ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Mavericks 2/21/2004

Clutch is right. Steve wasn't looking for his baskets today. He tried to pass the ball and get everybody involved. He just didn't know how.

Cat was the hot hand early in the game. I think JVG intentionaly ran some sets for him in the second half but he lost his touch.

Nick, how long do you think the guards need to learn before they finally "get it" ? Should the Rox wait? Steve is 27. I'm afraid the day he masters the skills would also be the day he loses his explosiveness and quickness. Then, what's the difference between Steve and an Arroyo or a Hinrich?

 

And that's the frustrating part. He never seems to "know how."

 

LOL!

 

Regardless of "getting it" or not, this team will get its ultimate evaluation during the playoffs.

That's where team's decide whether they can compete in the future... or they have to change things up. (just like good players become great ones based on their playoff performances... good players can become mediocre ones based on those as well.)

As for now, I don't think its JUST THE GUARDS. Its Everybody: Yao, our dyslexic power forwards, our undersized small forward, our love 'em/hate 'em backcourt, and our defensive-oriented coaching staff (seriously, there is no offensive guru on that bench).

Will they have enough time to all figure this out before this year is over? Probably not.

Is it imperative that they do? Yes.

Will they face the zone enough to do this? No.

Will they continue to work on the traditional half-court set as much as possible, since that's the way most teams defend? Yes.

Will they look this bad if they face this defense in the playoffs? No, because eventually, every paper defense gets exposed for the softy that it is.

If you're not naturally gifted at doing something (in this case, breaking down the zone), the only way to learn is to work on it over and over again.

We all know that Steve isn't the ULTIMATE player, and frankly, no player is. Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and teams will try to take the oppositions former, and expose the latter.

The zone does that to Yao, Steve, and the Rockets. Steve can't be the explosive player that he is, and Yao can't dominate the post.

Lesser talented teams beat the zone regularly... this team has the goods to do it... its just not gonna come naturally.

 

FG% of our big guys: 17-28=61%
FG% of our gaurds: 18-54=33%

Now i know big guys should have a higher percentage from the field, but if we tried to establish yao and mo taylor inside then we probably would have won that game. Although dallas runs a 2-3 zone almost the entire game, the big men should still be able to get established in the low and high post. And another thing about our bigs tonight was they got to the line (spoon and cato) and converted. Our gaurds made 1 FT combined. Not enough agression in our whole team, especially our gaurds. Aggression is especially needed against a team like dallas who has no big man down low.

 

I blame the game on refs for going for stupid flops and getting Yao into foul trouble early.
I blame the game on Cuttino for throwing up 3 pointers (4 of 12) only so that the Dallas can play the type of game that they want.
I blame the game on guards for not passing the ball to Yao when he had clear position in the post ( i can recall atleast 5 times that it happened.)
I blame the game on JVG for poor rotation especially taking Yao out with 5:50 left in the 1st quater.

And finally, We will never be able to beat zone defense until our team as a whole learn how to pass the ball effectively against Zone Defense.

 

I disagree, we still lose. Yao Ming is not at that stage to where we passed the ball to him and the Rockets win against Dallas. He has yet to learn how to get better position on the floor and how to seal off his man to where the entry pass from the guards is much easier. Better guard play and the smarts to break a zone is the only way the Rockets are going to beat Dallas at this particular time.

 

There's a reason: selfishness and being a ballhog. It's a terrible sight to see: Yao being 7'6 wants the ball covered one on one or wide open underneath the hoop, and the guards can't pass to him.

 

So you mean the guards are not good

 

I hope CD/JVG do not give me the chance to prove myself (and others) wrong: with the same set of players, Rockets won't be able to compete consistently. They might be lucky enough to get into the playoff, they might even get to the conference final. In two years, we just need to c/p whatever said here....

 

What about leadership? Star player? Someone that dictates the pace of the offense and defense?

I remember when Hakeem used to go to the bench; our team would try to hang on. I remember when Bird was injured, the Celtics were just a average team. I remember when Duncan was on the bench, the Spurs would struggle. I remember when Shaq was injured the Lakers looked like average team....

We'll only go as far as our leader. Role players are the last of our worries. In fact, our depth is pretty good.

 

I say don't bother teaching Yao to seal off his man to make the entry pass easier. How about better guard play first? It's only logical because the ball is in the guards' hand most of the time. How about just let the guards practice passing to a wide open Yao in practice, if they can't even do that, it's no point in trying.

Frankly I don't see a good future for this team if we don't change personnel.

 

This game was psychotic. It was the single weirdest game I think I've seen in the past 5 years. Frickin' surreal.

Yao was fighting damned hard for position. He usually got it. But it was usually a bit after the entry passer got the ball. And guess what? If he didn't have immediate position, the ball got thrown elsewhere - usually resulting in a bad shot.

The Rockets back court - yet again - got lured into a pissing contest with the Dallas shooters. And they lost - again.

Do they not realize this happens every time? It's so strange. When we were up by so much in the 1st q... I still wasn't comfortable. Because I knew that Dallas was eventually going to get hot and we wouldn't withstand the charge.

It's a lack of control of the offense by JVG. Rudy lacked the same control. The Mavs ring our guards' bells. They always try to respond to the challenge - and always used.

The offense was dead by the latter part of the 2nd quarter. I'm not even talking about Yao. I'm talking about playing for the best shot.

Sorry, Mobley, Steve, Mo, and JJ (who is usually quite clever) all played like frickin' r****ds today. JVG failed in the same way Rudy failed w/regards to Dallas - ****ing enforce some goddamned disciplien against a better offensive team.

But why?

 

It is indeed sickening sight. I understand on some nights it might be hard to get the ball to Yao, but that doesn't excuse the fact that when he does get open (which did happen many times tonight), you have to make the pass. Our guards basically accepted the fact that the defense was geared toward Yao and stop looking to get him the ball. I really hope JVG will sit down with the team and point out all the times a player had a easy pass to Yao when he had position, and drill it into them that they must ALWAYS make that pass.

 

Haven - well said. IT is JVG's fault (knowing that our guards are going to fall for it. but he could have stopped them!)

 

Inside out doesn't mean you have to pass only when Ming has a deep position for easy bucket. Offense doesn't have to be one step set, and it usually won't be. You have to adjust according to the situation, but you need to have a system and try. Let Yao touch the ball, he can react according to the defense, and he can create further chance or better looks for himself or his teammates. Although I am in Canada, was lucky enough to see tonight's game. But what a game, sigh. I agreed with the commentator, when he talked about those two passes Ming had for Spoon in two consecutive sequences. He said let Yao touch the ball, if you cut right and get good position, you WILL get the ball back. That's the strength of inside out, because it's flaxible. That's why Nash is better than Steve, coz he won't stop dribbling then look for options, because you normally end up with NO options. If you rely on outside jumpers, even your opponent is not capable to take your big man out, but you take him out for them. It's not rocket science, although I played a little ball myself long long time ago, I never have much clue of basketball, but I do know in any sport, if you want to win, you have to create mismatch and try to play a way make your opponents uncomfortable, not go with them.

 

Correcto! If Francis and Mobley had the smarts to match their talent the Rockets would be cutting down the nets in June.

 

SF and Cat still don't know who is the money man is? After all these said and done. The real problem is, they still don't know why we lost the damn game. They are still thinking the zone had killed them. Get real please! They beaten themselves fair and square. When they ignore their big guy and play their own egos games, that was the failure.

 

Postgame Quotes


Mavericks Head Coach Don Nelson
As a coach I was a little worried because of the first quarter. We couldn’t do anything right. They couldn’t do anything wrong. We had to go in there and tried to stay positive. I guess it’s better to happen in the first quarter than the fourth quarter. We have had a few of those too. I thought we really battled back well. We just stayed in our zone. I liked what the zone did for us. You saw what the man-to-man did in the first quarter. We just couldn’t stop them man-to-man. Even if it wasn’t a pretty game to watch, it certainly was a great one. They are a good team and we have a lot of respect for them.

On Josh Howard and Eduardo Najera’s play:
Both of those guys were the only reason that we were close in the first half. They really stepped it up. Although Josh didn’t have a great offensive game in the second half, Najera just kept really anchoring our defense and he kept his consistency going. What I really liked about both of them was that they guarded in our zone and they always rebound.

On what he said to the team after the first quarter:
As bad as we were and the shots they were making, there wasn’t any blame to pass around. I tried to make a couple of adjustments with some substitutions of guys I didn’t think were playing very well. What I was really looking for was the Najera and Howard substitutions that really picked us up. It was hard to show confidence in my team when we were down 19 to 3. The biggest factor in the game was that I had to go to the zone 100%.



Mavericks Forward Josh Howard
On the spark he and Najera provided off the bench:
I just came out there ready to play. I knew that we would be able to get back into it. We just came out there to provide that spark.

On if the 24-4 edge in fast break points was by design:
We stressed that a lot in the second quarter. We had to run the ball to get Yao tired and that is what we did.

On the effective use of the zone defense:
We didn’t expect to play that much zone, but Yao started off the game real well and we had to stop him from getting the ball down low. We had to push them out and make them shoot jumpers.

Mavericks Forward Antawn Jamison
On the Rockets’ good start and the Mavericks working their way back into the game
They did a good job of making their baskets and executing. They hit some tough shots. During that early stretch, it seemed like there was a lid on the goal. The one thing that I really have to compliment is how poised we stayed. We didn’t try to get it all at once. We took our time and guys stayed positive, and that is the poise we needed in order to get a successful result.

On defending the perimeter better after the first quarter
The biggest thing was that we didn’t want Cuttino Mobley and Jim Jackson to be in the corner with open looks like they had in the first quarter. We really paid attention to that and got to those guys and made them drive. We didn’t want Maurice Taylor to camp inside. We did a good job of scrambling and throwing different looks at them.


Rockets Head Coach Jeff Van Gundy
On Mavericks capitalizing on Houston’s turnovers & transitions:
Coming into the game, you knew about transition, but what people don’t talk enough about is their (Mavericks) rebounding. They just force turnovers, they scored 26 points off of our turnovers and they had 25 second-chance points, so that’s 51 of 97. You’re not winning like that. They out-worked us in those two areas.

On playing against a zone-defense:
There were certain possessions that we could have done better. We just have to make quicker decisions against zones. You’re not going to isolate either in the post or in on the perimeter against zones. The help is loaded to the strong side. We have to do better there.

On the team’s (Houston’s) frustration:
You’d have to ask them. I think we didn’t play as well as we could have at times. Dallas had something to do with that, obviously. They are very good.

On whether Houston is among the top in the West:
We have many steps to take before we get there. So we have to work hard, try to bounce back and play well tomorrow.

Rockets Guard Cuttino Mobley
On how the Mavericks defense affects their offense:
It wasn’t their zone. We didn’t get the loose balls. We had open shots, we just didn’t knock them down. I had a lot of open shots in the second half, but they just didn’t fall. We had open shots, we just didn’t knock them down. Sometimes if you don’t knock them down in the zone, they are so spread out, it is easy for them fast-break and get easy shots.

On the six-game losing streak against the Mavericks:
I’m a little frustrated with myself because I had a poor-shooting night. I had a lot of open shots, but sometimes that is how the game goes.

On where Houston is among the West:
We’re right up there. We’re in the top six, top five, top six. We have to be on our A-game all four quarters.



Rockets Guard Steve Francis
On how Ming has yet to beat Dallas & Houston’s six-game losing streak to them.
I’m not personally worried about whether Yao Ming has ever beaten Dallas. He’s played pretty well against them, so I don’t think he’s very worried about it, either, if he beats Dallas or beats any other team. Of course you want to beat every team, but we can beat any other team, it’s just like beating Dallas. There are teams that they haven’t beaten, and this is just one of the teams we haven’t beaten.

On Dallas’ zone defense
We settle too much for the long shots instead of taking it to the basket. We began the game driving and kicking, getting the ball inside and outside, but once they went into the zone, we just settled for threes.

On his injured nose
I don’t know what the hell happened. I couldn’t see for about two minutes. But once I got up, I was able to walk a couple of steps, I was alright. I was more dazed than anything. I’ve never been a professional boxer, but I know what they feel like when they get hit. That ball was coming pretty fast.

 

I think Yao was upset at the end of the game, he wasn't given much chance to beat Dallas.