ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Warriors 3/19/2004

From NBA.com

I will let Francis do the talking 4 me...


"He was fouling me the whole night, he wasn't guarding me," Francis said. "It was tough, 'cause I didn't know how the referees were going to call it. They were letting them foul me. (They) cross-blocked me all game, so if you're going to let that happen, you're going to get the result of what happened to me tonight."



OAKLAND, Calif., March 19 (Ticker) -- The Golden State Warriors appear to be following rookie Mickael Pietrus' example on defense.

NBA TV highlights from
Rockets-Warriors: 56k | 300k
Pietrus scored a season-high 20 points as the Warriors shut down Yao Ming and ended a 15-game home losing streak to the Houston Rockets with a 90-84 victory.

"I feel better," said Pietrus, who was 7-of-8 from the field. "My teammates told me just to have fun, and tonight I had fun. The most important thing is not to score 20-25 or 30. Most important for us is to get victories and play hard game by game."

In an interview with a French sports newspaper earlier this week, Pietrus ripped his teammates for their selfishness and lack of defensive intensity. He later apologized, and the Warriors ended a nine-game losing streak by holding San Antonio to 80 points.

Led by Pietrus' solid defense on NBA scoring leader Tracy McGrady, Golden State rolled to a 25-point win over Orlando on Wednesday.

The Warriors have won three straight games, limiting their opponents to less than 90 points.

"I think the team did a great job tonight and we have three straight (wins) and we've got to keep going," Pietrus said.

While Pietrus shined on offense, Erick Dampier and Adonal Foyle teamed up to hold Yao to 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

"It felt really strange today," Yao said through an interpreter. "From the beginning, I couldn't put the ball into the basket and it just wasn't because of their defense, I think it was partially my own problem."

"I know if you take away his drives to the right, he's going to try to spin back to the left and shoot a jumper," Dampier said. "I just tried to make him go to the jump shot every time."

Pietrus primarily guarded All-Star guard Steve Francis and held him to nine points before Francis scored 10 in the final 39 seconds.

"Steve Francis is a very difficult player to defend," Pietrus added. "I just wanted to do my best tonight."

Francis was not impressed with the rookie.

"He was fouling me the whole night, he wasn't guarding me," Francis said. "It was tough, 'cause I didn't know how the referees were going to call it. They were letting them foul me. (They) cross-blocked me all game, so if you're going to let that happen, you're going to get the result of what happened to me tonight."

Four Warriors scored in double figures. Troy Murphy scored 16 points off the bench, Dampier had 12 with eight rebounds and veteran Avery Johnson added 11.

The Warriors used a 15-2 run to grab a 78-63 with 2:32 remaining and were on pace for the most impressive defensive showing in team history before Francis led a 19-7 spurt to close the deficit to 86-82 with 11 seconds to play.

Yao had nine rebounds but was embarrassed by Johnson on a driving layup with 3:50 remaining. Houston called timeout, and Yao sat out the rest of the game.

"He just missed shots, that's what it was," Francis said. "He got normal shots that he's been getting. When we got him the ball deep, he missed a lot of shots that he normally hit and when they're going in, it's great. When they're not, it's tough."

Golden State clinched its first home win vs. Houston since March 7, 1996 by making four free throws.

"They're one of the better teams in the West," Warriors guard Mike Dunleavy, Jr. said. "They're really fighting for the playoffs and so we know that they came out and really gave it a game, and tried to win this thing and we beat them so it's good for our confidence."

 

I saw only the first half, thankfully. The Rockets looked apathetic, disinterested, and disorganized. They appeared like it was the first game of the season. Someone must have forgot to tell them that this is the "playoff run" and the Warriers are the worst team in the league. Francis looked like a rookie, and the rookie looked like a Hall of Famer, but what else is new. Ming looked lost. The first half was so ugly, I could'nt continue to watch. This team just has no character, no heart, no smarts. Sad, sad, sad. A force in the playoffs? What a joke! They looked like a lottery team last night. Without intensity, determination, and consistency what do you have? This has to be the most disappointing loss of the season.

 

Would be nice if Rockets could get a pg like Eric Snow. It sucks that Francis' ego is so disruptive. Someone like Snow would be happy to pass the ball and just concentrate on defense. He seems to not care giving it to Iverson and letting him do whatever he wishes. As everyone has said, its tough with Yao and Francis's different styles since Yao does clog up the lane for penetration. Anyways, I hope the rockets can do something this year. We move on to Sac town.

-Paul

 

Excuses, excuses, excuses....

The fact remains the Rockets have lost to two teams with some of the worst records in the league. It's pathetic when we are supposed to be fine-tuning and tweaking our game for a playoff run. Honestly, I don't know where this team's at. One minute their the best team around. The next...they can't beat teams with the worst records. It freaking makes me sick. I'm not sure what team I'm supporting here other than one that is a great example of inconsistency. My hope for this team is inconsistent as well because that is what they have given us to dwell on with their play.

 

I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.

 

The Rockets have sunk to a new low. Losing to the Suns then the Warriors? Yao stunk, Steve stunk, JJ stunk. Cat didn't stink shooting wise but his decision making is less comprehensible than that of an 8 year old. Refs STUNK as usual. You know what, I'm not even mad that JVG took the entire TO yelling at the refs. You can only be pushed so far.

 

Exactly
It's nice to beat teams like Minnesota or Dallas, but then you must be able to win those games against Phoenix or Golden State. If you lose such games, you lose all the benefit you got when you beat good teams. Francis is looking for excuses because he is frustrated, but you've got to admit that he simply sucked. And the thing that frightens me the most is that it's not the first time this season. Francis is not the type of point guard I like, he turns the ball over too many times, he is too selfish and his field goal percentage is simply ugly (0.397%, 3pts : 0.288% !!). He should concentrate on making more dishes, and stop taking ugly shots. The first thing a good point guard must do is pass the ball and involve his teammates, not taking desperate turnaround jumpers (Mark Jackson is on the team, Steve should learn that from him). The go-to-guy on this team has to be Yao, even if he sucked last night. He's been much better this season than Stevie, just look at his field goal percentage.

 

This is another punishment on JVG's ignorance of offense. As I said before , when JVG loved old and retired Knicks' players more than young and talented players, ROX would be gone.

How bad was ROX's offense in last two games. Unfortunately, JVG still blamed his players for not doing defense well. AG has poor offense. MJ has zero offense. Now, OKaley is another guy with zero offense. JVG is misleading ROX to hell now.

 

AOF (ASSHxLE).

 

so here's my story, i had a root canal done in the morning without anesthetic (and it was one of the worse experiences in my life), i was doped all day from codone but had to do some chores. I finally settle back to watch a rockets game to hopefully ease my pain, but during the game, i felt even worse. it was ugly, worse than phoenix, there goes the myth that we play better on TV. over confidence, sloppiness, both francis and yao hitting 10% and 30% going into the fourth quarter, francis being overly aggressive, trying trick shots for the camera, and yao taking easy shots for him, fadeaways and jumpers, hesitating when the ball was a bit too far off, no aggression. Horrible referees, absolute idiots. idiotic fast break capabilities.

all in all, i wish i had done something else, but the fan in me is sadomasochistic. and i hate root canals.

 

Hinrich 21 pts 13 assists.

 

Rox lost against two of the worst team in the league,now they are going to be destroyed by the king

 

We are in danger of missing the playoffs again. Yao was timid and looked helpless against Dampier. He never responded to the physical play.The turnovers,poor shooting and ball movement killed any chance to win. Their was no flow in the game at all.
We don't have any chance against the Kings and Portland is playing better and can beat us as well. Eric P. hasn't done well but he needs to get on the floor and shoot the ball. We have to move the ball around to get better shots and make opponents to come out and defend us.

 

I'm not making excuses but the refs were absolutely horrible tonight. JVG needs to pick up a tech or something, they were beating up on Yao and Steve all night long and we got no calls.

I think JVG needs to start defending Yao more, they kept pushing Yao in the back everytime (which is a foul), and YOU CAN'T PUT 2 HANDS ON THE BALL HANDLER, EVER. I can't believe the calls the Rockets didn't get lastnight. Yao only shot 3 FTs.

Like I said, I'm not making excuses for them, because they played like crap. Every player seemed not interested in the game, they let the Warriors push them around all night long and it seemed like they just gave up.

 

I get tired of watching any games because the refs let the other team mug our players the whole game. Dampier always had 2 arms/hands all over Yao. And Steve was getting knocked to the floor on every other posession. The games look more like rugby then basketball.

Anyways, that game was just painfull to watch. I wish I would of forgot it was on TV.

 

Pretty close.

 

Watched the first half of the GS game last night before going to bed. Watched the rest just now while working out.

I live in DC. I don't get to see many Rockets games. A dozen a season at best. I tape every one of them and keep them. I never tape over them.

I'm taping over this game.

 

Hey, long time, no post ...

Just a couple of notes to add to the discussion. First, regarding the trouble Dampier/Pietrus gave Yao/Francis, I think it would go against JVG's mindset to complain about opponents playing inside-their-jersey defense. Refs would probably raise an eyebrow about it, too.

In any event, HOU probably would have won anyway if Avery Johnson hadn't had perhaps his best game of the year (granted, Mark Jackson was probably an ideal matchup) and Pietrus hadn't turned into an offensive force for the first time ever.

I mean, those fake-the-3, step-in jumpers he was hitting? I've seen more or less every minute he's played, and that's the first time I ever saw him even try to do that as a conscious move rather than a desperation heave after a busted play. In fact, before this week, he probably would have been benched just for attempting it.

 

bear paws was not happy with this game.

 

I hate it when they follow a winning streak with a losing streak. I just hope this losing streak doesn't become the same length or even greater than the winning streak.