ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Sixers 11/17/2003

caption contest !!!!!

 

mobley doesn't look too happy about sloppy thirds with yao.

 

"Chooga, chooga, chooga... toot, toooooot!"
or
"People all over the world, join in... ride the love train."

Doesn't suprise me at all. Only this BBS thinks he stinks.

 

I'll take it. As long as we can start to win the first one too.

 

What does that mean? They're predicting he's going to do bad this season or something? Or he had today's worst game?

Whatever it means, I'm sure it's bad, but I'm still curious what excactly "Monday's Bust Player" means.

 

Nov. 18, 2003, 1:05AM


Rockets get over brick wall
Defense beats bad shooting, Iverson, 76ers
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle



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• Boxscore
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PHILADELPHIA -- Perhaps the Rockets knew they would have to build a win slowly, brick by brick, when they made just one of their first 13 shots.
It could have been when they began the second half missing 11 consecutive attempts. It might have even been when they sat on the tarmac in Toronto on Sunday, stalled by mechanical difficulty on their way to their fourth game in five nights that the Rockets realized that they weren't going to win pretty with slick shooting and a precise offense.

Instead, the Rockets came back from Canada a hockey team: They and the 76ers went back and forth very fast but rarely put anything in the net. Growing increasingly accustomed to such nights, the Rockets suffocated Allen Iverson and the 76ers until taking a 74-66 win Monday.

"We showed a lot of heart," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We were running on fumes in the second half a little bit. When you're playing four games in five nights, you find a way to win."

Increasingly, the way has been defense. Until Philadelphia center Samuel Dalembert threw down a dunk with 41.5 seconds left, the 76ers were on pace for the worst shooting night in Sixers' history. They made just 31.5 percent of their attempts and missed all nine of their 3-pointers.

Their 66 points matched the second fewest Philadelphia has scored since the introduction of the shot clock for the 1954-55 season.

"After we let one slip away in Toronto, we needed this one real bad," Cuttino Mobley said of the Rockets' double-overtime loss on Sunday. "We came in focused defensively. Steve (Francis) did a great job on AI (Iverson), and we tried to help him the best we could."

As they did better than any team last season, the Rockets began their defense by shutting down Iverson. After burning the visiting Rockets for 58 points on Jan. 15, 2002, Iverson averaged 9.5 points per game against them last season. Monday, he had 15 and made just four of 19 attempts.

"All in all, coming off a tough game yesterday (and with) the plane delayed last night, I thought we showed our heart," Francis said.

"We were able to attack (defensively). It seemed like we had way more energy on defense than on offense. It seemed like we were way more organized defensively than we were offensively. From what I know, history says if your defense is ahead of your offense, you can have a pretty decent team. That's a good sign."

Iverson said he was stopped as much by a bruised and swollen right knee as the Rockets. He even said he called 76ers coach Randy Ayers on Sunday and said he might not play on Monday.

"Then I got in here, and you know me," Iverson said. "I get in this environment, and I just want to play. I just want to be smart about it. I don't think I was smart tonight, going out there. I'm not making any excuses.

"I had shots that I know I could make. But as far as my push off, and me getting to the basket like I wanted to and creating things, I feel I was just moving like someone else. It wasn't me."

The Rockets were not much better offensively. Francis made just three of 17 attempts. Other than Mobley, the Rockets' starters made just 13 of 52 shots.

When the Rockets made just one of 13 shots to start the game, the 76ers built a three-point lead. When the Rockets missed all 11 shots to start the second half, the Sixers cut just four points off the Rockets' 10-point halftime lead.

The Rockets made just 26 of 80 shots (32.5 percent), their worst shooting night of the season. But other than those two stretches when they were outscored by just seven points, the Rockets made 25 of 56 shots, good marksmanship when compared with the rest of the game.

The Sixers' offensive collapse was most severe in the third quarter, when they made just two of 18 attempts (11.1 percent). Kelvin Cato might have best typified that quarter's defensive effort with perhaps the toughest, most painful of charges he has drawn, stepping in front of forward Aaron McKie on McKie's full gallop.

"That one hurt," Cato said. "I knew he wasn't slowing down."

It was a considerable sacrifice, considering that had Cato stepped aside and let McKie take a layup, the odds were he would miss.

With the lid on both baskets, the Rockets got good shooting from Mobley, and one sharpshooter was enough to outshoot the 76ers. Mobley made seven of 16 shots, including four of 10 3s, and had 19 points. If those numbers don't glitter, they stood out on Monday like a diamond, or at least cubic zirconia.

"We definitely had to have this one," Mobley said. "It was like five games in five days because we had a travel day (to Toronto). We didn't have a break. That's a tough Sixers team. We lost to Toronto in double overtime yesterday and guys were tired, but we still stuck it out."

Ugly as it might have been, by comparison it was beautiful.




Rockets summary
Informal talks

In the offseason, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy spoke briefly with 76ers president Billy King about becoming the Sixers' coach, but the conversation was brief and quickly turned to other teams.

"The best term is exploratory on both sides, and then we agreed I wasn't the best fit," Van Gundy said. "It didn't go much more than a quick call. Both people thought about it, that's what we came to.

"I've always been super impressed with him (King) and super impressed with their team. I've always had high admiration not just for (Allen) Iverson but also for (Eric) Snow and (Aaron) McKie. I love watching them. They're tough and competitive. You have certain teams you like watching play. Those guys, I like watching play.

"A couple years back (2000-2001) ... I voted for (McKie) on the All-Star team. He's one of those guys that makes a huge difference in winning and losing. Same with Snow. They've done a great job here with him. Some people see what players can't do. They saw what he could do and it really benefited him."

King and Van Gundy did not say exactly why Van Gundy wasn't a good fit in Philadelphia, but Van Gundy had already interviewed with the Rockets when Larry Brown resigned as 76ers coach.

"We just talked and that's what we decided," King said. "Then we talked about him and Houston and Cleveland."

Coach's world

Another city and another chance for Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy to explain why he left his cushy job as a television commentator to return to coaching.

"I asked myself that today," Van Gundy said. "It's something about the challenge. It's sick, is what it is, to put yourself through it. I like the team. I hate how we play sometimes. But I like my team."

Van Gundy said his time away from coaching reinforced his opinions about what works in the NBA, and that launched him into a discussion about unfair critiques of coaches in general and Magic coach Doc Rivers in particular.

"The more you watch objectively, you figure out who wins and who loses in this league," Van Gundy said. "You learn more and more as you're on the outside, there's enough blame to go around for everybody.

"So right now, I look at Doc Rivers and all of a sudden he was up 3-1 in the series last year against a better team (Detroit) in the playoffs. They end up losing to a team they should lose to. That coach gets fired, too. And now Doc Rivers is not smart.

"I have to question the sanity of our league. If he was down 3-0, it would have been better for him to come back and win three and then lose the series, 4-3.

"I was reading these articles today saying they are 2-17 in the last (19 games). So now we're counting exhibition games, too. It kills me where this league goes sometimes. Doc Rivers is to me what this league should be about and his team is struggling.

"When you lose a star player -- I'm venting now -- it's like Miami. Hello, hello, Alonzo Mourning got sick. I always crack up when we say it's a players' league and then the moment something goes wrong, it's a coaches' league."

-- JONATHAN FEIGEN

 

The whole team should be traded after that piece of shi'ite...

 

LOL, quite the image! Love the look on Eric Snow's face! ha ha.

 

Totally ugly game last night. No question. When is the offense going to come around?? Taylor and Pike can't get back fast enough!!!!

What is funny, is that is the kind of game that last year we would lose. We would come into the game with poor offense and that poor offense would cause us to lose a game. NOW we can rely on our DEFENSE on nights when the offense isnt working and can actually WIN games!

 

cat: hey steve, i should be infront of you. i'm taller and ... got more points.

jokes aside, i see some positive signs from this game. 4 of our 5 starters had double digits fg attempts - sf 17, cat 16, yao 15, and jj 11. if the fg% was around 50 rather than 32+, and it's not asking too much, it'll be a nice game.

 

we won.

 

I don't know which games y'all watched, I thought that was a pretty good game. Except for the turnovers which we committed late in the game and a few bad plays, we played an excellent game defensively and a pretty good game on the offensive end.

We passed the ball very well. We got many good looks. We just missed them. I am more happy that we take the right shots and they don't fall then us taking the bad shots ... In the end, the good shots always go in more than the bad ones. We''ll make them soon enough.

 

another perspective.

for me it was "vomit" BB---both teams having difficulties throwing peas into the ocean. ~~35% FG shooting is pitiful !

 

Although I would like to see Yao dunks, but the way he is going to the basket, it looks like a fast break!

 

Man, I really don't know whichgame you watched!

Both teams sucked big time. I guess fatigue was key.

But to call that game a good game deserves some guts. You are first one to call it a good game.

 

This was better than the ones we gave away to lowly teams last year. I used to pull my hair out watching the Rockets played last year.

Not at any time during this game did I feel like we were to lose the game so I enjoyed it.