ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Kings 11/28/2003

My 2 cents

I don't know if anyone watched the Laker Spurs game. I think it's kind of humiliation we lost with only 11 assists as a team, which was done by 41 years man in only 3 quarters.

I guess the reason why we are still a lottery team thus far is simple: we need a balance offending strategy and the key factor for this is the ball movement and trust with each other.

Another reason we sucks all the time when we play solid team is because Cato, who is totally a dummy in the front court, which makes our opponents easily double team Yao or Steve without pay. Unleass we can find a descent PG (Steve could be a good SG) and PF, I can't see any hope with this lousy team.

 

A global star, Yao outshone by Miller
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Saturday, November 29, 2003
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One of them was undrafted coming out of college five years ago, a project with long arms and a lot of upside. The other was the first pick in the draft just over a year ago, a global sensation because of where he came from and what he could do with a basketball.
Friday, the undrafted guy -- Brad Miller -- sparkled with season-high numbers largely because he's a refined, polished product much like the Kings, who belted the Houston Rockets 103-74 at Arco Arena in the latest edition of Clinic Ball.

Yao Ming is the focus for the Rockets, a massive big man at 7-foot-6 with skills galore but still very much a work in progress.

And unlike the Kings, the Rockets often find scoring to be a chore, because they can't pass like the Kings.

Houston had two assists in the first half Friday, and the Rockets generally bored the Arco crowd. This after managing 76 points in a loss to Utah on Wednesday and 78 in a defeat to Portland on Nov. 21.

The Kings, of course, crave the extra pass, with Miller fitting right in since his summer acquisition from the Indiana Pacers. Miller had 29 points, and had the 7-footer not taken a seat with 7:31 to go, he might have obliterated his career-high of 32 he set against Memphis in 2002.

The Rockets packed their defense inside, allowing Miller to fire away from 12 to 15 feet when he wasn't going backdoor. He made 11 of 18 shots and had seven rebounds, four assists, two steals, two blocked shots and no turnovers in 37 charged minutes.

"(Miller) was all over the court tonight," Yao said through an interpreter. "He was everywhere."

Last season, Yao was everywhere, with Chinese media following his every move, with national media charting every play. He conducted pre-and postgame interviews to swarms of camcorders. This season, in Yao Year 2, the media interest has dwindled to a trickle.

Yao showed some of his personality Friday before the game, discussing the pressure cooker suddenly resting on the shoulders of a certain new No. 1 pick and global poster child.

"We just had Thanksgiving, and you should probably ask me what I'm thankful for," Yao said, this time in pretty good English. "LeBron James."

Miller got a taste of the Chinese media, a curious throng of two who wanted to know how much Yao has improved. Miller said Yao had become stronger, more determined not to get pushed around, though Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy is pleading for his big man to be more forceful after he struggled with double teams against Portland and took just one shot in the second half against the Clippers on Monday.

"I played him in the first game of the year last year when I was with Indiana and Jeff Foster put a forearm into him and pushed him all over the place," Miller said. "That doesn't happen now. Yao is so dang thick. You have to counteract his size, try to take advantage of things and make him work, and that's what I tried to do. He's wide, but he's not a 7-6 stiff like Shawn Bradley of Dallas."

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/7869075p-8809151c.html

 

Last night The Rockets:

Played like Neandrathols dealing with advanced physics-

looked like giant Sleestacks from Land of the Lost with elephantitus of the hands attempting to handle the most delicate and brittle of papers from Japan-

in a basketball sense, appeared like - like deaf, dumb, blind, quadraplegic, infants vs. highly evolved demigods who seemed to turned the ball over too much, only in an effort to show mercy to a Saliery like team.

 

By the wat:

If people are going to go through the needless process of singling out one player from last night:

It shouldn't be Steve. It's true that he didn't play good defense for most of the game.


It shouldn't be Yao. It's true that he turned the ball over more times per second of possesion than anyone on the team.

It should be every single power forward who saw action while Miller was on the floor, and probably Meech too for not being good enough to see playing time and have a shot at guarding him. That is the reason we lost. It wasn't because Francis wasn't passing, or dribbled too much, which he did at times. It wasn't because Yao turned the ball over, or didn't box out, or played volleyball, which allowed the Kings to get a rebound which happened at times.

It was Miller and the fact that he knocked down shots because there wasn't a Rocket within ten feet of him most of the night.

 

it's the whole teams fault for the loss, but if i had to blame somebody, it would be Cato and Francis. I think Cato at the 4 is starting to hurt us cause he's too slow and in every game they leave him wide open and double up on Yao because Cato can't hit the 15 ft. jumper. Steve is also just dragging around on defense, Bibby was at the 3 point line and Steve was running to catch up to him. Steve is also not fighting around those picks very well, they'll set a pick on him and Steve's man always gets a clean look at a shot.

 

if it was easy to fight through picks nobody would set them, it was cato job to show and give francis enough time to catch up with his man.

 

Miller outshone Yao? LOL!

Miller played a great game but Yao was not guarding him. I cannot say how disgusted I am, but we let Miller shoot open 15-17 footers all night without anyone within 10 feet of him!

Cato is a good backup center, but he is no PF. He is becoming both a liability on offensive and defensive end. Since Cato has such lousy shooting touch, opposing teams are leaving him wide open and double Yao whenever he catches the ball, and we cann't let other teams pay for that.

And Cato cannot guard opposing PF who has a midrange jumper.

Last night apart from Yao, Steve and Cat, the rest of team were 10-39% from the field. This is pathetic.

Brad Miller's stats are inflated because of the style the Kings are playing.

 

I think JJ could be singled out. The man has put up something like 5-29 in the last three games.

 

Dallas may have more stars and greater scoring power but you nailed the Kings' game succinctly.

They play basketball the way it should be played. Now if they can only translate it to a championship...it would be just rewards.