ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Sonics 4/11/2005

They gave the Rockets the ball... Yao got fouled and took FTs.

 

They did give the Rockets the possession. Instead of T-Mac's two free throws, we got the ball out of bounds

 

Oh. I can't watch the game and left the chat room early. Never mind.

 

Our front court had 72 POINTS and 27 REBOUNDS

 

Didn't like seeing T-Mac's free throws being taken away but he had a great game. Yao did pretty well. I'm glad we took advantage of the struggling Sonics but outside shooting and scoring from the 4 spot is badly needed. We will miss Juwan in the playoffs.

 

Too many Sonics in the paint; they were relentless at driving the lane. TMac is just money. The guy is Jordanesque. Good grief, he can do it all. And I liked the way Ming finished the game, a gritty performance. The Sonics are seriously depleted, but the Rockets looked hardcore towards the end. I saw something, a serious determination to box it up. I like toughness even in small doses.

 

The Sonics' bigs are just a bunch of no-talent thugs. Loved seeing Yao almost get into a little somethin with Evans. Good to see Yao take the hits, get stitched up, and close out the game with authority.

This was one of Yao's best defensive rebounding games of the season. Every rebound was contested, and he pulled them down like a champ.

 

Did they take away the 2 points as well?

 

If you aer referring to T-Mac's last two free throws, yes

 

I know everyone knows this but ESPN is soo anti Rockets. The Rockets beat two very good teams (granted seattle is depleted) and Mark Jackson is sitting there on Fastbreak saying how Houston should be very concerned b/c of Juwan Howard being out. Yes the loss of Juwan Howard is a tremendous blow but the Rockets have beaten several good teams, have a tremendous road record and should be talked about as one of the elite teams like San Antonio, Pho., Dallas, and even the Nuggets (who ESPN has now joined the bandwagon for). Next he talks about how Houston is a jump shooting team. Well first off, the term that should be given to houston in terms of their identity is that Houston is a GREAT defensive team. Second, yes, Houston relies on jump shots but these jump shots come from a guy named Tracy Mcgrady. To label Houston as a jump shooting team with a semi derogatory connotation is idiotic. Thats to say the Championship Rockets were a jump shooting team b/c they shot a lot of threes when that guy in the middle was double teamed and that the Bulls when they won were a jump shooting team for the same reason. Houston is a team that plays to their advantage which is T mac and Yao Ming. Thats smart, good basketball. I dont know... the way ESPN does not praise a very good Rockets team that has overcome adversity time and time again is sooo annoying.

 

It just makes victory all the more sweeter when everyone is against you.

 

Marc Jackson said that the Rockets are a jumpshooting team or the other guy?
Whoever said it, I am sure they made a mistake. The Rockets are one of 5 NBA teams who have a rally good post presence (Yao). Now the Sonics are a jumpshooting team

 

I for one am getting a little frustrated with Yao's inconsistency. Why can't he do it every game?

We need you to rebound like this in every one of the playoff games, Yao.

 

i'm not going to defend steve's superbowl thing but is it worse then mcgrady publically admitting he didn't give his all for parts of last season?

obviously t-mac has done a 180 and i don't question his drive as a member of the rockets, but clearly it's been an issue in the past. steve has some incredibly STUPID moments but he's as much of a gamer as anyone in the league. he leaves it all on the court every night.

 

if the rockets aren't a jumpshooting team then what the hell are they? you can have a great post player and still be a jumpshooting team, specifically when almost every other player on the team specializes in that department.

 

Bull****. Then every team is a jumpshooting team. You can't have five people posting up on the corners of the paint. How else aer you supposed to counter double teams in the paint other than take the open jumpshots you get? Sura drives, or drove when he was healthy; Mcgrady drives, Yao mans the post and Juan does that to a certain degree also. The jumpshots we get are because of double teams that occur from the drives by tmac or the postups by yao. That's ridiculous to say we are a jumpshooting team. It's actually ****ing bull****.

 

and i'm not even counting how many dish to deke dunks there has been. I mean i see at least 2 every game. Whether or not we actually score on that possession is a different story, but deke has generally been good at finishing open DUNKS.

 

Which championship team of the recent past did not rely on the jumpshot or the 3-pointer to win it all?

Would the Pistons have beaten the lakers if Billups, Rip, Prince, and even Wallace were bricking their numerous 3 pointers?

The Spurs basically won when they made em (1999, 2003) and lost when they didn't.

Would the Lakers in 2001 have gotten to the finals if Fisher hadn't hit 15/20 from downtown to beat the Spurs?

I don't have to mention the rockets of the mid 90's, of course.


You have to hit 3's to win titles in today's NBA. If Mark Jackson, who never had a jump shot and accordingly never won a title, thinks we rely too much on the outside shot, then i'd like to know what team above us in the standings doesn't.

The Suns, Sonics, Mavs, and Kings all rely on jumpshooting as much as if not more than us. I think only San Antonio has the perfect blend of penetrators and post up options, along with solid shooting. The Nuggets also don't rely on 3's, but lets see what happens when their 15 fastbreak alleyoops are taken away. They'll probably wish they had more jumpshooters.

 

He was way on the fastbreak saying that. Houton is not a jump shooting team. We have inside and outside game and we can take it to both ways, which make us difficult to match up against. We may take some jumpers, but most of our jumpers are quality jumpers that were wide open. Now our preimeter players werent hitting them, but that's another story. Our shot selection is pretty good. Saying that JVG is live or die with the jump shooting, that's just laughable.

 

You're right about the Nugs. They're absolutely scorching right now, but outside of Melo, who can be kind of up and down sometimes, they don't have many decent perimeter shooters. We'll see how they do when they run up against a team that is very strong on transition defense, like um... the Rockets.

I think we can take 'em.