RA has some unhappy players. Tonight he pissed off the usually mild KM. Asked why he went cold, KM simply said, "I lost my rhythm. I don't know why. I just lost it." I think being benched in the 2nd quarter had something to do with it, so in the 3rd, he just went firing away which were all misses. RA is mismanaging his whole guard situation--with AB still not getting his form back and RA force-feeding PT on him.
I have DirectTV here in the hill country. I started watching the the game on KENS5 just get a different view than Bill & Bull, but had to switch back when Sean & what's his name spent a 4 posession tirade on how the best team in the NBA didn't have a starter in the all-star game & Comish has to replace Yao with "Timmy". Then I'd switch back to KENS5 when we made a good play to see what Sean said about it. He's usually pretty honest when the opponents make a really good play. The 1 I really remember was when someone (I think it was Chuck) took a pass inside & drove past the Spurs for a layup. Pop immediately called time out & I switched back to KENS5 just in time to hear Sean say "Boy they're getting an ear full now!". :grin: That was fun! I didn't do too much switching in the 2nd half.
This was the first game I've seen since the OKC loss but I only caught the 2nd half of yesterday's game. In the 4th quarter the Spurs killed the Rockets with their guards and SF's. Hill, Parker, Ginobili, Neal and Jefferson were absolute Rocket killers. I think McDyess and Blair contributed a whole 2 FG's and a couple FT's in that 4th quarter but it was really the perimeter play, especially the outside shooting, that killed the Rockets. In that type of scenario, when Ginobili and Hill had just hit three outside shots with about 6 minutes left, RA needs to find a way to force San Antonio to drive inside or pass inside to their post players. I San Antonio commentators mentioned that the Spurs were like the #1 3-PT shooting team in the NBA or there about @ 39%. When they start shooting and start hitting those outside shots, you need to force guys like Parker and Ginobili to drive inside. Only problem for the Rockets is they're too short to do anything about that. I watched as George Hill on one play drove inside and got a shot off over our center Chuck Hayes. Hayes may be able to defend one-on-one very well because he denies low-post position and plays smart when faced up, but he can't take those type of shots away like Yao would do. The Rockets best bet during the game would be to play the SA perimeter players close and force them to pass inside and let Duncan and Blair win the game for them. I think the Rockets are stuck in mediocrity; a no-man's land where they will dwell until they make a move: a big trade. Even if the trade just nets us more role players the Rockets can either only get better, get worse or stay the same. When you're mediocre that's what you have to do, just like we did when we traded for T-Mac it must instantly much better.
In recent years, the spurs have not seemed that much better than the rox. even this year. the big difference i see is that they are supremely confident. parker and ginoboli run the show and there is no fear in their games. they run like a well oil machine. everyone know their job and they work very hard to do it. the spurs hill was always at the right place on defense. the rox in contrast rarely play defense well. many of the players are tentative including our starting sf battier. the only bench guys playing with confidence are bud and at times patterson. brooks, lee and hill look unsure all the time the spurs players are not really much better than what we have. they just know their system very very well and are confident. just my thoughts.
Sean Elliot is the absolute worst commentator in the NBA. He is such a homer. A cheerleader with a microphone. I hate that when the spurs and rockets play, my league pass is blacked out for that game and I have to watch the local broadcast. Hard to stomach Sean Elliot.
How quickly things change sometimes... I went form rooting against spurs last game to rooting for them for their next game against Portland... I hope they beat the hell out of them.
I must admit I find this funny. How or when did this team ever have the heart of a champion when no one ever won a championship in the nba? Look, face it, the rockets just arent a good team. They wouldnt be a factor even with this mythical healthy Yao. They have too many holes and not enough impact players. Brooks not playing like brooks hurts them alot. Trading trevor hurt the team no matter what anyone says. Brad miller was a mistake just like all the other older,system guys that were signed. To make matter worse, the young guys cant play enough to ge evaluated correctly. They're in a bad spot and everyone knows except the blind fans. Morey said something pretty square a couple of weeks ago. He said when they find players, if the guy can do 1 thing good,then that will be enough for the coach to give the player a chance to play. If you look at the current rockets, they fit that description to a T. They have a bunch of guys who only do 1 thing well. I mean,look at the old spurs. Their starting 5 is made up of well rounded players. All 5 can defend their position, run,jump, just good basketball players. On their bench, the only guy who is not in that mold is Bonner. Even minus Duncan in the starting 5, their other 4 players are better than the rockets. Not to mention Pop is much better than Adelman.
Many of you talk about how our 2nd unit played bad and lose every game. But are Lee, Bud, Patterson, Hill really that bad? How can they produce when our Chris Rock Jr. PG doesn't like to run any plays, constantly waving them off for isolation solo show. I say give them a real PG that play to their strength and see what happens. Instead, they get a PG that only pass the ball to them once every full moon, or when the shot clock is about to expire, how can they NOT suck? I missed Lowry running the 2nd unit, but the idea of AB/Martin/Scola playing defense together give me nightmares... I think our problem is pretty obvious, we have more defensive liabilities than entire western conference combined. Teams just run plays targeting Martin or Scola and score at will, or AB and Bud on our 2nd unit. Our opponents will always score on us with ease, our starters can at least keep up the scoring. Our 2nd unit can't.
No No No No! The absolute worst commentator is Bob Ortegel for the Mavericks. He never admits that the Mavericks commit fouls. In the last Mavs-Rockets game, all he whined about was about Houston's "flopping" (yeah, I know they flop but I don't need to hear about it every damn minute). And he sees the Mavs playing great "defense" when they are playing no "defense". The guy wears the short skirt and shakes the blue pom-poms every second of a broadcast. I actually have to go find the other team's broadcast feed in order to watch a Mavericks game now. Yessh!
I think playing Ish over Brooks might help 2nd unit by a lot... I just don't think that Coach is going to do that... may be because trade reasons or just hoping that playing Brooks will help him find his shots.... Iunno.. as of now, I would rather see Ish over Brooks
He is to blame. He doesnt play Ish who is better than lowry and AB. TW is better than shane and bud, just like I said 3 months ago. Too bad TW shot himself in the foot by saying he is not a SF because he is not 6'8 (****ing idiot), now RA is going to believe that. TW is stronger,faster and smarter ball wise than those 2.
I don't think Ish is better than them, but yeah... he should sit AB for few games because he is hurting team... with shooters like BUD/PAT in that bench, Brooks shoot more shots by himself than the whole bench. Ish should play instead and create shots for Bud/Lee/Pat. And Brooks has had his chances.. I really believe that he should be sit for few games...
Are any of the Spurs mentioned in trade talks? OTOH seems like every single Rocket player has been - and that has to make a difference in the players minds. And the average age of the Spurs players vs the Rockets?
If we had won 40 games already, none of our players would be the subject of trade rumors either. I don't buy the notion that trade rumors effect play one way or another. Well at a minimum, the rumors are not the reason for our record. There were no trade rumors at the season's start, and we still didnt win for over a week and a half. We just don't have that guy we can give the ball to and just get out of the way on every single play. RA has to draw plays up, where as other teams have a play called Kobe/LBJ/Wade/Durant/Pierce "go to work".
The Spurs are 40-7 and have vets that have won them titles why would any of them be involved in trade talks?
Good post. Heart of a champion was really meant as a metaphor for the way these Rockets play defense. Can you remember a Rockets team with worst defense? Maybe back to the "we will tank to get the #1 draft" ping pong days?
