These past 2 games look like we have returned to old habits: Francis looks like he is trying to win the game by himself, Yao looks lost and isnt involved, Cat is taking dumb shots, and the ISO's have returned like an Iraqi missle. We arent passing the ball, we arent letting the flow of the game come to us, and we arent playing as a team. Its like we have totally abandoned the philosophy that guided us to 5 straight wins....
As I recall Rudy isn't coaching the team right now. I guess Larry Smith hasn't been to a game in a while... ALA BTW why Mr Mean?
Thats the story of this season, zero consistency. This tends to happen when you have a lot of players esp guards with low bball IQ, and the talent meshes together poorly. It is the guards responsibility to make sure the appropriate players get the ball in the appropriate spots, and they simply do not do that consistently enough. My prediction for the rest of the season is a 1-4 road trip (I think we will get a win against either LAC or GSW) followed by losses to the Spurs and Lakers; that would bring us back to .500. After that, I think we go .500 for the remainder of the season to finish with 41 wins. I hope Im wrong b/c I dont think 41 wins will be enough to make the playoffs.
he was a great rebounder, and a hard fighter. he played intens of the court he is a nice person, (atleast that is what i've heard)
MARCH Fri 21 at Golden State W Sun 23 at Sacramento L Mon 24 at LA Clippers W Wed 26 LA Lakers L Thu 27 at San Antonio L Sat 29 Denver W Mon 31 at New Jersey L APRIL Wed 2 at Milwaukee L Fri 4 at Philadelphia L Sun 6 Orlando W Tue 8 Portland L Wed 9 at Utah L Sat 12 Seattle L Tue 15 Memphis W Wed 16 at Denver W I can easily see us going 6-9 or 7-8 over the final month...... Dont think we will get in the playoffs with that record.
wow, that's a pretty negative outlook for our future record. I wouldn't count on definite losses to some of those teams. We can definitely beat Utah, the Bucs, The Lakers(our record is 2-1 and the one loss was a tough OT game.) We've beaten San Antonio, and if we play smarter, Seattle, and Portland are definitely beatable. I'm not saying all of those will be wins, but I don't think all of those will be losses either.
GS W. We should be able to beat Golden State...WE BETTER. SAC L. There is no chance....especially with no Rudy. This is ARCO ARENA. Impossible to win. LAC W.....hopefully. Clippers..we have trouble against them. But that game....we have to win. LAL....WIN!!!!!! We're at home. But yeah. They are the Lakers. Loss. Then... San Antonio...Loss. Spurs are too good for us. Denver......Win. New Jersey........MAYBE. L. It's in New Jersey. We can beat them really. But most likely Loss. Milwaukee......W. It's in Milwaukee. But we can beat them. Just don't let Gary Payton get 36 assists...he had 18 with the Sonics last time. We have beat them. We have a better record. WE BETTER WIN. Philadelphia....L. We can also win this one. We whooped them last time. But of course....Philly has gotten much better. Loss. Orlando....W. This one should be in Houston. We whooped them in Orlando. We should be able to win. Portland....W or L. It's in Houston. We have beat them before. Scottie Pippen's gonna return on that day... They have a better record. So they SHOULD win. Utah...L. It's in Utah. They're too good for us. Loss. Seattle.....W. We can definitely beat them. We just need to play good. It's in Houston so yeah. Memphis W. We can beat them. Denver W. We can go 8-7. That's better than 7-8. If we can beat at least 2 of the games against Philadelphia, New Jersey, Portland, or Utah, it will be even better. We just have to win the games that we should. And hopefully Pheonix does worse.
The key is wiining in GSW. WOn't be easy... they have been playing really well lately, and should be up for this game as a way to stay in the race. We, on the other hand, should view this game as a way to (1) knock them out of the race (not only put another game between us but also take the series and tiebreaker) and (2) keep us up in at least a tie for the 8th spot. The question is... which team will show up...
I don't think it's a coincidence that most of the winning streak was at home and/or against inferior teams, and the last two losses have been on the road, against one team still holding out hope for a playoff spot, and another who is just flat out better. Not having your coach around doesn't help either. You're going to have people overreacting to the wins, and doing the same for the losses. It's still the same team, they just had a soft spot in the schedule.
Fri 21 at Golden State W Sun 23 at Sacramento L Mon 24 at LA Clippers W Wed 26 LA Lakers W Thu 27 at San Antonio L Sat 29 Denver W Mon 31 at New Jersey L APRIL Wed 2 at Milwaukee L Fri 4 at Philadelphia L Sun 6 Orlando W Tue 8 Portland W Wed 9 at Utah L Sat 12 Seattle W Tue 15 Memphis W Wed 16 at Denver W 9-6; 44-38 overall. But I'm an optimist.
It looks like they are slipping into old early season bad habits. I don't see Yao Ming getting 30+ touches a game under Larry Smith. As a matter of fact with the exception of that little run in the 3rd quarter it looks like Yao Ming has been almost an after thought. Rudy T has preached getting Yao Ming 30+ touches a game but it does not look like Larry Smith has managed to maintain that philosophy for whatever reason. Perhaps Rudy has just done a better job of instilling that philosophy on the team or perhaps with Rudy T gone Steve, Cat and Posey think they can run the asylum and ignore that philosophy. Another thing that I have noticed is that Larry Smith seems to place a bigger importance on using the last 2 minutes of a quarter to start resting Yao Ming. Rudy seemed to use the last 2 minutes of quarters to make a push at closing the quarter with a flurry and worry about resting Yao Ming later. I like Rudy's way better.
See......Rudy is better. I know....terrible. He decides to put Moochie in the 4th quarter for no reason...maybe Steve was hurt. But he just scored. And then he takes him out. Then we are losing by 6....and he starts Cato in the 4th quarter. Cato's been doing good.....but we were losing. Anyways....Larry Smith needs to tell the players to get Yao Ming the ball. It seems like James Posey is loving Rudy's absence. He's taking the ball himself and going crazy. And missing.
I wish people would stop talking about Francis being a black hole. He's not anymore. It's fine to talk about his stupid plays when he threw a behind the back pass to no one, or when he dribbled the ball off the back of his leg. Those were stupid mistakes, and he as much said so himself. He realizes what he's done. Lately Francis has been doing a great job of passing the ball, and trying to get others involved. He had few shot attempts last game, and didn't even go to the FT line that much. He wasn't hogging the ball, and trying to do everything by himself. Steve has been improving a lot lately, and I like what I see from him. Cat may be another story. It seems like sometimes if the Rockets lose, people just fall back on the same old argument of Francis is a selfish player, even though it doesn't hold water anymore.
10 wins means instant playoffs, and 9 wins is possible playoffs. Since Phoenix lost at home, and we lost at home, maybe 9 wins the rest of the way is enough. No hopes for 9-6?
Sane, 9-6? That would be an absolutely incredible finish considering the schedule. Im thinking more like 6-9.
