Love this game. Props to coach who: 1) Gave Stevie meaningful minutes. 2) Gave Scola some touches and plays. 3) Used our size and rebounding advantage to maximum effect against the Suns. 4) Coached the team to scoring more points than the Suns FTW Props to our players: 1) Yao - game ball.... wait, he is a p***y right? 2) T-Mac - Played fine. Contributed. 3) Rafer - credit where credit is due. Played fine. 4) Shane - guarded Barbosa very well. 5) Chuck - strong D. 6) Scola - bandwagon getting bigger and bigger. 7) Steve - nothing else to say. Heart and soul of the team in this match
This is an unbelievable game. It's a dream to see Rockets beat the Suns nevermind at their home court. Simple beyond any expectation. As for the Warriors, they will double/triple and front Yao. Adelman need to come up with a solution --- cutter that can score or shooter who can shoot and score.
I think our rotation tonight was the best that RA has put together all season. A three guard rotation between Steve, Rafer and Mike seems to be working good and leaving Luther on the bench. Hopefully good things are going to start to happen. Bull said it best tonight that Steve and Rafer were pushing each other and it seems to be working. I don't think I've ever seen Rafer shoot this good twice in a row, maybe something good is going to come out this and maybe we can stop screaming hate at Rafer and Steve. Maybe.
Man I missed the game cause I was at work and my Family didnt DVR the game except for the final 6 minutes and man was that worth it For the past 3 years--since Francis was traded-- I've been stressing (to friends,basketball enthusists,forums and what have you) that the Rockets NEEDED a Francis type player (if not FRANCIS himself) with this Tmac/Yao combo to excel. And this game alone proved the point I've been trying to make all this time. Francis is key to our getting past the first round. He'll make bastards pay for doubling Yao and Tmac. Being an uber Francis fan, I initially loathed the Tmac/Francis trade. I'm So glad to have Francis back and it's games like this that made me miss him so much.
TALK ABOUT A GOOD DEAL: Yeah, so we essentially got Tmac and Mike James (Orlando's Juwon Howard eventually traded for M.James) for Kelvin Cato, and Cuttino Mobley now that Steve is back
The Suns shot well from 3. Not as good as us but 41.2% is very good. Wells and James were non-factors. Francis was great and Scola was good. Altogether, your pre-game prayers did not come true. We won the game through good defense and clutch play down the stretch.
Rockets: - Great team defense! - Francis was the man and played very smart - Yao, the aggressive one, was back tonight - The coach staff did an excellent job of getting ball to Yao - T-Mac played well as a facilitator, but don't take jump shot again in the last few minutes of a close game - Alston continued his good performance and hope he can continue Suns: - Frankly speaking, Suns were not playing at their normal level and didn't have much passion. Rockets' defense partially contributed to that I think - Nash is Suns' engine. Without him, Suns just don't run.
Perfect Rockets game! I always believe Rockets,hardware is enought with 2 superstar and the other many talents,software needs SF3's big passion and hardness,then horrible.
Duly noted my good son: TALK ABOUT A GOOD DEAL: Yeah, so we essentially got Tmac, Mike James AND Rafer Alston (Traded M.James for toronto's Rafer 10-2005,Orlando's Juwon Howard eventually traded for M.James 6-2007) for Kelvin Cato,Cuttino Mobley,Reece Gaines and 2 second round picks(Bucks-Rockets trade 2-24-2005...MJ for R.Gaines and 2 picks) now that Steve is back **did we get anything for Tyrone Lue?? sp
No sir, you are wrong. You don't measure 3 pointers by percentage, you measure them by your team hitting them when needed down the stretch and frankly the Suns didn't do that....yes or D helped with that thanks..but it was Team D, last I checked. When I said we need great contributions from all players not named Tmac and Yao, what I am saying is others MUST contribute and players other than TMAC and YAO Did....so go on with your bad azz self.
I was MOST impressed by the defense. I liked how they switched over on picks. The Suns definitely did not expect that and confused them. Hayes would often end up guarding Nash and they would force it to the big man posting up on the PG. It made their offense stagnant. Like I said before, let Nash score at the perimeter. Don't let him dish.
Even though it looked goofy, I loved that Francis danced after blocking Marion. The Rockets got some swagger. SF3 is the man
