THE GOOD - Our starters had a good amount of points. - Our starters got about there "future" season average. - Tracy McGrady had 9 assist. - We scored 97 points - We shot 45% from 3. - Juwan Howard didn't play. THE BAD - T-Mac still isn't hitting his free throws, the team shot 64% - Without Bonzi Wells, our bench is almost non-existed. - Battier only had 1 rebound. - Rafer Alston and T-Mac each had 40+ minutes in a lost. - Yao had only 12 shots. - Players in foul trouble early. - Out rebounded 36-47. - We lost.
What the Rockets did wrong: - 0 Ball movement. Too many isos ending in jumpers for TMac. Failed post up attempts for Yao due to a lack of spacing and passing. When plays were run for Mac or Yao, everyone else stood around and watched. - Repetitive plays. Defense: -JVG defense. When a player starts to make a move, send help no matter who he is, even if you don't have a chance of catching him, leaving players open. Wide open jays all around. - Mismatches. Pagett on Boozer. Battier on the bigs. Mismatches everywhere. -Horrendous boxing out. TMac didn't box out well; Padgett, Head, Alston, and Novak (in his limited minutes) were pushed around. I'm sure I missed other things but those were the things that stuck out to me.
well said! but it's bummer JVG doesn't let Bonzi play tonight. it seems to me that Gundy doesn't like his absence of the preseason, and now wants to punish him by limiting his play time.
Rockets defense sucked!!!!!! How can we allow the Jazz to score over 100 on us on 50% + shooting.... The team defense was so bad I wanted to puke!!!!!!!! T-mac was playing lazy D, and missed too many free throws!
Geezus. We lost the first game. Let's call it a season already. The problems that we saw in this game are fixable. We hit our frethrows, have a decent perimeter defense, hit a better FG%, give Yao more than 12 shots and we're going to be in every game dispite our flaws in our PG and PF.
therefore, he is a bad rebounder....and you should put chuck hayes in there... last year Yao didn't have any problem grabbing rebounds (offensive and defensive), he would boxout and rebound at the same time (amazing i know) he's gotta work on his weak butterfinger hands..i dont expect him to grab long rebound but at least get the ones in your vicinity
oh please...the man is supposed to be an athletic freak...guys like him don't just lose their explosiveness, getting by his defender seems like the impossible for T-Mac…he appears like he’s playing at half speed…slow and immobile….it might be an over-reaction on my part…but my gut feeling is that this is what we are going to get all season long.
Its game 1 and Roxs lose and can you believe people are calling for T-Mac to be traded, saying Yao Ming can't rebound, our bench suxs, JVG suxs and on and on..........81 more games to go people......geez. Yes, the Roxs could not rebound or hit FTs and T-Mac was not driving to the rack, we ran one-two Yao/Mac pick and roll plays only and our defense was horrible....but its game one. Look at Miami's loss...rockets will be fine
C'mon man, we could go on and on about this! We could also make the same argument about T-Mac. The point is, we were down 5 and he took a terrible shot. Whether it was Rafer's fault that we were down (which absolutely makes no sense at all), he came back and played fairly well in the second half.
Do you really think the nets would make that trade right now? lol Who wants a jump shooting TMAC? Dont get me wrong I love TMAC, but man he needs to watch some old game film of his and compare it to some recent stuff. Worlds apart.
Well, the first one is in the books! What happend to starting out fast at the beginning of the season? Yao will never become the center he was last year when Rafer shoots more than Yao, and Tmac shot what(%)? Tmac needs to realize that he needs to defer to Yao more and more....and Van Gundy needs to tell everyone that Yao is first option. Tmac will always be the Tmac that shoots a crappy % and as much as he says that Yao will become better, it won't happend if he takes only 12 shots a game. Bad calls against Yao and Shane all night.
Trade T-Mac? Are you crazy?! The dude hasn't played in a regular season game since I can't even remember when. He's a rhythm player, he needs to find his groove, and when he does, his shots will fall and he will attack the defense with ease. Give him a little time, and he'll make believers out of the haters.
The similarity to last year is more likely to occur by the Rockets.... a mid 30-ish win season sounds about right.
O well. I'm going to watch reruns of the Wonder Years then go to bed. It sounds gay, but it'll help me forget the game. I'm ****ing weird.
Also Yao still deferred to Tmac a little too much. He needs to step up, stops pump faking, stops looking like a timid deer. You know I love Yao. But Yao didnt shoot enough tonight partly because of he didnt want to shoot at times. Quit being cute and smart. This team needs Yao to be a beast down low to win.
