when we miss the playoffs, remember I posted this when we were six games over .500... Two reasons the Rockets won't make the playoffs: 1) The Rockets couldn't hit the ground if they jumped off a house. Crap, can ANYBODY on this team shoot? Our leading scorer shoots better from three point range than two point range only because he doesn't shoot that many threes. If Francis didn't get so many calls, he might well be in the high 30's shooting percentage wise. Mobley is Vernon Maxwell part 2, either he's on fire or ice cold. Almost 50% of Rice's attempts are threes, which would be fine if he shot better than 35% from the arc. Those mid range jumpers that Taylor is so famous for aren't falling. (Gee, a power forward shooting close range shots? Whoodathunkit?). The only shots Moochie seem to hit come off passes from Steve, and Griffin's jumper looks like a cadaver's EKG reading. Even the saviour Yao Ming is only shooting .388 in January...Dare I say it...KELVIN CATO is our best shooter? Hell, at least Cato knows that he doesn't have a jumper, so all his shots are dunks...The second worst field goal percentage among the top 8 teams just won't cut it... 2) We can't win on the road. OK, the current 8th seed, Minnesota, has played half their games and has 23 wins, so 46 wins looks like a realistic indication to get into the playoffs. The Rockets are currently have an awe aspiring 33% road winning percentage, which works out to 14 road wins for the year (and that is after rounding UP!). That means the Rockets will have to go 32-9 at home to even sniff the 8th seed. Our current home record is 17-5, which means we would have to go 15-4, or a 79% clip, which is slightly above our current 77% winning percentage. Minnesota and the Lakers will take the last two playoff spots, with the Rockets on the outside looking in and no lottery pick. Now, I ask you honestly. With four more road games than home games left, do you expect the Rockets to get better on the road or worse at home??
This is hilarious. It not out of the question for the Rockets to go 32-9 at home the rest of the season, especially after the All Star Break. No team currently in the playoff race has a tired, international rookie playing a MAJOR role in their effort to win. Aside from this, our record without Rice is great. Against 6 teams, all of which are above .500 (or were) and 5 of which are considered contenders in their conferences, we went 4-2, with both losses being away, and the second being on a back to back. In fact, I want YOU to remember ME saying we'll finish BETTER than 7th. No team in the league will benefit more from the All Star break than the Houston Rockets. BTW, we only have to go .500 after being 6 games above it to grab 8th, if not 7th, seed. Meaning, we can be on pace for a weaker second half, and still make 7th.
Road record is worrying. What about inter-conference and inter-division records? We are only 12-13 in conf, 4-6 in div. All the other current playoffs position teams have winning records in these 2 areas. Our closest rivals Minny are 15-8, 6-4 while Phoenix are 14-13, 7-5. That meant our current overall record is actually inflated because we beated more the weaker East teams.
Paranoia, paranoia. Poor road records are common for young teams. That said, once we go East a couple times for extended period, that record will improve. Minnesota will not finish with 46 wins. They only have 1 horse, and he's not omnipotent.
I agree. I think the Lakers will surely take the 8th playoff spot from the Rockets just like they did in 1992. "Never underestimate the heart of a champion!" - Phil Jackson, 2002
Man, A-Train, I remember when you were one of the optimistic posters on this board. Now you are predicting no playoffs. I like how you take things that should be a plus and use them as possible drawbacks or negatives. Francis only leads in 3 pt. percentage because he doesn't take very many of them? Should he take more? Do you want you point guard, the leader of the team, to be heaving up 3 pointers? Also, you mention that Francis would be shooting 30% if he didn't get so many calls. I call that being aggressive. He gets more calls than the average player, but he doesn't get more calls than the average star, so I don't think that is a very relative point unless refs all of the sudden stop giving him calls for no good reason. As to your last question, I expect the Rockets to get better on the road, and only slightly worse on the road. It's really easy to post things like this when the team is playing poorly.
What's ironic is the player on the Rocks that needs rest the most during the All Star break is GOING TO BE an All Star. Yao, of course. It wouldn't hurt Steve to have a break, either. This is one of those "can't win for losing" scenarios. I still think we will make the playoffs. My sanity may not survive some of these games, however.
Most of the argument I won't address. Suffice it to say I think we will make the playoffs. I wanted to point out though that our road schedule gets easier than it has been. So far, on the road, we've played teams with legit shots at making the playoffs 67% (12 of 18) of the time. Going forward, it will only be 60% (14 of 23) of the remaining games. Of the remaining games, we won't have to face Dallas again (who killed us both times) or Indiana. Instead we get the likes of Utah (twice) and New Jersey. Instead of New Orleans and Orlando, we get Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Washington.
Actually, that 3 pointer comment came out wrong. I'm thrilled that Steve doesn't take many three pointers. Just look at Griffin to see what jacking up three pointers does to your game. If he DID shoot more 3's, his shooting would suffer overall. As for the foul calls, Steve is 3rd in the NBA in free throw attempts, behind only Iverson and Paul Pierce. He has proven time and time again that if he doesn't get that many fouls called, his shooting suffers. Here are all the games that he has had 5 FT attempts or less this season. Jan. 20th against the Spurs: 2 FT attempts and shot 1-12. Jan. 4th against the Warriors: 4 FT attempts and shot 5-19. Dec. 31st against the Bucks: 5 FT attempts and shot 9-15 Dec. 14th against the Clippers: 5 FT attempts and shot 5-18 Dec. 7th agains the Sixers: 2 FT attempts and shot 7-17 Dec. 6th against the Hornets: 5 FT attempts and shot 10-28 Nov 26th against the Blazers: 4 FT attempts and shot 8-18 Nov. 21st against the Mavs: 3 FT attempts and shot 9-20 Nov 2nd against the Raptors: 5 FT attempts and shot 12-23 That's 2 out of 9 games in which he shot less than 50% with not many FT attempts. This is most likely due to bad shot selection, and expecting to get bailed out when he drives in the lane with nowhere to go. It's been said before on this board that he's been bailed out by the refs plenty of times...
A-Train running with scissors again... Don't worry Train, we won't forget this thread at the end of the season.
A-Train, if you go look up games where guys like Duncan or Kobe shoot 5 FTs or less, do you really think their shooting percentage is going to be that much better? Actually, forget about Duncan. For big men it would be different. Players like Francis drive to the basket a LOT. You say he is hoping to get bailed out by a foul call, I say he is going to the basket to score, and he gets fouled a lot and they call it. Sometimes the refs let the game be played a little more physical than others. Yes, Francis has difficulty during those games, but I would imagine the majority of penetrating guards have difficulty. I guess the only thing we could hope for is for Francis to accept a role of distributor first and shooter last if the refs aren't giving him any calls inside. Complaints about THAT aspect of the Rockets I can understand.
A-Train, Puhleeeeeeeeeze cry me a river. First of all, the Rockets are one of the youngest teams in the NBA, which hurts them when they are on the road, and in case you haven't noticed, there is a big overall home/road record disparity this year with nearly every team. Example: Houston Rockets are 17-5 (.722) at home, 6-12 (.333) on the road. LA Lakers are 14-6 (.700) at home, 5-15 (.250) on the road. I admit that the Lakers are a lot playing better now than they were earlier this year, but just look at the huge home/road disparity that they have. They are a WAY more experienced team than Houston as well, with no reason to play that poorly on the road. It's not just young teams that are playing poor road ball. We need to accept the fact that the Rockets will play a lot worse on the road, but they will improve with experience. A 33% road record is not consistent with a team of the Rockets' caliber. Secondly, The Lakers and the Rockets each have 42 games left this season. The Rockets are currently 4 games ahead of LA and lead the season series 2-0, so they hold the wild card in case of a tiebreaker. Therefore, even if LA goes 25-17 (.595) the rest of the season, and Houston goes 21-21 (.500), they still will end up with the same record, and Houston will likely win the tiebreaker there anyways. Houston should finish 7th or 8th, even if they don't DRASTICALLY improve their chemistry the rest of their way, which they should.
