ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 12/21/2002

Obviously, Yao is very tired. 4Games/Week
Did u watch Rockets |Pacer game?Yao play the second half.

Wolves is so lucky......

 

Since he had drawn those fouls in that short span, the Rockets should have get going to Yao, if just to get the Rox into the bonus and get the Wolves in foul trouble.

I'm gonna cut Rudy some slack and say that Yao was tired. He tied his season high in turnovers today and maybe he just wasn't right. The shots didn't go down for the Rockets in the fourth but it did for the T-Wolves. Certainly, Rudy could have played Griff and Posley and I think he should've. I guess Rudy just felt the offense was more important in the fourth.

 

Here's what the NBA log shows for the Rockets offense after Yao returned with 7:26 left in the 4th (with the Rockets down 6):

(7:23) [HOU] Norris Jump Shot: Missed
(6:38) [HOU] Mobley Jump Shot: Missed
(5:56) [HOU 82-90] Francis Reverse Layup: Made (22 PTS)
(5:04) [HOU] Francis Jump Shot: Missed
(4:21) [HOU] Taylor Jump Shot: Missed
(3:55) [HOU] Rice Jump Shot: Missed
(3:08) [HOU] Francis 1 of 2 free-throws made
(2:35) [HOU] Francis Layup Shot: Missed
(1:59) [HOU] Francis 1 of 2 free-throws made
(1:40) [HOU 86-96] Mobley Driving Layup: Made (12 PTS)
(1:23) [HOU] Mobley Jump Shot: Missed
(0:59) [HOU] Hawkins Jump Shot: Missed
(0:20) [HOU] Posey Jump Shot: Missed

.... offensive problems? Noooo... that looks like healthy to me. 8 jump shots, all missed, out of a total of 13 total possessions in that time span. The Rockets go 2/11 from the field during the span, and Francis gets to the line twice. 6 points scored for the Rockets during 7:23.

The Timberwolves managed 12 points in that period, but that's hardly a defensive break-down.

Stats can sometimes be misleading, but I don't see any other way of interpreting this.

 

Only three players scored for Minnesota in the fourth

Garnett, Strickland, Trent...all with 8 points.

How do we let Gary Trent score 8 points in the fourth?!?!

 

All I have to say is the refs sucked.

Yao is tired.

The refs screwed our comeback.

 

Not a fun game to watch. Rockets lost again over poor shot selection and Yao getting a lot less touches! In the entire 4-th quarter Yao did not take a shot, while rest of rockets are 2-11 when Yao came in.

Even the T-wolves commentator were wondering why the ball did not go through Yao's hands. It's so obvious for REST of the people watching, but NOT for the rockets guards!

 

Oops! I can't add.

Actually, 9 (!!) missed jump shots out of 13 total possessions (not including TOs). That accounts for the 2/11 number.

 

Let's all talk about posey not playing, rudy being an idiot, and rice's fat ass.

 

OKAY.
I love Rudy Tomjanovich.
But he was stupid enough to put Moochie...Terence Morris...Cato...Mobley...and Mo Taylor together.
Did anyone see Mo Taylor? He was HEATING UP for a while.
But Eddie Griffin was doing a much better job on defense. Kevin Garnett missed A LOT of shots and got a lot of calls in his favor.
Dumb refs...and even when they make the dumb calls, Rudy doesn't get mad like all the other coaches. He just accepts it. Everybody loves him...but he has to be more aggressive. We shoulda won the game.
Eddie must have been extremely tired but we should have kept him in. Why take Steve Francis out and leave Cuttino Mobley? The Cat couldn't make shots tonight.
SAD. Terence Morris instead of Bostjan Nachbar or James Posey. Did Posey play tonight?
The WORST call was the Glen Rice 3 at the end of the 3rd quarter. If it was at Compaq, it would be a 3. But the stupid refs in Minnesota! AND Yao blocked that fat Trent and he lost the ball and the shot clock went to "0" and Yao stepped out without possession of the ball and stepped back in and got the ball. Then the stupid refs had to huddle and discuss it.

We Need Instant Replay in the NBA.

 

Just plain Ignorance of being young team.

I still don't know why we continue to run a Zone defense when we know damn well we don't know how to rotate quick enough to the open man.
Especially with this team.
Is it really that difficult to play this team man-to-man, and let Garnett have his 35?
Of course we'd have to double sometimes, but we can't let players like Trent, Hudson, etc beat us.

Again, we've been exposed for our WEAK perimeter defense which in turn causes trouble for the rest of the team.

Our offense tonight was a joke as well.
No real plays, no cutters, terrible use of space, etc.
Is it that difficult to post up someone and for everyone else to move around?


AND can we finally experiment with Boki........PLEASE.
No offense to TMo, but we need offense badly.

A couple years from now, we probably wouldn't have lost this game, but our lack of experience is a major weakness.
A PLUS is the fact that we actually got back into the game instead of just giving up.

 

I know what's going on. They celebrated their win over Hawks in Hooters. Either too many chick wings or too much beer.

 

about the two horrible calls that basically screwed our comeback, the ming shot clock thing and the rice 3.

someone explain how the wolves got a new shot clock. first, it looked like ming may have gotten both feet in anyway, but lets assume he didn't. how can they say he had possession if they say he's out of bounds by not getting both feet in first??? so if someone is standing out of bounds and you throw the ball at them, you get a new shot clock? i've never seen that happen and this is exactly the same thing, someone officially out of bounds makes contact with the ball. how the hell do they get a new clock.

and the rice 3. so the clock isn't official, what is it, a little toy we get to look at?? i've heard that officials have their own timekeeping things but how exactly do they work those in relation to the real clock and why is the clock we see ALWAYS the official clock going down the stretch (like under a minute and they start showing tenths) except right when there is 0:00 showing. do the tenths of a second in the last minute not matter enough for them to control, only the last second? and why didn't we get to see a damn replay with those backboard lights, and are those controlled by the officials, not the clock, they always seem to go off right when the clock hits zero in every other game i've seen. whatever the case, i have never been so sure of anything that we were going to come back from break with the shot taken away after a referee huddle and what do you know, it happened, thanks you ****ers.

and why when yao is committing TO's, not really hitting, is out of position defensively a lot, and doesn't get some rebounds he should, all people can do is b**** about the guards not getting him the ball even though he got it a fair amount. double standard.

 

No, that's not all that matters. If that is all that matters to you, then you're a fan of Yao more than the team approach that Yao himself takes. Yao needs to present himself as a threat to score first and foremost. He has done that over the past month. If you watched the game tonight you saw the Twolves apply a double-team almost instantly when Ming tried to set up for a shot on the wings near the baseline. I think the Hawks did this as well. That is respect. When Yao got the ball down there he was forced to pass out... to an open man. But that is exactly what is supposed to happen and is exactly what Yao should do. Yao has at that point effected the offense Rudy wants to run and affected the defense. Now the defense has two guys covering a guy without the ball (Yao) and are forced to rotate like crazy to cover the open guy.

This talk about how many field goals Yao attempts being some indicator of how good he is or the offense is is at least 50% hogwash. The offense is working when the offense is scoring. Hakeem took a decade to learn that this inside-out game when on is darn near unstoppable, but it seems our fans are either forgetting this or don't have the "team" mentality. Yao has had about 8 or 9 assists combined in the last 2 games. To me, that's as good and, quite possibly better, than 8 or 9 field goals by himself.

Tonight the defense was what killed us, not Yao, not the offensive game plan. Yao is playing the perfect game offensively. The only complaint I have against him is he doesn't seem to be as tenacious at times. He seems to have to turn it on, but I'll attribute that to the newness to the NBA atmosphere.

 

I really didnt have too much of a problem with the offense tonight. Yao was getting the ball plenty both in the low post and the top of the key. The shot attempts really dont reflect this b/c he was passing many of the times he did receive the ball. Take a look at the turnover column, that is six potential attempts that Yao did not take a shot where he did have the ball. Overall the offense had 19 ast and only 12 TO which is not the best but not awful either. The encouraging sign is that Francis and Mobley combined for only 1 TO.

The offense really wasnt the issue tonight. The defense was flat out bone lazy and a step too slow. No matter what team you are playing, if you give up 28 ast on only 8 TO, you are simply not going to win. Rod Strickland and Troy Hudson were basically getting anything they wanted with very little resistance. They had no problem setting up teammates and getting the Wolves offense humming. Its really sad when Strickland who is an old washed up PG makes it look easy against your team. Defense was where the game was lost tonight; I hope the Rockets bring a better effort on Monday against the Jazz.

 

Regarding the 3 pt shot of Rice's that was called off :

I don't know how many of you watched the League Pass broadcast that had the Twolves broadcasters (which included Mychal Thompson, who is quite possibly as bad as Tim Hardaway).

They showed a new "light" that the NBA has instituted along the press table. That light went off while Rice still had the ball in his hand. The buzzer doesn't matter... that light and the one over the goal is all that counts.

 

Yao seemed to have a lot of TOs in recent games. What's up with that?

 

Francis4prez...

I'm not sure if this is the NFL and they have a possession-with-both-feet in. I have no idea what the rule is but obviously they felt he had possession.

On the 3-pointer by Rice, they go by the red light and not the clock.

And there is a double standard with Yao. He played a bad game and should also be held accountable for the loss. As the old saying goes, "You don't make any shots that you don't take." Maybe Yao was tired (IMO) and he just needs to be more selfish in the 4th.

 

How could I even compete with a member of the Clutch crew?

 

Yes. Someone please tell me how he committed so many TOs tonight?

 

The defense is rotating faster on him and the defense is double-teaming him. He's also playing more of a game inside and some of his fakes cause him to delay his post moves allowing the defense to come around and strip him of the ball. All this means is that other teams are realizing that Yao is a real threat and must be dealt with quicker. They're trying to stop him by denying him his favorite moves.

Don't worry... he'll learn.