ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Rockets @ Spurs 1/20/2003

If Rudy would've let him PLAY all of the 4th quater, he would've had atleast 13 points.

 

RIET,

Bingo. You are exactly right.

"LAW OF AVERAGES".

You can't rely on Terrence Morris (shooting about 5% behind the stripe this year) and Maurice Taylor to score baskets for you down the stretch, on the road.

The fact that those guys made so many shots was HUGE, but it was beyond their capabilities.

Regardless, Francis is one of our best shooters, even when cold, and can still create shots for our teammates better than Moochie can. He is also a great offensive rebounder (he had 5 in that game). Even if he was shooting 0-25, he still NEEDED to be on the court.

As for Yao, that was plain ridiculous not to have him in there. No explanation necessary.

No one is 'Rudy-bashing', it was just a no-brainer coaching move to put Francis and Yao in there, and anyone with even a limited amount of basketball knowledge will tell you the exact same thing.

 

well said

 

You're tight, Kobe and Shaq would not have sat!

 

To say that there is a coach that is more of Idioti Moron than Rudy is just ridiculous. No one come even close. I am sure Rudy will probably get an earfull from Leslie Alexander tonight.

 

lol....Rudy's not dumb. They all must have been frustrated because of the stupid referees. He must have been too excited and forgot about Francis and Yao. lol...

He was jumping up happily before Maurice Taylor missed his jumper after Moochie and Mobley decided to take it over themselves and go 0-10.

 

That was just good coaching; they deserved to stay in the game.

If Moochie or Mobley had hit their jumpers in the last 2:30 of the game, the Rockets might have stolen a game they had no business being in to begin with.

I expected a loss here and tommorow against Dallas; no shame in that. They'll still be 6 games over .500 with Detroit at home, followed by Memphis and Chicago on the road.

 

But Pued, tell me you didn't think that sub lineup had run out of guess and fresh legs were needed. Tell me you didn't know we were going to have to make jumpshots to win the game against the Spurs defense and tired legs make for double tough jumpshots (we missed about all of them post the 3:30 minute mark). I'll think most of us saw this but not Rudy.

Even the Spurs announcers essentially said Rudy is the only coach in the league that would have keep his two fresh all-stars on the bench in that situation. Rudy has done this before many times (I remember the mid-late 90s it was common), he never has had a knack for when his bench guys have done all they can, and reinforcements are needed. He left the bench out there to wilt under their tired legs after they poored their heart into getting us into a position to win.

 

Desert Scar,

Exactly right. Also, who here is referring to Yao and Steve as "Players who suck"?? Puedlfor's argument is pretty far-fetched, IMO.

Steve had a bad shooting night, but he had some good offensive boards and distributed the ball reasonably well. Steve is also the most clutch shooter on the team.

Yao played pretty damn well, actually, he needed to be on the court for sure.

 

If it was the other way around and Duncan had gone 1-12 while Malik Rose was playing up a storm, Popovich would have put Duncan back in at some point.

The loss is no big deal but you never, never sit your franchise players during crunch time unless they're injured.

 

I have seen other coaches due this. Actually, all the Rudy bashers should support Rudy here. They said that Rudy had lost control of the team, and that he should bench anyone who isn't running the plays. Well, Francis wasn't playing well, and he got benched. I think it's good.

Maybe it will send a wake-up call to the players that they can't expect to be there at the end every time.

 

Ya'll are all complaining little girls. Sure if I were in his position I would have put Steve in at the end, but I see his logic to. Reward the guys who gave you the chance to win. They did the work and hit the shots whereas the guys yall wanted to put in had sucked it up for three quarters. Everyone is always so damn pessimistic when it comes to Rudy T. and the Rockets. Look at what he has done with our Defense this year and some of the huge wins they have come up with. Sure we have lost some games we should have won and our Offense is pretty suspect at times but he the Rockets are a young team and that should be expected. Rudy T. is a winner and it seems like some of the people on this site have forgotten that.

 

As we all have seen today about Rudy's coach:

1. When T.Morris is red hot(4/4 at that time), he sit him down, while Griffin keep shooting(1/7).

2. While Mobley is ice-cold in the 4th Q, he can still on the court, keeping jakking up his shooting.

3. WHile the bench can't hold in the last 3 minutes, RT seems he's in a coma.

very bad coaching for RT. There're a lot analysts suspected RT's BB IQ, today I believed they're right.

 

It was just plain stupid. They are still your franchise players. You pay them to score. Steve may not have been doing good but still.....during such a close game.........I WOULD RATHER HAVE HIM THAN MOOCHIE! Yao Ming? Hopefully Steve will explode and lead us over the Mavs!

 

You don't go with a group; you go with the hot hand. Morris was hot, Taylor was hot, so if Rudy left just those 2 in there, I would understand. There is absolutely no reason to have Cato and Moochie in the game when Francis and Yao can do everything they were doing but better. If diverting to Taylor, the guy who was hot, will win them the game, then I'm sure Francis would do it. Instead, we put all money on Taylor, so all Spurs had to do was put all defense on Taylor. We had no back-up plan. After the secondary group couldn't deliver, we couldn't even fall back on starters because they have been benched so long they would be ice-cold if they came back.

As a rocket fan, you have to be dissapointed. This was THE definition of dumb coaching. Steve will have bad games in the future, so will Yao, but they are still going to be your stars. I'm sure Spurs would fear the 1-12 Francis more then a 3-3 Norris. To be superstars, Francis and Yao must learn to deliver in crunch even in their off nights. There is no excuse to NOT LET them learn, especially in regular season game.

 

Why is everyone getting so mad about the substitions?

Come on, that is not a big deal. 99% of the time Rudy has his starters down the stretch. The issue at hand is the horrible play out there on the court. Too many shots at the buzzer, tio many broken plays, too many isos, too much stupidity!! When are they going to look like an NBA team and not a streetballing team?

 

I WOULD HAVE ASKED YOU ALL IF ANYONE RECORDED THE GAME BECAUSE IT WAS SUCH AN AWESOME COMEBACK...

but we lost.

 

Oh well, at least they'd be well rested for tomorrow.

 

I didn't think that at all. These were the guys who got us back into the game, and San Antonio was clearly having massive problems guarding them. Even down the stretch we still created open jumpers, we just missed. Yao Ming and Steve Francis had been pretty much nuetralized by the Spurs defense, there was no point to putting them back in.

The Spurs announcers are idiots, we all know this. In fact, Maurice Cheeks just went with his bench players down the stretch to hold out over the Grizzlies, rather than put his starters back in.

The point was that Rudy was going to catch hell anyway, unless we managed to beat the Spurs. If he put Steve and Yao back in, he'd catch it for putting two ineffective players in the game in crunch time.

If he stuck with the bench, he'd catch it for leaving Francis and Yao on the bench. Unless we beat the Spurs, this was a no-win situation for Rudy.

Francis couldn't hit the ocean from the beach tonight, and Cato was a monster on the boards down the stretch. Why take out a player who's playing reasonably well, and one who's been good on the boards for two guys who have been ineffective.


The San Antonio Spurs are 20-3 at home. They have a player in Tim Duncan that we cannot match. We had no reason to be in this game except for the inspired play from our bench.

 

The mistake the Rockets made was

1. Having Mobley jack up awful shots when the ball should have been swung to Mo
2. Not resorting to a shot from the hottest guy - Morris
3. Keeping Moochie Norris in the ballgame
4. Pass to Cato with 20 seconds left that slipped thru his hands
5. Not relying on your clutchest player, Steve - even though it wasn't his night
6. Not putting height in there down the stretch - Yao Ming
7. Not being able to capitalize late on SA's mistakes
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   Oh well. We learned something today. Now get on the plane, GO TO SLEEP RIGHT when you get to the hotel, and KEEP THE BALL IN THE HANDS of the HOT player.