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

damn! padgett had 4 rebounds in 4 minutes? is that right?

 

I hope you are a girl.........or at least drunk

 

I hope both Tracy and Yao, especially Yao, can get use to the stupid new ball and get back their shoot percentage before regular season start. Damn! Looks like this new ball affect Yao so much.

 

I think Novak likes the new ball pretty good.

 

Come on, that is the effect that Yao and Shaq basically cancelled each other. Yao scored so easily right after Shaq is out.

 

If 14 & 13 is soft, how can we describe Shaq tonight? The way I saw the game, Yao was the key for all those 3s that came the Rox way. Yao is instant space for his teammates. I think his presence alone adds another 15 points to the bottom line due to the spacing his teammates gets. If Yao doesn't score one single point but still commands double and triple teams, then he has earned his max contract and then some. But we all know he is a lock for 25/12 for this year.

 

Being drunk makes it okay?! By the way we are "Loaded" !

 

on t-mac and yao....

tracy looked slow and out of it in the first half once again but he came alive after halftime, and he moved fantastic. he didn't shoot great but i think most of the misses were early. watching him dart around in the third is enough to tell me that he's bascially just holding it in until the regular season. he's gonna be fine.

yao looked absolutely terrible offensively against shaq and he still isn't making on shots that are usually money for him. just a month or two ago he was filthy in the world championships so i don't think his attitude has changed at all. it's preseason so i'm not going to worry about him, but it's clear he needs to improve his conditioning and timing still. on the good side, he rebounded well and when shaq wasn't in the game defenders are still helpless against him. the rockets also didn't go to him enough consistently for him to get a good rythym.

 

Not that there is anything wrong with IT

 

I think Shaq looked terrible against Yao. He can do nothing offensively against Yao unless he puts his big fat derrier in Yao's breadbasket. If Yao maintains space, Shaq can't score. The only buckets Shaq got in this game was when Yao was having to help over on somebody else and Shaq dove down below behind him, that's it.

And offensively, the only way they stopped Yao was to bring in other defenders. That's why our 3 ball shooters finally hit enough to gap us 20 ahead. Shaq cannot stop Yao one on one on either end.

 

Why Head did not play this game?

I think 14 players have found their positions by now. JVG have to select the final one from Bowen, Jacobsen and Sura.

 

any chance for an encore? doesn't espn do it late sometimes.

 

Did you miss those two blocks he had on Yao's turnarounds?

 

yieah but i wasn't trying to compare yao and shaq tonight. other than the two blocks shaq had, you're right yao clearly outplayed him. but i expected that and wanted to see a little more from yao. i'm not trying to knock him but i know what he's capable of.

 

Have to disagree with you there, mate. He has been rebounding pretty well (4.6rpg in the preseason; for reference, Battier's averaging 4.8, Chuck's averaging 4.5). He has also succeeded in not being a defensive liability - even John Saunders commented last night on how well he was defending Antoine Walker man-on-man. Even on the offensive end, he has shown he can do a few other things -- he is deadly on the pick and roll, and at least a couple of times I've seen him cut to the hole and get layups/draw fouls. He definitely is NOT one-dimensional, and remember this is a guy who hasn't even seen regular season NBA action yet. He's only going to get better.

It might also interest you guys to know that Novak has the highest point total on the team this preseason with 75 points (T-Mac has 69, Yao has 68). Obviously T-Mac and Yao didn't play in all the games so that's somewhat deceiving, but it's still worth a mention.

Agree that he's somewhat redundant, but he played well tonight. Very good defense, sound decision-making and passing. If he can do that in the regular season and more importantly hit three pointers when he's open, I see no reason why he shouldn't get that 15th roster spot.

 

Agree. Yao does not have the killer instinct yet. He should have used his quickness against Shaq a lot more - spin around, catch the ball on the run, head fake and draw foul, etc. But no, he hesitated all the time, giving Shaq the chance to adjust and defend.
Maybe he would be better during regular season games. Can't wait till Rox meets Heat again.

 

I am worried about the condition of our two superstars. Yah, the bench players and the role players got their job done, but what would be the result if this happens in a regular season game? Yao and Tmac need to drag themselves into the game.

 

from the chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/4288675.html

"It's coming," McGrady said. "I think my in-between game is where I want it to be. My long-distance shot, my 3-ball, I'm still trying to find it, trying to adjust to the ball and find my range. I will be fine come (the opener) Nov. 1. I'm confident everything will be sharpened up and I'll be ready to roll."

McGrady said he spends some of his time in the preseason working on his game, rather than take the best shot.

"Preseason, I go out and wouldn't play the way I would play a regular-season game," said McGrady, who had a preseason-high 19 points and five assists. "I try to work on things to see if they're working. I try to do different things, feel my teammates out, see what they like to do. ... I try to mix things up."

t-mac pretty much confirms what i was thinking. he's holding stuff in until the games actually count.

 

mcgrady is hustling, waiting until the stakes are higher before he unleashes.

 

i liked it!! This is our team WITHOUT head and wells. Imagine them back and in the lineup. If we play defense like this and hit our shots like we did this game, then the sky is the limit. Man its so refreshing to watch this game after last game... Number 1 thing i liked about this game = Shane Battier. Boy actually managed to play some defense on D-wade unlike Snyder. Snyder didn't really impress me. He has a very bad outside shot and doesn't take it (which is good decision making, but bad for the team). And he looks a little lost out there defending dwade.