ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 1/7/2007

trade rafer for JL3

 

Mainly two reasons we fail in OT:
1.Let Novak shoot the two 3's.
It is ridiculous because a shooter needs rhythm and he has not shot the ball at all in regular time. Besides, clearly the kid do not have a big heart to close a game like that.
2.Let Alston replace Lucas
Alston has spent a very bad night at shooting and did not play much in the second half. Lucas is definitely a better choice.

 

lets face it, we're not gonna win them all so i don't understand the "world is over" posts after every loss.

even with this loss we're doing a whole lot better than i expected with the big guy out and we competed in the 4th to give us a shot at this one. certainly this month is tough but i wouldn't take too much out of this game other than rafer still sucks balls.

 

In games like this one Tracy McGrady must play more of a playmaker. Too many players were standing about and not contributing upto their regular standards.
Alston needs a strong wrap on the head , just to remind him of his position and JVG needs to stop buttering him up because Alston has visions of gradeur and needs to be taken down a peg or two. Alston you are the Playmaker Point Guard, do not take shots unless the ball has been passed to you in a shooting position.

 

Yeah the team didn't play the best it could, oh well it happens.

Last time I checked, every team lost? I might be wrong though.

Even through our struggles and the fact that Minnesota is a matchup nightmare for us, we took it to overtime and gave ourselves a shot at winning the game. Not too bad.

I want to see how the team respons tomorrow in Chicago, it's another tough game with some matchup problems but nothing nearly as bad as the KG/Blount vs. Mutumbo/Howard/Hayes.

I think we should go undercover and see how Mavs fans act after a loss. I'm not sure we'll have enough data because those b*stard Mavs don't lose enough YET they lose the Lakers tonight. I hope that doesn't give the Lakers the confidence/momentum they need to beat us...this W for them is going to make it tough on us.

 

Seriously I like this site and everything is has to offer, but as stated before...things get really out of hand when we lose.

Has it always been like this? People want to change up the whole team because of one loss. Everybody thought VSPAN and Novak were the answers but you don't them talking about that too much lately.

I understand I'm new here and I can't possibly understand the innerworkings of this site as a Noobie...but still, as an outsider looking in, it gets kind of silly.

Players weren't at their best, but it was a hard fought loss. It happens. The offense seemed to be scattered and made up on the spot for the most part. You also have to give credit to the TWolves, they played an outstanding game. Garnett is just an awesome player to watch.

-X

 

the board is bipolar for the most part.

dont worry too much about it...you will see who the reasonable posters are if you keep your eyes open.

Rox v Wolves highlights

other two vids will be out tomorrow morning/noon.

 

people aren't talking about just lossing games they're talking about how we lose them!! like JVG playing Novak in OT tonight who clearly doesn't have any regular season experience in this league so far!

 

we have no post player, garnet is protecting the paint, and 3pt shots haven't been falling for us.

what do you do? you put in novak, stretch the defense, open up the space so that maybe T-mac or Head can drive in and draw some fouls....

if you check the game stat, we lost this game because we didn't go to the ft line enough.

too bad it didn't work out, too bad Novak missed two wide open 3, but what if he makes those? would you still be complaining?

 

If we're not hitting perimeter shots, we lose.

of course there are other reasons that vary from time to time. But the common denominator and theme is no outside shots - no win.

 

That's exactly what it is. The team needs to hit the perimiter shots to win, that's how the game has been structured.

Even with Yao in, he'll kick it back to the perimiter, if he can't get the shot down low someone else must take it elsewhere i.e. the perimiter.

The only player on this team with the versatility to play mid range, long range, and post up is Tracy McGrady. He's the only player who can get his offense on his own and can create for others. Other than that the other players (except Yao, of course) aren't supposed to be much more than spot up shooters.

Head? Alston? Howard? Novak? Battier? Even Padgett. Most of their shots come from T-Mac/Yao creating. If they can't knock it down then the team simply will lose unless T-Mac/Yao are going INSANE offensively, which is not going to happen often enough to carry the team through the entire season, every game and until/through the playoffs.

Only Ultra-Lucas can get his own shot and own offense, but he's not good enough to carry the team or do much else, he's great off the bench though.

It's OK, it was one game, i'm interested to see how the team responds in Chicago tomorrow.

 

what annoyed me was the huge free throw disparity in a game decided by OT. it seemed that tmac was hit/hand checked everytime he drove to the basket but nothing was called. even on the play at the end when he posted up hassell when he went up it looked like he got hit on the arm, and he short armed it which led to the horrible rafer 3.

if some of the other guys could hit a shot today (i am looking at you rafer and luther) we probably could have won this one.

rafer play has been infuriating of late for a guy to be considered a pg his playing making and decision making is questionable AT BEST. what annoys me even more is after a loss he usually says something like "WE didnt hit our shots, WE made some bad plays" when it usually should be I.

I cant wait till snyder is back. i think that is the only thing stopping van gundy from playing lucas more. when lucas and luther are in the game its hard to play most teams with the lack of size and rebounding from the guard position. with snyder back jvg can go to a lineup of luther/lucas and snyder as the off guard instead of playing rafer. his benching of rafer in the 4th quarter and in the second (oddly when we made our runs/had the game close) is pretty telling that JVG is realizing that rafer is not a 30-35mpg pg. he is at best/efficient playing 2 quarters. (22-25mpg)

 

Being bipolar is what chat boards are all about, though it's been a particularly rough going this season. It does get very silly but just ignore the zealots and kooks. There is a lot of very good discussion and insight to be found here but it usually isn't in the game threads. Even in good threads, you must ignore the hotheads who rant and rave. After losses, I often avoid the GARM (though not this time) because of the ranting and the 5-10 dumbs threads started by people who just want to make sure everyone reads their post.

 

thanks for the late nite work r2k. got to start it before i slept...so i woke up to that

 

I felt that way too, but I didn't know if I was being a homer or not. KG got his calls - fine, superstar treatment on home court (ie JHo "fouling" KG at the end where KG just throws the ball sideways). But what has Blount (a couple times Blount was right under the basket and just flung his hands in to the net, and it was a foul on us) or Foye done to get that respect? SEEMED like the refs would blow the whistle early anticipating that the Rockets would foul them. But they had to think about every whistlle for Rockets only for obvious fouls or if the T-wolves knocked the ball out of bounds. They were slow and reluctant. Oh well, our perimeter defense was horrible. T-wolves had open and easy looks, whereas we had to work so hard for all of our points. Maybe next time

 

that last play where Tmac scored in regulation to tie it, he got enough contact to get the call...if that was at home, we would have gotten it....if KG was down there, he would have gotten it....I don't know why the ref didn't blow the whistle....that was BS.....that would have given us a one pt lead (if TMAC made it)....
still an unbelieveable drive by TMAC....there is nobody that can guard him if he drives to teh bucket evey time...

 

My last line of defense on Rafer as a player was finally exausted and so therefore, after 15 minutes of analizing his role as a point guard, i came up to the conclussion to trade his sorry ass to any team that will give us a value for whatever he is worth. Damn it!