I can think of countless instances of a single play that turned the momentum or the outcome. Yes, Brooks made 2 turnovers. Yes he missed a 3. But like BB said, so did Wafer. How many FTs did Lowry miss? How many FTs did Scola miss?? They DID try to force it down to Yao. Oh, that was one of those turnovers that you so gleefully(it seems) place on the shoulders of Brooks. Yao had good deep position but unfortunately the Blazers had guys all around him. So when the pass went in they all swiped at it and got a piece of it. Bingo turnover. Lets not forget Yao not boxing out Greg Oden when he got that putback dunk to tie the game at 91. Roy even said after the game that he thought it was a very big play because Roy felt it was a wasted possession and Oden bailed them out.
Exactly. I am in no way defending Brooks' boneheaded plays late in the game. It is entirely possible that minus those 2 key turnovers, we may have pulled off the comeback. The fact is though that you can't simply point the finger at one player when there were so many other obvious issues that involved so many other players, not to even mention the refs. We win as a team and we lose as a team. We lost this one but we've got another one on Friday.
I enjoyed this game...nice to see brooks shoot/score so easily in his "Leven27" but something isn't right. I don't see Brooks' style of play (when it comes to his subconscious choices) meshing with the philosophy of a "consistent success formula" for Rocket basketball. There is something that he needs to change/learn/stop...whatever it may be...in order for him to be a real reliable. I have no IDEA when this epiphany for him shall come...hopefully tonight in his dreams. Who am I kidding? I'm tired of worrying about the future...but when I stop, I get tired of waiting for it.
Its probably not going to come in the next week or two. Should the Rockets get to teh 2nd round, it might come by then. My money is on next season sometime. Probably around December. Remember he only has about half a season's worth of starts.
Brooks needs to shoot the damn ball! He needs forget about Yao or Artest. Just run and shoot, shoot and run.
Da hell??!! Brooks turned the ball over twice in the last minute, the second one leading to a fastbreak dunk the other way by Outlaw. Brooks blew it in the clutch.
since when does the last minute of a close game not matter? i guess a game winning shot by DWade doesn't count because it's garbage time? brooks had a GAME high of 5 assists and a team high of 23 points, shot 75% from the floor and 80% from behind the arc. if he hadn't gone off for 11 points, he'd still have 12 for the game which is respectable. let's not forget, before this series he had a grand total of 50 minutes of playoff experience off the bench. let's not turn this guy into this year's matt maloney. battier made 1 field goal, got no steals, no blocks, turned the ball over twice and committed 5 fouls. but it's got to be someone fault, right? the rockets couldn't have possibly been outplayed on the road by a quality team with quality players who won more games than the rockets unless it was a single individual player's fault.
This seemed the most appropriate spot for this. Forget what happened the previous 47 minutes. There the Rockets were, down 100-92 with less than a minute to play and the Blazers fans were in full celebration mode. Then Aaron Brooks went off a Yao pick and drilled a 3. No biggie, Blazers still up 5. Fernandez hits 2 FTs to seal the game again with Portland up 7. Artest misses a 3 and Aldridge hits another FT. Blazers by 8 with 19 seconds left. Brooks coast to coast and Blazers by 6 with 12 seconds left. Outlaw makes 1 of 2. Brooks takes the inbound and goes coast to 3pt line and all of a sudden its a 4 pt game with 6 seconds left. Roy misses first but makes 2nd. Brooks coast to 35 foot line for 3 more and its a 2 pt game. Then Rudy trips over his own two feet and Crawford bails him out and calls the foul on Lowry(who was in the general vacinity). The ball was inbound before the call was made and it sailed out of bounds without anyone touching it. And here, the NBA was robbed. Not just the Rockets. The NBA. This was where Amazing could have happened. This coulda been Reggie Miller big. This might have been Havlicek big. Maybe Isaiah big. Who wouldn't want to see if the Rockets could pull out this miracle comeback?? Of course, there is no guarantee that the team would make any shot they got after the inbound, be it a 2 to tie or a 3 to win. But think about this. No timeouts for the Rockets. Does Portland call timeout to get their D set and figure out who they are going to deny the ball to?? Deny Brooks the ball and Yao at 7 foot 6 will likely be open. Deny Yao, and potentially Brooks get open for a 3 and a chance to win. Or try to deny both and you might have a wide open cutter to the bucket to tie it up??? But Crawford broke the first rule they teach you in umpire/officiating classes at the little league level: See the call. Make the call. Don't anticipate the call. The NBA, where amazing happens, unless a ref jumps the gun and makes the call before they actually see it happen. Disclaimer: Said earlier, but simply making the correct call does not automatically cause the Rockets to make whatever attempt they would have gotten on the inbound. But I would have liked a chance. A Chance for Yao. A chance for Brooks. A chance for Clutch City.
And Roy and Aldridge scored 69 points on our wings and forwards... You're right, those 2 TOs effectively ended the game but our wings and forwards giving up 69 points to those two players kept the game close before those 2 TOs... I criticized Brooks for those TOs in a number of threads. My only argument is that he was by far not the only one responsible for the loss. Brooks failed in crunch time, no doubt, but the game doesn't start with 3 minutes left. You can't ignore everything that took place in the first 45 minutes.
how abt his 2 last fatal turnover ???? we should win the game & put 2:0 into pocket when back to home... Bench AB !!! right now!
