Part I: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=164172 He hits a clutch 3 at the most critical of junctures despite struggling for weeks with his shot. Then he prevents Billups from making a layup to cut it to 1. Chuck Hayes also came to the rescue, giving up his body to save the ball (probably deserves its own thread).
How can we even let them overcome a 19 point deficit and nearly steal this one from us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are just lucky..........
A lot of factors. These are at least a few: 1. Free throws. 2. Inexperience. 3. Denver is a tough place to play, especially on a b2b, even if Denver was also coming off one. 4. Yao picking up a bad foul when it looked like we were able to lean on him down the stretch. He was scoring and getting to the line before he fouled out.
It really shouldn't have come to that. Yao's half-court foul was the single dumbest basketball play I've see all year.
bill worrel had a crazy old man look of hate in his eyes when he told AB he would smack him in the face if he kept using him as a punching bag... surely bill was joking around, but that was really not funny and very uncomfortable....
Yea...Yao's foul was really dumb. Then both fouls by Scola bringing Denver at the lines are also dumb. Then Aaron missing free throws...pressure? There are so many ways the Rockets have done to try to lose this game....and yet still win...that's how good they are.
it almost took me a second to even comprehend what i had seen. i was barely looking b/c i thought denver was just bringing it up and then yao just lunges and hits billups. it was like he and scola were competing to see who could be the biggest dumbass down the stretch. i think yao won just on quality alone, but scola was getting it done from the quantity side. your post to scola on the 2nd foul he committed was about the most unrestrained i've ever seen you. it was hilarious.
neither scola nor yao's fouls are the reason why this game was close. though man it was stupid. yao played some good defense tonight though.
There were several factors as to why it was close but I wouldn't exclude some of those bad fouls. They definitely contributed to the situation. That said, I think Scola got sandwiched on one of his last two fouls. I may be wrong because I only saw it from one angle but it appeared to be a Nuggets foul.
well after we missed all those free throws then certainly those fouls made the situation worse, but we hit even an average percentage and those aren't a factor.
The way I look at it, sometimes you just miss free throws. Even great teams will have rotten nights at the free throw line from time to time. What you should be able to control is the mental mistakes. Those fouls at the end were game changing mental mistakes. Scola's fouls were a little more excusable, because an offensive rebound in those situations would have helped seal the game. Yao's foul, on the other hand, was just a total f-up.
Please dont get so excited about Battier. It's all about statistics. He shot 1/5, 0/4, 0/3, 0/4, 0/4 3's in the last 5 games. After all that many misses, it's pretty natural he made 2 out of 5 tonight.
Gotta give him credit for that. He played some strong defense as well. Needs to keep on improving his shooting.
Your argument is that because you made the 1st mistake, the 2nd and 3rd ones shouldn't be factors. I don't think order of events is as critical as the fact that there were multiple events. You make the first mistake, don't combine it with another one or two or three, etc...
It was bad, but not even the dumbest play all night. I mean, did you see Trevor Ariza? Down by 30 and you committ a flagrant to incite a fight, and probably get your own ass and Odom's ass suspended?
