The reason why we lost tonight was because of T-mac, he showed absolutely no heart in the final quarter. Turnovers after turnovers especially at the critical moments. He just cared about his damn fingers thats why he didnt drive for a dunk on the last possession.
Which was a good decision. Instead of risking the entire season, I wouldnt mind lose this one game and make sure Tmac will be healthy for the rest of the season. Playoff is what it counts, we need everyone being healthy.
Well who would mind if its just a one game thing, the problem is he does this all the time and especially when the game matters the most. How are we getting to the playoffs is a problem if he plays like he is made out of glass.
Tmac couldnt get to the hoop because Dallas players protected the rim closing on him. He had nowhere to go. He was looking for Yao, but Yao was running at a bad angle. Yao shares half of the blame on this one IMO. Down the strech, Yao needs to use his head, not just being a robot.
Turnover, Turnover, Turnover. Turnover leads to easy bucket for the other team and more FT, usually in fast break too, which means Rox cannot have good set up defense. For this kind of game, although we were shooting efficiently with 44%, the Mavs got 8 more scoring chances. They were shooting 43% themselves, and that's where the extra points they got from. RA criticized about the TO problem before several times already. I hope Rox will improve on this problem when we have full team playing again for more games to come.
Alston and Head to Seattle for Earl Watson and next year's #2 (which will be near the top of the round).
That makes us no better. He's not much of a playmaker, he's small, can't shoot and isn't much of a defensive upgrade, IMO. I know he's probably considered an underrated defender by some people but I just don't see it. I've seen too many Sonics games that suggest otherwise. He also makes more money than Rafer and I would like to think that Luther's trade value is slightly higher than being just a throw-in for two teams swapping horrible starting PG's.
My guess is Alston and Hayes will be packaged for a trade for a big man who can take some of the load off Yao and also let Scola play with Yao in the starting lineup. This move will allow Francis and James man the PG position with Brooks getting scrub minutes. Which will either work fabulously or completely blow up in the Rockets' faces.
The Rockets choked this game. Plain and simple. Huge lead going into the 4th and we blew it. Choking is the only explanation. The great teams know how to get back into the game and close out when they need to. So far, the Rockets biggest trouble is closing out games.
Decision making with the lead is their biggest problem. They think they have the game won and they start chucking to pad their stats. Horrible!
This is the answer to the 4th quarter meltdowns. And play Scola more. If he gets benched because of a mediocre 1st half then Rafer should be handing out towels in the developmental league. And if Tracy's fingers are numb then sit his ass and play SF and Scola. Bonzi what happened??
Your love for Tmac has fogged your vision. This is not meant as a bash on Tmac. He has his moments of brilliance but more often than not he comes up short in the 4th. Not to take anything away from the rest of his game. He is the reason we are any many of the games and he was out of sync last night. But with that said if he is not to drive to the basket late in close games than he needs to defer to Yao. And yes Yao has his faults also but more times than not his shot is closer to the basket and much more successful.
close the thread... this is spot on. you offer me kobe for tmac right now and i take it everyday and twice on sunday. the second he settled for that long jumper w/ 25 seconds left i was ready to move him. last night was all i needed to see to realize tmac will NEVER take us to the promised land.... he just doesn't have it.
that's garbage. we've been losing "just one game" against the elite teams for years now, and in similar "choke down the stretch" fashion. enough is enough.
To be fair, Scola didn't get to play that much last night. And during the on the court, he was pretty much rendered to his old "running" self. One poster said it right, TMAC is like kryptonite to Scola.
