Yeah Knicks fans and I would say all NY fans in general are tempermental, but at least they show a lot of passion. Sure they can be rude and obnoxious, but hey the crowd is paying a lot of money (MSG tickets are EXPENSIVE!!!). I would never excuse overt profanity but the chants of "Fire Chaney" and "overrated" are I dunno part of the game I think. Maybe not classy and I would never say it myself, but I can kinda understand from their perspective. The reason why Toyota Center wouldn't do it is IMHO the fans don't have the same passion - a lot more fair-weathered fans in Houston than in NYC. Just my thoughts.
Holy cow, nice game Rockets. I was impressed with Jim Jackson, Yao and Steve. What's the record in the 2nd games of back to backs now? It's got to be at least 8-3 or better. I wish Pike would get his game together or get Boki some more minutes. It's so sweet to see starbury suffer.
Everything fell in place tonight. The refs actually refrained from calling ticky-tack fouls on Yao so he was able to get his rhythm. I think I like Yao shooting mid-range jumpers and turnaround shots more than trying to post up. Just because he is 7'6'' doesn't mean that we have to post him up. IMO, his height advantage is relevant anywhere on the court. As of now, he probably won't be effective in the post because he can't overpower the strong centers of the NBA yet. But from midrange, he can take more uncontested shots because the prototypical NBA center doesn't like to leave the post on defense. I think the midrange game could be a significant part of his repertoire right now. Oh, and how about JJ breaking out of his shooting slump as of late. Now if only Pike would follow suit, this team could make some noise. C'mon Rockets. BELIEVE IT!!
Great Game!!!! This Rox squad is so fun to watch. People should be more appreciative of JVG's contributions to this team. If you think about it, to date, we have not been on any "bad losing" streak that tends to plague 500 ballclubs. Tonites game was a great showcase of what we can expect in the playoffs. The fact that our Rox seem to live for the limelight is a good thing. Some of the more notable things I saw but don't appear in the boxscore include: 1. Mobley's awesome defense on Allan Houston. Perimeter D was just incredible esp. against an all-star like Houston. 2. Yao's fat picks on Marbury, and freeing up Steve like in the above photo. 3. Jimmy Jackson moving w/o the ball and finding and hitting open looks. 4. Francis' patient orchestration of our offense - did you see him pull the ball back to reset the offense??? awesome. After a night like tonite, you know that Cat might just land a spot on "Sex and the City" opposite Samantha. theSAGE
Mobley and JJ play great Perimeter D. Cato and Yao own the paint. Piatkowski, Motay, and Boki are the next ones to go.
Mutombo could not defend Yao at all because he shot from mid-range. So NY had to go small. Then Yao went inside, attracting double team all the time leaving our guards wide open at the perimeter. This is the way we shall play in playoff.
Great game. I just loved it when francis blocked stephon. I wonder if Beyonce was rooting for the rockets.
went to the game and it was great! yeah, "fire chaney!" shouts were pretty funny. One of the loudest guys was sitting a bit in front of me. funniest part was when marbury was talking to his coach, the guy yelled, "Stay away from him Marbury! He doesnt know what he's talking about! STAY AWAY!" contrary to a previous post, i found that quite a few fans were cheering for yao from the beginning. and a few were stunned when he was calmly swishing them from outside the paint, although i wanted to see him post up more. moochie played great on offense, never have i seen him hit so many threes, was that a career high in points for him? ny fans seem pretty happy with him, especially tonight. let them live their lucid dream. MSG is much smaller than the MCI center, i was pretty far up but i could make out the players fine, whereas the nosebleeds in MCI prevent you from even reading the numbers. francis and JJ played great on both ends, francis had much better control of the ball than he usually did. The team looks pretty good when we are actually hitting our shots. overall, pretty happy with that win, where our defense and offense were at their best (although we did get away with a few travels).
Let's see how JVG handled this delicate 'home' game! WOW! from 66 yersterday to 111 tonight... 6 players got 10+ points. And... Mooch 17 point 6/11 3-point 4/5 "I know we're gonna have a DEFENSIVE practice tomorrow," Marbury said. Win may be based on the knicks DEFENSIVE but not our offensive.
Didn't you hear? The NBA doesn't call traveling violations anymore unless it's a makeup call, or the refs are out to make your night miserable.
Yao did not appear to be tired at all tonight...what is up with that? Teammates and coaches need to ask him what did he eat before this game which gave him this much energy ...so that he can continue the trench.
I knew it was nationally televised, but since it was a road game I thought it would be on 51. I hate not having cable. I was looking forward to the game too.
