ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Suns @ Rockets 1/15/2003

he was aggressive on both ends. he just couldn't hit his shots. also, no one can be disappointed with his performance tonight. take another look at the game, he changed the outlook of the game. his presense alone changed the suns game plan.

 

Yao is disappointing.

 

Yao played like Ass tonight. He needs to throw it down and stop trying to be so nice.

Francis got sucered into to technicals, he needs to use his head more often.

Looking forward to Fri!!

 

Mobley at the age where he's at is about to start peaking, hes on fire, threeeeecola! Francis play was smooth and undercontrol. Yaos shot was off, but his defensive presence is invaluable. lets take it to the bridge, yow!

 

a recap from ESPN.com:

HOUSTON (AP) -- Cuttino Mobley scored a season-high 30 points and Steve Francis added 19 before being ejected as the Houston Rockets tuned up for the first Yao-Shaq meeting by defeating the Phoenix Suns 102-96 Wednesday night.


Yao Ming went up against one of the league's other top rookies, Amare Stoudemire, and was outplayed.


Stoudemire had 24 points and 13 rebounds, including a pair of highlight-reel dunks over the 7-foot-6 center from China, while Yao looked timid at times and finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.


Yao will face Shaquille O'Neal for the first time Friday night when the Rockets play the Lakers.


Stephon Marbury scored 32 points when not engaging in trash talk, and Shawn Marion added 25 for Phoenix.


Francis and Randy Brown were ejected with 42.8 seconds left after a pair of double technicals were called on them for jawing at each other following a foul on Brown. Mobley went to the line and made both shots to reach his season-high and give Houston a 96-87 lead.


The Suns then began fouling and were able to pull to 99-96 before James Posey hit the second of two free throws for a four-point lead with 13.2 seconds left. Stoudemire then turned the ball over while being defended by Yao, ending Phoenix's last chance.


Posey had 12 points and 11 rebounds as all five Houston starters scored in double figures. Eddie Griffin scored 10.


Marbury turned to the Houston bench and yelled, ``I'm a real All-Star. I don't have to get voted on'' during the first quarter as the Suns led by as many as eight. Rockets fans taunted Marbury the rest of the night, yelling, ``C'mon All-Star,'' at him.


Marbury and Francis also exchanged some quieter barbs during the second quarter, but those could not be overheard.


Most of the best sequences involving Stoudemire and Yao came during the first quarter. Stoudemire rejected an inside attempt by Yao, and Yao was tentative for the rest of the quarter.


Isolated on the low block against Jake Voskuhl shortly after Stoudemire's rejection, Yao put up a weak attempt with his left hand that rolled off the back rim. Yao missed his final five shots of the quarter.


Phoenix led 30-22 after one quarter but then shot just 3-for-24 in the second to allow Houston to take the lead for good.


Griffin hit a pull-up jumper and Yao converted a fast-break layup for a 54-46 lead midway through the third, and the Rockets had a 70-63 edge heading into the fourth.

 

11 points, 7 board, and 4 blocks, i'd rather have that than 13-10-1, 4 blocks is great, because if actually got 4 blocks, that means he was able to change a lot more shots, which is what this team needs, an inside presence.

 

Yao probably was a presence on defense but on offense, Yao was disappointing. He really needs to step up his game for Friday showdown if he doesn't want to be embarrassed.

 

Brutal game.

I got kicked out from cc.net for hours. I think everybody experiences the same thing.

Yao just needs to improve his mental toughness, IMO.
Being a young player, receiving so much pressure to perform by Yao-fans like me , and a loner in a foreign land, contribute to his mental level. But overtime this should be overcome. This is not an excuse for Yao's performance BTW.

To say Amare won the battle is not entirely true. Yao's presence definitely alters the opponent's strategy, and Yao's 4 blocks are a bit as valuable as Amare's 8 points. Amare also took more shot attempts than Yao, and Amare's FG% is not that good either. In the final scary seconds, Yao defended Amare well and Amare lost the ball possession.

For those people who got dissapointed, we need to learn from Yao: You don't get too high when you are successful, and you don't get too low when you fail.

I think Yao should improve in the next game versus Shaq. Just my 2 cents thought.

 

About Yao's play, He makes a difference whether he scores or not, so let's not worry about him trying to beat out Amare for ROY. Yes he does need to be more aggressive becuz he's been playing kinda soft lately. But I want him to do this for the team to win, not for him to be ROY. Amare will be a force in this league and so far should win ROY. If he ever develops an outside short jumper, it's over. If Yao had a little bit of Amare's brute force, it's over too. These two rookies will be fun to watch for years to come.

 

Yao Ming's grade card:

1st Quarter - C, only made 1 shot out of 6(?). Looked timid
2nd - B+, huge defensive presence. Suns mostly shot the jumpers and Rockets got back in the game.
3rd - ? Forget what I saw
4th - B, I think he made some nice blocks, especially the one on Amare near the end of the game.

Overall - C+

 

I just finished watching a tape of the game...The only thing that i'm dissappointed in is that Ming didn't take the ball up strong, instead settling for lil finger rolls and lay ups that he kept missing.

 

This is a good win for the Rox. Now we are only half a game behind the Suns. However, I wouldn't call this game pretty.

Yao was completely outplayed by Amare Stoudmaire. He played very tentatively tonight. I really think that Yao should learn a thing or two from the way Stoudmaire plays. Let's hope that he'll bounce back against Shaq.

I'm upset with Steve's ejection at the end of the game although he had a good game overall. As the leader of the team you should never bother with someone like Randy Brown in the last minute of a close game. It's time to grow up, Steve!

Still, a win is a win. Let's keep it up.

 

Yao is surely disappointing tonight...he misssed lots of point blank shots...it seems like his heart is not in the game at all or he doesn't give a hoot about this rookie matchup at all...maybe he's looking more toward Friday's game with the Lakers...either way,Calvin Murphy summed up best when he said yao needs to toughen up,stop being a nice guy,and Yao can make friends with others when summer came...His cousin Eric needs to give him a pep talk...there are times to be nice and times to show other who is the boss

 

That's right. Yao Ming should toughen up. Next time he should break Amare's neck if Amare tries to dunk over him again. I watched only the last 6 mins or so of the game only, that son of gun Amare seemed to try to dunk over Yao on every possible chance and Yao even tried to pat his rear . Anyways, hope Yao can find his aggressiveness playing against Shaq and stop being a nice guy.


Shrimpie

P.S. Cat seems to be a much better interviewee than Steve.

 

cujo: Welcome to the board Stephon; you're so far gone!

i got one question. Who the hell does steve think he is? if he wants to be the leader of this team, he cannot ABANDON his teammates like that. He was simply asking to be ejected, just an overall stupid move. We were forced to play moochie for the last 48 seconds, so the suns could double cat. personally, i would rather have steve at the line than mooch. That ejection just boiled my blood.

Yao's legs are too dead to just dunk at will, i'm guessing. if he had a good summer to rest, he would have more explosiveness. He played great defense on Amare 1 on 1 towards the end. the key to playing amare is to force him to make his wild driving shots instead of just fouling him automatically. once we realized this he really slowed down. One play that really pissed me off was the phantom foul on the amare dunk attempt, where he made the first ft, and missed the second. We proceeded to bobble the rebound right back to amare, where he easily scored. There were many loose balls tonight that we couldnt grab that led to easy suns points.

An overall great game for us to win, but Steve cannot let himself get taken out of the game like that. This was worse than Hakeem v. Kupchak.

 

It's almost as if you weren't even watching the game, and just stole the analysis off ESPN. Did he play poorly? Yes. But tentatively, no? The only shot he took all game that was a fade away of some sort was the one he made in the 4th quarter. Most of his moves powered to the middle for easy layups that he missed, or quick spin moves for more easy layups that he missed. If he had his shot at all, you would have seen 20 points easily. The fact that the shots were there, and, are relatively easy shots that he shoud make more than not (when he gets out of his shooting funk) is a VERY good sign.

Outplayed by Stoudemire...certainly. But not by a lot. Both players shot horribly from the field, with Amare getting a lot more attempts. And while he did a better job on the boards, he had zero, count them, zero assists or blocks. Yao had 2 assists, one of which was to Mobley for a three (5 points), a couple of under the basekt passes to Francis that Francis missed but was fouled (>2 pts) and passed the ball very effectively overall. He also had 4 blocks (saving 8 points), a few of which were specifically against Amare.

Another comment about Amare's game. He has absolutely incredible quickness for a player his size. I saw him freeze a number of defenders with a little juke move on the baseline tonight. And his hops are freakin amazing (ala that board tip over Yao late in the game). BUT, it amazes me how few coaches are defending him properly. Time and time again, especially in the first half, our defender (namely Eddie, Cato a couple of times) would go out on him to defend a 12-18 foot jumper...why?? After blowing by Cato in the second because fo this fact, Moochie informed Cato that he didn't have to defend him so stringently on the perimeter, Cato backed off the next time and Amare promptly shot an airball. He will get his points and boards, no doubt, but no need to give him more, and foul yourself out in the process, by trying to guard him 20 feet fromt eh basket when he has no outside shot to speak of - now, Shawn Marion is a different story.

Other game notes from being there:

I was very very impressed with the ball movement tonight. 18 assists doesn't even do justice to how efficiently they were swinging the rock at times. Mobley did get a little iso-happy, especially following that tech, but he was playing a good game, and it was working.

Defense was all over the place, from very good, to pathetic, depending on the stretch of the game. At one point, Rudy's tallest player in the game was T-Mo, I believe, and that is when they went on one of their runs. Cato's play off the bench has slipped a little recently, but, not a huge concern.

You can't say enough about James Posey. If this guy doesn't keep the starting spot when Rice gets back, than Rudy's crazy. He really feeds off playing with the other starters, has a good relationship with Yao, runs the break, rebounds well, finds holes in the defense, and is a better than expected outside shooter. And that's not even talking about his defense.

Also good to see Moochie have a mistake free game.

Finally, how funny was Langhi out there. I think he started feelign confident after he hit that three, but then managed to turn the ball over, miss a few more shots and commit sill fouls. I can't believe he is in Phoenix's rotation.

 

Good game as always Rocket fans. Not much to say other than the fact that the Suns got outplayed. The Rockets, and especially Cur Mobley, played a very good game and did what it took to win.

You are totally correct. The Suns will not win too many games if that trend continues. While blaming losses on injuries is meaningless, especially since every team struggles at some their health at points during a long season. That being said, you have to remember that the Suns are missing their opening night starting center (Big Jake), starting forward (Gugliotta), and Penny Hardaway. But like I indicated, you got to play with the hand you are dealt, and the bench should have contributed more...there is no excuse for the way they played.

Not that there is much satisfaction in a rookie having good numbers when your team loses, but I dont think I am going out on a limb in saying that Amare was definitely the better rookie tonight. He was more aggressive, scored more than twice the amount of points at a better percentage, and grabbed almost twice the amount of rebounds than Yao did, in only 8 more minutes. However, its tough to deny the impact that Yao has on the game, he does do a ton of things that wont ever show up in the box score - but Amare does as well.

Dont think I am hating when I say that Yao should be playing a little better than he is, and judging by some of your posts I am not alone. I have seen what the man can do, and it seems he has all the tools youd want from a big man, yet he isnt using them. I havent followed the Rox closely enough to know what the deal is, coaching, teammates, offense, or is it all on Yao just being an NBA rookie.

Good luck from here on out, and again, good game tonight...you guys deserved to win.

 

Yao had an off night, but he didn't shoot like crazy when he knew he was cold and his teammates were shooting better. That Amar guy just too way too many shots! His FG% is terrible! Yes, he had a lot of points, so what? They lost the game! We should feel lucky that we have a team player Yao, rather than a stupid kid Amar who took this game as a match between him and Yao. It is not. We won the game. Same attitude for Friday's game.

 

Great to see us win,but Yao needs to get aggressive.When Stoudemire blocked him he became tentative.Today he didn't have to face anyone really much stronger than Amare.He has to overcome this mental barrier and also work with the coaching staff to learn how to react against different types of defenses.His physical strength won't improve dramatically. He still feels uncomfortable when players go hard against him and that is a bad sign.He is a very skillful player but unless he starts to overcome these problems we won't many games and might miss the playoffs.
The games are going to get much harder and more physical and everybody will have to be ready as a team to win as many games as possible.
Francis has to step us as a leader,Randy Brown knew he could get into his head and got us into trouble.
Props to the Cat,he is shooting better and especially in clutch situations.Shooters do go cold frequently during games even when they have put down some shots but I was happy to see him step up tonight. Posey is a smart player and came up big again and saved us from major trouble like he did against the Nuggets,he does the little but important things that make a difference.I'm glad that we got him in in the 3 way trade even though I do miss KT as well.
I hope Yao will leran from these recent games and try to come out stronger against Shaq although I anticipate that he will have a very hard time against him,but that's ok because it's part of his education and should help him become a better player.

 

Guys,
Dan Langhi won it for us tonite. Both Steve and Cat were using a pick to switch on Langhi and totally abused him. They scored, I think 8 consecutive points on him to build 14 pt lead, and that was the ball game, it was all FTs afterwards. I really don't see how the guy has a job in the NBA. He scored a 3, which helped us, because Frankie J. kept him longer in the game than he should.

If Penny was not injured Suns win this one.