ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Timberwolves @ Rockets 1/31/2003

Did anyone notice that Rudy hollered for Steve's attention, and then said "...don't do that again...." ?

Maybe Rudy is putting his bottle, er, his foot down....
J/K Rudy.

 

Griffin blocked Garnett on a weakside play, and swatted it out of bounds. Before they inbounded it, everyone was fighting for position before the ball was inbounded, and whistled. Griffin and Garnett brushed up against eachother. Garnett backed into Griffin. Griffin shoved off, they exchanged words, and it should of been a double tech, but for some reason they only called it on Griffin. Had it been a double T like it should of been, Garnett would of been ejected since he had a tech previous to this encounter.

 

Great win, great team effort, great game. The Rox proved tonite that they can be a playoff caliber team if they just trust one another every night like they did today. Again, great win!!

 

did he? good for him, and good for the rocket.

 

Quote from Star Tribune:
...there was the infernal "Yao Ming" song played over the P.A. system any time the rookie big man scored or blocked a shot...

That must be amusing. hehe..

 

Even I had been jumping on our gaurds at least a little bit lately, but tonight reminded me just how important they are to this team, especially if they play like this.

I also remembered how much more good than bad they've done for this team (wins>losses), and had it not been merely for Francis' poor shooting lately, the team as a whole probably wouldn't of gotten so much **** from everyone... can't say for sure though, but I know that woulda gotten us at least another win or 2.

Still, the one thing that I really can't get over about steve is his incredible amounts of turnovers and his high ATR. I obviously though still need some more, equally convincing wins (esp. on the road) to be full of high hopes again.

 

Face it, the league is not gonna toss out one of its top moneymakers for a double technical with EG.

 

Amazing to see us win so convincingly.30 assists is almost unbelievable.Tremendous scoring. Any idea on the extent of Cato's injury? I hope he recovers quickly.We need him.

 

Did anybody notice what Yao said after the game?


Something to the extent of "we won this game because everyone was passing today." Implies that they did well today, but that he's irked because they don't always with respect to giving the ball to the open man.

One positive and one negative:

1. It might mean that Rudy specifically focused on this before the game started. If so, maybe we'll see progress.

2. It shows that Yao might have been frustrated with the inability of his teammates to consistently play unselfishly.

Regardless, if we continue to play like this, everything will be fantastic.

QUESTION for those who saw the game: I noticed that each guard scored 20 for Minnesota, while their forwards (even Garnett) did nothing. Was it because our guards played poor defense, or because Yao shut down the big men so well that they couldn't do anything except on the perimeter. Or just that Minnesota's big men had a poor shooting night? Thanks for the input .

 

For me, the greatest stat of the night was the assists, Steve with 8 and Cat with 6. That's when they play best, ball movement creates open shots and easy points.

I'm a fan of passing.

 

I'm a fan of winning... and the Rockets. Coincidence? I think not.

 

Any win is a good win, but this twolves team was clearly tired. This was not the same team that took the Mavs to the brink last night. Good win, but I'll feel better about the rox when they can beat a full strength playoff contender.

 

Let's see how the next 10-15 games go.

 

yao outplayed garnett this game.

 

assist is the key

 

maybe i just have selective memory but it seemed on most pnr's we did not have our big guy help the guard by showing. thus our guard either had the choice of going under and allowing the jump shot or going over and following into the lane. we seemed to always go over and allow the penetration which gave someone like hudson quite a few midrange jumpers while of course not allowing the picking forward to do anything. that was just my perspective.

plus garnett didn't seem particularly interested in scoring tonight (not that he usually forces it but he only shot 15 times against bad man defenders like mo t and eddie). also steve didn't play the greatest D early on.

 

Well I just looked at some more scores... we won, but no one else in the West helped us out today...

 

The offense looked pretty good with the attention Yao was getting.

 

This game showed how good this team can be even without playing in any kind of an offensive system. Reminded me of the good old days with Olajuwon posting up and then the ball moving around till the open man was found. The frustrating part is that if they play together then can do SOOOO much more. Message to Rudy T: How hard is it to just get your team to start the offense from inside???? Is that not some thing basic to instruct to your players????? Francis and Mobley clearly want to be option 1A and 1B on offense, they would like Yao to get boards and play defense and clean up their trash. They seem afraid of letting Yao get too many touches because they know he is the man to be on this team. Sad...

 

Hmmmm, interesting combination.

Yao's teamwork philosophy (the way they play in China) mixed with the teams' athletic ablity (the way that most USA players play).

What a concept! If they could only learn how to mix the two into ONE UNIT.