ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Hawks @ Rockets 12/20/2002

YM went 4 of 12. What's up with that? Was he defended well, or just had a bad shooting night?

Raven

 

Just a bad nite. But SF & CM both got 8 assists. I like this win better than the last. Bring on the Fakers. The Rockets are going to kick their lazy a$$.

 

Yao is human. He had a bad shooting night but still found a way to contribute with 17 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks. Not too shabby for an off night. We are getting spoiled by his great shooting percentage. Let him be a mere mortal once in a while. Yao will play tuff tomorrow vs timberwolves.

 

i think Rudy is resting Yao for tomorrow's game with the T-wolves...

 

Yao is too tired as he said in the post-interview on Pacers-Rockets game.

I am not sure if Yao will perform exceptionally well again tomorrow against Timberwolves. Yao still needs to build his stamina and endurance.

 

It was both an off shooting night and good defense. Ratliff is an excellent shot blocker, he led the league before he went through the last couple of years with injury problems. He jumps like a pogo stick and goes after everything, sometimes resulting in foul trouble. There were at least 2 or 3 times when Ratliff either blocked or changed Yao's shot. However, he could not keep Yao out of the paint without fouling. Plus in the second half, Steve and I think someone else drove to the hole picking up fouls on Ratliff.

That one 3 point play Steve had on him was awesome. Took the hard foul, changed hands and lofted the ball in the basket afterwards(in mid-air). As a matter of fact, when Yao came back in the 4th quarter, Ratliff had just fouled out.

This was a great team win. Both Steve and Cat didn't force the action very much tonight, spreading the ball around well. Even Glen Rice played a large part in the victory, hitting 3 three-pointers in the space of about 2 minutes in the 3rd quarter comeback. Wish we could have seen more of Posey tonight though.

 

This was the best win the Rockets had all season long. The come back was great, and the team finally seemed to jell as one unit.

Francis played great defense and pretty much controlled the entire game. Jason Terry never had a chance from the jump.

 

NEWS FLASH!!!!

Game Attendance: 10,784

I guess the fair-weather fans don't know about Yao yet....sigh.

 

WOW!!! is all i can say to that comeback. how a team goes from that flat to that energetic starting with about 8 minutes left in the 3rd is beyond me. player of the game has to be Cat (although Yao, steve, and rice were all badasses in the comeback). he didn't force anything, hit all his open shots, hit the boards (7), dished out the assists (6) including that great one to morris on the break, and played huge D with 4 blocks including at least 2 of them during the main surge. his best game of the year to me. and then rice. those 3's sparked it all and steve was perfect on his passes on the first 2. he let the other defender sag in just far enough before firing a pass to rice who then didn't hesitate and was on, plus he was shooting the easiest possible 3, the one from the top of the key, which made the setup all the better. ming did a good job getting ratliff out of there with fouls because he was shutting down the middle and hitting the boards it seemed (or was the nazr?). and ming was just straight stroking the ft's, all 9 makes were pure swishes. and then steve took over to put it all away. hit the jumper to give us the lead, hit a jumper when the D sagged into yao in the 4th. then the 3 point play that all but ended it. and he was distributing great tonight. i've decided to completely blank out the first half and only consider the second half, that was an unbelievable game. 63-33 in the 2nd half, that is an ass-whooping. hopefully the t-wolves are tired after a close game (and hopefully down a little since they lost) but it is on the road to a quality team and so far that hasn't been good to us this season. man i thought this was gonna be the clippers game all over again but they surprised me. even tmo made some shots.

 

I liked MoT effort. He played smart basketball. He just needs to get those legs back.

 

That's pathetic. I think Rox is probably drawing better on the road than at home.

 

Jordan had a lot of games like that. He's shoot 7 of 25, but he's go
10 of 12 from the free-throw line.

Yep, and if you old timers remember, we'd give Jordan a hard time
for having a "bad shooting night: 24 points!"

Yao had one of those "bad shooting nights" tonight.

 

LOL!!!

 

Be impressed, be very impressed!

Nice Call Dada!

What a great comeback - definitely will build our confidence. This is the type of game we lost just a few weeks back - like the Clippers game when they got up on us early and we couldn't get back in the game.

What a team effort. Steve, Cuttino, RICE!, Moochie, TMo and Hawkins all played well. Mo didn't look too bad either. Ming was off his game some, but he still made his presence felt on the defensive end.

I was most impressed with the assist to turnover mark. 24 assist and 7 turnovers. Wow!

Big game vs Timberpups tomorrow, Go Rockets!

 

That was such an awesome second half tonight, everyone was playin good. Does anyone else notice how bad Rice's defense is? He moves slow and let Artest score on him and Big Dog just flat out torched him until we went to the zone. I think he is now the black hole in the Rockets lineup. Ya ya he has veteran experience, but that should be used on the bench and in practice....Posey and Morris should be getting more of the SF minutes then him I think. He restored some confidence by keying the run in the 3rd but his D sucked bad in the first half.

What was it that Bill Worrel said was the reason Eddie didn't play tonight? I liked how MoT was hittin his jumpers tho, lookin good. Steve and Cuttino were really awesome tonight!

 

The comeback was great. But I was even more impressed by the Rockets' killer instinct tonight. They finally showed they can close out a team in the 4th quarter. I'm glad to see the Rockets didn't ease up their intensity after the great comeback in the 3rd.

 

Pts: Francis 23, Mobley 22, Ming 17
Reb: Ming 8, Mobley 7, Francis 7
Asst: Francis 8, Mobley 6, Ming 4 AND THAT¡¯S ALL!! The second half is the best of the season, I think. After the depressive performance of the first half I really felt hopeless with Rox. every one lost his mind ,while Robinson became a real Robinson. I don¡¯t know what rudy had said at broken time, but it proved things were changing and the rox we are expecting came back. then it's a great win.

 

Any word on what happened with Eddie?

 

7 team turnovers. That is sweet!!!!!

 

my predicted 18 point win was pretty close