ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Raptors 1/6/2006

Raptors have a solid team. They could make the playoffs. Sam Mitchell needs to stop being a stubborn a-hole and start Charlie Villanueva.

C-Chris Bosh
PF-Charlie Villanueva
SF-Jalen Rose
SG-Morris Peterson
PG-Mike James

That would be a solid starting line-up with Graham, Calderon, Bonner off the bench. They also have some guy named Pape Sow in the NBDL who is putting up monster numbers in the NBDL.

 

I am worried about this team. Even if everybody is back, this team is not championship ready. This year's injury forsee the coming things. T-mac is getting old, the guy has very thin legs with back problem. Yao is a big man, but he is not Shaq. The rest of the players are old.

If the same players come back next year, Rox will have other kinds of injury problem just because the players are too old. The management needs to do something to insert some new blood in the team. Otherwise, the team will always be good, but never championship ready.

 

exactly. we are expecting DW and DA to run around chasing young guards in their early 20s. we need some young talent. we are wasting precious years from tmac and yao by wasting time with veterans. it's one thing if the veterans are delivering but they are makin us worse.

 

I agree with the first time poster.

Okay Mike James played well..but man he's a punk!

Go Rockets!

 

Is Juwan a punk?
I missed the game but . . .is there ever a reason to
throw the ball in someone's face?


Rocket River
. . .for the record. . . sometimes there is . . .

 

I miss Sura. Kenny Smith said it the other night when talking about Damon Stoudamire...the starting PG is the hardest position to lose because you take it for granted, as far as them leading the team and getting into the offense.

I don't care how he played tonight, Mike James is a little punk. He's one of those guys that's going to b**** about getting his touches whether he is winning or losing...I'm sure he's very happy right now getting to jack up shots as he wants in Toronto. In the longrun he's going to be more trouble than he's worth...and in a year and a half he's going to be one of those guys like Austin Croshere that a team is desperately trying to get rid of because of a bad contract.

Rafer is still better for this team, and I still believe in him. We do need Sura back though, I just hope it's this season.

 

I missed it. What did Juwon do?

 

It's a loss against a team that, prior to tonight, was 10-22. In other words, against a team that, by record, sucks significantly more than do the Rockets at present (now 12-19).

Yes, it's just one loss... but people have said that eighteen other times out of thirty-one games. How many more times are people going to say, "It's just one loss" before they realize that it's 19 losses out of thirty-one, which means a .387 record?

As for "We've already seen the worst we could possibly see this season," I beg to differ. It can <b>always</b> get worse. A forty-point drubbing in Game 7 is all the evidence I need to offer to support <b>that</b> point.

There are fifty-one games left in the season. In order for the Rockets to <b>finish</b> .500, they have to win 29 of 51. To put it another way, they have to go almost 57% on the rest of the season... and that includes approximately two to three weeks without Yao. The way they've been playing so far, I sincerely doubt that's possible.

The time for boundless optimism is past, in my opinion. Barring a blistering end-of-season run -- which I'll allow is still possible, though I consider it highly unlikely -- this team <b>is</b> lottery bound.

 

James drove the lane, there was some incidental contact, nothing I could see that would start a fight anyway. James appeared to start talking some serious smack that Howard didn't take a liking to. He then walked up to James and put the ball in his face. A little hell broke loose then, but whatever it was all about, it was pretty evident that JAMES AND HOWARD aren't best of buddies.

 

Which is a bit like saying, "Well, yeah, I got mugged, but at least I didn't get pistol-whipped, too."

 

Unlucky

 

I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact it was Mike James who fell into JH's knee last year. Probably not. Either way, JH was way out of line and was very foolish here. He allowed an opposing player to get into his head, got thrown out of the game and maybe inspired the other player to play more passionately the rest of the game. Very dark moment for JH IMO. I thought more of him. We can't have stupid things like this happen.

 

you mean like shoving a ball in their face type of class

Rocket River
. . please forgive me .. . I'm at war with the ideal of CLASS today
since it seems to change depending on what side you are on

 

forreal
I'll be honest
IMO JUWAN tells you how this team will go
CAREER 17 and 9 guy
Swift ain't gonna cut it
I think we need to give J Howard more props
but
his act .. his loosing his cool was pretty crass
and cannot be allow to happen
IT more than anything IMO lost us the game
not because it fired James up . . [some]
but . . .moreso it left us relying on Swift more than we should

Rocket River

 

agree totally RR. This team has 2 really good players then we drop off fast, and we lack depth on the bench, esp when injuries pop up. Swift is showing signs but is obviously still in school.

 

HAHAHAHAHAH Did anybody hear Bill Worrell say "Swift isn't exactly swift on free throws" I was cracking up pretty badly.

 

Agreed.
JHo is getting older, but you can count on him for some offense and a few rebounds. Knowing that Yao is out, everyone should be doing their best to make their time on the court count.