I saw alot of quickness and I liked it!! This was preseason and we looked pretty good... I can't wait for Yao Ming and a 100% Boki!! I'm stoked!!
As far as Steve scoring 30 and still being a good/great leader, I think people have to remember that a great player needs to shoot when he's feeling it. And steve definitely was feeling it. He will have games in the season where he's not feeling it as much and will get more assists then shots. Look back to last year and you will see this happening. The fact is he's a great player and no matter what position he is, he needs to do what it takes for the Rox to win. BTW, no one complained when Magic or John Stockton had 30 points and 10 assists and they were great point guards. Other Observations: Transition defense looked the same = horrible. If teams run on us and we don't improve this we will be towards the bottom of the league in points allowed. Half-court defense was good and will get even better when a 7-6 player is clogging the lane. Eddie got creamed on the defensive end in the second half by Gooden. Boki will get his Touches. Morris was excellent on offense but needs to show more than 1 block on defense. Don't forget, we were playing without Taylor, Ming, Rice, and Norris = 2 starters and 2 key bench players. So basically it was the same team as last year personnel wise and we looked a lot better. Keep it up Rockets.
Great Game. I thought Steve was fantastic, 50% shooting was great, ten assist were great, and his defense was great. Stop hating and start celebrating like the rest of the Rocket fans.
I agree teeloo. Eddie is still not ready to defend PFs, it seems. He fouled out, too. Looks like Rudy is going to make him learn, though. His blocks are not good enough if he is unwilling or incapable (strength-wise) to keep PFs off their sweet spot. I can live with this as Eddie learns how to stop being abused, but what I cannot tolerate is Eddie not going for every rebound. He *can* rebound; we've seen it, but he has to *want* it like Kenny does. For a mediocre offensive game, Kenny rocked. Six offensive boards being guarded by Gooden/Swift. He never disappears.
because 24:- You dont read my posts!! I loved the action last night! I just wonder about the Point Guards motives, especially when Yao Ming tries to make his contribution to Roc chemistry. If he(Steve) averages 10 assists per game I will be quite happy,only if most of them are not to Mobley but to other players needing his encouragement!
I have never heard Steve or anybody associated with the Rockets say that Steve is going for an MVP, so please show me that for varification. As for getting Eddie involved, people have said he looke pretty flat footed on offense. How do know that Steve or any other player on this team or even Rudy didn't talk to him during time outs or between periods? If Griff wasn't moving around, you can't expect Francis to just give him the ball, that won't help. He needs to get open and move around to get the ball, not the other way around.
All the talk about the offense, I think they really won it with Defense. I was really happy to see them playing harder on team defensive. I don't have the stats but I saw a lot of steals and forced turnovers. I hope that they continue their Defensive progress. Their offense is already awesome.
oski- the espn: the magazine article: http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol5no20westside.html "Yesterday you said noon to one, and we went noon to two," Francis says. Lucas furrows his brow, cocks his head back and asks, "How bad do you want it?" He scribbles again on the piece of paper. "Let me show you something. There's no reason you can't be this." Francis looks at the paper, on which Lucas has written the letters M-V-P. "Three to five," Francis says, walking away. "Three to five." so at the very least, becoming MVP is a long-term goal of steve's. but don't get me wrong, i'm on your side. i don't think steve lets that goal get in the way of his play on the court. Yetti - please don't get discouraged with the way steve distributes the ball this season. he and cuttino are the rockets' best options, so they will take the majority of the shots. and even after we get yao ming playing regular minutes, this will continue to be the case.
Actually, when you have a player that is a career 75% fg shooter, I hope he becomes 1st or 2nd scoring option soon enough.
Seems like Steve played great, so don't hate, congratulate. (Weak attempt by anal-retentive white man in his mid-30's to sound "urban.") Anyway, while Steve will probably never be a Kidd-like point guard, it may take awhile to bring EG along offensively. The kid's still developing his game. Maybe with a win out of the way we can concentrate on getting EG and Boki involved. T-Mo stepped up this game this time, so Boki will have to wait a little. And, if Boki's still a little tender from his summer surgery, then give him some time, he'll get there. Could it be Gooden is gonna be a solid player but really wanted to prove something, not only in his first "NBA game" (albeit pre-season) but against the team that thought Yao Ming was the better investment with the #1 pick? Najera also torched us two years ago in the pre-season; we passed on him for Damn Lanky; maybe he had something to prove at that time.
if Gary Payton shoots 22 times and gets 30 points and 10 assists, he would have been having an unbelievable game... I think he needs to be a leader ... point be... Francis is young, I hope it isn't the case that everyone sees him as unfit as a leader because he is certainly trying to do what's best for the team
He played like 35 minutes due to the fouls he had if not he would of gone off even more on jay wills ass and brevin knight makin battier look silly with the crosssover he did on his ass. he was going off but he had to commit silly ass fouls that sat him down. Actually he had 6 fouls to my account but iono why they must of forgottoen one
foeget that i wished francis would shoot like 26 times he makes like half his shots trust me, he dont miss much he is a very good shooter he aint like iverson. and i bet u he would still get like 7 assist going with his 40 point a game. Man they just can stop him he is the ****. **** Kidd or payton stevie is the best player of them all period no comment
Somebody said earlier that he took advantage smaller pg's J-dub and B knight. Well, shouldn't that be expected of him? Nobody avgerages 30 pts and 10 assists a game, so Francis did better than what he does on average.
Lets just tell it like it is. Yetti would not be concerned about any of this If Francis was Chinese and Ming was not chinese. Ming is his son of the east and thats quite alright. Some fans have a favorite player because they like his game. While others have a favorite player because of a common cultural background and their motives for him to succeed have more to do with just wins and losses. You know how it goes Yetti: Francis is the devil. Ming is the light of purity. blah blah blah. Ok I'll go first, Yetti: A little stupid part of me wants to see the caucasian guy(boki) get his. your turn Yetti!
man alot os steve playa hataz up in here. Man this guy does everything right and still gets hated on. Whats wromg with ya mofos. He gets 10 assists that should be enoguh to shut ya up. when hee was in the game we led by like 20 when steve was in a rythem. man i think steve should take even more shots knowin he makes more tha anyone else and ill bet hell still get like 7 assist. hell get more if people around him actually MADE the ****in ball man just stop hatin he is the shizznettz with a 90 million dollar contract let him do what he wants he will c*m through this year wath MVP of this year trust me. Kidd got alot of pub last year. He shouldnt off gotten iti think start bury would of been the same
I watched most of the game vs. the Grizz and thought Da Rockets looked pretty good for the first pre-sea game. First half had a lot of ball movement. When the subs started coming in the game got kinda ragged. Stevie F had a good game but I also thought he was shooting it a little too much in the second half. Listening to Bill and Calvin on the TV made you think the Rocks had given up the iso play. I saw it numerous times before they even mentioned it. Cat still holds the ball at times to iso. Rudy is going to have to drill it into their heads that moving the ball around will get them all good shots. T Mo proved that. KT looked really quick! I would have wanted to see Boki get a couple of shots off. Some of you guys might not want to admit it, but Stevie did look his way and decided to shot the ball himself. It was the first pre sea game so lets not make much out of it.
Yea Tex, I think its obvious that Yetti wants Yao Ming to do well, regardless if it benefits the Rox or not. He's not a Rockets fan, but a Yao fan.
