Facts? Or opinions? In your stat quest you've totally ignored what we did to Parker, Manu and Rasho. If it's stats you want, how about one of two teams to play pre-season games half a world away, have a horrid first 2 months schedule, turnover half of their roster, lose to MINN on a BS offensive call, lose to LA on a BS no call on Mihm grabbing Yao's wrist, and a lose on a Crawford prayer... I am just sick of eveything being Van Gundy, Taylor and Howard's fault...And I'm DAMN glad they won and I hope it's a confidence booster for the entire team. I love stats as much as anyone on this board but I like the Big W more than any other stat. And I'm going to enjoy it!
Gater, IF JVG gets fired, why does that have to mean our defense gets worse? They can still play good defense AND good offense. The only reason we won is because Tmac took over, JVG and his system had us down 10 The system does not work with this current cast of players....it needs good 3pt shooters, and for some reason, JVG keeps getting rid of them or putting them on IR. DD
lets keep in mind that our PFs couldn't do jack with Duncan on them (although howard did make some boneheaded mistakes). outside tmac, our guards are still adjusting, barret looks promising, Sura is ok (he hit a three) but i doubt he'll get another triple double ever. bowen was very scrappy, but scrappiness can only get so far (he looks like an old nachbar out there). Considering all the bad matchups and injuries on us, its no wonder we had to resort to our only two good players.
DD - I've never said O and D were mutually exclusive. In fact, a subtle point many Gundy-haters miss is that the Rox miss wide open shots....and they blame on Van Gundy's offense. You're smarter than that, I know you are. This game was playoff intensity in December. As far as "getting rid of 3pt shooters", I'll take Mutombo's contribution over whatever Pike may have given us. And as far as, "putting them on the IL"... Who? JJ, Ward, Lue?...Oh, Nachbar...DD... I love Boki and wish he were able to finish at the rim...but he's just not that consistent. Please don't hang our WC Finals hopes on Nachbar.
Gater, you make some great points. Funny thing is, during the TNT broadcast, the guys were talking about how close Popovich and JVG are alike in terms of coaching style. Both are defensive minded coaches who stress absolutely no mistakes and making the plays at the end of the game to win. They were also talking about how Parker & Manu changed Popovich's style a little within the last season or two by speeding things up some, where before they were a slow down, grind it out half court team (ala JVG Rocket). They also kept commenting on how the Rockets NEED to get shooters to surround Yao & TMac. Think of how effective this offense would look if guys were hitting thier shots on a consistent basis, especially the PFs.
That sounds more like an opinion than a fact/stat...at least the losing because of bad ref's part (which I'm not refuting btw ). As for the Parker, Ginobli and Nesterovic thing...I'm not talkin about what we did on the defensive end...defense is the one area this team is good at (except for rebounding). I was only trying to point out how lopsided and uneven our scoring distribution was...which is a problem that needs to addressed (mainly at that pf spot). I like the W too... how many times do I have to say what a great win this was?! Ok how bout one more time for anyone who happens to mistake my "observation" for an all out rant against the whole damn team and how much we suck even though we won..... BEST COMEBACK, EVER!!! Yet it still doesn't erase our problems and we're not gonna get truly better till they are addressed.
No, let's hang them on Ryan Bowen, Mo Taylor, and Reese Gaines instead. I'll take Boki's contributions over them guys anyday. This system relies on shooters. Our best shooter and second best entry passer is on IL. It don't make sense.
