WEll, the MOoch played PG for 37 minutes. I assume Stevie played alot of the 2 tonight. He kept us in the game and hit some clutch shots. Did you actually watch the game?
Steve scored 35 points also. Here's a stat that sticks out: Steve, Cuttino and KT: 35-64 for 55 percent Rest of the team: 10-35 for 29 percent Given that Cat and KT are one-on-one players, they aren't getting many assisted passes anyway. You can't get assists if your teammates can't shoot the ball.
Yeah, I was really upset to that he didn't pass it to Griffin or Morris so they could brick another outside shot. But you forgot to mention the 35 points he scored. The only other two players on the Rockets who scored are Cuttino and Kenny, and about the only way they score is one-on-one, so there is not going to be many assists there. So who's left: Griffin, Morris, Moochie, and Cato. What do you expect? You can say the same thing about this game as you could about last. If the Rockets had a true point guard instead of Steve that game they would've lost by thirty. Who else was going to do the scoring? This is really pissing me off. A guy plays his A$$ off for the second night in a row, and single-handedly keeps the Rockets in the game, and there's still people finding a way to bash him, while completely ignoring all the good things he did.
What exactly happpened at the end of the first OT? Was there a breakdown in communication? No way Rudy T called for Stevie to hold the ball and take a LONG three point shot... why didn't he drive to the basket and perhaps try to get hacked? At the very least, why didn't he TRY to do anything besides run clock?
when is their actually going to be another Clutch recap? I hate having to go to nba.com to find out what happened.
If the spot-up shooters, aren't hitting shots, wouldn't it be common basketball sense, to cut to the basket? I know you can't blame Francis for his lack of assists too much, if the other guys aren't hitting jumpers. But, damn, when will our dumb@ss players learn to cut to the basket? I just want to see ONE guy cut to the basket just once before the year is done. Most teams have 2-3 guys attempting to cut to the basket on 1 posession. With the Rockets, 1 guy cuts once a month.
He sure is. Steve Francis is about to become only the fourth player in the history of the league to avg. 20pts. 5ast. 5 rebs. in first three seasons of play. The other three are. 1. Oscar Robertson 2. Magic Johnson 3. Grant Hill heck, I would say that's a pretty darn good point guard.
Stevie has played great these last two games. Who cares that the Rockets lost both of them, the game tonight was exciting. I loved watching Moochie try to guard McGrady in the fourth quarter last night. I guess that this is Rudy's way of making sure that the Rockets don't win a game the rest of the season to lock-up the 5th pick in the lottery. Notwithstanding the lottery strategy, I would like to see the Rockets beat those worthless Dallas Mavs on Thursday night to remind the Mavs that they are a bunch of pretenders.
In Rudy's offense(and I use that term VERY loosely) averaging 5 or 6 assists a game is very good. Francis has two chances, 1) throw an ally-oop to Cato and hope stone hands doesn't fumble it or 2) drive and kick it out for a long shot, and if it doesn't fall....no assist. Maybe if someone sent Rudy a note telling him that baseline screens and motion are allowed we'd see some results.
I agree, H-town. How can the Rockets score 117 points and have their point guard dish our ZERO assists? It was an overtime game to boot. My main question is not the tired ole "Steve isn't a PG" arguement. Rather, it's the old "Rudy's offensive system is terrible" arguement. Again, how does the PG get zero assists when the team scores 117? Fine, even if Mooch played the PG most of the night and Steve payed SG, Mobley scores 30 and Thomas goes off for 26 and the leading assist man (Moochie) gets only 5?! Steve took 29 shots against the Heat. If Rudy is going to play him like a SG, then we need to get a PG in there and change the system because for every 117 point game that the Rockets have there will be 4-5 80+ point games. I really do think that Steve can play the point, but as the system is right now, it operates without one because it's run'n'gun, 1-on-1, isolation all night long. Rudy's offense is a freakin' joke. Makes me sick.
Well It's obvious Houston has a lot of talent. It's obvious Houston isn't getting the job done. It's obvious Steve gives everything he has (at least on Offense) every night. You can make the injury argument, but I still say this team has underachieved greatly. I don't see how you can blame your 25 year old PG for that, especially if Rudy's not dogging the entire team for their play. He must push these guys to DEFEND. I say most of the blame has got to be on Rudy. Rudy told his team @ halftime against the Magic they played good defense? um Assists will come from transition baskets, moving without the ball... from DEFENSE. Defense means stoping the other team from getting good shots, not lulling the other team to sleep by missing your own shots and holding the ball for 23 seconds on every play. I didn't see the game, but I've yet to see good D from the Rockets for more than 5 solid minutes this season.
Just accept it gr8-1. He is not a point guard. And shooting guards can go 53 minutes without registering an assist and still not really be considered ball hogs. They don't need criticism or excuses for that. Maybe they are just looking to score for the team. We are a team of two shooting guards, forcing Rudy to reinvent the wheel. What do you do with two shooting guards who have to be taught fundamentals? This can work, but I don't even really even believe replacing the bricklayers with shooters gets us passed the 2nd round. We need to get another scorer to set up these shooting guards, not the other way around. We need a high post passer, who already understands the high post game and can lead Steve and Mobley. That's required so Rudy can hand him the keys without Steve reminding us how he "always wanted to be the quarterback, and I guess I'm being groomed for that." Someone other than Steve has to take over as primary tempo maker, and I'm not talking about inside-out crap. I want the UCLA-cut. I want Ming. give me the #1 pick please baby please baby baby baby baby please
<b>You can make the injury argument, but I still say this team has underachieved greatly. </b> As much as people want to blow off the injury explanation, facts are facts. Injuries completely disrupted the Rockets season. The Rockets starting PF goes down before the season starts, the starting SF goes down to an injury, the franchise player and starting PG goes down for a month or so with an injury, the #2 option and starting 2-guard plays through nagging injuries that at times severely hampered him. At times our backcourt was freaking Oscar Torres and Moochie Norris. While that's not bad for a backcourt core, it'll get you killed night in and night out, especially when your frontcourt is Kenny Thomas, Kelvin Cato, and Walt Williams. Not exactly a lot of consistent firepower up front.
cp - I'm not as optimistic as you and others about getting Yao in Houston. Can Odom (or Dunleavy, Jr) perform this function?
Jesus. Why are you complaining about Steve Francis? Did you not see what Roc Paint posted? Francis has accomplished something Kobe, Iverson, Carter, Pierce, Garnett, Duncan, Shaq, etc. did not. All I hear from the Rockets forum these days is Francis bashing. For the life of me I can't understand why people would rather have Kobe or Iverson or Carter over Francis. He is so much better than they are, and younger. He is LIGHT YEARS ahead of those guys. I ****ing hate the bashing. Steve is the best player in the NBA right now. There isn't anybody or anypick I would trade him for. I wouldn't trade him for Shaq, Kobe, and the Bull's 17 next 1st round picks. He's that damn good.
ummmm...don't take this as bashing, but Kobe is 1 1/2 years younger. Francis is one day younger than Marbury and only 3 weeks younger than Vince Carter.
