Cat took too much upon himself at the end with the off the dribble shot stuff. Kenny, Walt and Rice weren't going to see the ball if it was the last thing Cat did. Personally, I think an isolation for KT would have been more ffective near the end. But getting outscored 40-20 down the stretch (I think Calvin said afterward), you ain't winning many games that way...
you don't know what you saw. You are one confused little ricerocket. this is so ridiculous. If you don't remember, don't invent things. Mobley found Rice wide open for the game winner with 1 minute left...miss Mobley ran a strongside play with Willis and Thomas for a pass to Willis back to Moochie who found an easy 12'er...miss Moochie ran a pick-n-roll with Rice while Willis and Thomas set a picket fence. Moochie come around the pick timed well with Mobley around the picket fense. Mobley got the ball and could have ball hogged a bad shot, but since Moochie's man left mooch to take Mobley, Mobs made a simply bounce to Moochie for an easy 18'er....miss. Mobley passed 3 times for 3 easy shots at the end, and shot one (his favorite shot), and he hogged it. You're blind.
Actually, last night was one of the Rocks' best games in terms of offensive execution, especially in the 3rd. I almost cried watching the weakside movement, it was beautiful. But face it, the Knicks tightened up the D and the Rocks couldn't answer. And Othella was lookin' like mini-Dream out there. My only problem with Cat is that his last shot wasn't a very good look, and as Calvin pointed out, he shot it a little too early.
I dunno. Cat had lots of time to find a better shot or to pass the ball (I think that there were 8 seconds left). But instead, he takes a fadeaway jump shot that was pretty impossible. I can't believe that that was the play that Rudy made coming out of the timeout. There were lots of players who had the hot hand last night. Cat was not one of them. Seems to me that the shot should have gone elsewhere.
I think Mobley needs to change his nickname to Hero. Wasn't that him dribbling the ball up court past several defenders with five seconds left only to heave a clunker with time expiring?
tod, You can always count on Tod to come in to bash something. Are you really going to emphasize one play in order to agree with a thread called "Cat Hogged the Ball." If Cat is still a ball hog, he never would have found Rice in the weakside corner for the game winner. OK...let's o.n.c.e a.g.a.i.n just remember the last play. Rice had been stopped once in the previous minute, and he missed the winning 3. Did he really have the hot hand? Kenny had a miserable play in the previous minute, could he really have drove on NY's last second defense? The play was for Mobley (according to Rudy, the Chronicle). Of course, that was designed for Mobley. But Rudy wanted more. He said he "hated" the shot. I recall Mobes getting a pick to the free throw line and having two choices, none of which was an immediate pass. He chose to shoot his favorite shot square up at the basket versus drive the corner and try to find something else. You're right, he could have dribbled to the other side to reset, but then you'd be saying he dribbled too much if we didn't hit a shot. Or he could have drove the corner getting around Sprewell. He took the shot. His favorite jumper that he practices all the time. It is his bread-n-butter jumper. Don't call that ball hogging after three passes for open jumpers before that. If that is ball hogging, the every star ball hogs. Timing, how many times have you seen a defense allow anything more with 5 seconds left and having to dribble the length of the court with no timeout. btw: why the hell was Van Gundy allowed to coach his team for 30 seconds after the first Houston free throw??? grrr!
This is the one that really hurt. Glen had scored on the prior two Rocket possessions and this shot would have given them a 5 point lead with less than a minute left. As good a game as he played (at least in the first quarter), there's no way the old Glen Rice would've missed a WIDE OPEN three to put away the other team. You know when other dead-eye shooters take WIDE OPEN threes, you're surprised when they don't go in? Well, based on his performance thus far, I wasn't at all surprised that Glen's shot was off. And that's kind of sad. He doesn't hit wide open threes any more.
I would cut Hero some slack on that last play but that's something he does all the time. He's always dribbling the ball up instead of passing it up when there are people open. You're right about Van Gundy, that's good coaching on his part though. The refs were lame to allow that.
Timing...did you see anyone open in that last 5 seconds? I didn't. I saw three guys spread a diagonal across the court with at least one playing free safety (Camby probably). They corralled him out of the center towards the sideline as he crossed the line then the went for the trap, and had he made a passive pass over that Maginot Line they could have reformed it pretty quickly. Don't you think they took the middle away?
No, from what I remember the camera was focused on Hero once he got the ball so I don't recall where people were on the floor. If he dribbled through a trap though, how could nobody be open? I thought there were at least 3 defenders in the back court when he caught the pass but I could be wrong.
He didn't dribble through a trap; I didn't mean to make it sound like that. He ended up shooting from very near the sideline. What do you mean the camera focused on him? Since when do live cameras chop off the defense? anyhow, I can't really recall anything other than it took about 3 seconds to cross the line, and New York D kept him out of the middle with a Maginot Line. Then they closed in with 2 seconds left at around 30 feet out, and he had nothing. My gut impression was they were going to force any dribbler out of the middle and rely on making any passes over the Maginot Line take too long to develop for a 5 second play. Sure didn't help that Van Gundy was able to position his players without a timeout by coaching them for 30 seconds after Alan Houston's miss.
You can't see where all the offensive players are on the court if the sideline camera is fixed on a player in the backcourt or the half court. It wasn't a pan out view where you could see the whole court so I couldn't see who was or wasn't open when he caught the ball and began up court. However, Cat is in the habit of dribbling the ball up court instead of passing it up but no I couldn't tell who was open. I suspect with the trap attempt there had to be someone open somewhere but it certainly would have required a quick decision to pass instead of trying to allude the trap and then looking for a pass.
IMAGINARY CONVO: Coach verse: "Cat what do ya want to do?" Cat: "oink." Coach verse: "Well, what if it's a tough shot?" Cat: "oink." Coach verse: "You're the man, cat. You're the man." Cat: "oink." Coach verse: (turning around) "Steve, you listening over there?" Cat: "oink."
I almost forgot about what Hero did last year at MSG. I bet he had that all over his mind in the final moments too. Hero hits the winner!! YES!
Why wasn't Torres in the game closer to the end? I didn't get to see it, but I was checking in on ESPN Gamecast during the last 5 minutes. I think I saw somethinsg like Cat with 37 mins. 4-11 shooting, while Torres was 4-5 with 2 3's in 11 mins. I figured he was hurt or something. Doesn't it seem like he should have gotten more time since Cat has been out and Torres was hitting his shots? Like I said, I didn't see the game and those numbers are strictly from memory, but fro what I could tell, Torres should have played more down the stretch while we were clearly losing control of the game.
Dogbelly, your timing is incorrect. It was 34/18 and Torres was supposed to get more but sat for 2:30 waiting for a stoppage of play at the end of the 3rd. Torres came in for Rice at the :03 mark of the 3rd. Rice rested Mobley at the 8min mark of the 4th. Mobley relieved Torres at the the 4:17 min mark of the 4th. Torres played until the 4:17 mark of the 4th!!! There is nothing wrong with that rotation, imo, plus Mobley was playing outstanding defense on Sprewell...3 strips. NY had to start running Spree through multiple picks, because Spree never got passed Mobley.
