ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Lakers 4/17/2004 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

Man, sooooo much negativity!!! The Rox only lost by ONE point and we played with lots of guts and confidence in a hostile environment. You People are so damm negative, instead of hating on YOUR favorite team, GO OUT AND BUY YOUr PLAYOFF TICKETS!!!

 

I thought this was an incredible game! Steve played pretty well, Yao did good on Shaq, MoT hit a couple of big shots to keep us in. It's incredibly tough to win at Staples now with the 4 HOFs back, the last play was setup great but came short..oh well maybe Monday we can show something.

I'm still pretty down about the loss

 

Care to tell me what other result will happen with 3 more 1 point losses?

 

SF3 and Cat turned the ball over 8 times in the first half. 6 times in the second half.

There was 2-3 min sequences in the 3rd quarter that Cat took 3 bad shots in a row and turned the ball over once on a stupid play.

Yao did a great job defending Shaq in the 2rd half and allowed him only 4 points including the game winning putback. Yao could have shot the ball better and be more assertive on the offensive end. But he played a decent game overall.

And how about Rockets's 3 point shooting in the game? That absolutely sucks.

 

One thing is for sure, Monday's game wont be a closed one, usually the team lost the first game like this will lose the second one in big margin.

 

I don't think anyone deserves blame for this loss. The team played well enough to win, and really should have. Ironically, great defense ended up losing it for us at the end.

Van Gundy deserves tons of credit. So does Mobley (despite the TO's). That may be the best defense I've ever seen on Kobe. If we can get down to those last two posessions every game, and get a chance to win the game like that, I'll take it. The difference today was literally an airball rebound. If that ball hits the rim, we win (assuming it doesn't go in). The TO's in the first half were bad, but it was these guys first playoff game...I can accept that with the way they came out in the second half.

Great game for this team. Play every game like this and we'll have a chance...and Steve will play his way onto next years team.

 

agreed. Some of you people disgust me!

 

Don't be so negative..

Give the Rockets some credit, they went out there and played their hearts out. I'd rather them go out there and play hard and lose by 1 point 3 more times, then waltz in there and let the Laers roll all over them.

But, either way, we steal game 2.. and come home and take care of business!

 

Stop b****ing yao, steve and jj. Over all its a gryt game. We played gryt defense and yao hold his own against shaq (at least its not a massacre). Stevie inspite of his dumb plays and too many turnovers make up to it with his fearless drives and ft shooting that kept us in the game. But the bad news is, dont expect another type of game from the lakers. Surely they will come out strong in game 2 and i hope this time the rockets are well adjusted and keep turning the ball around. Yao should step up his game definitely for the rockets to have at least a chance of upsetting the lakers in its homefloor. Game one is over, we lost, stop whining and lets drink beer.

 

the complaining gets old

 

I don't know if that last play was set up like that, I don't think Steve expected Shaq to be RIGHT THERE. I think it was designed for Steve to go to the hole as plan A, unfortunately shaq was standing right there so they went to plan b which was to kick the ball to JJ. Kicking the ball to JJ wouldn't be plan A because we didn't need a 3 anyway. With the way Steve was being aggressive to the hole I think they called a great play to end the game. It just didn't go in for us. Hopefully we can cut down on the turnovers and pull out the game on Monday and come to Houston with the possibility of going back to LA up 3-1.

 

Well technically Wasabi, unless my math is deceiving me, 4 more games means we end up at game 5, which should bring us back to L.A. if the 2-2-1-1-1 format is still used

 

It was a GOOD look at the end, and Francis made the RIGHT decision to pass it to JJ.

I will take that shot each and every game for the win......


The Rockets were nervous you could tell, it caused a lot of dumb mistakes, but their defense was SUFFOCATING.

I hope that JVG puts Cato on Shaq a bit more so Yao can conserve his energy for offense, he was exhausted.

Overall, I loved the effort, and I hope to see us pull one out on Monday.

Good effort, now cut down on TO's and hit the Free throws and we can win on Monday.

DD

 

I'm proud of the Rockets tonight, especially Steve and Cuttino. Steve had a terrible first half, but late in the game you knew that he had all the desire and heart in the world to get that win, he was an absolute gamer. Cuttino freaking shut Kobe down. The Rockets lost by only 1 point and they had tons of turnovers and Yao only had 10 points. Now that they've got the composure and Yao will not have two bad games in a row, the Rockets have a very good shot on Monday.

 

I'LL SAY IT AGAIN - ALL YOU FOLKS BLAMING FRANCIS, MOBELEY, JJ, AND YAO - GIVE IT A REST. NO ONE PERSON IS TO BLAME FOR THE LOSS. THEY LOST AS A TEAM.

GO ROCKETS - WELCOME TO THE PLAY-OFF'S - PLAY HARD AND PLAY SMARTER NEXT GAME.

 

**** Phil Jackson and the Fakers! I believe!

Great game, I'm very proud of our effort tonight...we played our tails off.

My only complaint tonight was the turnovers in the first half and JVG's not getting Yao involved after he made his first shot early in the 3rd quarter. Get em next time on Monday! Go ROCKETS!

 

And you get this philosophy from where....??
I highly doubt that is true and if the case of the Rockets, we can play the Lakers and I don't think we will ever get truly blown out by them.

 

so what? they'll has 3 more "good perfomance" like the one of tonight and then OUT

 

exactly, well said

 

Very true BTW, is 2-2-1-1-1 what's being used? The NBA doesn't do 2-3-2 any more right?