ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Mavericks 4/23/2005 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

Only caught the end. Talked about knowing McGrady was a great defender because, when he coached the Knicks against the Raptors several years ago, McGrady shut down Allan Houston. Said that Mutombo has played as good as any 6th man this year. Raved about Dallas (strategy!!!), about how fast and athletic they are. That's all I caught. I'll catch more later.

Oh, they had McGrady. Praised Bowen several times.

Van Gundy asked, "How many minutes can you play defense on Nowitski, Tracy?"

Tracy's response: "40, 44, whatever you need, coach."

Yes.

 

Listen 123456789, Yao played crappy - sorry to hurt your feelings, but you'll just have to accept the fact that he had a horrible game.

 

I don't hate Yao ming, I just don't like people who play without heart.

 

Yao no doubt will play much better in this series, because JVG is gonna make adjustments. TMac is awesome.

I say we're gonna sweep the fcking mavs.

 

Holy God! A Rockets playoff road win and the BBS goes off for 500+ replies!

 

are you f#$king kidding me? i agree yao didn't have a good game but you're using a terrible play. yao was the ONLY guy attempting to get that rebound while four mavs had him pinned under the basket. even bullard made a comment on how his team is gonna have to give him some help there.

of course you then go on to make an asinine comment like "Thankfully, the Rockets are a pretty good team aside from Yao" so that's pretty much all we need to know.

 

So you imply Yao played with no heart? Did you ever watch the game? Watch the game and a few from the past, you would be blind if you couldn't see how hard he fought for poistion at the post area and under the basket. How often he ran from low post area to set a high pick then ran back, over and over. Did you see how many baskets T-Mac scored utilizing his pick? There were all heart and hard work, man.

 

Nope. FYI, Dampier only has 2 fouls in the game.

 

Props to T-Mac for a great all around game. One of the greatest playoff performances I ever watched. Offense, defense, scoring, passing, he did it all, and he did it with style. He was on fire early on... that was nuts.
James played great down the stretch and hit some really big shots.
I hope the Rocks keep their focus and don't take it down a notch after winning this game. Even though we stole home court from them, we weren't a great home team during the regular season, and its very important to try and take game 2.
We were literally blowing them out for good chunks of the game, and Dallas is a really good team too. I'm usually a pessimistic dude, but now I think we can go all the way this year.

 

Basically we won because JVG totally out coached AJ..........wasn't even close. The D on Dirk was brilliant, and they can't guard the pick and roll at all. We are going ot win this series in 6 games.


Oh and Tmac played decent I guess.

 

Silent hero....

David Wesley shuts Michael Finley down all by himself. Finley shot 2-8 for 5 points.

 

Did you know that without Yao the Mavs didn't even need any of those offensive boards to score 2 points? Yao pretty much altered all those shots, just got no help from his teammates to either get the board or box out the opponents.

 

8 Rebounder. 2nd Best on the court among two teams in 20 mins.. U called it palying w/o heart?

 

Yao is either great or sucky. Tonight he was sucky. He needs to step up his game and doesn't need people making excuses for him.

 

Agreed. Sometimes I wish the FIRE GUNDY thread was open just so we can flog edc's ridiculously idiotic self for being such a mindless hater.

 

he did play hard though. I didnt see him back down form anyone

 

What embarrassment was that? Fighting for the rebound against three Mavericks with no one helping out?

We played without a true power forward, deal with it.

 

We know where you come from because we follow the BBS. We won the game, we do not care if you hate Yao or not.

 

Here's what I could get out of T-Mac's post game conference on NBA TV. Not exactly word for word since I tried to keep up with what was being said, but here you go:

Talk about the way you guys controlled the tempo of the game tonight.

We just wanted to come out and hit those guys first. That was the most important thing. We know those guys, it's a different ball club than we faced last time. They're more physical and more defensive minded. We wanted to hit them first and control the tempo.

Talk about Mike James and his contribution in the game.

Came in the game, gave us great energy, knocked down some great shots. That's what we needed from Mike, gave us a great spark.

How important is it to win the first game in a series.

Anytime you win the first game, especially when you're on the road, it's obviously a big win. It's tough starting off on the road, but I think this year we've been a great road team. I think we have confidence coming into this game and we showed it. I don't think Dallas expected that we were prepared for those guys to hit us first. We came out with great intensity and got off to a great roll on the offensive end.

Talk about the curl play you used so many times in the game.

That play is so effective. It's tough. When those guys come down on me, you're either gonna go one-on-one or leave someone open on the weak side. I’m sure they'll make adjustments in game 2. We enjoyed it all night.

It was definitely an effective play for us and we kept running it. Either I was getting an open look or we found the guy on the weak side. Me and Yao have to do the right thing and make our teammates better.

Talk about your teammates trust in you knocking down big shots.

Those guys know sometimes I make crazy shots and that's just the confidence I have in myself. They realize that those shots I can make on a daily basis. They have confidence on whatever shot I pull up and take because I’m just that confident. I have been out of the playoffs for four years so I believe this is my time and I’m just more focused now.

Talk about defending Dirk.

What we did, we started Ryan Bowen and I think that surprised him. The guy gives up a lot of energy and he's a pretty solid defender. He did a great job on him. I just try to keep him out in front of the post. Get off balanced. That's what I was doing. It was great team defense. Gotta give credit to everyone.


Talk about what this game means going into Game 2.
It gives us confidence and we believe in ourselves. I think we realized this is a winnable series for us. It’s not gonna be easy. These guys are gonna come out more focused for Game 2.

Is this as well as you've played in your career or how much is it having the right guys around you?

I think I’ve pretty much played like this the past 3-4 years. I have guys around me to take some pressure off me. You get all the praise when you play well and that’s what’s going on. Before I didn't have that supporting cast and I was not able to make my teammates better to get to that look. But now I have players who believe in me and have a great coach who makes the game a lot easier for myself. In the past, I just don think I had that supporting cast to help me elevate to the next level.

On playing so hard on both ends of the court for so many minutes.

I wanted so bad and whatever it's gonna take to stop him and stop Dallas, that's what I was willing to give. Coach asked me how many minutes I could put in defending Dirk and I said I’d go 40+ minutes if needed. Ryan is a great teammate and it's great to have him coming in and frustrate Dirk a little bit. Like I said before he's great.

Ryan said he was really nervous before the game. Did he say anything to you?

He didn't seem nervous. Really? He did a great job man, I couldn't tell he was nervous. Guy came in and gave us great, great energy. He used all his fouls tonight, but you have guys who sacrifice and know their rolls.

 

It's the softness with which he approched the game....the fouls, the lack of aggresion, no fire. I didn't see it. I don't care about stats to be honest. If he gets 8 rebounds, 11 points, but plays with some fire, I'm happy. He didn't do that tonight. That is my observation - my perspective, my opinion. You're free to disagree.