Chron: Rockets say they're close to finally turning corner

If we can win to night, this team will start looking like a playoff team.

 

I agree with daoshi and sagehare the problem is consistency. I have to admit I'm amazed that the JVG Rox are scoring so much and it looks like JVG has finally figured out to run an effective O the problem is that now he's got an inconsistent D.

I've been a harsh critic of JVG and still have my doubts if he can get this team to play consistently on both ends of the court but if he can I'll gladly have a crow entree with a side of humble pie.

That said to borrow a line form the give JVG more timers its too early to say the team has turned a corner.

 

a win tonight against Dallas would truly mean we have turned a corner, otherwise we do the Rockets Shuffle...

two steps forward one step back...

 

What exactly are you looking for/expecting? We didn't get Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan, we received Jon Barry and David Wesley. I'll take the improvement in our offense, which in my mind is our achilles heel.

Of course any team can play over their heads, but the fact of the matter, we are playing "over our heads" with two new recent additions... even you, i'm sure, can see the correlation.

One more time just in case anyone missed it...

stuart

 

Their offense numbers are up and the defense numbers down.

Are they dissing JVG?

 

It is too early to say we have turned the corner. If rockets can performe really well in the next 7 games within 10 days, they may say that.

 

If they beat Dallas, these comments will have much more credibility; otherwise, PR fluff.

 

The key word is "turning" not "turned". Turning is a continuous tense and was appropriately used here. No one here said they have turned the corner yet.

 

What if we go 3 and 4 but play well in all the games? Have we turned the corner?

12 - at Dallas L
13 - vs. New Jersey W
15 - vs. San Antonio L
17 - at Memphis L
18 - vs. Indiana W
20 - at Orlando L
21 - at New York W

 

If we play well in all those games we can be 4-3
and that will be turning the corner, and necessary to stay in the playoff picture.

 

No, 3-4 in those 7 games would be staying on par with where we are. To "turn the corner" in my mind we have to at least go 4-3 or even 5-2. I see the Dallas and SA games being ultra tough. We probably dont have enough horses to win those games. So two losses there. But NJ, Memphis, Indiana, Orlando and NY are all winable with the Memphis game probably being the most difficult of that grouping, yet the most important since we are chasing them. We beat them and we win the season series which is important at the end of the year in terms of tie-breakers.

 

I can guarantee that the Rox will beat the teams they shold lose to and then job to the guys they should beat. I've seen too much of it in the last two years to believe otherwise

 

I would put turning the corner at 5-2.

4-3 would keep us in the playoff picture, but we're in the playoff picture right now and are just getting to the corner, so staying in it certainly wouldn't mean we've made the turn.

 

Can you read?

I said two things in my post, first is the offense. I saw our improvement there, but I just don't want to jump into any conclusion before they can do it consistently against some better teams in the league; second, our defense has been getting worse, which should really cause some alarm. Without better D, we won't win any series coming playoff time.

 

Paperwise, we should defeat Jefferson-less NJ, NY, and incomplete Ind. It is probable that we will lose to Dallas and SA. For the rest of two, I think we should defeat defenseless Orlando, and have a good chance to beat Memphis.

So, if we go 4-3, I will give it a pass; if we go 5-2, we play pretty well; 6-1 and beyond are only in my dream.

 

Exactly. Whenever they win a game or two this season we hear something like this. If they arent getting "Ws" in the win-loss column then it doenst really matter how much better they are playing now than at the beginning of the season.

 

No.

And what I am saying is that the crux of the article is referring to our offense. And on that, we should be happy with a small turnaround because we didn't make earth-shaking moves. We didn't add Kirilenko, Ben Wallace and Bruce Bowen, we added Jon Barry, a lifelong journeyman known for offensive spark and David Wesley, an above-average guard brought in primarily for spot-up shooting. Both were brought here to help tighten the offense.

And nobody was jumping to any conclusion as you insisted, just a marked improvement in our offense within the last several games and the possibility of turning it around, not turning it into a championship squad. Try a little optimism, its good for the soul and this board in general.

Stuart

 

now we have turned a corner all right, at least i am satisfied until the next win (TONIGHT!)

 

Now, I'm more and more leanning towards "we are turning corner" side after last night's game.

The offense was great, we had very good ball movement, of course, 61% shooting did help loose the interior defense, which in turns provide a lot of rebounding opportunity.

What I liked more is our defense, which wasn't very good before last night. Wesley was great at passing lane, also put a body on whoever he was guarding at preimeter; Yao was very active on help defense; even Howard busted his butt, did a decent job on Dirk. I know the Mavs scored 114+ pts, but that's greatly inflated due to some 3pts from Finley when the game was pretty much settled, so we actually hold the Mavs to ~100pt.

We won't shoot at 60% very often, but our improved defensive effort should always be there. With the improved offense, we should win many games down the road.