Reason: We seem to be resting our injured players when we think we can get away with it. Artest out for Grizzlies, Warriors, and Clippers. And this from McGrady: Many of us have long sensed that some of our guys take the night off, metaphorically, when they think they can get away with it. But in the case of injuries and rest, it seems to be literally true. I'm not holding that against them, if they need the rest. It's a sensible thing to do, if you have to choose a spell to be out. All I'm saying is, the rest of us should stop looking at the schedule and thinking, "Oh, we can make a 5- or 10-game run right there." Because if McGrady, Artest, other players, and the team medical staff are looking at the schedule and thinking exactly the same thing, then that's when they'll sit out. And the "easy" teams that happen to be on our schedule that week or month will stand a much better chance of picking us off.
We cant win games with weak minds, no schedule is easy enough, we may loss games when we dont have the appetite to win.. Why always Rox lose games when we vs weak
Pretty much. Others have done this before (Spurs, Shaq) and gone on to win the title...but the difference being that they already won before deciding to pace themselves. I'd have no problem with members of the Celtics going easy on the regular season now that they've been there and know what they need to do. It does rub me the wrong way that McGrady's been doing this almost his entire time with the Rockets. Artest I'm more willing to believe needed to find a short stretch to lay off the ankle. In the least, his problem doesn't stem from blowing off rehab this summer. Evan
No easy game if we ain't gonna outhustle every opponent we take on. Sloppy plays and stupid decisions made really cost us.
Same ol tmac. He's probably gonna take a rest during the first round playoffs of this year and just come back next year. Hey, theres always a chance next year right so why not rest? WEAK SAUCE S(*#&$@#(
Agreed. There are no easy games in the NBA. You gotta play hard to win a game. And it doesn't matter who we play. We have already won some games against really good teams but we have also lost a LOT OF GAMES against really bad teams. We need to play like every team was Boston Celtics because we think it is just too easy. And the results are as the are.
All I care about is making the playoffs, and then playing well in the playoffs. I have NEVER had a problem with the effort of ANY Rocket during the playoffs. The regular season means less in basketball than any other professional sport.
Considering that we're going to own the month of February (and later) yet again, it's important we take care of the health issues NOW rather than later.
The only easy games are the ones for our opponents. The Grizz and Clippers look to gain some momentum whenver they see the Rockets as their opponents because they know that the Rockets generally can't come back from a double digit lead because their offense is *so* inefficient.
Give up a couple more games like the Clipper and the Grizz and the Rockets will be holding NBA playoff watching parties at Yao's and TMac's homes at the beginning of the post-season.
I understand what you are saying Dr. Rob, but the regular season does matter in that home court advantage is KEY to playing well in the playoffs. If the Rockets are not one of the top 3 seeds, I doubt they make any real noise. Anything below that would be a dissappointment with this talent. They could be fighting with the Lakers for the number 1 seed if they played hard every game, but for some reason they mail it in far too often, and I blame TMac and Yao for their attitude, they should know by now that losing to teams like the one's in my sig will bite them in the arse later in the year. Their lack of committment to winning or playing hard every single game is a mental weakness, one that contributes mightily to their playoff failures. They let down against Dallas up 2-0 and coming home a few years ago and lost the series....for some reason Tmac and Yao just don't have that KILLER instinct, that will to crush their opponents. Drives me nuts. DD
We are able to come out strong, or play a couple strong quarters, but after we get ahead, we start to relax. At that point, the other teams star turning up the heat and we dont. We can easily come out and kill some teams we play, but we get lazy and have to work hard to finish. I wish they would turn off the score board if we are up by more than 10, then maybe we would play hard the whole time, just incase.
sorta believe that we would get some blow-offs after all-star break. if we dont.....ok,there wont be any easy game this year
I cannot agree more, WILL. It is especially heinous when our SUPERSTAR is openly saying that such attitude is wht he believes in, which would drive our role players into the same mentality. It is extremely bad because instead not having that great competitive voice in the locker room lik Garnett, we get a completely opposite attitude: Don't play hard all the time.
I have no problem with players taking some games off right now for better health later in the season. Playoff seeding is important but healthy players are even more. I am concerned with the lack of chemistry and the constant change in the lineups, but hopefully, it will be more settled before the All-Star Break. The other silver lining to all this is that the bench players are getting more minutes and game experience. It may be painful to watch sometimes, but it will pay dividends in the long run when we hopefully have everyone back.
This is all really silly. It makes tons of sense what they're doing and the risks have been rewarded. It's still early. We can't blame them for coming up with novel ways to improve the health. What we CAN do is blame them if it all goes wrong in the end, and we don't know that it will. I like this strategy. Everyone's just come to a serious understanding that health is an unusual issue for us, so we have to find an unusual way to deal with it. That is the truth. I don't believe the players are slacking either. They almost all give it 110% every night. We need this month to heal. Give them this month. Look at the silver lining - Brooks and Wafer will get decent experience, Francis will be given a chance, and Head is being showcased. They've tried something here and I think it's definitely worth a shot.
