had anyone taken the time to think (nice aliteration), that maybe cato was a little winded with all this "new" playing time. he was pretty active last night and in recent games so maybe he needed those breaks...as i say during the games...cato is a god!
<B>That's where I got my info and I don't see where Cato passed to Moochie at 1:30. I double checked. </B> Sorry for the confusion. Your source shows: <B>4:26 Cato pass to moochie 3:19 Cato rebound 2:55 Moochie for Cato </B> That means that Cato passed to Moochie at the 4:26 mark, which is about 90 seconds before Moochie came into the game at the 2:55 mark. Unless Cato was passing to the bench, Moochie was already in the game. Something is either not right or incomplete about those stats.
That's a laugh. Rudy went to the 3-guard lineup because he's RUDY. He always goes to the 3-guard lineup in the 4th. The comeback was mainly due to Francis. Anything that happens in the 4th quarter of any game you could say "happened with the 3-guard lineup, because their always in. How about this one, "we lost the game with the 3-guard lineup in." Boy, you could sure say that one a lot.
Since the Rockets are losing so much anyway, I'd like to see them end more games without the 3 guard lineup--especially when the big men are contributing well. Get the big guys crunch time experience. This is a growth season anyway.
Something is weird. I made a mistake, sort of. 4:26 is a substitution. However, PBP lists Mooch for Cato sub at 4:26 and then again at 2:55. But never shows Cato coming back in. Okay, so somebody doing PBP made a typo. But it clearly shows Cato played significant minutes in the 4th.
The error with the source could be because Cato and Griff were subbed for each other at some point when Moochie was in the game. Rudy made a number of subs in a (seemingly) short period of time. I doubt anyone is arguing the number of minutes Cato played. The issue seems to be that bad things happened to the Rocekts when Cato, KT and Griff weren't in the game together. At least that is my contention. Nowitzki scores all over KT because Griffin wasn't there to guard him. Nash drives to the lane with ease because he isn't concerned with two shot blockers patrolling the lane. I am probably wrong, but after the Mavs would further seperate themselves from the Rocekts, Rudy would make another substitution. Even in those substitutions I don't think KT was ever pulled (not that he should have been). The Rockets needed defense and rebounding. Cato and Griffin were providing that. Bringing in Mooch may have been a gamble for more offense, but it backfired as the Mavs just lit the Rockets up.
How about this one, Francis was freed up to hit shots because of the 3-gaurd linup...remember he's one of the guards. I don't remember us playing 3-guard during the stretch that led us to the 17-pt deficit. I do remember us playing 3-guard during the comeback. I might be wrong. I think everybody forgets we don't have a front court. Griff didn't play well. KT is undersized and played average last night. Walt is out. Rice is out. Torres is in a slump. TMo is not an offensive threat. So who do you suggests we play at 3 and 4? I'm tired of these unsubstantiated bashing posts. Rudy didn't have a choice but to play 3-guard.
Yes, Pooh222 bashed Rudy for a 3-guard lineup in the 4th suggesting that Cato was benched at the time. That's false. But Dirk was useless all night so falling off him a little didn't seem like such a bad idea at the time. Griff was providing zero offense so Rudy gambled, perhaps, by putting somebody in who can hit an open shot. I'll agree that it was a gamble that backfired. But it was a very reasonable gamble. If Nash doesn't catch fire, we had a chance. Nash driving to the lane doesn't show a defensive flaw in the 3-guard lineup. Nash is a PG. He should have been cut-off by our PG or the guy guarding the picker. Nash hit at least one 3 w/out a pick. The guy is good. Can't blame a weakness of our lineup on him. Maybe a weakness in our guard defense, but not our 3-guard line-up.
I don't understand how a guy can be terrible for 2yrs and then all of a sudden he turns into an All Star like Center. It blows me away everynight I see him getting 15/10.
An all-star? He's playing well that that's pushin' it a bit. But it sure is refreshing to see some solid play in the post. A little conventional since he can't hit any shots beyond 1 ft, but that's okay as long as they keep sagging off him in the low post. If they don't sag off him, then we get layups.
Yeah, that is another laugh. What exactly did Mooch and Mobley do to free up Francis? How can Torres be in a slump when he gets no PT? We do have a front court. We wasted one of Cato's best games, and maybe if we didn't use Eddie like a 4th guard, he would have something else to do besides flip three pointers. Poor Rudy... no choice. Excuse me while I laugh again.
You are wrong. The Rockets ELIMINATED the 13 point half time deficit in the 3rd quarter. The lineup? Cato-Griff-KT-Mobley-Francis. Griffin didn't play well offensively. He dominated on the other side, and is still an offensive weapon. I remember Cato being out the most of the last 5 minutes. I don't have as much of a problem with the 3-guard, as with Moochie's play. Some terrible turnovers, and his defense sucks. He stagnated all the momentum of that dominant 3rd quarter (which we dominated 30-17) when he came in, and his defense sucked. Dallas didn't force Rudy into it either, they had a pretty conventional lineup. We lost by 4, aided by a pair of Moochie 3s that really didn't mean anything. Cato had a magnificent game and should have been in there over Moochie. Griffin was shotblocking, rebounding, and playing D. Francis and Mobley will be there. I think Thomas pretty clearly had a better game than Moochie. An "average game" of 12-7 was better than Moochie, who was a giant goose egg until the last minute.
You are correct. My mistake. My point was that our 3-guard lineup wasn't necessarily as bad as some suggest. I agree. My point here is when we need points, on this evening we can't count of Griff. Cato got an offensive board at 3:19 (which resulted in a missed shot) Soon after, Houston is down by 5 and Mooch subs in at 2:55. Rudy took a bet that Dirk was off and we needed some offense. Mooch is uncanny in hitting late shots. Cato and Griff were not offensive options at that point. True but Mooch is a clutch player who can hit open shots. Agreed, Cato did have a great game. But Rudy doesn't give PT at the end of a game based on who "deserves" it. It's all circumstantial (do we need defense, offense, match-ups, who's playing well, etc. etc. etc.) When Cato went out, we were down by 5 and needed some points. Cato cannot create any offense. Moochie can and is known to be a clutch player. Hind-sight is 20-20 but I can see why Rudy made his decisions.
Simply being on the floor forces the defense to honor them. That gives Steve a little more breathing room. He gets no PT because he has been in a slump. I'll agree with you that he hasn't been given an opportunity to get out of the slump. On this evening, our front court was non-existant on the offensive end. Cato is not an offensive threat, all he offers is the ability to catch a lob when Steve breaks down the defense. Eddie was not a 4th guard with 7 blocked shots. He just had a bad shooting night. It happens to everybody. My point was...Rudy went w/ the 3-guard line-up with <3 min left and we were down by 5. Dirk was quite for most of the game so he gambled that he didn't need as much defensive pressure...or maybe I should say we needed more offensive pressure at that moment.
Cato still sucks! I'll give it to him that he has played exceptional recently, but his uninspiring play over the last two years still sits in my stomach. My opinion is that Cato doesn't have a good head on his shoulders and as soon as he has a few bad games or feels left out he will go back to the Cato of old. If any team wants to take him off our hands the Rockets should do the trade.
I certainly understand your viewpoint. But what if he has turned the corner now? And I wouldn't blame Rudy if he could get anything worthy in return. There is no other 5 in the league that fits this system as well as Cato (except Shaq ) Tall, athletic, content doing nothing but dunks, can block some. If you were to build a center machine for this team, it would look a lot like Cato. I say keep him until 2003 trade deadline. By then we'll know if he's giving 100% or not and other teams would be more willing to take his 3 year contract. It's not like we'll win the championship next season.
