that's it. i'm infuriated by the way the rox have been playing lately. i've tried to keep my faith in the rockets and at least have some hope, but this latest game with the mavs just pushed me over the edge. THE PROBLEMS rudy's just not utilizing yao at all. if given the chance, this guy can really do some damge...IF, that is. doesn't anyone on this rox coaching staff know that "yao is unstoppable, and houston isn't giving him the ball!" ??? as much as you think he's already peaked (as that greek troll polyphemus or whatever said), he hasn't. he's just not getting the ball... ...because steve and catt think they can single-handedly win for the rockets. but in fact, this is just the type of thinking that is costing us the game. we can only win when WINNING is the main goal. kobe's learned it. and so have the many unselfish teams out there. you either live by the sword or die by it. and that's exactly true. when catt and stevie have good games, we win. when the don't (as we've been witnessing the past couple of games)...well you know what happens. and as much as i'd hate to say it, one of 'em has gotta go. and this bad mouthing after crappy games certainly doesn't help this team SO WHAT THE HELL CAN WE DO? one way or another, we HAVE to get through to the rox. too many times i hear on sportsradio 610 when we get a chance to talk to rudy, "oh rudy, i truly love what you've been doing for this team. i respect you and admire you and thank you from the bottom of my heart!" when will someone speak out and let rudy know how ugly we're playing? so many posts here on firing rudy and how this just isn't the right type of coach for this team...someone has gotta let him know the truth. he's certainly done a lot for this team. but there's also a major difference b/w Dream's Team and this group of young talented athletes. and i just don't think rudy is the right coach for it now. i'll tell ya what. i'm watching some of these college b-ball teams and i'm almost 75% sure now that UT (austin) could probably win if they played against the rockets.
They were getting the ball into Yao in the first half... then the Mavs decided to double him. That pretty much did it for Yao since the rest of the team choked when the burden fell on them.
The Rockets did well the first half but everything went South the second half. The Rockets are still in a phase of knowing what kind of team they will be. They have no identity, running team or half court team?? They should not stay put and not make a trade. If the Rockets don't make the playoffs their pick goes to Memphis anyways.
I am planning on calling in to the Rudy T show tomorrow night to vent my frustrations, you can count on it. I will be the guy calling from Austin asking him to resign.
I thought the Rockets played well. Before you get crazy, let me explain. I'd rather get beaten from the perimeter than inside the paint any day of the week. If you're forcing outside shots, then we're doing a good job on defense. If a talented team like the Mavs should hit 70%of those three's htan there's little you can do about it, except foul a three point shot like Mo'Ball-ey did. They utilized Yao well in the first half. To me the difference is when Yao was getting double teamed, our shooters weren't hitting their shots. In the past with Hakeem, whenever he was doubled up, you had Kenny Smith, Ellie, Maxwell, Bullard, and on and on to hit that three. As good shooters Francis and Mobley is, we don't have a three point threat anymore. WHY? Because these damn guards still insist on driving to the hoop every single play without giving the ball inside and having Yao kick it outside. Everytime Yao got doubled, they ran towards him instead of dispersing to get open. Francis played well last night. So did Posey. Yao was just being Yao we all know he can be under the right situation. It's not the Rockets' fault that the Mavs got sh*t hot on those threes.
Yeah, I agree. There's really not a whole lot you can do when players on the team just got f'ing hot. It's really not that hard to get a player a decent look at the three point line for a second or two.. enuf time to jack up a (usually ill advised) three. But when they just start feeling it, and everything's dropping even when there's a hand in their face, there's absolutely nothing you can do but try to step up your offense in order to match them. Course when the Mavs are doing inhumanly things like that it's pretty hard cause you gotta convert on just about every play. I think the rox just got rattled by the sudden turn of events and lost their composure. I've certainly played games where there's such a sudden turn around in the game where one team goes from hot to cold, and the other goes from cold to hot. It don't feel good when you're the team going from hot to cold, you feel like you're banging your head up against a brick wall, it's frustrating which just makes things worse and worse.
That really is what happened in a nutshell. That weadside defender cheating (legally) towards the lane to deny the lob pretty much rendered Yao ineffective. It does no good to get Yao the ball when hell have 3 defenders up on him as soon as he catches it. If they had "forced" the action into Yao, we would have been looking at a fair share of turnovers, steals and blocks on Yao. I wish people would understand that its not always as simple as some thing to get Yao his touches.
anybody hear 610's perfect description of last night's offensive... they said it was like watching a game of 21 where whoever had the ball was playing one on five (actually they said at one point it almost seemed like it was one on nine) whoever gets the ball run to the 3-point line and shoot disappointing (enough to get a non-poster to come in a throw it out there)
But if Yao has 3 defenders on him that means somebody is open for him to get the ball to. The offense just looks better when it's run thru Yao. Even if he is not taking the shots he is hitting the open man at the 3-point line or hitting a cutter. What Rudy should be doing is running picks for Yao so he can set up closer into the basket. Yao gets pushed out by the stronger centers and he is not as strong as Olajuwon or Barkley to back his way down. Rudy should see this.
Sometimes I wonder if people actually watch the game. Almost everytime Ming got the ball in the second half, he looked foolish. Turnover, blocked, miss, whatever. He couldn't do anything. He scored all his points in the first half because he wasn't being guarded (layups off of guard penetration). Once the Mavs started guarding him, he was almost useless.
You may be shot for stating that. But I agree. As long as Yao has one guy defending him or the helper is running at him, he can find the open man cross-court. No problem. But when he's rolling into a double team or they double him before the ball gets there, he gets flustered, brings the ball down, turns it over or gets it blocked. That was the difference between the first and second half for Yao.
Then, you must not watch the game as me. 1st, Yao didn't get many touches in the 2nd half (I am sure less than 10) because he's being fronted or doubled whenever we attempted to pass to him. 2nd, he only shot 3 times, so he didn't miss or get blocked so much that he's so "foolish". 3rd, most of his turnovers were either he tried to pass when he's surrounded by 3 defenders or couldn't catch shall I say some not so clever or to position passes from his teammates. The Mavs couldn't guard him. Fact. And yet before you accuse me of being a YM-only fan. I say I am not.
So true 'Freak and DoD, add to that the Rockets horrible spacing, the whole damn Mav's team shooting like they were in a zone, and the Rox lack of poise and you have last nights humiliating defeat.
Exactly this team doesn't have consistent shooters! I think this problem is just as big, if not bigger than stupid guard play or stupid coaching. As I said in another post, the offensive scheme or the number of turnovers don't mean a damn thing if you're shooting 28% from the field. Mobley is a streaky shooter much like Vernon Maxwell, which is something you just have to accept. However, Mad Max was tolerable because eventhough he would have those 2 for 10 nights, he would also have many nights where he went 10 for 12. Mobley rarely ever does that. If he shoots just 50% in a game you can almost say he was "on fire." Also, when Hakeem was here the zone defense was illegal, so teams couldn't deny the ball into the post like the Mavs did in the second half yesterday. The way the Rockets used to play during the championship years simply cannot work to that same extent anymore. In my opinion, this is the type of team that is perfect for going against man-to-man defenses. On the flip side, the zone defense is perfect for stopping a team like the Rockets.
No Cara' , I think it must have been you who did not watch this game. Good thing they have printable game play by plays huh? Let's take a look... In the first half the rock was passed to Ming 9 times with the following results: 6 made shots (one of which he was fouled and shot one freethrow) 1 trip to the freethrow line after being fouled and not making the shot 2 turnovers In the second half the rock was passed to Ming 6 times with the following results: 1 made shot 1 trip to the free throw line after being fouled 1 blocked 2 turnovers 1 missed jumpshot Ming got only four less touches in the 2nd half and this was mostly do to the fact that Rudy called the game and substituted all of the scrubs in at about the 5 min mark. The fact is that Ming simply was not affective in the second half... Not because he wasn't getting touches Not because of our gaurds The defense on him was better, the Mav's got hot, and neither he nor the team could over come that.
One of the PRIMARY reasons in my humble opinion as to why Yao looked "foolish" as you claim is that he was taken out of the flow by HIS team mates and that the spacing was HORRENDOUS. We were up at half time and Mavs big men were in foul trouble. Why didnt we pound it in from that point to get Lafrentz or Bradley out of the game? Instead, we shot decided to have our guards go 1 on 5. Also, notice when Yao got the ball in the 2nd half. It was off of plays where our guards would jump in the air and because there were no other options, they would try to drop it to Yao as a last resort. Furthermore, they would do this while being only a few feet away which makes it almost impossible to catch. Those who have NBA Season Pass, watch some of teh Jazz or Sac Games. There spacing is impeccable. Stockton is truly an amazing guard. He never makes those types of fundamental mistakes. (I hate the Jazz BTW)...
This is what is not understood. You can't get it into Yao when other teams are a) Fronting him while b) Having a weakside defender cheat towards the lane to prevent he lob and at the same time c) The defender guarding the entry passer is zoning down between Yao and the entry passer. Essentially, there were 3 players denying Yao the ball. There was no forcing it into him. The few times they did, Yao either got blocked or had it stripped. Thats why it was not done more often. Now, I do agree with the pick theory. It has been advocated on here than Rudy draw up a play or two that has one of Yao's teamates setting a back pick and have Yao cut across the lane (similar to what the Lakers do with Shaq from time to time).
