ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Jazz 4/26/2007 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 3)

Juwan Howard really hurts when he is out their. Luther can still move his feet and play defense, but Juwan not making his J means he can't do anything. So this is where the lack of Pf depth hurts us. Morey must build this team some depth in the offseason. We need some more impact players to be championship contending

 

I don't care if we have a one game cushion the Rox need to come out and play with desperation next game. They need to play like they are the ones down 1-2.

 

and kirilenko was the main guy who was guarding him for most of the night. hey i don't like it, but tmac was thrown off...

 

Williams worked with John Stockton over the summer, and he's been a starter all year, but I still can't figure why Luther is playing so crappy right now.

 

Yao was extremely poor in the first half, but he picked it up in the second half, especially with his rebounding. His shot selection improved towards the end of the game. I just hope he realizes that nobody can stop him when he's close to the baset. He needs to make use of his new found muscles to continue punish the Jazz.

As for T-mac he started off hot, but as someone alluded to earlier, he took jumpers also 99% of the time. He also seemed pretty lasidiscal (poor spelling), which pissed me off. At least Yao was hounding the ball, and diving over two players for yet another T-mac jumper.

J-Ho. Zero defense and zero offense, I really don't know what value he has left to the team, except for veteran leadership which really doesn't translate much onto the court. I would be surprised if Morey didn't move him in the summer. (I may be too harsh on him, but his performance was really really poor, and this was against the Jazz's second team...)

Alston, decent relative to his teammates, but still poor. Deron Williams was very quiet yet again, so I will credit Rafer for slowing him down.

Battier, "inconsistent offense, consistent defense" as someone earlier put it.

Head - Useless, if head can't shoot, even Vspan could of been more productive than he was.

Mutombo - pity... age is starting to show.

Thin bench - a result of us not developing our bench when we had the chance. The debacle also cries for a third scorer, someone who could put up 15-20 points tonight, which could of been the ball game. T-mac should of taken over in the 4th and put on a Kobe like performance, but he just faded away to the background.

 

Yao morphed back into his timid self. What a time to do so. Most dominant center in the NBA. Bah! Getting blocked by Okur again and again and again and again. Depressing, all these after 5 years in the league.

 

lousy ball movement, Tmac's poor shooting, No bench, turnovers , turnovers , and more turnovers

Lets forget this game and start fresh on saturday, back to rockets basketball. They wanna get physical lets show them what physical is all about!

 

We seriously would've won this game if we didn't have so many freaking turnovers.

 

Are the Rockets still TMac's team or is it Yao's team now? Wrong on both counts. It is Carlos Loozer's team!!!!!!

 

i have to disagree with yao's shot selection being better. They were the same, he hit a bucket late in the 4th quarter, and that was the first turnaround jumper he had in over god knows how long it was. much too little much too late. so no, he didn't pick it up in the 2nd half. if he couldn't shoot ft's like just about every center in the league, this would have been an even uglier game

 

No, we would have won if we had imposed our will on them.

 

I hate to keep harping on the refs, but something needs to be done to clean up the game. The Jazz foul to compensate for their lack of speed and athleticism knowing that they're not going to get called everytime.

 

You guys don't get it:


Chuck Hayes is a SCRUB!!!, this guy would not be a starting forward for any other team in the LEAGUE….it just proves that Juwan Howard is worthless. (Shows how much we rely on our two stars)

As for Luther Head, hey the guy is a rook in the playoffs, if you expect him to step up it's going to be a long series.

All in all it's up to the SUPERSTAR's on our team to carry the load. Yao Ming did his part, but the # of turnover's is not acceptable, he has too much responsibility on a team like this to turn it over so often.

As for McGrady, he has done nothing until now, he's not carried this team like he said he will, he has just shown up and played good basketball. However good basketball is not good enough, he has to step up his game to another level, or else this team ain't goin anywhere. He's been clutch and provided good ball movement, however he's gotta take his offensive game to another level. We will get past Utah, but that's about it if he doesn't step it up.

 

A Pathetically Flawed Team?

A Pathetically Flawed Team? That was one of the worst playoff games I have ever witnessed. Van Gundy and his team of misfits and scrubs continue to make Houston the laughing stock of the playoff teams. How much more will Les take of this crap? Only 4 players even score in the game. Outscored 33-0! Wow! Ihe Jazz will continue to embarrass the ROX, they will lose the series 4-2 and Van Gumby will finally quit or be fired!

 

Obviously that too, but my point is, no matter how badly we were shooting, we would've won if we hadn't turned it over so many times.

 

this is funny, trash tmac but say yao did his part tonight??? did you look only at the stats? both tmac and yao were totally off and have been the whole series

 

we won game 2 cuz of chuck and freethrows...are you kidding?

 

as sad as this loss is, i find it painfully amusing that there are still rockets fans who think JVG is the right coach for this team. His offensive ineptitude is hideous. Same goes for his player choices. Hopefully we can steal 1 on the road and end the series at TC

 

I'm just going to rack this up to lack of playoff experience from Head, Hayes and even Rafer, too. They got cocky and thought the thing was in the bag just like we did two years ago. Tmac and Yao didn't play their best games, but they still brought it. Juwon doesn't have any excuse, but I have to wonder how the guy can shoot 5-5 several nights in a row, then pull out a 0-5 effort.

I hope JVG lights a fire under their asses, reevaluates his game plan and strikes some fear into our players. Game four time, I want to see our players hungry and ready to kill without mercy.

 

I think these two comments are related(flopping and rigging). The NBA makes more money on.....you guessed it........more games, more ad revenue etc....add in the trickle-down effect of teams traveling...hotels, meals, fuel, airline, local arena concessions/tickets etc. The way flooping and rigging are controlled is by allowing the refs to decide(by the direction of david stern) to allow flopping on one game (like this one) to help eliminate Yao/Houston's obvious advantage in the paint. Okur flopped so bad when Yao dropped his shoulder, it was hard to watch. The first one early on was called as an offensive, the next one when Utah was in control was NOT called. This game was officiated poorly. Did anyone see Milsap I believe, pull down Yao's arm for a rebound and they called Yao for the loose ball?

Plus, the game was lost in the 3rd when Tmac chose NOT to drive to the basket and all of sudden luther, rafer, tmac all forgot how to pass into the paint

The bench was horrible...Here is where a legitimate 3rd scoring option would help...particularly one w/post skills.

Shane made up for some early misses from the 3, but how long will luther be dry from the 3...wake up..snap out of it.

It was a must win for the j*zz, but the refs and the roxs helped them out with sloppy calls and sloppy playing respectively.

One positive from the loss, fans can stop saying that a roxs win only means that utah still sucks.