Fault Rudy T for the garbage education the guards received, but he at least milked the hot hand. JJ should have been jacking up shots the whole night. He should have taken the end of quarter shots. He should have been the guy to shoot on the pick and rolls. He should have been the go-to guy in the 2nd half.
Please dont give up on our Team just yet! In fact NEVER! This season JVG is just seeing what adjustments he might make at seasons end and to install the defencive psyche in the minds and play of his Team.This Team is only a transitional Team, while Yao Ming adapts to the NBA Game.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Steve has a big target on his back because he is continually voted to the all-star game. Point guards around the league probably circle their games with the Rockets so they know when to bring it. Steve needs to grow some nutz and play some damn ball. He had 13 assists tonight which is wonderful, but he missed 14 shots! That's unacceptable. Hell, if he would have made just 3 more shots for a blistering 6-17, we would have won. I'm glad he is passing the ball, but he has to take good shots. (Steve, stay away from the Super Bowl parties and hit the gym! And take your homeboy Cat with you. And both of you, stop taking stupid shots at inopportune times. Also, Yao, stop being a b**** down low. They can't **** with you.)
Can someone explain to me why yao gets pulled out of the game so much after making a mistake; while francis played 44 min and played like crap the whole time and made mistakes left and right.
Francis - 7 PTS on 3-17 SHOOTING, 13 AST, 4 TO (Not bad for 3 quarters of play. Even though his shot was off, atleast he was getting his teammates involved. He doesn't know how to dictate the flow of the game though. He took wide open shots and missed them, forced shots and made them more difficult then they had to be with some of his layup attempts. He also left Bibby and B. Jax to try and offer unnecessary support on defense when his own defensive assignments were burning him all night with clean open looks at the perimeter, as well as cherry picking fastbreak layups where they simply beat Francis down the court.) Ming - 12 PTS on 5-10 SHOOTING 2 AST 5 TO (Was called for a couple of offensive fouls that resulted in turnovers. Got the ball stripped by B. Jax and Bibby numerous times from him and regressed back to his old tentative play even when he had wide open shots to attempt. Poor transition defense. Most of the time his lack of good transition defense didn't burn him seeing as his defensive assignments are almost as slow as he is up and down the court. Another reason why JVG likes to slow down the game to an almost lethargic pace, which is to try and not expose our bigmens slow feet on transition defense. Something Hakeem absolutely excelled at better then our guards who were smaller and should of been quicker.) Mobley - 19 PTS on 7-18 SHOOTING. 0 AST, 4 TO (Didn't make his teammates better, took bad shots that went away from our style of play i.e eating up the shotclock and slowing down the tempo. Let himself get baited into the quick style of play that the Kings like to play. Sometimes it resulted in a 3 dropping, other times it resulted in a fresh 24 second shot clock going to waste by a 2 second 3 point jack that resulted in poor transition defense off long rebounds and open layups for the Kings.) M. Jackson - 1 PT on 0-2 SHOOTING, 3 AST, 4 TO (Opted for far too many behind the back passes, and got the ball stripped from him when he tried to post the ball up down low. His normally good decision making on the court was absent today and he couldn't stop the bleeding in playing the Kings style of ball. Normally his play means slowing the game down, playing methodically and making the right pass at the right moment for open looks. As a backup PG who was meant to slow down the game tonight and play under control, M. Jackson did the exact opposite. ) M. Taylor - 18 PTS on 8-14 SHOOTING, 14 REB , 2 AST, 2 TO (Taylor played like a man tonight. He grabbed boards, shot well, but much like Mobley forced bad shot attempts in a crowded paint full of King defenders in the final minutes of the game. He often whined about the lack of calls like he normally does but did more then his part in trying to get this team a win. He's not our 1st, or 2nd scoring option unless our bench is out there, and hasn't been asked to take the team on his shoulders all season long, but has occasionally produced like he should with the numbers he put up tonight.) Cato - 4 PTS on 2-3 SHOOTING, 0 AST, 0 STL (Cato didn't provide any defensive presence, or rebounding the whole night. Unlike his other games where it was atleast debatable whether to start him over Taylor at the PF position, it's no longer a contest. He has regressed in his past few games, and lately has no longer even provided his defensive presence. He was an offensive liability on the court tonight like most nights, unless he's getting hustling garbage points. ) Padgett - 3 PTS on 1-1 SHOOTING, 1 REB, 1 STL, 1 TO ( He's had past games where he was deserving of atleast filling the backup role at the PF position. He hustles, but most of all is smart with the ball. He knows what he's capable of and never tries to go over that. He's got great range, and makes his team better with his hustle, passing, and shooting range. He's definitely underused but like other players on this team who have had stellar performances for a few games, may just as well end being the flavor of the month like Cato was at the early part of the season. The problem is, we don't use him enough at the backup PF role enough to find out whether he's deserving of more minutes out there on the court.) Nachbar - 2 PTS on 1-3 SHOOTING (Played 9 minutes. Not much to say about him other then he didn't play enough to merit any real criticism or praise. His missed shots looked good if that's possible because they rolled in and out, and looked dead on leaving his hands. He's got the skills, but not the experience. I'm glad JVG is bringing him along slowly.) SUMMARY 22 Turnovers, poor transition defense off turnovers and long rebounds, lack of composure under the closing minutes of each quarter, and going away from the Rockets lethargic tempo was what caused the loss tonight. Objectively Francis is not entirely at fault, but definitely deserves more then his fair share of justified criticism. Yao DID NOT play aggressive nor was he much of an impact at either end of the floor. One because his transition defense was poor and he wasn't able to help the guards on their missed defensive assignments that resulted in a boatload of Kings layups. However was he was in the halfcourt set, he altered shots, but definitely not enough as you can see from the score. Offensively I could tell when he started off cold at the start of the game, that he was going to play tentative thinking he shouldn't shoot anymore. He took 5 shots within the first 6 minutes of the game and only took 5 more for the remainder of the game. Most of the time he was in 1 on 1 open post up situations, but opted to hold onto the ball to wait for a double team that resulted in his numerous turnovers. When he would play agressively he would get called for offensive fouls, but since he played tentatively for the majority of the game, those few times he would play agressive he was not rewarded for it and was instead called for fouls. If you were to tell me Peja would go 5-16 against our undersized small forwards for the night, and that we would outrebound the Kings by 19, I would of told you we won. The Rockets cracked under pressure plaiin and simple, and our star players didn't show up tonight. It's truly ashame such an almost perfect performance from JJ was a waste. The man had no turnovers, was grabbing boards, held Peja to 31.25 % shooting, and was playing his heart out tonight. I really feel for him seeing just how badly he wanted to show the Kings what a mistake it was to cut him loose.
JJ did want the game; I kinda feel bad for him. He also came back with a strong performace from bad shooting in maima. Whille our other players didntl.
Yao needs quickly attack the rim once got the ball. Quit waiting for a sec or two before move. The opposing team sends quick double team that way easily, he needs to realize we dont have outside shooting right now.
Yao was tentative tonight. His turnaround jumpers were not going down even though the Kings didn't get physical with him. He has problems with holding position and gets stripped very easily and he still stands in a corner watching a play evolve rather than moving to get in a better position. He looked so slow at the halfway mark in the 1st quarter. I think part of it is mental because once he starts missing his confidence really goes down. Francis hustled and blocked some shots but he left Bibby for easy shots.Since he is in a shooting slump he needs to attack the basket aggressively while at the same time keep on passing the ball.Even with a zone defense he can still get to the line quite often. Mobley did better than before but he faded in the 4th quarter and Mo short armed his shots in crunch time after doing a very good job earlier. JJ was very good but he didn't get the support he needed.The last quarter is always the hardest but if JVG makes the players play with their respective strengths within the team concept we still may improve.
This is my first post. As a rocket fan since Dream time, and as a Yao fan being a Chinese, I do care how rockets play. Although I didn't get the chance to watch the game, they lost just as I predicted. Rockets always have a problem with fast-paced teams, Mavs, Kings, and Memphis. Personally, I think the problem is not in talent or skills but in mindsets. With a decent big man on court, you should never play those gun-and-run games. The rockets always fall into other teams' game plans. They run, we run; they play half-court, we play inside-out. You can blame yao for not be able to run fast enough, but that's the fact you have to accept. Do you see Lakers play lots of fast up and down games? No, they set for half court game. Why? Because they have Shap in the post, where he can extend his power at most. Rockets just played their weakness in those high tempo games, they are wearing Yao out, without him being effective with those up and down long shots long rebounds. With set half court games, he can shoot, pass or rebound. Unlike the Memphis game, which I watched on TV, he was always hanging in the middle, non factor at both ends. If you want to play around certain player, you got to force yourself into a system which is best that guy. Just my two cents. real_egal
too bad the rockets lost. I went to the game and felt like the rockets were going to win with a sellout crowd with all the sports celebs that I saw walking around and all the hype with the superbowl. I thought in the end the rockets needed a momentum change and they got it when Cato got the alley oop pass but then messed it up with a technical foul. From then on it just got ugly. Oh well at least we didn't loose by 20+ points like we usually loose to the sacramento queens.
I watched the 1st half of the game over again trying to analyze it. Bibby and Bobby Jackson made some crazy shots. The Rockets play effectively until the final minutes of each quarter. For some reason the team just sucks in the final minutes of a quarter. I think Steve's outside shot is really limiting his game. He's having to get way too close to the basket to get a score. On the 2nd to last possession of the 1st half, he missed badly a shot that was around 3 feet from the basket. A King rebounded it and threw it down to Bobby Jackson for a layup. There was one possession in which Steve was driving to the basket and could have stopped and popped for an easy short-range jumper. He dove into a bunch of defenders looking for a foul. He didn't get it. Sometimes the refs give the call, sometimes they don't. Always depending on the call is a mistake. Yao had a fadeaway jumper towards the baseline that hit near the beginning of the game. I didn't see him use that again in the 1st half even though it is very effective since it is very hard to get help defense on.
Franchise's 13 Assists I wasn't able to catch the Kings games. But if the box scores do not lie, then that's Stevie with 13 assists! I was wondering whether anyone who watched the game can tell me if most of those were dishes to our 3pt shooters or passes inside to Mo, Cato, and Yao? Even though we lost, this season could potentially get a lot better for the Rockets if some of that Mark Jackson magic has rubbed off on Stevie. Francis with passing ability... the league better watch out!
I have felt all along that Steve would become a much better all around player under Van Gundy. He is already a better defender and is player under more control. Bringing in Mark Jackson will only help him to grow as a player. Mark's example is all that is needed to help Steve. I hope the league gets rid of the zone defense next year; then, I believe we will see how much Steve has improved.
steve is having a meltdown. him and cat need to shoot shoot SHOOT! basketball 24-7. they need to seriously put in some extra practice to get their shot up to par (especially steve) if they are truly committed to this team. luckily the grizzlies and the mavs lost last night also
Terrific recap, London's Burning. Reading your spot-on analysis was actually the only bright spot of this game.
