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

Same concern.

The game turns out some loss is just on coach.

 

They didn't play like losers until they started making mental mistakes late in the game. That is the thing that plagues losing teams and really what separates the winners in the league from the losers. Mental mistakes are a product of inexperience, IQ, and confidence. Most of these guys have been in the league for a bit sans Brooks, and he wasn't the one making the mistakes, maybe some of them have a low IQ, but I doubt it, so that leaves confidence, and what does a player with lack of confidence do? Lose....... i.e. I'm not a good entry post passer = throw the ball away. I'm not a good shooter, oh guess what?....... brick.

They seemed to have found a way to play good for most of the game, except the fourth quarter, which is a start, but closing a game is as much about mentality as it is "they just lost to a better team". You have to beat those better teams if you want to win a championship........unless of course that is not the ultimate goal. You do that by having confidence and not thinking like a loser.

 

like i said, yao has to do great in all periods of the game and in all aspects of the game for some to acknowledge his excellence. you. in my mind, are a typical one of those.

to get to your specifics. when there's 4+ minutes left the score was tied. yao drove by kg and switched to his left hand for a layup. he missed AFTER GETTING FOULED CLEARLY BY KG BUT NO CALL. download and watch the video when it's available if you don't have dvr. and the 2 crucial rebounds we gave up, at least one of them was on head who completely failed to box out ray.

get your facts str8 b4 drawing your conclusions, pls.

 

last but not least -

lol to those who have a loser's mentality and predicted we'd be blown out and didn't stand a chance. hope y'all learning a lesson.

 

All I have to say is THANK YOU. I had so much fun watching this game. I even yelled out of my seat a couple of times during our comebacks. For those of us that actually believed that the game would be right there for them to win it in the fourth...thank you for proving us right and making the dooms dayers look stupid. What an effort from everybody that played ... yes even from Luther Head and Shane Battier (both of whom I am very disappointed in right now). Please put the [insert super star's name here] haters back into the holes they crawled out of by beginning a winning streak in Orlando. I know you can do it.

 

I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about the posters that were criticizing you about Yao and how you were saying he really didn't get dominated in the playoffs last year.

 

A great game to watch. Glad to see the Rockets get back some mental toughness that we've been lacking this year. We could've easily folded in the 2nd quarter once we went down by 20, but we didn't. I give props to the Rockets for atleast doing that much against the NBA's best team right now.

Yao did have a bad shooting game, but he played his heart out. He made the right passes, he was dunking the ball instead of laying it up, and he rebounded well. He just didn't finish the game whereas KG did and has done so for 13 years now. If Yao still has some growing left, it is finishing games. Once he masters that, he will be an MVP candidate every year.

Aaron Brooks and Rafer Alston have been playing great with Tmac out. Hopefully that'll stay the same once he gets back. Bonzi is our one player who will attack the basket without fear and with power. He continues to thrive in this offense because of the attention towards Yao and the ball movement. Scola had another nice game as well. I hope he'll get more minutes and become more consistant. Battier and Head, although did not hit as many open 3's as you would want them to, but they did hold Ray Allen to 13 points which is impressive.

Good game played by the Rockets. They can learn a lot from this game, and I think this game will be the turning point of our season. Lets get some wins together and make that playoff run and see what happens...

 

Current record: 15-17.
Your projection: 50-32.

To do that, they've got to go 35-15. To express it as a percentage, they have to win 70% of their games from now on... a pace matched or exceeded at present only by Phoenix, San Antonio, Detroit, and Boston.

Your optimism is bracing, but woefully unrealistic.

 

Stupid Adleman! The weakness of Head was already proved in last playoffs.
He never did well in last quarter.

 

I Yetti want to tell everybody
that I feel good after this game.
Not because we lost but we played the
Boston Celtics to almost a standstill
without Tracy McGrady.
Now I wish to change my focus and hope
that the team makes the playoffs because
I think that we still can go far.
Well done our team!!

 

Great post. Those so called veterans who have looked down and made fun of "rookies", please just read this post.

 

I forgot to mention before that the reffing was ridiculous on Yao this game. The league has to get this straightened out. I thought the referees reviewed each game after they officiated it? These same calls have been made against Yao for 3 years now. When are they gonna call a game fair for him!!!???

 

if that's the case, then - my apologies.

 

Thanks for the support Pueblo. Its greatly appreciated when people take note of my posts about the Rockets.

 

idiot.

 

hahahah

 

"no offense. but get educated, pls."

 

no problems.


I just thought it was funny thing you mentioned, how a lot of younger posters on this board said that Yao got dominated or shut down in the playoffs, even though he averaged 25 pts. and 10 rebs. He might not have risen to the occasion or played clutch, but most of his production was there.

 

great comeback effort by our team!

i knew in the back of my head that they would slowly but surely comeback from that deficit!

but then again, i knew in the back of my head...that our down the stretch play would look unprofessional and hesitant

 

your points are right on imo. and this comment about yao learning and getting a chance to close out games is the one that i can't agree more. i think yao has what it takes to close out games. i got that impression from some rare chances he's got so far in his career (case in point, the wizards game last year where he scored 25 in the 4th after mcgrady left the game that had eddie jordan draw jabar comparison after the game). the thing is, w/ the officiating he's got and mcgrady's presence on the team, the possibility for him to get such chances is not so great.

and call me crazy or a y-o-f or whatever (i'm certainly not too foreign to that term), but i seriously think yao's got the goat potential just like wilt and hakeem. only two conditions here - officiating and right supporting crew.