ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 12/6/2006

Enjoyed talking with you. Thanks for your kind words, time to sign off. We will solve the rest of the Rocket's problems tomorrow.

 

It is all about his stamina. Yao has no energy to post and re-post all night long fighting with 2-3 men around him. The real problem, as I said in the last post, is we have no quick guys who can penetrate or another big man with above-average offense on the team. So we have no way to take the opponent's defense focus in the paint off Yao, even for a short while. Other teams know for sure that it would either be Yao or a jack up 3. So it is very easy to know how to defend the Rockets' offense, while their only problem is they still can't stop Yao even know the whole JVG's offensive plan.

Yao's low post game and old Tmac's jumpshoots are two weapons that totally rely on their own talents while not JVG's game plans. Thus the opponent team has no way to stop that because one can never stop or defend on a single player's pure super talent with almost no offensive game plans involved. I think that is pretty much JVG's strategy to win, lock down the paint on defense and use our two supperstars' personal plays to win low score games.

 

Sure, me too and thanks. Now let the serious Rockets discussion resume its course!

 

I wonder if that's because his offense is too predictable with not enough players moving around to get free. If the opposing team anticipates the pass to Yao, all they have to do is wait before going for the steal.

 

Everyone hope Yao will dunk the ball instead of layups. Problem is, Yao is totally un-explosive/not athletic enough to dunk every time he has chance. Plus the fact his stamina issue, just dont think he can dunk so much in a game!

Look at this number, 10-6-5-8-8, these are yao's rebounds the last five games. It is simply horrible for a center who played more than 35mpg to average 7.4rpg in last 5 games. Those numbers should belong to Eddy Curry not Yao. Hope Yao can pick up his rebounding again instead of trying to be a nice guy and let his teammates to rebound! Maybe, Yao is the one who Deke should elbow!

 

Yao needs to steal the rebounds back from Juwan. I noticed the drop in rebounds coincided with Juwan's intense effort to take uncontested rebounds headed towards Yao already.

 

Whoa, the Wolves are a decent defensive unit. I haven't seen a team committed to that end of the floor and stick to a gameplan like that since, well, us.

With that said, it appears that the problem with the Rockets is a lack of offensive flexibility, and that comes by coaching. We have scorers. TMac and Yao are (generally) good for 20+ points a night, Rafer will get 12, Battier will get 12, and Head will give you 10-12. So there's decent offense. And of course, our defense is spectacular so it's rare that opponents will get 90+ on us.

Anyway, the problem is not WHERE we can get our scoring, it's HOW. We make it too hard on ourselves. TMac gets 10-12 of his points off 10-12 attempts on difficult jump shots, which means wasted possession. Yao is, more or less, efficient with his shot selection. Battier is getting his shots on 3s or midrange shots, but he has a very underrated post game. We could easily take advantage of that, but somehow refuse to do so.

Head is an adequate slasher with quickness who can penetrate and finish well. Yet he's been reduced to a 3-point gunner (and he's done well, but that's not the point). The point is we can get many easier baskets simply by revising our offensive playbook a little.

No longer do we see TMac abusing smaller defenders on the block to where he can spin or take a fallaway jumper, or up-and-under. Instead, his offense is initiated from the perimeter. That's a no-go.

JVG could afford to put it in more curls for Head off down screens so he can use his quickness and attack the basket more. That'll mean more points off layups instead of long-range bombs.

I still want to see Battier used on the block more. He's smart with his inside scoring, and has an able jump hook with either hand.

So what we're talking about is scrapping 4-6 extra 3-point attempts (from 24 per game, to 18 or so) and putting our players more on the block for inside opportunities. Even if they miss, that means more offensive rebounding ability, or free-throw attempts. Which means? EASIER POINTS, and less wasted energy.

 

I think there's something to that. Not sure if a Yao-centered offense can really be turnover-efficient. On the other hand, we are in the top 10 in shooting efficiency from the field, so that's the plus side of working through Yao.

 

Maybe in college, but not in the NBA. His repeated attempts at doing so last year ended up in out of bounds or turnovers. His last attempt at finishing above the rim a game or two saw him flat on his back.

 

The T-Wolves played great defense but they were helped by Yao being gassed, T-Mac being tentative and Juwan being boneheaded. What more impressed me about the T-Wolves was there passing they made some phenomenal passes and played unselfishly.

 

Can't beat Minny on the road? Meaning Rox is not a good team, yet.

 

Man, I was embarrassed for Yao tonight. He was slow, and kept turning the ball over. Got dunked on, let a guard get an and-1 on him, got stripped, a weak taunting technical, weak layups and finger rolls, etc. On that play when KG blocked him, he tried going back up strong and blocked himself with the rim

TMac wouldn't attack the lane, got blocked by Jaric, and kept turning the ball over. Not to mention those horrible bricks.

On the bright side, Luther Head looked pretty good, penetrating the lane and burying his 3's.

Just a bad game today. Hopefully there won't be too many of these in the future.

 

Don't be so pissed though. A lot of factors have to be taken into consideration for yao's performance tonight.

1. b2b game. fatigue. JVG played Yao freaking 41 mintues tonight. I don't know if he wanted to test Yao's limits, hope Yao could save the game, or use Yao as an escape goat for the loss. It's quite obvious Yao was really tired in the 2nd half, especially the 4th qtr. When Yao is dog tired, all sorts of bad things happen.

2. T-mac. You heard what the assist coach of T-wolves said. He put one guy on T-mac, and that guy was doing an "amazing job". So they could "put all the focus on Yao". On the other hand, T-mac was adjusting his game tonight. He tried to step up offensively (which I think should a good thing, given his wonderful game last night). I think he did less of "spreading the love" tonight. So T-mac didn't contribute enough, which left a lot of burden on Yao.

I am quite disappointed on the loss. I think shoud JVG sit Yao for a few minutes, they should have won the game.

 

Why hasn't anyone commented on the early shot clock defense? The Rockets gave up way to many fast break points, 2ndary fast break points, and early shot clock shots. Their half court D was great once they were set, with only a few mistakes, but early in the clock they had problems finding the open shooter or stopping early penetration. Wolves must have had 30 points off of this stuff tonight.

Once way to cut down these scores would be cutting down on turnovers, but otherwise they need to D up earlier than they are, and our big men need to get back faster.

And while the overall halfcourt D was great tonight, there were still way too many penetrations in crunch time. Battier, Mac, JHo, and Yao were all too slow-footed. And Hayes missed boxing out KG on 2 big occasions that directly lead to buckets.

And of course TMac and Yao were terribly off, but a lot of our bounces didn't go the Rockets way. The Rockets were clearly the superior team in the 1st half but played down to the T-Wolves with their mistakes. The 3rd quarter and early 4th was competitve on both sides. Crunch time was just total domination. The Wolves outhustled and outplayed the Rockets, and that's just sad.

 

And there's a reason for that.

I do believe the Rockets are the better team of the two but the problem is this was the second game of a back to back (where WE had to do the traveling), and Minnesota was playing great defense.

In the second half, when the fatigue really started wearing down on our players, we let the game slip.

The second half/4th quarter is really a test of "do you have your legs" because if your legs feel weak, or arms or whatever, you will be really tired when it comes time to close the game out.

The Rockets were tired and Minnesota was energized, and the Rox still kept it close. I for one am not too mad at this loss.

Notice how are two best players last night were pretty bad tonight? That's becuase they were tired, nothing else.

If we meet up Minnesota again with a full day of rest, i'm willing to put $20 on a W.

 

Comparing to Shaq&KB, what the team needs is a good coach. Why the talent team have to work under the averaging coach?

 

Only 8 pages comments? Most fans lose interest in Rockets after a weird loss?

 

actually, no. comments tend to go up when we lost. Just Clutch divided the game thread into two parts (one before/during the game and one after) now.

 

Great point about the early shot clock D. I, too, believe that it's due to the TOs.

The Rockets tried to run over the Wolves like they did last night to the Warriors, only the Wolves actually showed up to play D (partly because tonight it's the Rockets rather than the opposing team that played back 2 back). The Wolves just did not allow the Rockets to get those same easy looks.

The Rockets didn't mentally crack and quit playing hard, as far as I can see... still crashed offensive board very well, for example... but they showed signs of cracking by not playing smart (turnovers, bad shots... mental errors).

 

disappointing loss. both of our superstars were off at the same night. hopefully that doesn't happen very often.

however, someone from the rockets coaching/training staff should really teach yao how to be strong underneath the basket. like many other player do, gather youself and slam it down. don't settle for layups. when you go up strong the defenders are less likely to block your shot and more likely to foul you.