Does anyone think we're catching teams by surprise?

true, but teams like portland and utah who have been together for a while now and didn't really have any significant changes/moves, should not have much trouble.

 

This.

Anyone that doesn't think we are catching teams by surprise is just wearing their homer hat. The true judge of this team will come around the 25-30 game mark. We have only played 3 teams so far, but I am impressed.

Portland is without their best on the ball defender (Batum). I am suprised that we handled Utah so well, even if Boozer might be working his way back into form.

 

Our players are more talented individually and collectively than anyone, including Rockets fans, gave them credit for. The veterans have always deferred to Yao and McGrady, now they don't have to anymore. The new guys are better than expected.

No one doubted the team would play hard. Everyone underestimated their talent level.

They aren't a championship team, but they aren't a 20-30 win team either.

 

There should not be any surprise. This is team proven in playoff last season.

 

We're like the Wildcat right now. No ones figured it out yet.. but when someone does, its not going to be pretty.

 

I think this team is going to be hard to game plan for. There was a point in the Utah game were we scored three times in a row running a high post with Chuck Hayes. Brooks has been penetrating at will, even against a super defensive point guard like Deron Williams. The offense is kinda formless the more you key in on something the more you're giving up something else. This will work as long as we're knocking down our shots. When our shooting is not there we're going to look awful (that's when we'll be crying for Yao). It'll be too easy to double down on Scola, and pack the paint to stop Brooks from breaking down the defense.

 

I do think it's partly because the Rockets are catching teams by surprise and and teams haven't figured them out and adjusted yet. But it's mainly because the Rockets have been playing well. I love seeing that they're proving all the "experts" on this board wrong. That is, everyone who made dire predictions about them being a sure lottery team and one of the worst teams in the Western Conference, shortsightedly based on the career statistics of a bunch of youngsters who were role players last year. They're showing that a team can be greater than the sum of its parts, and that Morey understands how players develop. (Even Kobe Bryant wasn't a superstar out of the gate.) He understands that acquiring players who have already proven themselves and become stars isn't the only way to win. Given the right coach (Morey's best move), system and opportunities, these guys are making good on their potential. I think that's the main reason the Rockets have started fast. Hope it continues.

 

Over last 2 games, Rockets shot 50% on 3's

The 1st game we shot 28% at Portland and at Goldenstate we shot .46% and we barely beat them (Nellie had some poor adjustments)

Still going by the "live by the 3, die by the 3"

 

I don't know if "by surprise". But i think most teams were prepared to be focused a lot on Scola or Brooks and not so much on other players.
The Rox have been a surprise from the point that they have pretty good scorers other than Brooks and Scola.

 

The team is gonna be weak on iso plays. We're avoiding them as much as possible and getting lots of points in transition. That's hard to stop for any defense. Sure, being hot from downtown will make any offense look nice, but the scoring will be there as long as the pace keeps up.

Our offense:
105ppg, 10 3ptr/gm @ 45% shooting

Knicks offense:
109ppg, 10 3ptr/gm @ 29% shooting

We don't want to emulate the knicks, of course. But the point is that we can still score when the shooting goes cold. Our offense has to be fast, but still disciplined.

The real key to winning is defending and rebounding. We haven't been doing those very well. I have my doubts on our rebounding ability, but our defense can definitely improve.

 

I can't find it now for some reason, but in reading a recap of the Rockets/Jazz game from Monday night, I saw a quote from a Jazz player (I want to say Ronnie Brewer) that explicitly stated that they underestimated the Rockets.

"These guys actually can play" was part of the exact quote, I believe.

 

NBA teams must have the worst scouting departments of any league if we're catching teams off guard. They had an entire off season to figure out that we'd be without McGrady or Yao.

Did they expect us to attempt to duplicate last year's offense with Hayes playing the role of Yao?

 

I think the team is playing much harder than it's opponents. This team brings playoff intensity to every game while their opponents are stuck in regular intensity. We have 3 guys in the starting 5: Battier, Scola, Hayes, that play just don't know how to tone it down.

If the other team brings anything less than it's A game, this Rockets team will win, you saw it last year vs. the Lakers. The Lakers thought the series was over after Yao went down and took a couple of games off, we destroyed them in those games.

 

what exactly is talent? being able to put the ball in the hole or being able to get a hand in a passing lane? because what we lack in the first part is what we make up for in the second part.

 

The one thing that makes me hesitate to say we are catching people by surprise is - we have played the Blazers twice out of 4 games and won the second one. I would think that if we were "surprising" people, then we would have won the first of those two and looked much less effective in the second.

The other 2 games we have I don't put much stock into yet - any team that plays with some level of determination and smarts will beat the Warriors, and Utah I think is much worse than expected (they had a 15 point 4th qtr lead on Dallas and lost by 10 last night!).

Meh - who cares anyway why they are winning, just keep winning Rockets...

 

No one has figured out how to stop the Run and Gun offense. Even the bad teams that have been using it for years are still scoring 90-110 points a game. Can you guess why they lose? They don't play defense. they expend all their energy on offense and then when its time to defend they just wait for the team to score so they can hurry up and get back on offense.

Im not saying we are unstoppable(I'm not stupid). But we are playing fast and Defending hard. Our effort will never come into question on both sides of the ball. That is the only reason I think our team isn't flukish.

Oh and how many teams do you know that can truly defend the PnR? I bet you can only count them on 1 hand.

 

Only team that was caught off guard was the jazz. They never figured this team could hang. especially with the refs of there side

 

well we dont have any national media games, so JVG cant tell every team what to do to beat us. We are in the clear until we get to the playoffs

 

i dont think it so much of catching teams by surprise...

its more of other teams not knowing how to adjust.