Thanks, pun! last night's game left me so frustrated and angry, I am avid reader of cluthfans but I had to vent out my frustration
I agree with you on that, it's not a great idea to split them as it does limit our offensive threat. Bynum's minutes are going to be limited as it is, he is not completely developed defensively, and because of his physical ailment it's also preventing him from being an offensive threat. He is so sloopy that he picks up fouls very quickly because his lack of experience.
what offensive threat? where are the stats that shows Yao Ming and Scola have been an offensive threat this series while they've been on the court at the same time? last i checked, Landry scored 16 points in the 2nd quarter half of those with Gasol in the game.
I'm not sure if it's been posted yet, but Ron Artest was not lying about that table leg incident. New York Times - Player Dies in Stabbing at Basketball Game It took place at a tournament in Niagra, but the guy who was killed was from Queens. I wonder if he was on Artest's team or someone he knew personally.
let me clarify, what i meant by offensive threat was not to be measured by current playoff stats but as an overall offensive consistency. Landry does not always explode like that on a regular basis. Statically speaking Yao and Scola average more points. Going back to game 1 yao had a huge game, 28pts 10boards, and in game 2 he had 12pts 10 boards, a bit more consistent during the playoffs than landry. Scola in game 1 had 10pts 8boards and game 2 12pts 4 boards. He's been consistent. We can't hope or rely on some of our reserves to explode every night because it's not going to happen, as much as I would love to see it happen. I think consistency is a huge factor that could work in our favor if we establish it correctly.
I'm hoping we'll see the fans really give it to Kobe at the Toyota Center... I think what he did in Game 2 was low class. I highly, highly doubt he'll be suspended...
People will need to 'boo' him every time he has the ball. It will be a national televised game so few posters will be nice as well. I agree, it was a completly low class, just a cheap shot. Suspended? There is no way Kobe is gonna be suspended. I doubt he will pay as well.
Eh. The Rockets melted down. This is a tough, physical game with some cheap/dirty plays by Kobe & the Lakers, but the Rockets should keep their cool in these situations. I can remember reading posts on this board about the old pistons with Lambeer and how sometimes you need to send a message and how today's NBA is soft, well, the Lakers played like the Pistons of the 80s and now everyone on this board is crying about it. If one of our guys did the exact same thing to a Lakers player as Fisher did to Scola, 90% of the people on this board would be proud of him and all for "sending a message". I say, stop crying, toughen up, play physical/dirty and most importantly keep your cool. I know this is in Phil Jackson's gameplan. He's telling his guys to play physical/dirty in hopes that guys like Artest will lose it - and its working. We need to chill out and beat these guys at their own game. Rocket's are sitting pretty at 1-1 and coming home with a probable Fisher suspension.
completely agree. boo his cheap shot arse each time he touches the ball. kobe won't only not get suspended, the league will give him a bonus for pushing ron over the edge, b/c he just increased the viewership of the series by 25%, and that means more money for stern and the league.
You sure have a short fuse and short memory. You suggest to throw away the stats that show what Yao and Scola can do together the whole year (or the year before), forget the Portland series and the 1st game against Lakers. You just want us to use the stat for the 2nd game against the Lakers? Let's base all coaching decisions on that, let's hope Landry can score 16 pts in 1 quarter again. Let's keep him in all 4 quarters, may be he can score 60+ pts if he plays long enough.
if we are going to win the next game, yao has to figure out a way to seal off gasol. I think its clear why jackson benched bynum- he's a fouling machine and the type of player yao thrives against. Gasol creates a matchup problem on both offense and defense- on offense he steps away from the basket to shoot the J, and when yao comes out to contest he drives in for the easy layup/foul. Defensively he's slippery and does a good job of sealing yao off. Kind of reminds of the way boozer played him the last two years. If yao is in and gasol is covering him, either yao has him sealed off immediately and we have a clear entry pass, or we go to plan b. Last game on multiple possessions we waited 10-15 seconds for yao to get position, only to have no entry pass and eventually rush a shot with someone else. Kobe is going to get his. Gasol dropping the type of points he does on us with yao in the game is what will hurt us in this series; look at the box score of this game vs. game 1- gasol was the difference. IMO- if yao isnt playing well next game, sit him for landry and bring him in later with the second unit.
Its not all on the refs; the rockets needed to make adjustments and keep their cool! Its a sign of not having a true leader on the team! MJ would have never let that game out of hand!
That game was BS. You Rocket fans and longetime NBA watchers called it. There was no way that in the universe that the Rockets were going to win last night. Crawford & Co took Yao out of the game. Yao was only on the court for 26 min. How can Yao make a difference if he is not even on the court. The Rockets totally were on the wrong side of the fix. Tic tac foul call on Yao, when the dirty faker Lakers fouls called on them until the 4th quarter, espcially all the over the backs non calls on Gasol and Kobe elbowing Artest in the throat when trying to rebound, that was some b*t*h *****. Don't let the final count on fouls fool you Roc28 and LA21 because by the time the Crawford & Co started calling them on LA in the 4th to get the Rockets in the bonus the damage was already done. I really didn't want to believe that the NBA (ie Stern & the powers that be) want a pre-picked match up but between Kobe & Lebron. But even on the commercials inbetween the game it was all about Kobe & Lebron and were not even out of the 2nd round of the playoffs. Everytime the Rockets tried to get back in it the refs would blow the whistle on the Rockets. No wonder why Wafer was frustrated they called an offensive foul on him when Vuj-b*tch initiated the contact and did a semi-flop. The three pointer that got change to a two after the commercial break with no replay. Phil Jackson in the postgame interview saying that Fisher was trying to fight through the screen and Kobe saying that he didn't even see the play is total bs. Like Barkley told it real for once after the game on TNT that both Fisher & Kobe should be suspended. Don't get me wrong I knew it was going to be hard to go up on LA 2-0 but at least let both teams play it out with their best players on the court, Crawford and Co made sure that wasn't going to happen. For the NBA being the top league in the world with the highest paid players the Refs were a total disgrace last night. The only thing that was consistant was the inconsistant calls. Someone need to start putting those punk ass Lakers on there back. Time for the Rockets to take care of business a home and go up 3-1 by Monday. Damn those Lakers are lucky that Mutombo is not on the court anymore. Go Rockets and answer back...................................
Another clear sign of why the game was rigged: the way Joey Crawford reacted to Ron confronting Kobe. Ron was just saying something, nothing major. Then Joey comes in like Artest is going to start a fight and pushes him away. Also, if Kobe thought Ron shouldn't have been ejected, why did he put his hands up to make it worse ?
