ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Celtics 1/2/2008

You can find countless examples of games where the better team doesn't win by as many points as expected.

The Timberwolves will challenge a good team every once in a while and even pull off an upset or two over the course of the season.

Every team in this league is capable of playing better or worse on a given night. This is the NBA. No team is a walkover.

It is about what a team does over many games not one game.

I will be surprised if the Rockets lose by less than 10 points the next time we play Boston, with our w/out McGrady.

 

On one of those turnovers he had deep, deep position inside the paint and was waving at Luther Head. In fact he had such good position he was unwilling to abandon it. Result? Three second violation and a turnover.

The Rockets are coming together, but they're not there yet.

 

Tmac needs to go somewhere seriously this team plays better without him and i would be happy with a solid role player instead of him back on the court taking horrible shots that almost never go in they need to do something damn i wish we would have traded for ray allen

 

when did we have a chance
what a knee-jerk post.
Kg barely won that game with his 3 All star team against our one star and company.
KG gets the respect of the refs while yao is getting bs 3 second calls and flop-fouls left and right.

Yao has fire and passion.....nice monster dunk, posterization of KG.
I have hated KG ever since someone asked him if he was concerned about matching up with Yao and he replied" No, I will ram the ball down his throat"
Looks like Yao rammed the ball down his big-mouth tonight and I can't wait for the gifs.
And before you say kg and the celts won, we did NOT have tmac and only lost by 4 on the road by one of the hottest teams in the league, a team that blew out the recently surging lakers in LA by 19.

 

Even in previous years, we've lost to the T-Wolves with T-Mac and Yao playing. Minnesota was a bad matchup for us, and it was because of KG. He is just a freakin beast in the paint.

T-Mac playing wouldn't affect KG's great defensive abilities.

 

Garnett plays small on offense, and Yao was certainly ineffective defending that.

 

Yao's serious lack of athleticsm severely hurts the rockets!!

 

Yao's defensive strengths are all about blocking or changing shots in the paint. If he gets pulled outside he can be beaten off the dribble, as with Carlos Boozer last year in the playoffs. The Rockets really need to find some way to mitigate this problem--send help to cute off the lane or something.

 

Thats a cop out buddy. they are at home with their full compliment of all-stars and the mac-less rockets lose by 4...sorry but the celts have not played anyone and the pistons will take care of them. comparing the rox to the twolves, please.
The rox will beat the celts when they have mac-back at home on march 18....book it.

 

I don't think Yao's slowness had anything to do with Luther Head taking forever to get him the ball.

 

Rockets have been playing with great efforts and role players have been playing great! If only Yao had shot better tonight, Rockets would have won this game.

During last few minutes, by the way, it was not KG who defended Yao that well, It was just Yao who was in a shooting funk tonoght. He could not make any jumper or layup. The only thing he did well ofensively was dunk.

I was glad to see that Rafer and Bonzi consistently went inside. If Rockets can keep this up when TMac is back, they will win a lot of games.

 

it depends on how u use him. every players has their shortages. but someone should setup the denfense strategy to minimum his liability for the denfense. thats why we need a head coach. but unfortunately RA did a worse job than JVD

 

Yao can(can play at the high-post) force KG to the perimiter and open up the lanes for mac and bonzi, and with pollard and their other scrub-big fouled out means cash-money for mac and bonzi. If KG sags, yao can hit the shot.

 

MULTIPLE 4th qtr CLUTCH SHOTS >>>>>>
meaningless monster dunk

 

I agree, if T-Mac can get in the offensive flow that's been developing this team will be nearly everything we hoped for.

Then if only Stevie could get his wheels back, and James ... does whatever he needs to do to recover.

 

There's no doubt that Yao had a off-night in terms of shooting and scoring. But I think its certain that he'll at least bounce back the next game.

 

So what's killed the Rockets against good teams recently?

1) Stagnant offense/scoring droughts.
2) Turnovers.
3) Inability to get defensive rebounds.

The Rockets are good for a couple of quarters of good passing and movement without the ball. Then they regress under pressure to standing around and trying to force the ball into Yao. Will there be any improvement against Orlando?

 

KG won't hit those every night, just like tmac won't always save us in the 4Q with jump shots.

trust me, the celts did not impress me with their play, including Kgs jump shots...

Monster dunk over that big-mouth thug was great in my book.

 

dude, step back and chill, this team fought hard and just came up short in the end. they didn't end the game like a "loser" and not boxing out ray allen doesn't make this team pathetic, they lost to a better team, simple as that. now i just hope they keep this intensity for the rest of the season b/c when they play this hard and with a little bit more smarts(bad entry passes be damned....) they will beat alot of teams and even the good ones.

this wasn't a loser effort by any means.

 

lol. i wanted to say the same. but just can't say it w/ certainty though.