ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Clippers 11/26/2007

Newsflash: Rafer played well tonight

 

Wasn't very impressed with our performance overall but we got the win.

Tmac played great. Rafter was pretty good and Yao was bad. Good thing the Clippers played one of the worst quarters i have seen this season

 

we won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Rockets are the biggest winner tonight. Mavs, Spurs, Suns, and Jazz all lost tonight.

 

Could they have done something differently to get Scola more touches. 1-2 with 4 free throws isn't much. He wasn't in foul trouble today.

 

You would hope rafer would do good against a DAN DIKAU!!!

 

killer instinct... i was listening to the commentators for la and they said that tmac did the whole cut throat thing that meant it was over cuz nobody could guard him and at the time they were only up by like 4 or 6...you turn around and look and they have an 18 point lead.

thats like babe ruth point toward center field right before hitting a home run.

i hope they showed him doing it on fsn houston. that kind of behavior makes me get goosebumps

 

Lets see; What has changed since JVG left?

Alston still playing 40 minutes? yup
Playing starters till the very end? yup.

Should I expect to see Rick Adleman getting ripped the same way?

 

It's one of those low energy games. Despite a win, I dont like what I saw tonight at all. We basically relied on Tmac's brilliance and Kaman's stubonness in the 4th. Yao once again disappeared in the 4th. The big fella makes a good poet, but not a fierce competetor. We are really going to be embrassed the next 2 games if we keep playing like this.

 

Very poorly game by the Rockets. Only TMac's heroics made it look like a blow out.

The offense was exactly the run like the six game losing streak. Give the ball to TMac and watch him do something. Give the ball to Yao and watch him make a TO. Yao had a very bad performace. He was very tentative and slow.

The defense was much better in the 2nd half although the Clips stunk out there with all their missed shots. Neither team seemed to want to move on offense. Rather, both teams were just standing around.

The good news is that we made up one game on a whole host of teams (San Antonio, Dallas, New Orleans, Utah, Phoenix, and the Clippers). The bad news is that we can't expect to win a lot of games playing the way we're playing.

 

Let's wait for a couple of months before we compare rockets with that group.

 

I will take a win, even it's ugly.

Apparently, RA wanted Yao to pass more tonight. I'm ok with that. But I can't understand why this strategy can't be more flexible. When Rafer continuted to miss those open shots, RA should tell Yao to shoot the ball instead of waiting DT and then passing. When you looked at the second half, Yao was bascially a passer out there. There should be a balance between Yao's interior offense and in-out pass.

TMac was on fire. He may not need to try that dunk and shoot the last 3-pointer at meaningless time.

 

Nov. 27, 2007, 12:03AM
T-Mac, Rockets make selves at home on road

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

LOS ANGELES - Searching to get their old shut-down defense back, the Rockets went one step further.

They stopped the Clippers and for most of the night and stopped themselves, too.

So with the game inexplicably tied early in the fourth quarter, Tracy McGrady shot the Rockets through their self-inflicted struggles with a five-minute burst that sent the team to an 88-71 win over the Clippers before 15,452 at Staples Center on Monday.

The Rockets took their fourth-consecutive win against the Clippers in Los Angeles, their sixth in a row against the Clippers or Lakers on the road and eighth win in nine games when playing the Clippers at the Staples Center. They also held the Clippers to five points fewer than the fewest they had ever scored in the series.

But they did not get have control of the game until McGrady, averaging a league-leading 33 points per game on the road this season, four points more than next-best LeBron James, dominated the first five minutes of the fourth quarter.

After nearly eight minutes spent with the offense breaking down under the weight of their own mistakes, the Rockets took off. They had a 10-0 run to a 71-61 lead, McGrady scored 10 points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to help drive the lead to 12, then passed to Rafer Alston for a layup and a 14-point lead.

He turned a steal into two more free throws and dropped in a jumper, taking the Rockets lead to 81-63 barely four minutes after the game had been tied. He finished with 36 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Alston, who averaged 20 against the Clippers last season, added 17.

The Rockets could not keep that going, but with the Clippers completely shut down, they did not have to.

The Clippers, already playing without Elton Brand and Shaun Livingston, lost Sam Cassell after just 3:42 when he went out with a strained left calf after stepping on the back of Alston's left foot. With another chunk of offense gone, the Clippers made just 32.9 percent of their shots.

The Rockets scored the first seven points of the second half and in four minutes, had taken their lead to nine. They had begun taking care of the ball as they had not in the first half, and were getting consistent good shots.

Then they went back to the waves of missed deep jumpers and careless turnovers, as if they missed the first half.

In the eight minutes after the nine-point lead, they missed 10 of their next 11 shots, mixing in three turnovers. The Clippers removed the last bits of the nine-point lead before Alston dropped in a 3. But the Rockets had been back to the struggles with which they began the game.

The Rockets escaped the first-half with a one-point lead, but should not have had to consider it a half worth escaping.

They had little trouble in the areas that had been giving them so much trouble during the losing streak. They moved the ball well, scored consistently and controlled the boards. They held the Clippers to 34.3 percent shooting and just 4 of 17 shooting in the second quarter.

Yao got into foul trouble and could play only 15 minutes in the first half, making 4 of his 5 shots for nine points. But even though neither starting forward scored and the bench combined to make 2 of 9 shots, Alston continued his mastery of the Clippers, making 5 of 6 shots for his 12 points to give the Rockets what should have been enough of an offensive lift to build a bit of a cushion.

Instead, the Rockets made it difficult for themselves, committing 13 fouls to let Kaman live at the line and turning the ball over 11 times, most needlessly.

When Kaman ended the half the way he started it, scoring easily, the Clippers climbed to within 40-39, leaving the Rockets little to show for all they had done right in the first half.

The Clippers scored the last five points of the first quarter and last three of the second quarter, on both occasions taking advantage of the Rockets when they had to go to their bench.

It was not until McGrady began the second half with a sudden burst - curling around screens for consecutive jumpers and pulling up for a 3 - that the Rockets got out of their own way long enough to put together a run.

They just could not make it last, instead playing as if similar runs would come whenever needed.

It turned out, they were right.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5331075.html

 

We had sloppy play tonight and still blew out a marginal team. That's what elite teams should be able to do. Overall you have to be happy w/ the win.

Tmac was awesome tonight. Francis was great too. Meaning he didn't force anything and played w/in the game. Hopefully this gets him more playing time because I really think we look more effective w/ him on the court. Bonzi was erratic. Alston was good in the first half. Yao was sub par, but did his job on the defense.

 

I don't think Yao played bad. It's not one of his best offensive game, but he's been excellent defensively since second quarter, a lot of intimidations and altered shots inside for the second half. Kaman started hot with some new moves to surprise Yao, but was totally put under control in the second half.

 

Yao was disappointing, because he was supposed to be smarter than keeping passing ball to Rafer at the 4th quarter. That was almost like stupidity on his part.

 

Rafer played well... in the first half. In the second he was pretty brutal (2 for 8) - it definitely looked like the minutes were wearing on him. Still, his best overall game this season by far, though it probably helped him quite a bit that Cassell went down early with the injury.

I'm a little puzzled by the amount of time the starters played. The Clips were shorthanded and really started to run out of gas. There were plenty of fresh legs on the bench.

Still, I'll take any road wins we can get.

 

isn't that the same as the toyota center most nights?

 

now now lets not start hating raf or on the other hand begin to think this is a turn around game for him just yet
from what you heard from bill he thought that tmac should have been player of the game but bc raf had a good game compared to his regular below-par standards he was chosen.

7-14 shooting is so so considering he hit a couple 3s(and a couple of air balls)but what should be complimented is his 9 assist
on the other hand...how well can you consider that good production for someone who played 40 minutes?

if mike james got that much time he would probably jack up more shots then passes and who knows how well stevie might do with half that much play time...he has been doing pretty well though with what he has gotten, no?

 

Kaman's "stubbornness" had a lot to do with Yao's defense down the stretch. Yao was consistently double teamed and deferred to his great passing through out the game. What's so bad about relying on T-Mac's brilliance anyway? If he's feeling it then by all means he should continue with such brilliant game play.