This has been said time and time again, pass the ball and the team wins. I'm not sure how many times its happened, but more times than not in the NBA or any basketball contest, the team with the most assist normally wins. The Rockets in particular are a very difficult team to beat when they pass the ball. Witnessing last night is an example of what kind of guard Francis can be when he wants to be. Thats exactly the problem, when he wants to! He can control the game, set up teammates and still score when given the chance. The bigger question is why doesn't he play more like this often? I do not relish the night with him taking only 4 shots, but if the team is playing well and everyone is in the flow of th offense, its not that bad. The problem always occurs when the game get tight and the trust that was once bestowed upon teammates suddenly disappears. During points and breaks during the game, a pg know when he should pass and when he should score. This should not take away the aggressiveness of a talent like Francis, but keeping players in the game by involving them always lead to them being more active on defense, rebounding and everything else. Although the Rockets won't be mistaken for Sacramento or Dallas last night, they were effecient in the offensive end which netted the results we see today. Did Francis take only 4 shots to show Glen that he could distribute the ball like a true pg? Probably not. What he did show is that when he wants to be Payton-esque , he can be. He proved last night that even when he's not scoring , he can have a huge effect on the game. just like when jordan had 2pts and 9 asst. Someone in the media said MJ, you only scored 2 pts. Mj replied with, i scored 20, 2 pts plus 18 on assist. This is the same kind of effect Francis can have on this team while helping it acheive great success. Would this team be better off with Francis scoring 20 pts and dishing 6 asst or him scoring 11 pts and dropping 11 dimes like last night. Albeit they add up to the same, it seem the offense and evereyone as a whole runs more smoothly with the secondary numbers. I would prefer somewhere around 18pts and 8.5 assist. Just like basketball measures power forwards with double-doubles in scoring and rebound, a pg is measured in scoring and assist. I'm not looking for him to avg 10 assist a game, but it would be nice to see him string together some double doubles. Glen said it best and I've always said it that when this team passes the ball, they are top 4 or 5 in the west, when they don't they're very ,very avg.
I really don't think passing was why we won last night. Not that I don't think passing is important. The reason we won was because of defense and MoT and Rice making shots that they should make. Rice gets so many open looks, he should be hitting 50% of his three pointers. Also MoT was just on fire. He didn't miss anything. They made shots both guys missed regularly during our losses since the KT trade. We know Francis is good for 20+ pts 6+ rebounds, Mobley is good for 17+ pts, and Yao is good for 15+ pts 10+ rebounds. These are our meat and potatoes guys. We need our role players (MoT, Griffin, Rice, Posey, and Moochie) to step up. If two of those guys get it going and we play adequate defense, we will win.
I have to wonder about this statement. Looking at the season's statistics year-to-date, there seems to be some some static in this trend. There are a lot of bad teams in the lower half of the assist/game column, but consider these exceptions (all playoff teams currently): 27. Houston 26. San Antonio 25. Boston 20. Washington 18. Orlando 17. Detroit 15. Phoenix And then, looking at the upper half, you have a few bad teams in there too (all lotto-bound teams): 4. LA Lakers 7. Memphis 8. Seattle 10. Milwaukee 13. New York So, there are 7 teams in the bottom half of assist averages that are finding other ways to win, with particularly notable teams Houston, San Antonio and Boston being very low in the assist column. And you have 5 teams who are better than most at distributing the ball still unable to translate the passing into Ws. The Lakers still manage to be mediocre even with O'Neal despite being 4th in the league on assists. Memphis is doing a good deal better than at the beginning of the year, but their record is still very bad compared to their assist numbers. It seems to me that ball movement (reflected in assists) is good for winning -- this is why you find the likes of Toronto, Miami, Denver and Cleveland at the bottom with Houston, San Antonio and Boston. But, it is only one factor of many and the many others should not be ignored in an obsession on assists.
MoT is finally regaining his shooting touch because his tendons are stretching out and his leg strength is returning. Also, his defense is much better -- did anybody notice his positioning on the floor for rebounding? Somebody has been working with Mo, and methinks it smacks of Larry Smith.
I agree totally. Assist along with defense, to forced, to made and all that goes into it also. You can have a team avg 20 asst and turning the ball over 12 times as opposed to a team avg 22 asst but runing it over but turning it over 16 times, then theres a big difference. The asst v to ratio has something to do with it also. I agree with you that there are alot of factors. looking at a team like Dallas who avg 85shots at the basket but only turn it over about 12 or 13 times is different than the rocket avg 77 shots but to over 12 or 13 times. I'd rather have a shot than a to anyday. At least with a shot , there is a chance for the rebound.
looking at assists is a strange way of predicting a winner, imo. Defense wins more than offense; hence why Detroit is so low on assists but 22-10. Maybe you should look at Assist margin. anyhow, a better stat appears to be to look at Points Per Shot defense. Check this out: 1. Sac 26-9 2. SA 21-13 3. Hou 18-14 4. NJ 26-9 5. Pho 22-13 6. Dal 28-5 7. Ind 24-10 8. Det 22-10 9. Port 20-13 10. Minn 17-16 That list includes no losing records and <b>all 8 of the top 8 teams by W-Ls in the league</b>. It includes the top 5 seeds in the West and the top 3 seeds in the East. Pretty cool isn't it, and we are #3. I'd like to see what our PPS Defense was during our inconsistent homestand. The bottom 10 only includes Boston, Utah and Orl with winning records.
Thumbs, At this time I believe Mo is the player upon whom our playoff hopes and success depend on. Eddie is full of potential but quite frankly he often looks lost out there. Mo has showcase plenty of rust but he has shown the ability (willingness) to pass and play off of Yao. If Mo can get close to his pre-injury form then we should have a well balanced attach provided the other team members realize that playing off Yao (passing him the ball and getting open to receive the pass) gives them the best chance to win
Agree. As much I love Eddie's game and potential, MoT should be the starter right now. On several occasions Ming has delivered incredible passes to Griffin who was so surprised he didn't know what to do. Taylor can accept Ming's passes or work the ball into him with equal effectiveness. Griffin's time will come, especially as he learns how to accept Ming's manna from Heaven.
Too Jewish? Too Baptist maybe? I thought the analogy worked pretty well (a sustaining gift from...above).
I think the passing was just good team strategy. Minnesota plays a zone pretty much all game, with various switches and lots of defensive movement throughout the game, as well as a full court press on multiple occasions. How do you beat a zone? That's right, folks. Passing. And because the defense had to respect Steve's shot as well as his ability to take his man off the dribble, Steve made it real difficult on the defense. I thought he played a great game. And I was real excited to see MoT & Glen Rice step it up. Shoot, Mobley had a good game too. What did he have, 4 steals? 5 steals? Gotta love that.
The discouraging thing is that the players have to keep hearing it over and over again. They have a bad habit of slipping back into bad habits.
the difference between calling steve a selfish player and a good pg is his teammates knocking down WIDE-FRIGGIN-OPEN jumpers. glen FINALLY did that. despite his b****ing steve, cat, mooch, etc have consistently looked for him to try and get him going. other than times when he's been forced into trying to take over a game steve has been VERY unselfish this season. newsflash: if the rockets lose a game it is not a direct result of steve not passing. and no, if andre miller/john stockton/mike bibby was our pg we would not be 32-0. i guarantee we wouldn't even be 18-14.
Smeggy, <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/statistics?stat=teamstatoff&sort=pps&league=nba&season=2003&seasontype=2&avg=pg&order=false&split=999">Here is the list</a>
Later on during the season, you can get a real good idea of which teams are legit contendors vs middle of the road teams by considering two key categories, point differential and FG% against. The thing with teams like Detroit and San Antonio is that they are just overwhelming in the FG% against area (defense)which is why they can be above average overall. However, the gap is pretty sizable between them and the Kings, Mavs and Nets who are effective on both sides of the ball. The fact that the Spurs and Pistons are ranked so low in Ast to TO provides a pretty serious offensive roadblock for them come playoff time. I can guarantee you that if this trend is still continuing near playoff time, they will not make it past the 2nd round of the playoffs despite how good they are on the defensive side of the ball. Defense is important obviously, but you cannot ignore ball movement and the offensive side of the ball.
Juan, The reason teams like Seattle, New York, Milwaukee, etc. rank in the top 10 of the league in ast to TO ratio but rank lower in record is b/c they are horrid in the defense and rebounding categories. Consider this, the Sonics rank 21st in the league in FG% against and 21st in the league in defensive rebounds. They are basically a .500 team despite their huge deficiencies in these areas b/c they are #2 in the league in Ast to TO ratio. See how much that one little category overcomes for them? If the Rockets would move the ball better and even maintain the defense and rebounding efforts, you would see them skyrocket up the rankings. This is why it is so maddening for fans like myself. Seattle has absolutely zero up front and has played a good deal more road games than Houston yet is still very much in the hunt for a playoff spot simply b/c they play unselfish ball. The elite championship level teams do a good job of moving the ball on offense AND playing well on defense. Despite what some believe, the old championship Rockets teams were effective in both these categories.
Exactly MManal. Det,Sa and the old heat were offensively challenged. Defense does help you win, but someone has to score at some point. People are quick to point out the old Pistons, but they had 2 20 pt scorers and a variety of guys who could score also. Those old Pistons teams scored 100pts per game. Next , ppl would go back to the old Rockets with Hakeem, but that team scored 100pts per also and had a top five player in the league. Det and SA is no where as good as either of those teams offensively and thats why they will keep getting eliminated by the 2nd rd. Not so much asst, but the asst vs to ratio is what i like to look at along with the defense. Just like tonight, if the Rockets had 13 to's as opposed to 22, how many more baskets do you think they could have gotten? If they get into the offense quicker and don't turn the ball over as much, instead of getting 78fga per game, they could be up around 82 or 83 which could and should equate to more scoring chances.
