ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Clippers 2/14/2006

jvg didn't loosen the reigns at all, he just finally has his team healthy and a point guard who doesn't turn the ball over and can flat out fly. as others have mentioned along with bullard and worrell, this is exactly what van gundy has wanted from the beginning of the year.

I LOVE IT... you don't have to like van gundy but to say he's a bad coach is flat out ignorant. the man can coach when his guys are out there.

 

You're helping to make my case. Witness the difference between the Pistons of last year and this year. They came out of the gates sizzling and have never looked back. Why? I think it has to do with having a coach that's just a little bit more laid back than Brown, who recognizes he has a veteran team of players that know what it takes to get the job done, and he turned them loose early, freed them up to run their offense, and not worry about winding down the clock, etc. etc. etc. It was a less stressful environment where the players were allowed to use their natural skills on the offensive end, and take the early shot if it was there, all the while remembering the principles that Brown gave them on how to break down a defense and get a high percentage shot. The difference in that team is night and day. They are better this year than last year for sure, and in my opinion, they are better than they were 2 years ago when they won it all.

 

Rockets didn't have that at the beginning of this season. Due to the injuries and new signing, lots of things need to be re-learned. I think it takes real games to truly learn the system and unfortunately due to injuries the team didn't play together for most of the season until now. Now that we have Yao, Tmac and Skip, the learning curves for new players should be much smoother no matter what moves the management might make.

 

That's fine and dandy for the regular season... but coaches are more valuable for their impact on the POST season, and the mid-series adjustments/mind games/matchup issues they deal with.

Flip will have to prove he can do that... the one year he finally broke thru with Minnesota was more due to having an MVP Garnett plus Sam Cassell, rather than his "coaching".

 

i don't buy that. i think he's finally letting reefer play his game. no more stagnant half-court sets.

 

Legitimate point. But Van Gundy has already proven he has the skill and strategy to get it done in the playoffs. He just needs to have a healthy group of players that aren't physically exhausted. And he needs those guys to be healthy and fatigue free during the season, so he can run the record up and get the preferred seeding instead of having to gut out everything without home court advantage and old, broken down, tired, hurt players.

We're getting younger. And his system is in place. Actually it was in place at the beginning of the season. The only real player we had to integrate was a new point in Rafer. All the other starters are the same as last year. We had already been through 2 years of putting his system in place.

And how difficult is the offensive system really? 1. Push the ball 2. Get the ball to TMac as primary 3. set screen 4. Look for Yao 5. spot up 7. roll to basket 8. reset.

If Rafer didn't know to get the ball to TMac and Yao and to push the ball on the first day of training camp......you knew he knew that. Everybody else already knew their jobs.

 

OMG that cheerleader made me tent

 

Although I haven't watched the game yet (what a shame!), I believe these photos best demonstrated the recent discussions here, "FAST BREAK". Yao actually outran 3 poor Clippers in a fast break and you can see that they didn't even close / jump when Yao dunk the ball!

Rafer Alston is the KEY in those fast break points and our decent offensive outlooks without doubt but I tend to believe that JVG did have his plans in these. Another significant change is that our shooters made their shots, actually I think we did have pretty good set plays out there early this season but our shooters simply did not made it at that time.

Anyway, seeing Yao outran those guys is so exciting.

 

Well, the fast breaks started with steals and turnovers by the Clippers, and all of the players were really, really looking for fast-break points the whole game. The pictures you posted were of a play when TMac threw a hail mary to Yao for an immediate dunk. The Clippers defenders expected Yao to simply jog up the court and try to establish position in the post. They were wholly unprepared for the Rockets to push the ball on them.

Yeah, Rafer has been instrumental in this gameplan, but it obviously came down from the coaches last night because every player was on the same page offensively. I mean, it was almost unfair to the Clips.

 

Thanks for the description, feel like I have already watched that play.

 

The pistons have started off hot this year with their new offense, but have lost four out of the last eight, including a game allowing the hawks to score 99 points.

Last year, they we're .500 for awhile and got to the finals, taking the spurs to seven games. They played D the entire season as did the spurs. Detroit's great this year, but not a lock for the title by any means. Take care of your D and the success will come eventually.

 

No you haven't. That play was awesome. It's in the highlights:
http://bbs.smeggysmeg.com/videos/021406_ClippersHighlights.torrent