ClutchFans Game Thread: Clippers @ Rockets 3/9/2004

boy... this is an ugly game by the Rox. what's up with MJackson's passing lately?

 

Probably because any team with NBA players, especially the Rockets, would start hitting wide open shots after awhile.

Part of the reason why they're percieved as "bad shooters" is that they take a lot of contested shots, and get very few wide open looks.

More often then not, they'll make them if they are wide open. Tonight, for some reason, they aren't... you can't win an NBA game (no matter who you have at center) if your players can't hit wide open shots.

 

whats up with Yao? only 5 points. Is he getting many touches?

 

I am hoping that maybe JVG instructed his players to conserve their energy for the 2nd half because except for SF, nobody came to play tonight.

 

he's being swarmed by the clippers. They've got 2 to 3 guys on him everytime down the court.

 

The blueprint to beating the Rockets is to basically take Yao out of the game via a cloud defense in the paint area. Force the Rockets to use the jumpshot to get their points. Use pick and roll on offense to get a lot of points.

 

read above...he is getting swarmed by defenders.

 

Not really but that's Clips gameplan tonight. They want to let the perimeter shooters beat them. So far, we are shooting like crap.

But as bad as we've played in the first half, we are only down by 3. We will prevail.

 

SF3 is the only Rockets that came to play.

JJ and Cat are off. Cat cannot even make FT. Yao is constantly doubled, needs to flash more.

Hope that our guys are pissed and came out to play in the 3rd half. Otherwise the game is very losable.

 

That strategy's working tonight only because the guards can't make wide open shots they typically land. Ugly turnovers are really killing the Rox.

 

We need this win. Denver just won big tonight.

That just shows you how important the outside game is. Otherwise the opponents are gonna pack in and dare you to shoot from outside.

 

What the story of those TOs? Were many of them because of Yao didn't reach out to recieve the ball?

 

Are you surprised? I'd make the Rockets' streaky perimeter shooters try to can the jumper if I were coaching the opposing team. This is why the Rockets' management better bring in some dead-eye 3 point shooters to absolutely kill teams that use this strategy. I'm in favor of Brent Barry, but I'd like to see Ray Allen too.

 

maybe we should get Pike out there, he has probably got some incentive to play well. If they are double teaming Yao it would make sense to send out a good perimetre shooter

 

Miracles do happen, even in Basketball!!

 

Remember Najera's plays on Yao? Sort of like that... partly it's terrible inbound passes, but partly also Yao drifting backwards away from the ball only for the guy guarding him swinging around to knock the ball away.

At least Yao's not in foul trouble. If the ball had gone in to him more successfully, the Clips would be in pretty bad foul trouble.

 

Yea... it'd be great to have an all-star like Ray Allen... but if all you want is a guy to shoot a wide open shot... ANY GUARD IN THE NBA would be able to do this.

It could even be Moochie... it doesn't have to be an all-star dream-teamer.

Cat can hit these shots... and JJ (who's missed 4 or 5 GREAT looks) hits them with regularity.

They have Pike on the bench... and I mentioned earlier that this would be a perfect game for him.

They'll start hitting their shots... you'll see. What I really fear are the teams that are able to collapse on Yao, and still rotate around to our outside shooters and get in their face (Memphis, Seattle).

Maybe we're TOO wide open tonight.

 

i'm not surprised at all. I expect every team to do the exact same thing. The mavericks decided to let Yao play 1 on 1 the first quarter and he put up 18 points. He only had i think 11 the rest of the game.

Piakowski was supposed to be one of those dead-eye 3 point shooters but unfortunately has been a huge dissapointment. I agree with you, the rockets need guys who can consistently hit the outside shot.

 

I've watched this team the whole season, and this strategy works basically every game. Until the Rockets' shooters get a better reputation for not bricking everything, teams will use this strategy more and more. When Steve Francis said they were called the "non-shooting Rockets", he wasn't kidding.

 

i don't know what happen to the clippers today there are playing good basketball












the only good thing they do is to bring good player for the other team like us take them


Let's GO rockets