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

Stupid Adelman loves Luther Head, who made a series mistakes in 4Q.

 

I won't take it that far, Hakeem and Wilt are superior in certain aspects of the game. But with that being said, Yao could definitely finish as all-time great, some on this board have his career ending in like two or three years, but really he has another good to great five or six years. Most centers don't start to drop off until they are around 33 or 34. Most will start to bring up Muresan's and Bradley's of the world, but Yao is in far better condition and athletic than those guys ever was.

Another thing to consider is if he ever plays on a great team or fairly good one, not one made up of out cast and has beens. I mean a really good team or team with lots of good young talent/diverse talent, he might be able to expand his career little bit more.

I still think his career is on the up-swing, we haven't even seen him at his best this year. I think he has shown he can still play evident by his good games against the Mavs, Spurs, Lakers, and Suns.


He could be a great franchise player, but I think would've be greater as complimentary type all-star with a HOF guard or forward. I think if he played with a player with more dominate personality like an M.J., Barkley, or even came on a team that had great center like Ewing, Shaq, or Dream. He probably would be slightly better.

 

Then Rockets wont win more than 20 games this year and celtics is going for 75 wins

 

97-93? According to Yahoo! Sports, the score says 97-91

 

agree with most of what you said there. but probably not the last paragraph. in my observation yao does have strong competitive personality as a pro athlete. i've heard he's a natural in leading his national team. i just wonder sometimes what it takes to make him feel and lead this houston team just like his national team which he cares the deepest. we've seen a bit more vocal yao lately. but to me that wasn't enough of a sure sign.

and i'm probably the only one who thinks yao has goat potential on this planet. not even the most furious "yof's" can have said that i believe. at times i've even found myself crazy. but each time i tried to kill this idea, i'd come back to it later. maybe i'll never be proven right...

 

Good call.

 

One thing about our game which I noticed for the first time to-night and I feel sure it been going on for a long perod of time. One of the main reasons why Yao has such problems with his defender is that we are incompetent at passing him the ball. He sets up and the player with the ball looks at him, hesitates, sees that the defensive player is starting to move on Yoa and then won't risk trying to pass to Yao , so moves the ball in the opposite direction.
We should practice a quick pass into Yao and get him to move to the basket immediately.
Secondly I have noticed that our players are not diligent about going to their spots. Yao often get into trouble because shooters are not in position to receive a crisp pass from him.

 

KG is a disgrace to our sport. The MF which he was uttering could be clearly understood by the TV audience. He needs a pint of Aunt Sally to wash his mouth out and he should be suspended with a heavy fine.The carry on with the Celtics shirt also showed what a low class sportsman he is.
Untill this team Garnett has always been a looser like so many we know! Possibly his crazy street personality was why Mini was never able to develop decent team chemistry with him as the team leader!

 

"That's why he's KG," Wells said. "You know, this is the NBA and we were hoping we could make a run and we did. Got a few stops and got ourselves back in the game. Down the stretch, they made plays, got a couple offensive boards and broke our back."

every time bonzi talks, me laugh.

 

someone said kg is a thug. i won't go that far. but kg has never been on my favorite list and i think he's overrated and overpaid. his level of sportsmanship is certainly low.

 

Luther Head killed our momentum with that turnover trying to get the ball to Yao when he didn't have position yet. Then he makes up for it by bricking a wide open three.

 

Conclusion for this team:
Yao Yes Mac Yes. We are most talented weak team of the league.

Yao No Mac Yes. We are another Mac-timed Maggic. We can win several games, but never a good team never say a stong team.

Yao Yes Mac No. We are a normal or even strong team but never great, which can win games and lose games, never got a surprise, just like a guy who practised hard daily but can never be great because they don't get that talence.

believe it or not.

 

So why are you not impressed this time? When next time we have such a game against a top team, you would say the same thing, "next time, I would be impressed".

 

A few points when watching the game.

1. Yao was horrible in the first half. He was one big reason we were behind by so much. He looked like a big big stiff.

2. Pierce and KG were awesome all game. They got whatever shot they wanted and converted on most of them. Down the stretch, KG killed us.

3. We are one of the worst teams down the stretch. Boston got great looks and offensive rebounds and all we can do is turn the ball over and miss shots. I just expect us to lose all our close games. I don't know what it is, but we don't have a winner's mentality. When the pressure is on, we fold.

4. It looked like Boston basically coasted from the first quarter until crunch time and then turned it on.

5. Battier isn't a big time player. He basically didn't do much all game.

6. Mike James was horrible again. I'd rather give all his minutes to Brooks who has promise.

7. Head? Head? OMG, he's horrible on defense and is one of the worst decision makers I've ever seen play in the NBA. His role should *only* be a spot up shooter. Everything else is a disaster waiting to happen.

8. Lottery, here we come!

 

Another moral victory for us! Too bad we can't make the playoffs on moral victories. We need some real ones.

 

If moral victories counted as real ones, we would be undefeated right now

 

8-2 in predictions now....

Toronto L (embarassing)
Philadelphia L (hideous; Yao calls the team soft after this)
Detriot W (predicted L and we deserved an L)
Dallas L (predicted L; terrible loss at home)
Orlando L (predicted L; like Detroit game, FTs and layups were horrible again)
Denver L (predicted L; tough loss, make FTs and we win; however, ...)
Chicago W (predicted W; bench played remarkably well; AB wins his job?)
Detroit L (predicted L; Detroit just toyed with us all game)
Memphis W (predicted W; solid win with 6 in double figures)
Toronto W (predicted L; sloppy game; pulled out the win down the stretch)
Golden State L (predicted L; Rockets starters blew this; 23 turnovers)
Boston L (predicted L; moral victory? nope, just another loss)
============================
Orlando L

15-18 (Originally predicted a record of 13-20 and was chastised. It looks like I was mostly right ....)

 

As big as Yao is, when somebody is allowed to freely 2-hand him the best he can do is to seal off his defenders for like half to one second. So often our ball handlers hesitate during that narrow window.

Yao does need to improve on sealing off the defenders a tad longer by using his elbows more. He also needs to just do catch and shoot way more often as the help defence usually comes very quick as most teams are cheating on defence vs Rox. Meanwhile, this team seriously needs practices on making quick, non-hesitated passes. They also have to do repost and pass much more often. I still don't believe this requires a high profile PG, but for some reasons we still can get it done after five years. That's truly "amazing".

 

we're not playing to win... we're playing NOT to lose.

man, i remember luther head was clutch a few times his rookie season. i guess he caught a case of the brad lidge

 

When we were 6-1, I wasn't very impressed with our play. In fact, I haven't really been impressed with this team in about 12 years. 1997 - that was a good team for sure...but 95 was the impressive one.

I watch a lot of basketball, play it too, but ok, so I've followed the sport for 25 years...and you pick up a few things after watching a few thousand games live, on TV, so on and so on.

And what I am seeing today is a really good team that's finding itself offensively and beginning to trust in eachother. This is a team that is playing better game by game. 15 games ago, I wouldn't think we'd be anywhere near contention....now, I see what Adelman is doing, and it's working.

The second this is we've had the toughest schedule of any team in the league. We've had to play more top 10 teams than anyone - by virtue of being in the toughest division and having a nasty schedule.

We've played detroit twice, the celtics, and on friday, the magic twice. GS twice, Dallas twice, SA twice, Phx twice, Denver twice, and Portland and Utah Twice. We've played LA twice.

That's 19 games against the top teams out of 32 games we've played so far.


That's not counting toronto.

Ok, the rest of the season after friday - we have 29 games against subpar teams, and 21 games against the top tier.

if we win 26 out of 29 against the worst, then we have to win 9 out of 21 against the best in order to get to 35 wins - and a 50 win season.

So 26-3 against teams like Philly, New York, Washington, Memphis, etc....

And 9 victories against teams like Denver, Portland, NO, Utah, and yes, Dallas, SA, LAL, and so on.

Still think that's unrealistic?