ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Rockets @ Spurs 10/24/2003 (PRESEASON)

http://www.nba.com/games/20031024/HOUSAS/recap.html


Houston 84, San Antonio 63
Ming Carries Rockets Past Spurs
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SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 24 (Ticker) -- Yao Ming scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Houston Rockets rolled to an 84-63 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the preseason finale for both teams on Friday.

Yao outplayed Tim Duncan in the first half as Houston jumped to a 47-37 halftime lead. Jim Jackson scored the first nine points of the third quarter for the Rockets, who led by as many as 27 in the final 24 minutes.

Jackson finished with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting and Steve Francis also had 14 for Houston, which won its final four preseason games after losing its first four.

Duncan made just 5-of-15 shots and had 12 points as the Spurs shot only 29 percent (22-of-77) from the floor, 3-of-13 from three-point range.

San Antonio's Hedo Turkoglu had 11 points and eight rebounds and Bruce Bowen and Malik Rose added eight points apiece.

The Spurs played without starting guards Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Ginobili sat out with a left groin injury and Parker did not play due to a sprained left ankle.

San Antonio lost for the fourth time in five games and managed just three wins in eight preseason contests.

 

Serious, Yao's arms look short. He's a head taller than Rasho, but only a palm taller with the ball over the head.

 

That's funny coming from a fan of a NBA Leastern Conference Team.

If the Magic could not get to the finals from the Least then how would you expect them to be as good as any team from the West. Give me the Clippers before the Magic.

So who on the Magic can contain Yao Ming. Hmmmm. No one.

 

All great playes and great teams don't care. Lack of caring is a sign of an MVP, and a team that is bound to win Championships.

 

Sorry....its my biggest pet peeve.

The constant attacks (at least as perceived by me) on Mobley grate on my last nerve.

In my mind, Mobley is one of the best, if not THE BEST non-rookie contract players in the league FOR THE MONEY. As a dollars and sense (my spelling) kind of guy, I constantly look to the relative value of our players--factoring in their salary--because I know we're constrained by a salary cap.

I come here, and it seems (to me) that all I ever witness is constant attacks on Mobley. Is her perfect? Hell no. Were your comments without merit? I don't think so....I too noticed some poor shot selection. But you know what? He still shot 44%. Could he have improved on that if he would have taken some better shots. I'm sure we both would agree that he could.

So why did I bother to respond? Because I've also noticed the steady improvement of Mobley over the years. His minutes played alone should tell you that he was never going against the will of his previous coach. If he was, then his coach sure had a funny way of communicating that to him....especially for someone like Mobley who just wants to be on the floor. He hasn't even played a regular season game under Van Gundy and yet people are already complaining about him (actually, they never stopped), but its damn few people who will actually step up and say something nice about him. And there's plenty about Mobley's game that merits respect. That's why I responded.

Why did it come off as an attack? I guess I'm still a bit of an ass. My apologies.....but I'll probably never completely change. After so many years, I'm fooling myself to think that the majority of you guys will change either.

 

Tonight was the first game I've seen live this year

10 impressions i got were

1. Getting the ball to Yao created many open 3's for other players, they just werent hitting them tonight

2. Braggs looks like a solild player

3. Yao and Cato is defintely going to work this year

4. Cato seems to have a better offensive game this year

5. Jim Jackson has a great post game for a guard

6. Moochie played like the moochie of old and other times play like last season

7. The defensive intesity was extremely high- Holding the world champs to 63 points is impressive, preseason or not

8. Nachbar needs to shoot more

9. Uni's look sweet on TV

10. Steves comments before half-time were very encouraging

Overall I was very impressed, mostly with the offense. It seemed like the ball was always in motion, very differnt from last season.

Bring on the Nuggets

 

I say this Troll should be banned. I'm all for freedom of opinion, but it's obvious this moron is just trying to start something.

 

adeelsiddiqui I think Mo needs to come off the bench to provide us with some scoring punch. Unfortunately he has gotten injured and will need time to get going. I didn't write about E.Griffin because we don't know if he is going to show up or not. He can block shots from the weakside and pull some rebounds but hasn't done much till now on the offensive end.
Braggs showed he can shoot fairly well but he doesn't look like a solid rebounder or defender and I don't think he can be effective in the regular season either.

 

This is too deep of question. First, please explain how the magic can stop Carlos Arroyo. He is 9 - 10 from the field.

 

Did I actually see team defense being played tonight? Van Gundy's right: The Rockets are starting to look like a professional basketball team.

 

Lets form a posse and go troll hunting

 

ROCKETS COACH JEFF VAN GUNDY

On the game:
"We did some good things knowing that they were missing two starters, it was a temporality enthusiasm.”

On the Spurs:
"I have so much admiration about the Spurs. The way they play to the management. We recognize it; they set the standard.”

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KELVIN CATO

On Tim Duncan:
"Tim is always a challenge to guard in the preseason or regular season. He;s a great challenge and always has been. He's a good friend of mine and I enjoy playing against him."

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STEVE FRANCIS

On the game:
"It's great to come in here and win a game in San Antonio."

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SPURS COACH GREGG POPOVICH

On Yao Ming:
"He looks the same to me. He's 7-6; he's talented. More time on the court will make him a better player. He'll find where he's most effective on the court. He'll just get better with his decision making and know-how to affect the game."

On Alex Garcia:
"They put a pin in the fifth metatarsal. It will be six weeks, eight weeks, 10 weeks, I don't know. He'll just have to spend the time waiting for it to heal. Everything went well."

On Tony Parker:
"He thinks he'll be ready to play. I don't think so. I'd list him as doubtful or questionable."

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MALIK ROSE

On finishing the preseason:
"Finally we get to play when all the hard work we do will count. The preseason hard work did count, just not in the records category. I think as far as learning how each other plays and getting everyone on the same page, we made some real progress.
"We learned from the losses that we aren't where we want to be yet. We have a lot of work to do. We have to get our defense first and foremost taken care of. That's what we pride ourselves on.

"We have good players that just need to learn how the rotations are and when to cover and help a man on defense. It'll be impossible replacing David (Robinson). We just need to be able to put all the pieces together to get us to where we want to go, but you can never replace David."

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RON MERCER

On the Spurs:
"Everybody is trying to learn the system and get together on defense. We still have a long way to go but the real thing happens next week. It's nice having a dominant big man here. It's nice playing off of him. Once we get used to playing the system it will be great. With other teams doubling him, other guys will have chances to knock down shots. That's going to be our job to knock down shots."

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/quotes031024.html

 

I was impressed seeing how much weight Moochie and Cato have lost. Cato looks more lean, and I was really impressed with his defense on TD. Most of TD's shots were hand in the face fadeaway baseline jumpers that were clanging off the rim. Granted it is the preseason, this leaner, quicker version of Cato really seems to be working well at guarding off the ball and around the perimeter. I loved the help defense everyone had and in general I loved the smart play of the team. Our whole roster isn't healthy, yet I can see that we have the makings of a quality 50 win team.

 

part of that is the angle of the photograph. also, rasho is jumping/lunging at the shot and well.. we know yao is just on his tippy toes.

 

Photo Gallery

http://www.nba.com/rockets/photogallery/gallery031024.html

 

Oct. 24, 2003, 11:15PM


Rockets make coach beam
Van Gundy likes what he sees in win over Spurs
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

SAN ANTONIO -- Not meaning to disparage, and certainly with no offense intended, but it has to be said:

There were times Friday that Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy seemed happy.

The best indication of this might have come with timeouts. As they have through the preseason, timeouts brought immediate feedback. But now, he had to praise.

He clapped cheerfully. He talked to Kelvin Cato about his strong play at power forward, and against Tim Duncan no less. He got in the face of Torraye Braggs to mark Braggs' flurry of offensive rebounds. When San Antonio Spurs reserve Devin Brown crashed into an immovable Yao Ming, Van Gundy and Patrick Ewing even shared a laugh.

There would be plenty to correct as well. But that only served to make the Rockets' final preseason game everything Van Gundy could want. The Rockets beat the Spurs 84-62 before 16,143 in the SBC Center, showing how far they have come.

"We're just getting better," Cato said. "We're buying into the system. The stuff Jeff's putting up there we're starting to understand. In training camp, same old team, new coach, which is hard. Now everybody is starting to understand what he wants from his players."

Van Gundy said the Spurs missed shots they normally would make, but allowed that the Rockets defense had something to do with it. He said the intensity still needs to improve, but said he was "good." He still wonders about certain matchups with Cato playing forward, but liked the way it worked Friday and especially likes the way Cato plays with Yao Ming.

This could be considered a rave review.

"We did some good things," Van Gundy said. "Knowing that they are missing two starters, (guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili), we'll temper our enthusiasm. But we did some good things."

For the Rockets, any win in San Antonio is valued.

The Rockets had lost their past eight preseason or regular-season games in San Antonio, and still have an 11-game regular-season losing streak on the road against the Spurs. In Duncan's six previous seasons, the Spurs have beaten the Rockets in 19 of their 23 regular-season meetings.

Van Gundy would not say that a 21-point preseason win would chase any demons or even that the Rockets have any emotional issues about playing the Spurs.

"I don't think anything that's happened previously has anything to do with what happens in the future but winning helps," he said.

The Rockets have come so far since their slow-motion start of the preseason, by the time Duncan, the Spurs' two-time league MVP, sat for the night with 6:34 left, the Rockets lead had grown to 21 on its way to 27 before Van Gundy cleared his bench.

The Rockets not only trailed for just 17 seconds against the defending NBA champions on Friday, it was the only time they trailed in the last three games of the preseason.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2178777

 

Did you also see his arm is farther away from the camera?

 

Look at Yao's legs in the last two pictures. If his arms were propontional to his legs, he would have been banned from playing.

 

I'm so glad that the rest of yall are getting to se what we Houstonians have seen coming for the last two games...
Except this was even better.

The keep getting better and better with every game..Preseason or no, Im pumped!

Out of all the things I read in that article that make me feel good, I especially loved this stat

Sure, the middle game was against the Nuggs....but the other two were against Sac and SA..who, even with a missing player or so, are quality teams.

I cant wait till the whole team gets healthy, and everyone continues to play as a team....Every player on the roster could get better at something, and I think it is safe to say we are seeing some improvement from almost everyone.

 

Yep, look at his legs next to Steve's in proportion. Gigantic!