ClutchCity.Net Summer Pro League Report : Game 4 - Rockets 79, Nuggets 90

Houston Rockets 79
Denver Nuggets 90

Leading Scorers for the Rockets :

Brent Wright - 15
Bostjan Nachbar - 11
Jason Miskiri - 11
Demarco Johnson - 10
Shawnelle Scott - 10
Malick Badiane - 9

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Not much to say about this game other than it was a sloppy game with a lot of mistakes on our part.

The first quarter was a relatively low-scoring affair in which they tried to make it the Bostjan Nachbar show early. After a bunch of back-and-forth miscues by both teams, the quarter ended with the Rockets leading 17-16.

The second quarter saw some higher scoring, but I don't really know whether I should attribute that to good offense or bad defense. Maybe a lot of both. Denver's defense started picking up in this quarter as they began to pressure the ball-handlers a bit more. The Rockets began to show signs that they were clearly winded - especially Jason Miskiri. He was still out there playing his butt off, however, and ended up logging big minutes. The first half ended with the game tied at 43.

The Rockets decided to start pounding the ball inside when their outside shots were failing them in the 3rd quarter. This met with pretty good success as Shawnelle Scott and Demarco Johnson banged their way to a few buckets in the paint. The Nuggets had nobody they could really rely on much to bang with them. Tskitishvili looks to have bulked up a bit, but he was busy hanging outside shooting jumpers all day (and doing that well). The 3rd quarter saw the Rockets down by 4.

By the fourth quarter, the Rockets were making silly mistakes and turning the ball over. You could tell there were a few tired legs out there as the Nuggets' rotation seemed to be deeper and better rested. We went down by something like 12 points in this quarter, but still battled till the end. We cut the lead down to 8 before they took it back to the final score you see above.

If the Rockets are tired after playing back-to-backs, they're probably going to drop dead tomorrow as they play tomorrow as well.

On to some individual performances. There was no real standout play by anyone other than people were crashing the boards and on the floor for loose balls, but let's start with the same two guys we always do :

You're it... show me what you can do!

I started off by watching Boki's play, and it was pretty much more of the same. Here's how Boki started :

1st shot - a jumper that went halfway down and popped out.
2nd shot - penetrated into a double-team and got his shot blocked
3rd shot - he did a nice behind the back dribble to free himself from the defender, but the ball bounced off his foot for a turnover.
4th shot - drove the baseline and missed a layup.
5th shot - he drives for another layup. He missed, but was fouled.
6th shot - he hit a 20 foot jumper.
7th shot - actually more of an attempt than a shot - he gets the ball and travels.
8th shot - turnaround 12 footer ends up an airball. I think he was fouled, but no call.
9th shot - a three point attempt ends up another airball. This time I know he was fouled, but still no call.
10th shot - baseline drive that drew a foul (finally)

Those 10 instances were all in the 1st quarter. Needless to say, they basically said "Boki, this is your game - show us what you can do". During the 3rd quarter Boki was whistled for a foul and he finally snapped. He finally showed frustration by slamming the ball down on the court. Not hard enough to get a technical, but it was a first from Boki. You could tell his play and rotten luck was getting to him. Also in the 3rd quarter, Boki was left open on the sidelines for a wide open 3 - he nailed it. I was happy thinking maybe he could get over the hump with that shot. I thought wrong because he came right back soon after and airballed a 20 footer.

I'm not sure what to make of Boki's play or what the coaches think. They're giving him every opportunity to do well and they're encouraging him. He still hustled on defense, still crashed the boards, and still dove for loose balls. He took a charge and then drew a loose ball foul on Chris Anderson. He never really gave up in that respect, but you could see he was tentative when it came to shooting the ball.

Hopefully he can do well in this last game - I'm starting to feel bad for the guy.

Badabing Badiane... (give me a break, I'm running out of ideas)

The numbers won't show it - you just have to watch to get the smile on your face. I don't know if Badiane will make this team, but if not this year, he will and should get consideration in the future. He makes mistakes that you can attribute to his youth and can forgive. He also makes up for many mistakes by sheer determination to do something on every play.

I know I'm hyping this guy, but he's the type of player I love to watch. Is he better than Griffin? No. Is he better than Mo Tay? No. Will he make this team? Probably not this season according to CD. But he sure as hell is making an impression on the coaches and you can sense that with the way he is treated on the sidelines.

I've noticed some moves Badiane has in his repertoire. He has a fake/dropstep move in the paint he uses to get around people for layups. He made Chris Anderson look a complete idiot (which isn't difficult since God already started the process) tonight on a play in the post using that dropstep move of his. He has a baby hookshot that he can stick from 7 feet and in it seems. I've already said the guy has a 12-15 foot shot that looks competent. His free throw shooting is solid from the looks of it. And of course his hustle is ridiculous.

Tonight he had a two-handed dunk down the lane on the Nuggets that brought the crowd to their feet. The other highlight was just weird. It was a blocked shot that got called a goaltend although most everyone that was sitting near me said it was a bad call. The weirdness was that Badiane just exploded straight up. He looked like a big chocolate missle going up. He just ate the shot up. The entire crowd "wow"'d when they saw that. People around me started laughing at the explosion in the guy's legs. He goes for the follow-up on just about any shot a teammate puts up. He was still crashing the boards and diving for loose balls in this game. Like I said - he's non-stop.

He also makes his shares of mistakes. Thibodeau was yelling at him to cover a man on play and he misread it and let Tskitishvilli get to the basket for an easy two. He can be backed down just as well as he can back others down. He has problems sometimes establishing position down low. Maybe it was just me, but Tskitishvilli looked like he was about 10-20 lbs heavier than Badiane. This made battling Skita all that much tougher for Badiane, but like any good Euro knows - why use that advantage when you can go 20 feet out and shoot jumpers all day? And he did as he lit the Rockets up for 23 points.

Some of those points came on jumpers over Badiane and others came against Boki. He was stroking it like Dunleavy and Welsch were last night - from the outside.

My opinion of him after this game remains he's good enough to eventually be in this league and potentially be a really good backup if not a starter, but ... I don't know if we have enough space for him on our roster.

Other folks who joined the party...

Not much to speak of from the "who the hell are they" bunch. Jason Miskiri was winded but still played a pretty good game offensively. He does a good job penetrating and hitting the open jumper when the defense sags off of him.

Brent Wright puts up points when you're not looking. He's the quietest scorer we have. Everytime I look up he's among our leaders and tonight was no different.

Scott and Johnson were bruising inside, but since Denver didn't have much to counter their bulk with, that was almost expected. They did well when called upon.

Kyle Hill played a few more minutes tonight than he had in the past games, but didn't really stand out.

Tito Maddox didn't play tonight. He didn't even seem to be suited up. He was on the bench in what appeared to be warmups/a jumpsuit.

Random talk...

I saw Sam Mack playing in the game before ours. He later managed to find some Rockets people and say "what's up" to them. I think he asked Keith Jones if he could go back to the back with him and Keith said "sure".

AC Green was out there again. He was sitting with the team that Reggie Theus was coaching. AC Green is such a nice guy in person. He was willing to sign autographs and was polite to the "common folk" no matter who they were. A class act.

I had some security person tell me that digital cameras weren't allowed in the stadium, and that only disposable ones were. I wanted to tell her that I'd promise to throw mine away once I was done, but I didn't. Instead I walked all the way back up the stadium on my one good leg, found some security guy that knew what the hell was going on, and he got somebody to tell her that digital cameras were ok. This is the second time this has happened. These people need a clue or better communication.

I saw Jeff van Gundy run over to mid-court before the game started and chat with someone who looked to be ex-Rocket Scott Brooks. The conversation lasted a few minutes.

A guy sitting behind me leaned over to his friend and said "Number 9 sucks". Number 9 was playing for us. I'll let you guess who Number 9 was.

A couple of guys that seem to be scouts or coaches connected to Long Beach State or some other organization gave a thumbs up to Badiane. I was sitting next to them and they said something to the effect that "this kid is pretty good".

On a play where Badiane tried to make a move inside, one of the Nuggets defenders flew off of him like he had just gotten hit by a truck. The ref called a foul on Badiane. I'm not sure, but I think it was van Gundy who said "Yeah, I wish he could do that". Meaning, I wish he actually had enough strength to be able to throw somebody off like that. van Gundy doesn't say much during these games.

One thing I didn't mention during last night's write-up was that van Gundy left after the 3rd quarter. Big E noticed that he had gone off to another area of the stadium to sit next to Mike Dunleavy (Sr.) and chat with him. He was probably trying to butter him up for that Lamar Odom trade, right?!

I didn't take any good pics tonight because I was trying to follow Boki and Badiane's game a bit closer. Unfortunately, I picked the game where they really didn't do much notable. But.. no new pics - sorry!

 

Re : blocks and rebs for Badiane. I'm not sure as I wasn't keeping track. I think he had about 1-3 blocks and maybe 5-8 rebounds. Wild guesses though.

Re : Anthony. He wasn't there.