It was the fault of the whole team, nobody denied that. I was just joking about Smith's love for rebounders. Big deal. The Yao-only fans jab is uncalled for. I've been a Rockets fan long before Yao's arrival and sticked with them through that crappy 29 wins season. Nobody except Yao, Francis and Mo could hit a shot in the Nets game. That's the main reason we lost. Rebounding has something to do with it, but to a lesser extent. You can win when you can't rebound, you can't win when you can't put the ball into the basket.
Does Yao need to rebound a lot lot more yes? YES. Does Eddie need to do EVERYTHING a lot lot better? YES. Hmmmm....wonder why it seems like a lot of people on the board are Yao only fans.
pgabriel You are always trying to do you silly disguised bashing. Getting 2 boards is definitely not mind warming but it was clear he was more focused on scoring since nobody else wanted to. Heck Shaq had 5 boards (1 defensive ) only in 45 minutes against the Rox last week compared to Yao's 2 boards (2 defensive) in 31 minutes agains NJ nets. But I see no one complaining about Shaq's board duties or lack there of because he took care of bussiness at the other end and they won.
Exactly they won, and the Rockets allowed 21 offensive boards against the Nets and lost. Its the number one reason they lost. Guys complain about Eddie's offensive production, which was weak, but he did his part on the boards, Yao's offensive production was good, but his rebounding was weak. We lost mainly because of rebounding. They outrebounded the Rockets by 19 boards. Yao had less rebounds than Moochie. He had the least boards out of the starting five. That's called a fact, its not bashing.
Larry Smith is horrible. He plays Moochie always. I know, he is trying to rest Francis and Mobley. But God, we are only winning by 1 point against a playoff team, and he decides to put Moochie in, who he must have forgot blew our 13 point lead in the 2nd quarter. Jesus. And then Eddie Griffin is on fire and making shots. Nobody is passing to him. And then Larry Smith just takes him out. And then puts Glen Rice in forever, who is not making anything and is just being whooped by Toni Kukoc. Terrible coaching. But we're not going to fire him. Not with 7 games left. We don't have any time to get a new system or whatever. BUT AFTER THE SEASON...we aren't making the playoffs...we definitely need a qualified coach. Not Larry Smith.
larry smith?????????????????????? oh. my god..... god pls help him, pls help his big brain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At this rate and assuming RudyT can not come back due to health reasons, there is actually a high likelihood that we will be getting a new coach next year. Nothing surprises me about this league. And I wouldn't mind seeing Van Gundy drop the telestrator and joining the Rocket Organization. Not to discredit Mr. Smith (though I probably will ), but inasmuch as he's been a good assistant to Rudy, who's to say that he has the goods to be THE coach??? Look at the Van Gundy family. Though Jeff himself was an assitant coach at one time, but was thrust into the big chair when, I believe, Don Nelson suddenly resigned, made wonders of the Knicks. However, his brother, Stan, lives in the perennial shadow of former mentor, Pat Riley. Thus far into the post RudyT health illness period, I have seen nothing creative and nothing remarkable about Smith's coaching style or philosophy. And to think that the best 'synonym' for Smith is just "mean", what does that say about his brainpower??? Poor communicators are known to have bad tempers and for whatever reason, Smith does not have the goods to motivate this Rocket team. But today's game really highlights Mr. Smith's shortcomings. Why on Earth is Yao not dominating the 2H of this game??? Karl playing small ball and suckering the Rox into playing into 'Sonic/Buck' playbook is classic Karl. Even Gary Payton had his way, doing things, he did earlier in the season with the sonics to torment the Rox. If you look at the bigger picture of how 'other' teams are playing in this 'home stretch' of the regular seasons, if anything, STARTERS ARE GETTING MORE, not less, MINUTES. Defenses are tightening up. Offenses are tuning more to textbook plays. Teams are cutting down on turnovers and protecting the ball. Bottom Line: Teams are starting to treat these remaining regular season games like the playoffs. The rockets, on the other hand, are seemingly going in the opposite direction. Our bench is getting more minutes. Our starters are ineffectively used. Our play calling is non-existent. Our protection of the ball is pathetic. And our defensive intensity is getting worse, not better. To compound all these problems, we've got an interim coach who plays not to lose instead of playing to win. There is NO urgency. There is NO passion. There is NO leadership. All we have is just talk talk talk. Changes have to be made... PRONTO! disappointedSAGE
We're 3-7 (30% winning %) since Larry Smith took over and hasn't beaten a playoffs team since. This record doesn't lie.
Sonics, Blazers, Nets, Bucks. We should have won at least 2 out of those games if our aim was to make the playoffs. Just remind you, Suns won against Grizzlies and Pistons on the road in the same period of time.
SageHare6, Super post. In addition to the above, RT has shown he's NOT the coach to mold this guard/selfish/iso oriented (that's of his making BTW) into a winning team. He got a mulligan last year b/o injuries. With all due respect to his health status, I hope it's not used as a reason or excuse for one more year of Rudyball. WHAT A COLLOSAL WASTE OF TALENT. We don't have a team, just a collection of pretty unintelligent players (Yao, Rice and MoT excepted) who are lost offensively, put forth no consistent effort on defense, and really don't know what "bringing it" every night means. We are a laughingstock of the league, and Les and the powers that be seem to be the only ones who don't "get it." Last night's game was a microcosm of the season. Go away from a red hot Yao, run down the shot clock, panic, and revert to iso street ball come crunch time. It shows they have learned NOTHING after 70+ games. Folks, that's (lack of) coaching. Tough times either bring you together or drive a wedge right down the middle. For this clueless and inept coaching staff, and for our selfish guards, guess what the answer is?? D R
