ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Hornets 12/5/2003

Steve Smith dropped the pass into the post to Baron Davis. Baron took a fade-away jumper and Smith ran to the lane and locked up Yao with a forearm to his chest. Yao did not like that and retaliated by shoving back.

The refs only saw the "shove." Thus, a technical was called on Yao.

By the way, I liked that Yao got a tech. It shows that he can get "mad!" I'm going to love it when Yao gets into his first fight. Sooner or later it WILL happen. They are trying to push his button.

Name one center that was All-Star quality, that did not have a fight. The only one I can think if is Walton (Peace, love and happiness; make love, not war...etc...).

 

Hopefully we can keep it up.

 

Hey, I'll take a Rocket win over a good game for Francis any day (though I LOVE when they go hand in hand), but Francis is my favorite player, and I hate to see him struggling the way he is.

It's also nice for the team if they can see some more consistently high numbers from their current best player. I kinda doubt that the Francis struggling and the Rockets struggling are mutually exclusive events.

 

In the past, if Francis was "struggling," he'd "force it" more. Thus making matters worse.

He has help, this go around. But he recognizes that he *needs* them.

 

That was close! I knew the Rockets couldn't score 85+ points, the Hornets would have won the game if they could score 85.


--daoshi

 

Most off course predictions:

idlel:
I hate to say, but Hornets will beat the **** out of rox.
Prediction:
110:87 Hornets


ZRB:
Another embarassing road fold-job.
Rockets: 75
Hornets: 115


Nova:
Rox are screwed.

 

Looks like Yao has some hops after all.

 

And who had the closest prediction ? i didn't read the entire thread but i'm only 1 off...

 

OOOh, my bad HotRocket was also 1 off plus he gave the score:

 

If I read this correctly, it's off a rebound.
Yao can make his life so much easier if he just boxed out more and moved his feet into position. He's WAY over-stretched in this picture.



theSAGE

 

People complained Yao doesn't jump, when he did jump, complained he stretch too much for a rebound....tough to please a fan.

 

oh, may be he's trying a super back streching hook shot.....so no body can block him.

 

Actual score: 83 - 74

 

If we can string a few nights like last night together it might help Francis have more trust in his teammates.

Francis didn't do much at all offensively, but did an outstanding job and put forth great effort on the defensive end. We still got the win.

Mo Taylor, and Cat were really great. Pike kept us going early, and Moochie had his best game so far(which shouldn't be that difficult, considering the past games he's had).

 

Remember- I told you so!

 

Francis played the right way last night both offensively and defensively. No, he didn't shoot well but if you saw the game, you know that several of those shots were attempts at the shot clock buzzer. He was forced to put up.

The point is that he facilitated ball movement to his teammates by giving up the rock early in the shot clock and then rotating around to receive the ball again. And when he did that, everybody else started moving the basketball. The results were a tremendous improvement. If the Rockets continue to work on ball movement and work on moving without the ball, they will get better and better offensively and every player, Yao, MoT, Cat, Steve, Pike, JJ, even Moochie will wind up with wide open good shots that they can nail.

I am not worried one bit about Steve's offensive game because I know that if the Rockets continue to play this style of passing game, that it will force the defenses to have to adjust what they are doing to us. They will no longer be able to lampshade Steve and Yao because Steve won't be dominating the ball and the other players will be torching them. It will make the defenses have to D up on everybody which in turn will open up Steve and Yao with more 1 on 1 opportunities where they can dominate with a couple dribbles and a crossover or a hook shot in the lane. Steve will start putting up consistent 22+ games and Yao will get 20 a lot easier than both of them have been getting their points up to now. I am crossing my fingers that Van Gundy keeps working on them to continue that type of offensive play.

When you put that together with our defense, look out, we will be on to something. Playing at both ends like that will make us competitive with the Lakers and Kings. Please keep it up Steve.

Yao still has to improve. His rebounding positioning is horrid and he can't hang on to the basketball. I don't know how Van Gundy is gonna fix that but his rebound positioning and weak hands sure hurt this club.

MOT looked like a very good PF for this club last night. Agressive on both ends of the floor, hitting the open mid range jumper and banging away in the interior when the opportunity presented itself. If he could just board a little better, we wouldn't need a PF.

Cat looked good hitting his shots and moving the basketball. You gotta admit Cat can play defense with the best of them. As long as he doesn't try to dominate the ball, he is a very good player for this team.

I have to give even Moochie props for his performance last night. He hustled and passed the ball and moved for the open shot. The refs really sucked. There were several plays that Moochie got absolutely butchered on and they couldn't pull the whistle out their ___ to blow it. The refs in this league need to be made to watch video tape of calls they miss. It's ridiculous.

I was satisified with what I saw last night. They can play better if they continue to build on this game, ball movement and player movement and spacing.

 

I have to give even Moochie props for his performance last night. He hustled and passed the ball and moved for the open shot. The refs really sucked. There were several plays that Moochie got absolutely butchered on and they couldn't pull the whistle out their ___ to blow it. The refs in this league need to be made to watch video tape of calls they miss. It's ridiculous.

I was satisified with what I saw last night. They can play better if they continue to build on this game, ball movement and player movement and spacing. [/B][/QUOTE]

To your point,

I think the refs are required to replay the entire game, after EVERY game, grade EVERY call, and send in a report via email to the league office that very nite. This surfaced when Mark Cuban began his ranting about lousy officials to David Stern a few years ago.

And I agree with you, the Hornets just butchered Moochie and several other Rox down the stretch and the refs gave us no help - that's just life on the road in the NBA and you gotta learn to play through it......and we did.

GREAT WIN

D R

 

Damn, the voice of reason...THANK YOU JEFF!!!!

 

You missed that every time an opposing point guard has a less than stellar game, there are 10-15 people lined up to fawn over Steve and his improving defense.

 

To your point,

I think the refs are required to replay the entire game, after EVERY game, grade EVERY call, and send in a report via email to the league office that very nite. This surfaced when Mark Cuban began his ranting about lousy officials to David Stern a few years ago.

And I agree with you, the Hornets just butchered Moochie and several other Rox down the stretch and the refs gave us no help - that's just life on the road in the NBA and you gotta learn to play through it......and we did.

GREAT WIN

D R [/B][/QUOTE]


Do they have to grade every non-call?