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

course havent you heard from them? rafer took too many shots today

 

Tracy took 26 shots and made 13 of them. thats pretty darn good. so think before you opeen you're reatrted trap. 26 is'nt a outrages amount for a superstar. especially a player of McGrady's calibare(a top 3 talented scorer)

 

i don't remember kaman scored any points in the 2nd half against yao.

 

its a shame this team hung around as long as they did....


great to see stevie get some minutes, but i wish he could have had more min in the fourth.

 

NOTE TO CLIPPERS:

frankie muniz does not count as a marquee celebrity fan. he is a detriment to the franchise.

 

Tracy and Rafer (for the first half anyway) played very well. Props to them.

We defeated a Clippers team that lost Elton Brand and Shaun Livingstone, has Mobley and Maggete still recovering from injury, and just lost Cassell to injury. While I do accept and am happy with this win, I still have the following worries:

1) Team play - was sluggish and not smooth for the first 3 quarters of the game. It needed a Tracy light up to bring the game home. The team cannot continue to play like this against stronger calibre teams. Heck, as everyone was saying, even the strong teams today lost to scrubby teams (New Orleans lost to Minnesota, San Antonio lost to Sacramento, Utah lost to New York). The team still needs to improve on their smoothness.

2) Luis Scola - 2 shots only. I mean, come on. I thought the motion offense was supposed to put EVERYONE in a position to score. I see our guards taking a huge number of the shots while ignoring Scola. If he is not incorporated into the offensive system this early in the season, when is he ever going to be incorporated? At the playoffs? Coach RA really has to ensure that he gets a couple of shots a night.

3) Rafer Alston - played too many minutes. While I cannot deny that Rafer played very well today, I would say that it is a one off thing. Alot of his 'assists' are just hand offs to Yao and Tracy. I still think that Francis needs to be given more minutes and slowly incorporated into the main rotation (and soon to start).

4) Our bench - still disappointing. Bonzi and Mike James still have not broken out of their slump. We can only be considered deep if our bench actually contributes something. We can only match up with Dallas and San Antonio if our bench actually contributes something. Hopefully, Bonzi and Mike James will shake off their slump soon.

5) Yao - I think he is still adjusting to the offense. If he passes out very quickly, is it because he is trying to maintain the motion offense? Problem is that a traditional centre like him has to power his way into better post position for a few seconds before making the shot. That leaves the whole offense standing around. Maybe he thought that if he does that, he will be disrupting Coach RA's motion offense. He (together with the team and coach) really need to know what is his 'role' in the system that Coach RA has in mind. Personally though, I do wish that Coach RA will fit his systems to the players he have, not makes his players fit to his systems.

That's it for now.

 

T-MAC dominated the game.
He can lead us to win every game if he is willing.
We will raise our heads and look forward to enjoying his show.
I believe in firmly that regular season MVP is in his pocket.
Maybe he can lead us to get a ring.I believe.

 

I still think the only "good" coach for Yao would be phil jackson.

JVG said it in the other game to Yao that he really didn't know how to use him, as he never had a such a great center playing for him before.

I bet you it would also be true for RA, as he never coached a center like Yao before.

To me, it seems like Yao is not catching on to this new offense motion style as well as others has been. (even when others aren't really doing so well).

RA needs to design some offense motion for Yao as a center. Yao needs a offense style that fits his game.

you can't have one offense style for both tmac and Yao. offense motion is great for guards and forward like Cwebb, but Yao is not cwebb and they have different attributes and needs.

certainly Yao has more games than miller who have litte inside game. Brad miller is like okur without the 3s.

it seems like rockets for the last 4 or 5 years has been either concentrating on Tmac or Yao, but never really mingle the two superstars together.

 

sf3 played but not much time
hope he will play more next time


today our team did a great job
esp. alston

but b.WELLS...i can only see him ...to to and to again
or missing missing again

 

Not that it mattered but he had a thunderous dunk at the end.

 

remember when many scouted that Scola would not be that great of a rebounder?

he's outperformed those predictions. the guy really hustles and knows where the ball is going to be.

 

he had patrick ewing with the knicks.

 

http://www.rocketredrockers.net:6969/index.html

full game file is up, still working up the other two between real work.

 

What happened to the motion offense that we saw against Denver? What's up with the rotation in the second half? I really don't understand what RA's trying to accomplish from game to game.

Good thing McGrady was on his game in the second half to bail out everybody else. Any win's a good win, especially on the road...but let's face it, the Clippers aren't very good and the road trip gets a lot tougher from here.

 

That's the thing which surprised me the most. I felt he would really struggle on the defensive boards but he is doing a good job.

 

That Lawler play-by-play guy is totally annoying... Did you hear how he was ignoring his Color guy when he was talking about Tmac being the active player with the 2nd most career ppg average?...

 

Scola is all over the boards, it looks like he really enjoys that part of the game, and tipping it places.

 

Great to see T-mac take control...1 down, 3 more to go...It's good to see Dallas lose as well...

 

Yao had his chances, he had tons of shots in the 4th that he missed. But he also had a few plays close to the basket where he dunked, which I like to see more often... A lot of Yao's shots were a little farther out than he might like.

Observation: Steve Francis can get an inbounds pass to Yao in any situation, he has the most experience doing it, and he's not afraid to throw the pass in when others might not (like when Yao is being fronted)...

Tmac really stepped it up, but he does that on the road, so it's not like a new development.

 

Too bad I don't call names, because I have a good one for you.