ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Rockets @ Mavericks 11/21/2002

I agree with what was said about Kenny. At least twice he let continuations go when he should of really fouled and prevented the shot. Get mean Kenny!

I agree with the observations about Eddie. Not only was he waiting for a head fake, he was just plain waiting for the defensive guy to recover. At least three times he could have caught it and drove right away, most likely picking up fouls. Instead, he waits, dribbles, then passes or takes a 12 footer. He should be going after the rim.

I agree Yao was great. He got winded, but that's to be expected at times until he gets in NBA shape. But gosh, there's so many things he has yet to do. Once he really learns the game (and the rest of the team learns to really play with him), it will be awesome to watch.

I agree we're a good team and we're going to get better. Eddie will figure it out. Kenny will find a place. Things will start to flow. There was a stretch there in the second period where the Rockets played great basketball. By February, that will not be an anomoly.

 

Even in the much slower paced Chinese CBA league, Yao always had fatigue problem in the fourth quarter when he was playing for Shanghai Sharks (some Chinese fans who followed him for a long time said so). It also should be noted that Yao also has been playing non-stop for more than a year now. So, I think Rudy should let Yao off the bench for a few more games.

I saw Yao was directing his teammates on the offence end during the game. He has been played against zone defense in China and in international games all his life. He may have a better understanding on how to break a zone defense like the one Dallas played last night. While Yao is learning much from his teammates, his teammates could learn a thing or two from him as well.

 

i think i've read this sentence about 8 times today, and it was al in different threads.are you trying to give them a new nickname????

 

Why the Fxxk in the world CAT got outplayed by Finley?

 

YAOOOOOOOOOOZA, YAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZA, YAOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZA!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW...this is getting good!

 

Tell me about it, I was screaming on the top of my lungs I was so pumped up!!!! In the fourth quarter, I broke another remote...Nejara pisses me off, man his type of game would have been perfect for our team...CD & Co made a huge mistake there...

 

Because Finley is a better player? He's pretty good you know...

 

Where was Hawkins?

 

As I have said elsewhere, this team is very special and I would like to sum up my feelings this way. If last night was game 1 of a seven game playoff series with Dallas, right now, I would say that Dallas is in trouble. No matter what they say, they do not and will not have an answer for Ming; and just like Wink found a way to live off of Ming, so will Mobley, KT and MoT. Even Boki.

If Rudy will get ahead of his team instead on playing catchup with it, we would be further along. No matter what HP and Co. says, Ming put himself in the position he is and not Rudy T. Earlier I gave him a B- for his handling of Ming and I would think that he is doing the same with Boki. What are all these gimmicks about? Why change the starting lineup? All he is doing is confusing his players even more. You have Ming, Cato and Collier available and you start EG, at center. To do what? Did Rudy review Cato's last game against Dallas? That was a bonehead move which set us back from the beginning. Dallas has a small frontline and our advantage over them is size. Why start KT on Dirk? For his coaching in last night's game he should get a F.

If Rudy only read this thread yesterday where I pleaded for Nash, Dirk and Finley not to be left alone, we would not have all these posters, including Clutch, calling for trades today.

 

Yup, Rudy should have put Hawk on him when he was hitting those threes...his length will distract him a little bit more...I think finley is the player that broke our backs last night...both teams played well...they just played alot better...

 

Totally gutless performance tonight...We went total Afganistan in the second half and laid down and let the Mavs just carpet bomb us...Yao and Rice are the ONLY two people that had respectable games tonight. Steve couldn't feed the post in the second half if his life depended on it, Cat apparently spent the game at the donut shop, because that's what he put up in the field goals department, Moochie had three TOs in only 19 minutes, Taylor couldn't hit a tree if he was standing in the middle of the amazon, FOUR of Griffin's nine shots were three pointers...and where the hell was Thomas? 15 minutes? You'd think that with our forwards clanking so many shots, Rudy would go to Thomas off the bench...at least he hit his only shot.

Don't even get me started on the defense...

 

On what I saw:

<b>The Good:</b>

Ming -
I was hoping Ming would have a good game since it's one of the few I get to watch - but his play was mad. I know it's only 1 game, but that play wasn't a fluke. He's a smart player with good moves and he's only going to get better. Ming was amazing - dominate - smart. The only immediate thing I can see is when he gets a rebound he need to hold it up over his head, not waste high. But he made the game fun to watch and I haven't said that about a Rocket W or L in years.

Francis -
His outside shot wasn't there tonight but realizing that, he drove the lane at will for his points. I haven't seen any other games this year, but he looks like he is making adjustments for his teammates.

<b>The Bad:</b>

Griffin -
He blocks shots...but...he lost his man quite a few times. I know sometimes he got caught behind screens, but sometimes he was watching the ball and not his man. Way too timid on the outside shot. It looked like he didn't want to take the shot but he also didn't know who to pass it to when he got the ball either.

Moochie -
I knew his D was bad but that was horrific. The only reason he doesn't make the ugly is his O looked decent tonight.

<b>The Ugly:</b>

Mobley -
No D. No O. Unless you count the O-fer. Waiving off Ming in the 3rd quarter was unexcusable. I'll chalk this up as 1 game and a slow learner to the new system before I start calling for the 'T' word. But he was, IMO, the worst player on the court and that includes Bradley.

KT -
Wow. I could see in the first minute that a sub needed to be made for him. Completely lost.



Overall though, we have a future - a very bright one. I tend to agree with Kenny Smith though - "The Rockets have to realize that Yao Ming is there best player". No knock against Steve, he still is, but like Kobe and Shaq, they have to learn to play together and complement each other. The other guys just need to feed the 2, do the little things and don't hurt the team.

By the way, Dallas has some shooters. I cringed every time a open Mav got the ball.

But to sum it up - This game was the best L I've seen as a Rocket - and I've been watching since Pre-Akeem. While my expectations are moderate I will say, The Rockets are back!

 

The Mavs don't miss. We were playing at a high level just to keep up.

 

ArtV, I think you have to put Rice up in the "good" category tonight. He did what he was brought in to do, which is shoot.

Steve goes in the "bad" category. He didn't do anything spectacular tonight, and refused to get Yao the ball, despite his dominating first half. Everyone else goes in the "ugly" category.

Nobody can seem to have a halfway decent game at the same time. There's always one person that has a really bad performance and drags the rest of the team down. We can get away with it against bad teams, but got severly exposed against Dallas. This could have been a statement game for us, yet we'll just be another notch on the Mavericks' bedpost...

 

Never thought I'd hear this on the radio:

Yao had a career night, blah, blah, TOO BAD HIS TEAMMATES DIDN'T SHOW UP!!

 

"HP and Co." good grief. Does me disagreeing with you really make such a big deal that you continue to call me out. This is like the 5th time you've done this this season. Why don't you just say Rudy and Co. (as in Francis, Maurice, Yao and every other coach who was quoted on the subject of playing time for Yao).

You see. I have zero opinion on the subject of PT for Yao. I merely try to figure out why Rudy does things. I am not a back seat coach like you. I don't do that. So, don't say "HP and Co." anymore with regards to Rudy dishing out PT and calling plays. View me as a scout-wannabe who isn't trying to prove my pet-peeves, just trying to describe what I see and figure out what Rudy/players are doing.

Ming put himself in the position of getting only 15 minutes earlier by playing poorly. Rudy gave him extra minutes everytime he didn't look lost. He got 24 minutes in his 3rd game, because he played well. I cannot believe you are keeping this up when we are talking about Yao coming out of his shell in his 3rd week being in the states. In his 8th game.

8th game. Oh, let's see. Had Rudy practice only a dump it into Yao offense,....no defense practice time,,,,no motion practice time....no transition practice time. Nothing for Maurice. If he would have focused exclusively on Yao...he would have played well right off.

Is that your logic? Oh, and let's not forget Yao said he was exhausted and Rudy said he had some bad practices.

You can believe anything if you try hard enough.

 

I'm going to start beginning to end of this game (as best I can recall; I just watched, didn't take notes) and make some comments:

* The Dallas defense destroyed the Houston offense in the first quarter. Whatever they did left Houston doing nothing but shooting up desperation 3s by the mid-late first quarter (all of which missed). Houston could not get penetration or good inside position; we seemed to have 5 guys loitering at the 3 point line. Dirk Nowitski was a particular problem as no-one seemed to be able to contain him either offensively or defensively.

* Houston, even before Yao entered the game, was paying a lot of attention to Bradley and taking advantage of his clumsiness. They got him in foul trouble from the start. That part of the game plan worked to perfection.

*Yao coming into the game gave Houston an offense. The one miss of Yao's I saw came on an awful pass; Yao was at least a foot or two behind the backboard and rather than pass to the outside, he took a shot at the basket he basically couldn't have hit. That was the only shooting mistake I saw of his all night. I don't know where his second miss came from...didn't register.

* The Yao tip in of a Steve shot was incredibly quick and sweet. That he did it between Bradley and Dirk was a portent, cause more stuff came.

* Dunks. Yao's move on a dunk comes so fast that unless people are prepared to stop it well in advance, it isn't going to happen. He's just so damned quick.

* Dallas offense: A lot of it seemed to be run to free up Finley, who scored big time. Nash would generally create his own shot; we had no answer for Nowitski in the game. Did anyone consider bringing in Collier and letting him play forward a while? Nash I thought made Stevie look bad till I saw the stat sheet. Steve did fine defensively at the point. It was Finley and Nowitski and the defense against Cat and our forwards that were the huge "ouch" for the Rockets.

* Two man play. There were some scores of Steve's that were set up by the big man. There were some layups that Ming seemed to help create. I get the feeling this is something to build on.

* I know others have commented on this, but getting a center who can give Ming 20-25 minutes is going to be a must till he gets NBA legs. I don't care if its Collier or Cato, someone has to be able to come in and do some dirty work in the paint. Ming played exhausted in the 4th quarter, he was far more nimble on defense earlier in the game. The little alley-oop of Nash's over Ming was particularly telling. If Ming had been alert he should have blocked that one into Nash's face. Instead, he never even raised his hands.

* Ming was spending an awful lot of time on helping defense, because Dallas was getting inside position almost at will. If the other 4 guys could have played some harder D, I can't help but wonder what Ming could have done to slow down Nowitski.

* Did Moochie actually touch Najera at the end of the half? The replay suggested there was no contact, and that [irony] Najera was getting the kind of call a 38 year old would get in this league [/irony].

* Blast from the past: Dell Harris looked good on the Dallas bench.

* Jerry Jones ought to be happy he shares the same town as Mark Cuban. Mark makes ole Jerr look like a gentleman.

* The one time when I felt the Rockets had an effective team defense was near the end of the second quarter. They were getting in Dallas's passing lanes and intercepting passes.

* Rockets O: I think they were planless from the middle of the first quarter on. Whatever motion they planned to do Dallas sniffed out and destroyed. Ming single handedly gave the Rocks an offense for a quarter and a half, but he couldn't keep up the pace. And I know people say "didn't pass this way or that", but on the whole, as an offense that gets people shots, The Rocks were cluster ****ed from mid 1st quarter on.

* The Rockets need to learn to extend their defense out to the 3 point line. 60% from 3 point land is something you just shouldn't let happen.

 

Actually, I think the first forced/missed shot showed a lot of awareness by Yao. The shot-clock was expiring (and in fact expired as the air-ball was being rebounded), and Yao Ming realized this enough to force up a tough shot instead of trying to pass it out.

The second miss was on the block by Bradley.

 

I'm pretty sure that when Dallas comes to Houston it will be a whole different story. The rest of the Rockets team will have to score. We just had a bad shooting night against dallas.

Dallas better celebrate the moment now because once they play us again, they will lose!!

 

It was such a great game though. But the shooting killed us, dallas has just too good of a release.