth quarter Kobe will explode and he actually has good teammates this time. I just don't see this rockets team cutting it. 5 years of the same thing doesn't morph into a championship with the addition of artest. I truly believe a 2nd round or perhaps conference final will be a more than acceptable outcome for this team. Lakers are just too crazy this year (maybe for years to come?).

 

by the way
farmer, ariza, vujacic is a pretty sick bench.

 

Lol. Your comments were questionable but when you mentioned battiers and radmans defense in the same sentence, thats when i thought 'wtf what are you smoking?'

 

dude please read more carefully.

....CANCELS OUT.

their RESPECTIVE ATTRIBUTES CANCELS EACH OTHER OUT.

thank you for your time.

 

I want to be optimistic too. But everytime, everytime it counts the same thing happens. WHen it happens and you realize t-mac has gone 10 seasons, yao has gone 6 or 7 or whatever, and that the same thing happens over and over again, it's hard to get your hopes up against a team that reached the finals last year and improved. I'm not trying to get my hopes up and set myself up for that disappointment. Finally they got Kobe. Battier and artest both do great jobs, but if Kobe turns it on, watch out.

 

So you are saying radmans presence cancels out battiers?
You have got to be kidding me.

 

BATTIER OWNS KOBE. The Lakers would have lost had he been there to say something about it.

 

It's a chronic illness of the rockets team.

 

Obviously the scales are going to have to tip in our favor before the season ends for us to have any chance of beating LA. Don't forget that 1.) Bynum has durability issues of his own, 2.) once Ron Artest finds his niche in our offense he should be better than Odom (and infinitely tougher, I think the playoffs might make Odom half as good right off the bat), and 3.) for all the hype LA's bench is getting, it was just a year and a half ago that people were still ragging on it and saying Kobe had no help. Have Vujacic Ariza and Farmar really gotten that much better since then, or is it just smoke and mirrors from people still being amazed at the Gasol deal? Yes they're long, but I still question the defense of every one of those players, and throw Radmanovic in there too. No more Turiaf means they are even weaker in the front court.

Essentially, what I am saying is that the way LA lost last year leaves a very realistic possibility that they will lose the same way this year: to a team with more toughness, grit, and balls than they got.

Will the Rockets be that team by year's end? No one can say right now. It's way too early. It doesn't look good at the moment, but coming into the season everyone of us knew the pieces were there. Artest is maybe the toughest player in the NBA along with KG. The Lakers missed on getting him. They might still come to regret it.

 

Could you provide some evidence of this?

Two seasons ago over 82 games, we outscored our opponents 97.0-92.1.

Last season it was 96.7-92.0 .

This season thus far the point differential is markedly less - 92.3-88.9. Oh and we are much worse on an efficiency basis on offense and defense than in either season.

This seasons performance by most rational measures has been markedly worse than any of the last two, I don't think anybody would disagree with that, so I don't really know where your coming from.

Possibly you remember more 4th period deficits - well that's not surprising as the 2007 rockets did play approximately 8 times as many games as the 2009 rockets have so far.

 

Wow xzibition86's post on the lakers is evident of a damn laker nuthugger.
Yea Kobe is good but his team ain't. Kobe enjoys the refs +3 and that's all that beat us last year. Pau Gasol shows up some times and the fact that you mention Vujachit as a threat is ridiculous.

Their team is doing good this year but what are we.. 12 games in?? Seriously guys, that's too damn early to start predicting how good the Lakers are.

The Rockets will get better as the season goes along (hello 22 game win streak) and then see what happens.

Go back to the Laker forum.