ClutchFans Game Thread: Nuggets @ Rockets 11/24/2007

hell yeah sect. 114!

 

hey guys, got any BT links for the game? thx..

 

Denver looks to be in a slump in a bad way. Their outside shooting was even worse than ours. And I couldn't believe a team with two former all-stars in Camby and Kenyon Martin could look so soft in the middle.

A win's a win and there were many positives happening on court for the Rockets, but fact of the matter is, the opposing team played like utter crap. Heads would have rolled if we had lost this one.

 

I just don't think we can put all the blame on Yao for being taken out of the game by getting fronted. He needs a good POINT GUARD to be able to pass him the ball high over the fronting defender. People say Rafer is our best pg, and unfortunately we all know he can't make that pass. We need someone to pass the ball high at his hands near the basket. Sounds easy enough, but apparently Rockets coaches don't feel that's something worth practicing.

 

well has he proven you wrong? if u take out the laker game where he played 9 mins and the first few games back from injury, he's around 30ppg on 46-47% fg.

kobe's ppg is down to 27 this yr, does that mean he can't score?

it depends on the role of the player on that team.

that's why: stats-watchers => don't know jack.

 

Steve displayed 10 pionts 4 rebs 3 assists in 20mins...
I expect he can still get 20 points 6 rebs 7 assists if is allowed to play 30-35mins...
I'm not saying stats is everything...but come on! He can do that but how about Reefer and James?
I'd love to see Yao Mac and Steve playing together and it's much more effective than play rafer and james eating steve's mins...we've seen enough...

 

The most important thing that RA did tonite is put Luther Head on the bench and play Francis. Francis looks thousand miles better than Head as a backup PG. Put Head back to where he belongs - the 10-12th man.

 

lol at shane dissing JVG again saying it's hard to break the bad habits learned from JVG's offense (give the ball to tmac and stand around which was what they did)

"You must have trust," Battier said. "That's what we're trying to build. It's something you can talk about all day. But until you really do it and you see the positive results, it takes a while to get there.

"We have to understand that probably won't serve us well in the long run. Look, we all revert to bad habits, easy habits. It's easy. Not really a bad habit. But if we want to get to the next level, it's a habit we'll have to break.

"When this offense is really run well...look at the old Sacramento teams. It was really beautiful basketball. Magically the ball seemed to always end up in Peja Stojakovic's hands or Mike Bibby's hands or Chris Webber's hands in areas where they could make some magic and make the plays. That's what good offense does."

 

It also explains why you can rationalize away the fact that Yao's post talent is being completely wasted by Adelman's bankrupt coaching by using his reasonable-looking stats, which are really not very good if you think about them carefully and watch the games. Yao is struggling and Adelman is to blame, because he continues to put Yao at the elbow.

 

Nice win for the Rockets, Have to give thanks to Adelman for shaking up the line up.

Battier- 8 pts. (4-12), Had of coarse the hardest defensive assignment of the night.

Hayes- 8 pts. (4-5), Scored most of his points in the first few minutes of the game.

Yao 22- pts. (9-18), Played well, out rebounded Camby and Camby has been getting about 18 reb a game.

T-mac- 35 pts. (13-23) Typical Tracy, pretty shot and getting to the hoop. Looks like his elbow feels better.

Rafer- 5 pts. (2-5), 5 asst., 1 reb. in 33 mins. Typical Rafer, didn't toss up any floaters tonight.

Steve- 10 pts. (4-9) 3 asst., 4 reb. in 20 mins. Stats don't so justice to the energy Steve brought to the table. He played defense like a veteran, finished the game and showed that he deserves time on the court.

Scola- didn't score big tonight, as he only put down a couple of baskets , but they where BIG! He out rebounded several defenders and powered or willed the ball into the bucket. He showed all Heart.

James- didn't score big tonight, as he only pitched 8 pts. Looked nice running with Francis though.

Overall, I Expect Steve to see more playtime. The crowd goes crazy for him and he brings much need energy and leadership. He knows how to get to the hole and finish. My gut tells me Rafer will start to see less PT as Steve starts to grows. Steve, James and Rafer where all out on the court at one point and this didn't look to bad when teams try to go small to trap the ball. Scola has a heart as big as Texas, the Rockets hit the jackpot with him. Even Landry came in and put up 4 strong pts. in 4 mins. He has some size and doesn't look like a bad back up if Scola and Hayes have foul trouble. Kirk Syder, he tries hard, maybe to hard. He just doesn't seem to fit well at this point. Go Rockets!! It's Time!!

 

If they would also give the ball to Yao in the low post rather than just feeding McGrady, then the offense would run more smoothly than it did during the 6 game losing streak. Oops, apparently that part of Adelman's bankrupt coaching got through, so now the team won't feed Yao.

 

Lets see, without Yao last year, TMac took us to 20-12 record and without TMac we are 13-41 all time. I am not sure what fg% we are talking about here, but its very obvious how important TMac is to us. Stop bashing TMac, its getting lame, all of us need to understand how ridiculously weak NBA team we are without TMac.

 

Yea like last year. Trust me, when Yao gets fronted in the low post, it is ANYTHING BUT SMOOTH. He gets stripped, he rushes his shots, the ball gets poked etc. etc. When Yao learns to counter the fronting defense, only then you have a case. Right now, as you have seen when TMac was out, Yao's TO went way up and his shooting% went way down.

 

Yao at elbow is the reason we started 6-1! Once TMac got hurt, we kept pounding the ball inside to Yao and he got fronted, got stripped, his TO went up and his shooting % went down. Why are you making stupid stuff up when you have no case?

 

JVG had to have figured out something against it because most teams refused to use it even though Yao owned them. The blame is on Adelman for not committing to feed Yao in the post.

Last year when McGrady went out Yao was an unstoppable force. This year it is different, and the only thing that changed is Adelman. He is to blame.

 

No it's not the reason we started 6-1, we consistently went to Yao in the post throughout the first 7 games. When we lost, we weren't consistently going to him. Yao is a terrible player at the elbow. JVG is absolutely right.

 

You are in delusion. TMAC has a decent fg% because he has a couple of high fg% games. He is not consistent at all. Kobe always attacks the basket. That's not what TMac can do, not even close. That's the true meaning of "score as many as you can". TMac relies too much on his jumpers and those jumpers are really inconsistent.

Let's end this ****. TMAC should take many shots when he is hot; otherwise, he should try to do those assists. If he keeps bricking in the hope of getting his touch back, it will be bad to ROX. TMAC is getting old. He knows it and said so, why can't you live with it? You might still think Roger Clemens can pitch 8 innings on a regular basis?

 

the whole TEAM is struggling for the most part. not yao.

again, what do u want from yao? a gazillion shots?

yao is still not used perfectly, along w/ tmac. just relax and wait. he's gonna bench head and rafer soon (since those guys can't pass to yao). steve always looks for yao (he did 2x in a row when he came in in the 4th).

relax my friend.

 

Teams refused to use fronting last year? Did you even watch the games? Its only teams who didn't have smaller and faster centers that didn't/couldn't front Yao. I don't recollect Yao being extraordinarily unstoppable without TMac, he had a great year with and without TMac in the lineup.

The team on the other hand had a losing record without with only Yao in the lineup. On the other hand, when Yao was out, TMac took us to 20-12 record. You are looking at Yao's numbers while I am looking at the team record.

 

given alston's play this season, even brooks can come right out from the bench and out perform him. I just dont know why alston gets so many min from RA and clearly he is the worst pg on this team