it was close and if we would have won everybody would have been praising rudy's "gutsy" move to keep his back-ups in. on the plus side, franics and ming should be well rested and ready to bring it tonite. and lest it be forgotten in the annals of basketball history, did i mention "THE PUNCH"? THE PUNCH THE PUNCH THE PUNCH
I remember the 1992 Finals Game 6. The Blazers were just kicking the Bulls behind and Jordan was struggling. Phil let the bench pick up the slack. Then when Jordan reasserted himself. Phil put him back in to close it out. Rudy should learn from history.
rocketfat: According to her, it happened last year a couple of times in the space of about two weeks. As I said, I think it's ridiculous either way. Benching Francis while the game is nearly out of reach is one thing. It rests him, lulls the Spurs into complacency, and lets some people play with something to prove. But once the game requires someone to "step up..." that's when Steve must go back in.
I think it was a good decision. 1. Francis was playing like complete crap. Perhaps he'd have turned it around in the last couple minutes of the game, but that is hardly a given. I've never seen a worse game out of him. 2. Most of the starters didn't really seem to have their head in the game. I think many of them were still thinking about that Lakers game. I think their concentration was lacking. 3. The backups did seem to have their head in the game and were actually playing well. Why replace them with guys who aren't paying attention and are playing like crap? 4. It is an object lesson for Francis: You got up for the Lakers, but you've got to get up for everybody and be consistent. 5. Yao was playing ok, but Cato was playing better. Cato is also the vet while Yao is just a rookie. 6. Defense on Duncan is not a valid reason. Yao wouldn't have been defending him, Mo or Griffin would be. I can see putting Griffin in for defense on Duncan, but he was playing pretty poorly as well, while Taylor was playing well. Yao's shotblocking could help with the defense, but so could Cato's. He's not a bad shotblocker himself and he's got a bit more strength which is important in the low post with the likes of Duncan, Robinson and Willis. 7. It gives the backups something to play for. 8. This was the first game of a back-to-back. Having some rest for the starters is not a bad thing. What is up, btw, with Harvey's quote: Has he never read this board? Doesn't he know half of clutchcity has been calling for Rudy's head for more than 3 years?
I don't know what to say about that. I think the way we got into the game was because Duncan was on the bench (no disrepect to our bench players but still) and we gain from it. I was shocked not to see Francis in the game. Mobley wasn't playing all that well either. The guy took 21 shots and made 7 so that's no big deal I guess. I just want to see how the Rockets come out and play Dallas. When ever you play a west team you must be determine to win.
You guys forgot to mention that the Refs was calling this in a WWF style for the Rockets for most of the night. The Rockets shot 0 FT for the first half. The Spurs were allows to hack and basically push and if the player don't make the shot, tough, "it's a man's sport after all". Ming was not effective in this kind of game, not yet. When you are getting hit for a 2 inch shot, it has to be a dung with 2 hands and superglue or else it's not going in. Ming is either not ready or not willing to go postal on Duncan and Robinson. So Cato was a great choice. Besides, the rest is good for Ming tonight. As for Steve F. well, going 1 for 12 and 4 TO is not a great showing in the first 3 periods. Besides, I think the way the refs called that game, Steve might have been killed if he drove to the basket more. Since his outside shots WERE NOT FALLING, it's almost a safety move to pull the "quarterback" when he's off. And don't be too harsh on the coach, MoT and TMorris was on fire and got the team back and even up by 2. This was at the time not possible even on ANYONE's minds. And in a way, I understand what he said. The bench hustled and did the impossible. If you stick Ming and Steve back in only to lose the game on bad Steve shots or week Ming shots, then it's a slape to the face for the guys who did the drity work. Now we will see how mature Steve is. This is not a lesson for them. It's just that they had a bad night. Ming on the order hand can definitely learn from the all out effort on the dunks that Cato is displaying recently.
This is THE most moronic statement I have ever read. Though, I will appologize if you are under 16 years old. Did I see "punish"? Who "punish" whom, moron? Like many other morons who thought Rudy sent a message to the two most precious sports properties in the city of Houston? For what? Wait a second. You have one desinated franchised player who just laid his 6'3'' body and 3 pounds of his heart on the ground 2 nights ago, who single-handedly won the most financially important regular game for your boss. And you "punish" him for an off-night? You morons are calling yourselves the Rockets fans? The thing is Steve was trying to play good basketball that afternoon. The shots just didn't fall. Wait, again. You have an up-and-comming franchise player whom you boss termed as the most exciting story in the sports history, on the bench. For what? Receiving your "message"? What message? From Jesus for how to win a game? Don't you morons realize that Steve and Ming together can fire Rudy anytime they want? Rudy had one of the worst coaching nights in basketball. And it happens to people. No more, no less.
Why don't you try responding without making yourself sound like a jackass? If you think that players in the NBA don't get benched so they get a message, then you are an idiot. Yes, I am a Rockets fan, which is why I hate seeing a guy like Steve Francis be so inconsistent. Have you been living in a cave? Pretty much everyone agrees that Steve should pass the ball MORE since he is the PG. The game the Rockets are playing out there is just plain ugly, but maybe you are too dumb to realize that.
Maybe Rudy is thinking we've already beaten the Spurs once this year, but we haven't beaten Dallas. So, he just rested Steve, Yao, and Griffin for tonights showdown.
Or maybe Rudy is thinking...Dang I like the way the team is playing and my PG is 1-12 tonight with 4 turnovers....maybe I teach him a lesson about coming to play EACH AND EVERY GAME !! DD
I doubt you actually watched the game. I actually took half day off and ran home and watched every minute of that game. Steve WAS trying to play GOOD basketball. It was not because he wasn't trying or else. It was just not his day, period. I watched Jordan playing in his prime with 10-point n-out-of-inifinite shooting night. It just happens to every player. Not to mention he spent himself on that Friday. For all human imaginable reasons, you treat Rudy like your untouchable granddady and blamed Steve instead. And you think I try to be jackass to you. Guess what, I personally want to whip those who wanted Rudy to send a MESSAGE to Steve on that particular night. Those are are truely jackasses, OK.
Well if you had actually read some of my posts you would see that I am not a Rudy lover. I honestly don't know who to blame for this sluggish turnover prone offense but Rudy and Steve certainly deserve some of the blame. And yes Steve is good, but he still has a lot to learn. Every once in a while even great players need to get a message. Hakeem, the greatest Rocket ever, needed a wake up call and had to learn to involve his teammates better. Iverson needs it, Kobe needs it, lots of talented players do. Just about every player outside of Jason Kidd needs a wake up call these days.
Those guys should have come out as soon as the game was tied, just about three- four minutes to go. They had played the entire 4th quarter and expended alot of energy. ( keep MoT in) I can see what Rudy was trying to do, but lets get real. Unless Stevie has a broken limb, headaches, or is drunk, he finishes the game...period! I know that he could have atleast knifed through the lane and gotten to the free throw line, he is our leader and has shown recently that he can finish the game. The other glaring problem, why not go back to MoT? That was poor, and Rudy should have kept calling his number. Yao should have been in there too, he draws alot more attention on the offensive end than Cato.
"Going with the hot hands" is usually a good strategy. "Playing your stars in crunch time" is also usually a good strategy. The problem here is, the two usually good strategies conflict each other. What do you do? There are 4 possible scenarios. 1.a. Rudy kept the backups and we lost the game. The Rudy bashers would say he's stupid for sitting the stars during crunch time and that cost us the game. The Rudy apologists would say that he made a reasonable decision to keep the hot hands in the game. They just couldn't hit the shots at the end. 1.b. Rudy put in the stars and they missed shots down the stretch and we lost the game. The Rudy bashers would say he had no backbone to bench the obviously cold stars, or that he's too conservative for not letting the bench players win the game when they were obviously playing well, or that he's subsitution killed the momentum. The Rudy apologists would say that putting star players in during crunch time was the most reasonable thing to do, or that any coach in the league would have done the same thing. They just couldn't hit the shots. 2.b. Rudy kept the backups and they played well and we won. The Rudy bashers would say he's stupid for sitting the stars during crunch time and that we were lucky to steal the win. The Rudy apologists would say that he made a gutsy decision in a close game to show his trust in his bench players, and that he knew better than most coaches in the league that the players who had been playing well would more likely to play well than the cold starters. Rudy put in the stars and they stepped up to win the game. The Rudy bashers would say nothing about Rudy's decision and, instead, praise the stars for being "clutch" big time. The Rudy apologists would praise Rudy for knowing exactly when to put what players in the game to pull off the win. Well, I am a Rudy apologist. But I do think that he should have put in Francis at around the 3:00 mark. They might or might not still have lost. But the decision was not as obvious as many (mostly Rudy bashers) have made it out to be.
A good player learns more from watching than he does from playing. Hopefully Francis learned a thing or two last night.
