They went away from Yao again. The guy has 8 points easily in the first 6 minutes of the 1st quarter, gets benched only to get cold while sitting. JVG throws him in when the Knicks are making a run, and the Rockets don't pass to him unless he's a last second resort. I don't understand it. I also don't understand why JVG benched JJ when he's hot on the floor as well. Run plays where JJ and kicking the ball into Yao, and either force the double team where JJ is open, or let Yao do his thing. Why do they go away from an approach that was working so well at the start? Also they look hesitant out there when taking shots again, and I think the lack of confidence in their shot is now is causing all the misses. This team is so bi-polar it's driving me insane.
I totally disagree. He has been very active on defense and in the second quarter he has made some great passes. Found Pike for 2 or 3 wide open looks, and Mo Taylor cutting for an easy dunk before Mo got stripped. Yeah, he has had a couple of bad shots, but he has been very active.
This is unreal. First the game against LA and then this. Too bad we don't play every game on national TV!!!
i cant say this game is really fair but then again i didnt think it would be. it is beautiful to be having such a good game with such an audience. as "great" as new york fans are, selling out games and all, they sure are boo happy
Rockets didn't get the respect by the commenters. See what he said:" rockets got 28 right now in the first quarter, that's the number they normally got at half time...".
Damn you Yao, stop taking those 20 footers. I dont care if you makes 'em. You gotta go inside and keep banging, and banging, and banging.....
That's what the Christmas day announcers were saying, but who cares as long as we do what's necessary to take this game.
What awful analysis. There's reason why they play the games. Christ the Knicks were sub .500 playing in the East minus Marbury from that awesome starting lineup you just posted.
Anyone else notice the Craig Sager bit with Marbury's parents next to him. It was obvious he wanted to give them an interview and they refused. Marbury's mom looked like she was gonna hit him with her purse while he was doing his bit.
This is where his physical conditioning comes into play. You don't notice that Yao plays like gangbusters at the beginning of games but slowly tails off? Don Chaney then started to use a cloud defense around Yao with defenders cheating and helping with Yao's primary defender. If Van Gundy uses him in the post a lot at the beginning of the 2nd half, he'll go into shutdown mode. Then he'll play like a POS, then everyone will complain like usual about how Yao doesn't have that aggressive attitude. Yao should be used primarily on defense with the occasional post up in the 2nd half. Yao's presence in the paint has forced the Knicks to jack up jumpers almost all the time.
Hmm immediately after that timeout they put JJ in there to dump the ball into Yao. They ended up going on a 10-1 run after that. Steve is having a good game so far, but he's still forcing some terrible shots out there. That baseline move where he dribbled to the other side of the basket to jack up a shot behind the backboard while fading away was a ridiculous attempt. He's putting up some impressive numbers so far though, on pace for perhaps a triple double, but I dunno, he's still frustrating to watch sometimes. His defense was suspect especially since the man he was supposed to be guarding was Moochie, and even he got 5 points off of him in the final 3 closing minutes at the half. Wish they didn't go a 3 point splurge at the end and we could of kept the lead a bit further away from them than 17, but that's me just being greedy
Yes, almost as bad as Yao spinning baseline and throwing the ball right to Keith Van Horn in the 1st quarter.
So far so good. Hopefully JJ will get to bring the ball down some more. He gets the O started a whole lot quicker than Franchise. Other than that. Pretty good 1st half. National TV is good to us this year. Whats up with that?
