ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Nuggets 1/9/2005

It is very strange that I don't feel excited after a nearly blow-out win. By watching the game, I think our offense system has yet imporved, we are often clueless in the flow of offense. On the other hand, our defense turns on and off.

Nuggets is just a terrible team now. NO defense, lose of their fast-tempo offense this year.

I am happy we win, but I am not excited. I don't see the real imporvement. Next time, when the shooting like our first quarter goes, and when T-mac is not that scary in the downtown (that is the normal state), we change back to Rockets of past.

I don't want to ruin your happiness. But... maybe we have to be patient for a long, long time.

 

Not me say that. But I watched almost every rockets game in these three years. This is my impression on Yao's offensive and defensive rebound.

 

The guy who I would like to see as the future SF for the Rockets, Vladimir Radmanovic, just had a career night for the Sonics. I don't think he's going to accept full MLE anymore. I think he's going for more.

 

Actually, this might be a bad habit. Yao need to fight to get every rebound in front of him. This is not a matter of stats, and it is about intensity. If Yao hestitates to get the ball for some ridiculus reasons (e.g. increase teammates' number), he is giving opponents a chance to get the ball. Remember how many times much shorter opponents get the ball right in front of Yao?

 

Nugs fans were making the mistake for the first few weeks of the season too. Finally someone asked a guy who is close to the team and it was revealed that it is Der-Marr.

 

Hey, Nugs4, what happened to your Nugs?

Damn, I mean last year this was an absolutely fun team to watch. But right now they seem disinterested, no emotion, no fire whatsoever. And their D is horrible. What happened?

I rather see you guys play well instead of stupid Suns.

 

I never really appreciated T-Mac until this season. I've watched the guy play in the past, but, wow. The guy is amazing.

 

I wish TMAC is on every game like this. While he looks like more relax without pressure. It's good to see Yao put a little bit footwork tonight although his shooting is so bad. I believe his shooting touch will be back.

 

It's not being nice or not. I believe that was the way Yao was trained to do, which is also a basic fundamental in basketball. You box out your own man first before you go up for the rebound. Yao is pretty good in boxing out his man because of his size, unfortunately he doesn't have the explosiveness to go up for the rebound also because of his size.

Steve got a lot of boards because that's how he always played, not because of his selfishness. Unfortunately, he did it at the expense of leaving his man open.

 

This is it... in order for the rockets to win personally i think tmac must attempt at least 25-30FGs per game whereas as the second option of the team yao should at least attempts 15-20FGs. the rest of the team should shoot as it comes.
Any time role players like sura, MoT attempts more shots than yao, the team will be doomed..... just my 2 cents!!!!
And i think JVG made a smart choice this game by playing yao at the start of the 4th quarter. How many times we have seen we either lost our leads or get blown in the first few minutes of the 4th qtr when yao was not the floor.... but then this again depends on yao's stamina....

 

What is the Rockets win-loss record for the games where Bob Sura scores the first points of the game (overall or just for the Rockets)?

Anyone know?

 

I still maintain for this team to win we are going to need Yao. He frustrates me out of my mind sometimes, but there is no way we can give up on him. When he is hitting big shots down the stretch it really gives us an anchor in really tight games. It settles down the offense and we don't get out of synch or helter skelter. Hakeem used to do that for us, and we need Yao for that as well.

 

When we need a bucket, the best way to get it is to pound it inside. You either get one or go to the line down the strech. Nuggets doesnt have that luxuary. I wonder why they didint go to KMart enought to get a bucket. I would run the offense through Kmart if I was nug's coach.

 

As much as we need Yao we also need the rest of the team to step up and hit jumpers when both are double teamed and they are wide open. Yao can go and score no points if they double him all night but if the other guys can't step up and hit a jumper when they are left open then we aren't going anywhere just like in the Lakers game.

That's everyones plans, lets try our best to stop T-Mac and Yao or at least contain them and make the rest of the team beat us. If we don't show up then we get burned.

In the Lakers game it was that same story, our role players couldn't hit a shot to save our life leaving everyone to collapse on yao and T-Mac and make it difficult. On the other side the Lakers role and bench players basically went off on us and we had no answer what so ever.

 

I really like how t-mac and yao "took over" in the 4th. We need more of Yao and T-mac trading baskets.. yao scores one play, t-mac the next, t-mac assist to yao the next, yao assist to t-mac the next, etc..

 

I agree with you. I enjoyed the win though and the performance by TMac. But to me, The Nuggets had zero defensive scheme to stop us. Maybe that is the result of TMac really being on his game and stepping up.

I really like TMac's defensive intensity against Melo tonight and I thought our defense did show some signs of improvement by not giving up the easy layups and dunks. I like the idea of us taking the foul and not giving those easy buckets, because it frustrates the opposition like it did Melo tonight.

Really, if it hadn't been for the breakdown towards the end of the first half with the Nuggets running off 9 or 10 in a row, this game wouldn't ever have gotten close.

It looks like Wesley is gonna be a player and I like him better and better. At the same time, I think Barry is going to be very disappointing. Barry is absolutely horrible defensively and when he is hesitating on his shot like I saw him do a couple times tonight, he shouldn't be on the floor. If he can't shoot, he is useless.

All the same, a fun win against a team that is seriously underperforming and is lost on the defensive end similiar to the way we were when we were losing to the Bobcats a few weeks back.

I still don't think we will even be competitive with the top 4-6 teams in the West. And I really thought there was an opportunity for us to move up this year with Sacramento and Dallas losing key players. But it looks like we are stuck competing for 7-8 seed and if we play over our heads we may be able to grab the 6th spot.

 

I'm posting a response to this in the NBA dish forum as I type. Don't want to ruin this thread.

EDITED TO ADD LINK:
http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89473

 

I think people need to be realistic. We are still just an above average team with the players we have now. We still have extremely soft power forwards. We don't have a true point guard, except for Barret who is 5'8". This team is going to be hard pressed to make the playoffs with the horrible start we got off to.

 

I loved the aggression from T-Mac who was great. That is what we need from him consistently whether his shots are falling or not. Wesley was encouraging with his shooting tonight. I hope this will rub off on the other players as well. We need to get better as a team but I was happy with the win as I didn't expect us to win.
If we had more quality role players we would be in good shape by now.