Ron is both too good and too bad.sometimes he is over Yao and Scola should get more shot wiht hot shoting
Brooks should have the ball at the end of the game. He seems very comfortable with the ball towards the end of the game. He should be driving and then dishing it out to Wafer or giving it up to Yao. I guarantee you that after the Charlotte when Yao dominates, you will be all over his balls talking about how he should be up for MVP. He is the best player on the team. Also, I never said Battier was the best defender in the league. I said he is one of the best which, your right, may be some exaggeration but he is still a damn good defender but had a very off night tonight. I know that Ron was pulling on Pau's jersey but why did Pau get to shoot free throws if he wasnt shooting and it wasnt the bonus?
If Ron has an average game we win. If Shane hits and open shot we win. If we dont turn the ball over 23 times then guess what? WE WIN! We can beat the Lakers guys, they are soft in the middle. We showed that in the first half. Why we didnt in the second is beyond me.
kobe is getting too much credit - you can't compare cav's supporting cast with lakers - not even close. pau scored at will against yao and their 2 pf's tipped in many misses - even luke walton shot like 4 of 5. if they could focus on kobe only they could slow him for sure.
Agreed on Barry. Why is Adelman so against playing him? He can shoot lights out and he can still throw down.
haven't read y'all's comments, but this game frustrates me to no end. turnovers, those damn turnovers. this is where it is maddening. the lakers put a little extra on us and we tilt like a sinking ship. from yao to almost every perimeter player (and aaron, what's up with these bounce pass to yao's shin?). this is the defensive pressure we are gonna see in the playoffs from every opponent, if not more. obviously we can't handle it. can't hit the outside shots. we're what, 5-28 for 3's? many times when yao passes the ball out, no one can hit from outside. had we hit them at our normal rate, or even @ 10-28, we'd be winning. and ron is obviously more suited to defend lebron, not kobe. no one played terrible, yet no one stepped up. in such a crucial stage of the season... this worries me... had we won the game... err...
Fisrt of all, when Yao went to the bench we were down by 1. Secondly, did you ever hear about momentum? It is a "strange" thing we lost during the whole 3rd quarter with Yao on the court, the same strange thing we had without him in the 2nd.
There is a lot of blame to go around, but it really just comes down one team being better and more talented. Ariza is a tough defender that can guard multiple positions and all he cost was cook and evans. Kobe is always the best player on the floor. Not to mention as long as shane is on the floor he gets to rest on defense. They're long, versitile and execute better. Take a picture and frame it because that's the team to beat for the next 5 yrs. Did I mention the 21 yr old big man in street clothes?
I'm still mad about that bs trade that send gasol to la. This had "NBA long term revenue" written all over it.. - see my sig.
Are you talking about the same team that got clobbered by the young blazers 2 days ago? or the same team that lost to the celtics in a humiliating finals defeat? If that's the team you're referring to then I vehemently disagree. Lakers is over rated.
Eh... they made their shots and we missed ours. I can't really find anything really fundamentally wrong that we did other than not adjust to how they were defending Yao in the 3rd quarter. We didn't rely on the jumper too much (which was good because it wasn't falling). Didn't allow them to go to the line too much. Contained Kobe for the most part. He went off to an extent in the 4th, but there isn't much you can do but man him up and hope he misses.
After calming down, and looking over the game ....I think it comes down to one thing only. MISSED 3pt shots. The rest is irrelevent....the Rockets shot 5-28 from 3pt range and Shane was 0-4, and Ron was 0-8.... If they hit their normal percentage the Rockets win going away....some will say they took too many but these were WIDE OPEN shots...for the most part.....they have to hit those. I am going to chalk this up to bad 3pt shooting. DD
