ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Knicks @ Rockets 12/27/2002

I don't know if you watched the game, but Yao didn't look comfortable out there.

 

Yao was quite ineffective when posting up. Well, thats from what I saw in the first half.

 

I'm resisting the urge to start a thread on this, but, Griff's shot just looks ugly. No form, just looks like line drives. How could the scouts who traded all those draft picks for him not notice what is obvious to me as a mere basketball novice?

Time for Nachbar!

 

I admit. I didn't see the game, but tell me - was SF looking for YM on the court, or was YM getting the ball, only after SF and CM ran out the clock looking for a decent shot. Oh wait - were talking about CM. To him, there's no such thing as a bad shot.

Raven

 

Houston just couldn't stop anything. They drew Yao away from the basket, and our perimeter defense is pretty spotty, despite the misleading opponents' 3-pt FG %. So they could score from inside or outside at will. Once we got behind by 10 points, people started panicking (cough, cough, Cuttino) and got out of the offense. Steve (and Taylor for a while, and Cato while he was in) was about the only person who looked like he came to play tonight. I'm not going to go into too many points, so I'll just cover the overall game.

- No post presence at all. Yao was caught out high almost everytime. Postups from the players who can postup (Rice, Taylor, Cato, and Griffin) were practically nonexistent. We cannot stop playing the inside game once we get behind. Hell, we need to do it when we're ahead too. We cannot rely on Yao for all of our low post offense either. When you get their 3 big men in foul trouble, you have to post up inside. Penetration will draw fouls, but you risk too many turnovers rely on that to get your contact.

- No interior defense. Our big men were drawn away from the ball, and when Allen Houston started facing up, we got burned. To keep shooters honest, we started playing closer to the shooters, and then the two-man game kills us because we get too many mismatches. Spree cut to the basket way way too many times.

- Some sad transition defense (again) didn't help either. Posey was the only one who got back every single time in transition. New York could get men under the basket early and often. Gotta keep them out.

- Bad shot selection plagues us when we get down. You have to stick with the offense! Open looks will fall eventually. Shooting with a hand in your face is not the answer. To go with that, anyone who starts dribbling around the three-point line without an iso should be benched immediately.

+ We still won the rebound battle, of course, we have to do something with it.

+ We really cut down on the turnovers tonight. Very nice. Now if we could just combine our play from the last game, and this game, you would see two Ws instead of two Ls

Bottom line is, teams are slicing our defense apart by drawing our bigs away, and taking advantage of our undersized guards with the two-man game. Lack of poise hurts us on the other end. Look at how tenative our players become once they miss a few shots. It breaks their rhythm and they will continue to miss shots unless they shoot with confidence. The other, veteran teams smell the blood in the water and continue to attack us, and we buckle under the pressure.

All I can say is: stick with the team, guys. This is going to be an up-and-down season, but we'll make the playoffs.

 

Big men away from the basket....hmm..
When they were in a good position, they never got the damn ball (especially from Mobley!). And when a ball is passed to our big men, the passes were mostly lazy ones (especially from Mobley again!).

Just what I saw.

 

Seems like things got messed up after Mobley came back.

 

I have yet to watch the 2nd half of the game, but after watching the first half, you're absolutely right. This isn't the first game you'll see this either. There have been games where he's getting bull-dozed out of the paint. He is not allowed to post up down low at all by the defense.

I'm not going to blame the Rockets for not getting him the ball after he passed up on a 3 foot turnaround in the paint. Yeesh. But I will blame the Rockets for not coming up with something a bit better to get him open down low. Like I said, I haven't watched the 2nd half yet, so maybe they did try it... dunno.

 

The Rockets should trade the players that are lack of fundamentals.
1. Mooch
2. CAT
3. EG

Rice is an exception. He is too old. He is cut too.

 

Man, you ought to be forced to watch the 1982-1983 Rockets. You'd beg for mercy and to take your comment back.

 

Don't forget Yao. You'd have to cut him, too. He passes great... can't get positioning for a rebound to save his life. Ouch. Bye Yao.

 

There is no excuse for SF and CM shooting 33 times, compared to the 12 shots YM took. CM should never ever take more shots than YM in a game. This is insane. YM should be the first option, not the third.

Just how bad does it have to get, before even die hard fans start to request change. If the Rockets are not a top 8 team, by the all star break, Les should rain fiery hell down upon RT and his two spoiled brat guards, who shoot first and pass second.

Raven

 

We did break the franchise record for the lowest shooting percentage for the game (according to radio 610). If any team would break the records it would be this team (with so many iso player on board). I guess it's not too bad when you only lose by 16 points. It could be worse if the Rockets didn't shoot 40 free throws tonight. Not sure what happen but they have no energy tonight. The only guy that seems to play hard is Posey. They play very poor defense due to lack of effort. On offense, there is no flow to the game and no movement for the most part. This game remind me of the type of game that they play in the past. They dribble and put up bad shots. The guy who get the ball hold it for a while and put up the shot with a defender in their face. There is no movement to get someone open for the shot. I guess back to the drawing board for Rudy. He need to put in some new play for Yao as the defense kind of know what he is going to do. They need to draw up some plays for him to take some 15-17 foot shot once in a while to keep the defense honest. He need to move across the paint more often and get him the ball on the move in order to get him easier shot.

 

horrible, terrible... rotten.

and i got to the game too freakin' late for a celibriduck! argh...

no win and no duck

we suck, we suck, we suck, we suck, we suck, we suck
(sung to the tune of the Yao Ming song!)

 

Griffen missed too many 5 ft jump shots from inside the paint..watching that was pretty darn frustrating..

 

Big story!!
David Stern demands Les to trade Yao to a winning team or fires Rudy the crack head. He reasons that a game like this is hurting the chance for NBA going global.

Just joking.

 

43 FTA. The Knicks controlled the rhythm of the game. I think many other teams are going to use the same strategy to beat the Rockets.

 

Where the HECK was the ZONE defense that we have been running?

This would put Yao on the baseline where he belongs.

This team is very frustrating to watch.

They have no heart...none, zip, nada....they play TERRIBLE against teams they should beat.

Grizz, Clipps twice, Knicks, how many other of the lesser teams do we need to lose to before Rudy tries to light a fire under some a$$es?

I mean, if the guys aren't getting it done, go down the bench..Tmo, Hawk, Bostjan, let them have a go.....sit EG on his butt, the kid stunk up the joint tonight.

The Rocks really are NOT going to the playoffs this year, they are too damned inconsistent.

DaDakota

 

We seem to have lost nearly all the gains that we have made earlier in the season.There is no offensive execution,and defensively teams give us huge problems on man to man defense,and if we don't zone in we don't stand a chance. As the season goes on it will be easier for teams to match up against zones as well,which is really bad for the fragile psyche of the team.
The team needs to work very hard on both ends everynight.Players have to improve defensively, execute with consistancy and decrease turnovers.We need a much improved overall performance and are particularly short at both forward positions and with our shooting.The team needs a shakeup,it's time for the other rookie (Nachbar) to play if he is fit.

 

Cato has had tons of rebounds recently, especially the Offence rebounds. Did he make a shot from any of them?