well, at least ONE Houston team won tonight... IMO the more important team, but I think I MIGHT have traded a Rox loss tonight for a Stros win... sniffle... GO ROX!!!! GO ASTROS!!!! Tear the f*^&in' Cards a new one! Maybe Tracy needs to go pick up a bat... J/K!!!! Burke with ANOTHER one... !
Yao 22 min 19 pts 5-7 fg-a 9-10 ft-a 6 reb Tmac 26 min 20 pts 5-12 fg-a 3-3 3pt-a 7-8 ft-a 3 reb 2 bl Head 22 min 4-9 2-5 2-2 12 pts
Guys, rocket's teams are undefeated since picking up Luther Head and Lonny Baxter. 7-0. They are our good luck charms...I mean impact players.
damn i wish these games counted lol we are playing bad ass, even my girl said so. she sounded like a damn rockets analyst. it was so hot u shoulda heard her. I cant wait til next month, i dont think im gonna last.
When Yao blew that freethrow rebound, my blood boiled, even though it's only preseason. Completely uncontested, and he just stood directly underneath the hoop as the ball bounced right where he should have been. Francis ended up with it. Anyway, at least he looked good putting the ball in the hoop.
Hey does anyone know what happened to Dion Glover? He didn't play and didn't even get a DNP in the yahoo boxscore. He wasn't there at all. Did the Rockets cut him or was that a mistake?
Yeah that was pretty lame. But he did rip that offensive rebound away from Howard so that kind of made up for it.
I still haven't seen the game and won't until tomorrow, but it's cracked me up just reading this thread. It is so much more fun to think WTF? than yawn. Regarding Stro, well if he's hurt, he's hurt. If he's in JVG's doghouse, well this is exactly the time I'd want him there. Whoever did post with the supposed anti-Stro element rearing it's ugly head with the red scrunchy-face; that was great. I do understand why the YOF crap started, and I also understand why people started almost jokingly referred to SOF's and it got taken very seriously. But c'mon who here wants Stro to fail? Lol, this bbs has guys who will post in a fit of depression that last five seconds in the first qtr. when we're actually leading. Over the offseason I've missed that.
My thoughts: Yao just isn't going to ever be a great rebounder for the same reason that he never gets the opening tip (although he did tonight!). He just doesn't have the quick leaping ability of guys that pull down a ton of boards. Rebounding will probably be a weakness of this team again this year, at least until Swift comes around and Sura gets back. Basically, we're not going to see a drastically different Yao Ming this year when it comes to defending screens and rebounding. His weaknesses are what they are. What is encouraging is that Yao was showing no hesitation on offense. He didn't have any trouble getting his points against Orlando, especially poor Kasun. Alston also hit Yao with some great passes that led to easy buckets or fouls. Pretty nice considering they've only been playing together for a couple weeks now. Alston really fires some bullet passes inside to Yao that the big guy is going to have to adjust to over the next few weeks, but once he does it's gonna be easy money. T-Mac looks great already. No problem there. Head is still looking good out there, though maybe not as exciting as last night. He can definitely stroke that three ball and draw double teams in the lane. Pesky, gambling defender, too. Yeah, it's preseason, but he's playing well enough when it doesn't count to look like a strong candidate to replace Wesley next season. Might even take some of Wes' minutes THIS season, if he keeps it up. Looking like a good pickup, but then Terrence Morris had his moments in the game, too. Several Ryan Bowenisms were displayed tonight. That honkey is walking chaos on defense. I don't remember Wesley playing much if at all this time. Jon Barry was great, though, already playing hard. He's got a lot of threes and crazy passes left in him. Alston, like I said, is going to be worth his weight in post-entry passes. He pushes the ball as advertised and didn't take any me-first shots. He's clearly a very emotional player a la Stevie, which has its advantages and disadvantages (techs) but he's going to work real, real well I believe. Baxter busted his ass out there again, typical of a guy trying to pay his rent for the next few months. He'll only be used in emergency situations, but he's a pretty good rebounder for his size and isn't afraid to mix it up inside. Juwon looked like he didn't quite have his legs yet. He missed a few shots short. I figure that should work itself out pretty early into the season and we'll have the same guy from last year. Swift remains a mystery. Van Gundy tends to use every player on the roster in preseason and he's been heavily featured in a lot of the publicity photos we've seen on the web, so I don't think they're making up some injury to keep him out. He was dressed in warmups tonight, though, so I doubt the injury is serious at all. You have to think it's beneficial for him to watch the first unit play together, though, regardless of whether or not he's hurt. I still hate Moochie. Probably always will. He's a great cheerleader, though. Maybe we could pitch in and get that ****er some pompoms.
What is wrong with him and his hands? It was like watching him try to catch a greased pig. Everytime there is a loose ball, the same thing....boing, boing, boing until the ball goes out of bounds or some other 6 foot nothing player grabs it. Can he not grab and palm the basketball? I've never seen him do it in the game, just them photo shoots. I'm beginning to wonder if they glue the ball to his palms for those cameos. He doesn't understand the extension he can get by holding the ball away with one hand and grabbing it with one hand. He's always trying to two hand everything, even his layups. When you see TMac palming the ball, you know it ain't goin nowhere. Surely Yao's hand is as big as TMac's. A player of his size should be able to snatch the ball out of the air one handed like ala Otis Thorpe, Wilt the Stilt, Kareem, Hakeem, and every good big man could do. Even when he's got the ball in his hands he holds the ball close to his chest with the both hands. It is right down there where the guard can come backside and swipe it away. He makes himself a foot shorter because he won't extend his arms and his body. He could hold the ball straight up above his head and they'd have to leave their feet and be horrible out of position to have a chance at getting the ball. Or he could palm the ball outward, like Shaq does or like we see TMac do on the perimeter and it would be easier to detect the defender coming backside because of the distance around him to reach for the ball. The other reason I don't think he understands extension is because of how many times the smaller players just dribble right into him and then they create the space for a layup by continuing the dribble right around him, witness last night's AI pics up on this site, witness Francis, Stephenson, Deiner, and Hill tonight. He doesn't understand how to space himself so that he can actually attack the shot without draping all over the shooter like a wet blanket and getting the body contact fouls. I don't think the guy realizes he's 6 inches taller than the next tallest player on the floor and he is 10 to 12 inches taller than the average players and he is 14 to 22 inches taller than the shortest players on the floor. Maybe he needs glasses. Maybe he's got some astigmatism or something and he sees 3 or 4 basketballs when the ball is in the air. I don't know, but it's the most frustrating aspect of his game. He just doesn't understand how to use his body defensively and on the glass to his best advantage and his palms have springs stapled to them.
On Wesley, I think he and Barry rotated games. No reason to play old men in preseason back to backs. Barry sat yesterday; Wesley sat today. Nothing more to it.
Alston looked great out there. He really puts a lot of pressure on the opposing defense, whether it's in full-court or half-court action. He didn't looked too concerned with being trapped either. He looks to be an excellent ball handler, and set up his teammates well. Great acquisition. Yao set up in the deep post all night. He's pretty much unstoppable there. His teammates would sometimes redirect him there when he was coming out to set a pick. They were really looking to force-feed him the ball. I think Yao will average just over 20 points a game, but his efficiency will be better. I also think he'll continue to rack up fouls. TMac looked great out there. I didn't see him run many pick-and-rolls with Yao. I expect another excellent season. Luther Head looked okay out there. Not as good as yesterday. He forced a couple shots and didn't look comfortable against the press. At times he held the ball too long and the offense stagnated. Then again, he didn't play with the first unit so maybe he was just trying to create something. Derek Anderson, didn't really stand out to me this game. I'm still not sure what to make of him. I thought he was fantastic when he was with the Cavs and the Spurs, but I haven't seen enough of him with the Rockets. Same old Jon Barry, Juwan Howard, and Ryan Bowen. They know their roles, and fill them well. Juwan was really looking for Yao on a lot of post passes. Langford, Baxter, Hayes, didn't really impress me much. Baxter looks like he gets blocked/stripped a lot. He can rebound though.
Swift is the most heralded free agent signing this team has had in years. I doubt he is in the doghouse. If I'm not mistaken, they are saying its a deep calf or shin bruise. Those can be painful and cause problems if hit again in a game. We don't want our biggest acquisition, whos biggest asset is his legs, to have a nagging injury all season to that part of the body. I'd rather him sit and let it heal than have become a reoccurring issue. Or, who knows, maybe they are featuring Howard for a trade.
Thanks for reminding me of this... Head got a nice stretch of minutes as point guard with the second unit. You're right, he didn't look real comfortable running the offense (especially against the press) but then you aren't gonna get a whole lot of assists to Bowen and Deke. He's almost definitely not ready to play the point at all this season unless he's just bringing the ball up and throwing it to TMac, but his passing is nice and crisp.
This just in. Steve Francis 6 ast 5 Turnovers. Somethings never change. Thank you Steve Francis......................for getting us TMAC. DD
