ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Hawks 11/16/2004

I am wondering if you watched the same game. Yao DID get into good positions, but the fxxxing Lue DID NOT pass the ball to him. Later on, I guess Yao realized he will not get the ball from our PG, and he just set the picks.

 

yeah BUT it is his fault when yao only gets 3 or 4 shots in the whole 4th quarter. its also his fault that he failed to put pagett or boki in when nither lue or ward could make anything.

 

that later on just happened to be when we needed points the most. His job is to get into position and DEMAND THE BALL.

 

It is a trap!Somebody desn't want yaoming to score over 30 points.they thought of yaomiong till the end of the game .What didn't they do before?Yaoming was air ,so they didn't see him.

 

yeah yao seemed to be getting into good positions but i guess lue cant see a 7'6 guy standing right infront of him.

 

1) If Yao were really trying to get the ball against Drobnjak and could not do it, then thats just sad. Yes, the guards did not pass him the ball on maybe 2 or 3 possessions where they could have. But what did Yao do? He gave up and started running around setting picks. If he really wanted the ball he would have kept trying to establish position. He can't get discouraged so easily.

2) Yao clearly dominated in the first half. Everyone knows that. What happened when the Hawks turned up the defense a little bit? He clearly shriveled, as did everyone else on the team. I singled Yao out a little bit because he was having such a great game, looked like a completely different player, and was being defended by Peja Drobnjak. I should have just said that no one on the team has any balls. My point was, coaching is also responsible for getting the man the ball. The whole team is responsible for that, but if Yao does not really want it, then there's no point. I've watched a ton of basketball, and in my opinion, Yao did not want the ball very much or he would have kept trying to get it.

3) I did not say passing to Yao in the middle of the paint. I was referring to the play where Yao was clearly on the BLOCK, and Lue tried a difficult bounch pass from the top of the key. JJ was on the wing and could have made a much easier pass to Yao.

4) Tmac is definately an easy option to go to, but our advantage in this game was clearly inside. It frustrated me hearing Van say, "alright, this is Tmac time." when it obviously should have been Yao time. Then Yao finally gets the ball when its too late, down 4 with 18 seconds left.

It looks like I'm hating on the guy, but I have defended Yao for so long now, and this meltdown was just so inexcusable. I kept saying myself, "this is the time to let the big man work" , but it just never happened. It's not all Yao's fault, but the problem starts with him.

 

OMG! I think your right!!

TRAP!! TRAP!!

 

yea that must be it.

 

somewhere, a hammer hits a nail

 

Come on guys. Breath.

We are a new team, and it's not even been 10 games yet. We lost to the worst team in the league, so what. Remember in the beginning of the season when many people said they would be happy with .500 ball before the all star break?

We dominated for 3 quarters and really screwed up 1. Is this not expected of a new team? While I was watching the game, I was waiting for chemisty problems to show up. It actually surprised me a little that we played 3 quarters of good basketball straight.

The shots we get on this team is amazing. We get more wide open shots than anyone else in the league. That is what I am concentrating on. Not the chemistry problems, we will improve in that area, ALL new teams goes through this.

We are way better than I expected at this point in season.

The rollercoaster behavior on this board is pretty interesting. I don't see it anywhere else.

 

But we didn't lose the game because of a couple missed plays. The game was lost because of their collective effort as a team, but the coach is the most guilty one since it's his job to get the players up for the game, put the right players in, set the right players.

Yes, JVG doesn't play, but I don't believe the guards would keep doing what they were doing if he set out a couple plays to get the ball in the post. Once or twice, maybe, but consistently for 5+ minutes? then why in the world he brought those guys in in the first place. We do have some effort guys on the bench, why didn't he just have TMac bring the ball up, have Boki, or Padget feed Yao the ball, cut to the hoop?

I'm not saying JVG/Wards should be fired, or anything like that. This is just the begining of a long season, it's understandable the team will have up and downs. But when a team doesn't play well as a whole, the coach has to take the blame, not just the players.

 

I am not naive enough to think that my team will go 82-0 but losses like these hurts. Here I was thinking that dumb losses era were over. Well it just one game but I rather lose 40 games while playing right and giving maximum effort.

How did this team forget what got them this far in this game?

 

i don't think we are. the same problems seem to keep popping up. too many jumpshots. amazingly athletic perimeter guys not going to the hoop enough and not getting to the line enough. guys not getting the ball into yao. there being poor spacing to get it to yao. useless picks by yao. etc, etc, etc. again, coaching can only overcome talent so much but we clearly aren't maximizing what we have on offense.

an nba coach is more important than an mlb coach who seems to be more about getting a good atmosphere on a team and letting the guys do what they do and occasionally knowing how to make a good pitching change. i don't think they're as important as football coaches, but still important in the overall execution of a team.

 

Yao was passed up on maybe 2 or 3 times. So what? Should the guy just stop trying to get the ball because of a few plays? I have seen it way too many times. Teams only have to front Yao for a few possessions and the guy just gives up on himself.

Then, when they do pass it to him in the middle of the lane, he doesn't seal his man off well enough and the guy steals it.

 

The reason we choked:

Padgett - 4 minutes
Mutombo - 7 minutes
Nachbar - 0 minutes

In a game that we dominated for 3.5 quarters, why did we not go more than 7 deep? Also, the more I see Bowen, the less I like him.

 

We would have tied the game up if MO T would have made that layup. We would have won if Charlie Ward didn't turn the ball over at that crucial point in time.

One would think NBA professionals who are being paid millions of dollars and have played this game all their lives, would know what to do in these kind of situtations. W/O someone telling them where and what to do exactly.

blame the players not the coach.

 

Reup the video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I agree with you that an NBA coach is more important... but c'mon... are you honestly telling me that its JVG's fault that these guys are missing wide open shots?

Or its his fault that they struggle to make easy passes?

Or its his fault that they lose the ball simply trying to bring it up court?

Look... i wish for a day where I can see a flawless offense, with motion, picks, easy layups, etc... but we neither have the coach or the personell for that. I do know that those teams that run all the fancy s*** always end up losing because when somebody hits them in the mouth, they fold like a cheap suit.

We're that team who should be hitting people in the mouth. Right now, these guys just aren't putting forth the full effort.

If you want to blame JVG for that, fine... but I just think he's begging this out of his guys, and they're not responding.

In the end, you can't fire the players, so you may see a change if this team never "gets it"... but its far too early to give up all hope on that.

 

do we ever do this? i swear, as bad as yao is at getting position, if we would just quickly swing it to a guy with a better angle and he would pass it quickly, we could get yao the ball, and get it to him with is man on his back single teamed. instead we just throw it to the other side of the court and try it over there and waste time and don't get a better angle.

the only exception is the occasional swing to the top to mo who hits yao coming across the paint but that is the exception and not the rule.


didn't hakeem say when rudy was there back in the glory days they worked so much on getting hakeem the ball. figuring out a lot of different ways to get it in there. something tells me we don't work on it nearly enough considering it's the most important part of our offense.

 

If Yao had continued to demand the ball later on, I am sure that our fxxxing PG would not pass it to him. Are you blaming 13/15 Yao instead of 7/20 TMac?