ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Magic 1/25/2004

Great game all around. Everyone's clicking, I hope we can keep it up. Mobley, JJ, and Motay are great with Yao. Steve didn't score a lot but IMO thats good because he was passing a lot more. Steve is getting it, especially after this game... Pass the ball the Yao. "He's 7-6' and when he raises his arms it like he's 12 feet tall. And he's got skills on top of that." Juwan Howard.

 

i would, too, but the problem with the defense being your strength thing is that at the end of a quarter like that you're not really setting your defense up, closing off the middle, rotating, etc. it's pretty much just rush it up the floor and jack up a 3 or drive real fast and kick out for a shot, in which case you almost just have to hope they don't hit the low percentage shot. good D helps, but for the most part with 5 or 6 seconds left it's just a crap shoot as to whether the offense hits the heave or not. and even though i'm sure the percentages are with you, it still feels horrible or the rare occasion they do get that 3 to help their momentum. obviously, the way we do it, we leave no chance for that and you know how jvg feels about scoring, whether it be our team or their team.

 

Johnny Davis said they did double team Yao all night, but they were so bad at it that it only looked like a 1 on 1 coverage.

 

Yep. The Magic's gameplan was to double Yao on the dribble, but they just SUCKED THAT BAD that it never happened. Wow.

Of course, that wouldn't help much against alley oops and 20-footers anyway.

 

hes a max player dump to yao player from now on. No need for the team to utilize his talents anymore.

 

cheers

 

As good as Yao's been lately, he's still going to have to prove it for more then a month before Francis is even considered out of the offensive picture. Francis is still one of the best players in the game and while he frustrates me a ton sometimes, you can't neglect him either. No he doesn't make the game as easy as Yao does, but simply saying we need to stop going to such a good talent like Francis is stupid. Francis is still one hell of a ball player, and while I do favor Yao's play over Francis since his effectiveness on the court usually means our victory more then Francis' does, Francis is still a key to our getting a victory against the elite teams. As long as Francis is a Rocket I'll root for him, but at the same time as long as he's a Rocket I'll throw in my crticism of him as well. If/When he does get moved if that ever happens then I'll stop talking about utilizing his talents on the team, but for now we need him to be effective the same way we need effectiveness from Yao.

 

add one more to the list of SCRUBS that have COMPLETELY DESTROYED FRANCIS. Enter Rafer Alston. Maybe francis does not respect his game either.

 

This is a strange game from the begining..

Yao was doing just fine. But he's benched the whole time???
He's the only player who's making shots (5-9) and he's benched the whole time?

We'll see how JVG explains his action after the game, coz reporters WILL ask him the question we want to know... i hope it's something better than "im gonna let the players I reckon deserve to play on court", coz thats just bull****, not happy rite now, coz watever tactic he came up with, the Rox lost just as badly, didnt even get into single digits

I'm a JVG fan, but he should be blamed tonight. Defense was awful.

Yao just had a monster game and you benched him for ..what ??

Can someone explained to me? What did Yao do that's worst than anyone else on the court?