ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Heat 10/25/2006 (PRESEASON)

BTW had to work tonight so I missed the game. What were Vspan's TO's about? Sounds like the rest of his game was good to very good?

 

He doesnt need to prove anything else to me. Hitting 50% from the 3 pt line is enough for me.

 

Steve Novak... I like I like!

 

Dallas is till better than us!!!

 

Yao's "squishiness" tonight had nothing to do with his amount of shots. He doesn't need defending from the truthiness.

 

This team is much deeper and stronger than what we had. "i nearly cried with joy," too, hehe. We are definitely a team on the rise.

 

The Rockets are probably ruing not also getting Memphis's 1st pick. They could've locked up Novak for 5 years on rookie pay.

 

So JL3 is pretty much an afterthought now huh? He won't make the regular rotation. We are too deep.

 

Shaq played a lot worse.

 

I want to sex novak!

 

Thoughts on tonight's game..

First of all, had to take the wife out to dinner, as it is our Anniversary today, so I didn't get to tune in until the 2nd half.. got to see the good half the Rox played, apparently, *IN HD NO LESS*!!! Ok now it's going to be even MORE difficult to put up with sucky FSN and even suckier ch51 this season..

Y'all need to lay off Alston. He has improved SO much over last season, he has very clearly taken the work seriously in the offseason, and completely remade his outside shot, without losing any of his ball skills. Hasn't had a bad game in preseason yet, and didn't have one tonight.

Man the Heat look like a mess. No way they repeat.

I guess TMac must have missed a bunch in the 1st half, but his shot looked fine to me in the 2nd.

I think with the additions we have made this offseason, we have probably extended Yao's NBA career by an extra 5 years. He may never have to work as hard again as he did last year, and his stats may never match what he did in the second half of the season last year, but we are going to win more, and that's all that matters. Seeing the way young guys like Battier, Snyder, Novak and V-Span have played, Yao is just not going to have to work as hard. He should end up with a ton more assists though.

Novak. Geez. Good lord. Will somebody please explain to me how this kid was not drafted in the first round? I guarantee you the owners are asking about 25 other teams' GMs the same exact question right about now. Anyone care to take bets as to who end up with the better 3-pt-shooting season between Reddick, Morrison and Novak?

In general, the defense is as good as ever, if not even better. Battier is probably rubbing off on guys. Definitely not something that would be rubbing on guys if it was Gay instead. The thing that impresses me though is the offense. It's like JVG suddenly woke up from a coma or something and realized that his team has a better chance of winning if it actually plays some genuine offense designed to take advantage of the skills of its players.

Anyway, I hope this is not all fool's gold, and the reg season finds us getting slapped around again. I don't get that worrisome feeling of dread in the back of my mind like I did last year. We have depth, talent, and (for the most part *koff*Bonzi*koff*) professionalism. I am not yet seeing any red flags which would make me worry that we won't be able to do to teams in the reg season what we have been doing to them in the preseason.

Let's hope it's not just a big seductive illusion.

 

A most enjoyable game! Very entertaining! It was good to see us playing the team game as it should be played. We seem to have a better team than Miami and it gives only positives vibes for the approaching regular season.
I noticed that when the ESPN commentators were asked for their predictions, nobody , even our own John Barry, mentioned the Rockets! This is good, we will come into every town an underdog and leave it with the victor's laurel wreath.

 

This Rockets team has to be one of the top 3 rosters in Rockets history. I can't wait till the whole unit is off in running. The Rockets will make a serious run this coming season, it all depends on the health of the team. I can't wait to see the final roster, it should be interesting on who gets cut by Oct. 31st.

 

I noticed that too and it steamed me. A great team (yes - I'll say it cause that's what we'll be) right before their eyes and all they could mention was Phx, Dal, SA, Det, Mia, and Chi (for goodness sakes!). Can't wait to see us steamroll the competition and make their collective jaws drop in awe. This is not fool's gold, people. This is the real deal.

 

the majority of the 2nd half was money. offensively and defensively. mcgrady came to life in the 2nd, a lot more intense play. battier brings a lot to this team. novak can shoot! yao looked tired a lot?

 

WOW!! SUPERNOVAAAAAAAAAA! AGAIN

 

I can't wait till we beat the crap out of the Mavs next saturday. Shut some people up. We should be used to this by now, Houston teams get zero respect.

we did have an awesome preseason last yr, and we ended up sucking, however that was due to injuries, and last yr we went in with Derek Anderson and Stromile Swift as our 2 big aquisitions.

This yr we go into the season having added 2 major pieces in Bonzi and Shane Battier, also it appears we got a steal with a deadly shooter in Novak and maybe a combo of Ginobili and Nash with Spannoulis. Also we know now that Yao is truly a dominant unstoppable player and Tracy is actually healthy, taking it to the basket more and going to the line (although shooting free throws very badly)

I wish we had some more time to really get the chemistry going and to have the guys play with each other more so we can get off to a good start. Bu tin the end I think this team will shock the NBA world and do bigtime damage this yr.

 

I kept getting interrupted watching the game in the first half, but it looked to me like Novak struggled a bit to get free for his shot against Miami's starters, when they were fresh. Maybe our starters, once Novak got in, just didn't try hard to get him the ball, but I'm still eager to see him play when it counts. He looked more athletic during the 2nd half than I remember seeing him earlier in preseason. Made a nice layup. Grabbed a few boards. His shooting? We'll be running out of adjectives to describe it, pretty soon. The guy may turn out to be the steal of the draft.

Jacobson looked better, I thought. I think he'll get cut, but he was very active, and made some nice passes to Novak. Snyder looks to be settling in nicely. That guy can slash to the basket! Rafer? What can I say... those feathers poking out of my mouth are from the crow I've been eating. Looks so much better than last year. Looked like a starting point. His defense is still mediocre, but not awful. Billy looks like a diamond in the rough, but still very rough. Hayes looked like someone who still needs to find a jumper, and add 3 or 4 inches.

Battier looked great. Just terrific. We scored there, folks. Yao looks like his conditioning is excellent. No worries there. Tracy had a lousy first half, and a good second half. He was having fun, and it was good to see.

Man, I know it was preseason, but that was a gas in the second half. And it looked great in HD!

 

well i watched every minute of the game except the last 4.

man ... wade is unstoppable. did he really flat out break snyder's ankles?
his step back is just awesome. even got tmac with it once.

as much as i wanna say that our team can take the heat, the heat that played us tonight were not the real heat. d-wade didn't dominate the game as he would in reg season. mayb they did try their hardest but i dont think we'll hav anywhere close to the same results as tonight.

im still lookin forward to yao and tmac gettin bak into their groove. they both strugglin a bit. im becoming more and more impressed w/alston's shot. he shoots w/o hesitation and w/confidence. gotta love that. also saw battier's offensive game tonight. and he even d'ed up wade real well on a couple of possessions. i uno wut else to say about the game. im more and more impressed with snyder too, and our team in general with each game. still real anxious to see how bonzi plays with us. but i think a lot of ppl on this board r basin wut they see on preseason as to what they'll see in reg season a lil too much. i uno. im just waitin to see how we fair in reg season. hopefully we'll keep it up.