ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Wizards 1/13/2004

I'm not going to make too much of one game, but Van Gundy saw a point guard tonight who plays his style of basketball.

 

Just heard David Aldridge say on ESPN2 that the Rockets are bringing in old man of the mountain point guard Mark Jackson (http://www.nba.com/playerfile/mark_jackson/?nav=page) for a workout in Houston tomorrow.

Last year with Utah, he was #3 in the league at assists per 48 minutes played at 12.3 (though he only played 18 minutes per game). On the other hand, he was #1 in turnovers per 48 mins played with 4.97.

 

BOKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was sweet seeing him on the court today, and if his teamates would have more faith and not hesitate before passing it to him, he would look better than he did today. He had several in and out shots but he plays better d than all rockets (Except JJ and mobley) , he hustles alot too and i hope a few things:
1~ this is not a one game thing if Pike missed a shootaround or something
2~ he is not being showcased for being a welsch type inclusion in a big trade
3~ JVG will not give up on him for missing a few shots in his first game in a long time

 

According to NBA TV, Peter Vecsey said that Mark Jackson will try out with the Rox and could play Sat..Fianlly a real PG!!!

 

from Clutch's recap:

This was great to see tonight, Piatkowski has played like dirt this year.

Also it was great to see Yao/JJ/Cato/Steve clicking in the 2nd half.

I'd like to see this trend continue for more than 2 quarters...



Also I'd like to sign/start a petition to drop Coop from the TV spot. She sucks hard. I thought it would just take her a while to adjust, no she just stinks. Never has her sh*t together and she uses the same words over and over and over. Tonight's words "consistent" and "inspired". Shutup!

Bring back Lisa.

 

Damn... I just looked at the box score. Anyone else notice that Cato doubled his career high in assists tonight? He had six! Not to mention 12 points and 8 boards. A regular Brad Miller performance.

 

Why do people spread this myth. Go check out his player stats page on ESPN and you'll see that more often than not, his stats are fine for the 2nd game of a back to back.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?playerId=1722

Date/Points/Boards/fg shooting/mins

11/3 12/7 (5-9) 29
11/4 10/11 (4-10) 37

11/13 12/8 (5-12) 30
11/14 21/14 (8-17) 37

11/16 20/12 (6-12) 50
11/17 12/14 (5-15) 38

11/28 14/8 (6-11) 23
11/29 19/9 (7-14) 44

12/5 15/10 (5-7) 33
12/6 22/20 (9-18) 40

12/16 10/2 (4-7) 28
12/17 12/6 (6-8) 30

12/19 21/10 (9-13) 37
12/20 14/4 (4-7) 20

12/25 18/8 (8-14) 30
12/26 12/10 (6-12) 32

1/7 4/5 (2-5) 22
1/8 15/9 (5-10) 27

But with the numbers staring right back at you, I guess people will still say Yao doesn't play well in back to back games.

 

Hmmm... and maybe if he'd hit a shot now and then, he would make HIMSELF look better. Dude has been sucking big-time, and you're blaming his teammates?

 

Interesting. I'll admit this surprised me. Regardless, though, I'm betting that JVG has a better feel than we do for when Yao needs rest.

 

quote of the night:

The downside for the Rockets was their 21 turnovers. Francis had seven, giving Van Gundy a ready answer when asked about Francis being only two rebounds from a triple-double.

"And three turnovers shy of a quadruple-double. That would've been very special," Van Gundy said

 

Hell yes you are making too much of one game, especially when you say something like "but Van Gundy saw a point guard tonight who plays his style of basketball." What do you base that on?You probably didn't even remember Blake played for Washington until you saw him in the game, and now because he got 6 assists, you've got a stiffy for him and think we should go balls out and bring him here. I don't check the GARM as often as I used to, but I've got a feeling you probably get like this everytime somebody has a good game against the Rockets. I'll tell you something about tonight's game, it's the 2nd highest assist total this season for Blake, the highest being 7 and he's only done that once.

 

Kwame Brown blamed the refs for the loss.

 

Ha! Tic-tac-toe calls! That's hysterical.

I guess Kwame missed all the ticky-tack fouls.

 

I would think playing a game of tic-tac-toe on your openent would be considered a foul, hell, you should get fined for bringing a sharpie out onto the court.

 

got back from the game tonight, have a few pictures but they didnt turn out that great.

Had great seats, just fifteen rows from the court, had a great view of everything and got them cheap through a connection. the wizards have horrible fans, they dont make any noise at all, my five other friends and I made more noise for the rockets than any of the other people around me. We were making fun of the wizards all the time and I was screaming at nachbar the entire time, telling him to shoot the damn rock.

here are my observations
1st quarter
sweet jebus, this was painful to watch for both sides, both teams seemed lethargic, no one could hold onto the ball. Steve was making dumb mistakes and turning it over, yao was playing soft, JJ missed three tres in a row, no one could hit a shot in the first two and a half minutes against a wizards team full of scrubs. My friend was telling us that kwame brown will never be good, partially because he has tiny hands and will never be able to grab the ball or dunk with authority, turns out he is right, the guy's arms go out in a tiny point and he had problems grabbing onto the ball, we proceeded to yell out at him calling him "Small hands!!!" whenever he messed up, which turned out to be alot.

Yao was playing soft and i was afraid he was going to have a quiet game again, he was getting pushed around by etan thomas and even kwame. often times he would look lost and just wander around and away from his teammates. He bumbled way too many rebounds and often didnt try to get a few, if he got the ones he bumbled, he would have easily had 17 boards.

sadly, during the player announcements, francis and yao got the most applause, and larry hughes got the third most, again, washington fans just suck. I honestly think i saw more yao and francis jerseys than wizards jerseys, i think more people were there to see francis than anyone else on the wiz.

2nd quarter
this was where i thought the wheels were going to fall off, we loosened our D, couldnt shoot that well, and the wiz were actually hitting hard shots. Boki was in and i was yelling "Bostjan Nachbar" really loud, people probably thought i was speaking chinese or something. sadly though, whenever the boy gets the ball, he acts like its rubiks cube, and has no idea what to do with it. he missed jumpers and close shots because he took too long to think to score and was too soft when trying to get it in the hoop. otherwise, he is athletic, just too nervous to really play 100%

halftime, there was a dragon dance, they screwed up at one point and their tail got tied up. Whitest group of dragon dancers Ive ever seen.

3rd
things started to pickup, yao got knocked down and everyone was really concerned, it turned out to be a blessing in that the refs started to give him calls, quickly, his ten points turned into 20 from just free throws. ill still admit though, that he is was still soft at this time, he calls for the ball, but just kind of meekly waves his hand and shouts oh so timidly, I was yelling at him to call for the ball like a man or like he really wanted it. Francis had some boneheaded turnovers, it got to the point when he had this look on his face like he wanted to impress the crowd and I called out that he was going to turn it over and he did. Otherwise, he made some smart jumpers and some nice crowd pleasing dunks. Although I miss him driving through the lane, he is much more consistent not making those extra dribbles and sinking the mid range shot.

Kelvin Cato played great, he was actually hitting jumpers and had some nice assists, although a few in garbage time. He had a nice putback, tomahawk dunk. Jimmy J played well, even though he sunk all those threes, i still wouldnt trust him to be my 3pt shooter.

4th quarter
garbage time, highlight dunks, more sloppy play. thank goodness the wizards only have larry hughes and kwame brown. My big fear is that we get too much confidence from this game and lose to boston. we seriously didnt play that well, we just had two good quarters and a lot of that is because the wizards couldnt hold onto the ball or grab a rebound. on top of that kwame couldnt shoot without getting blocked or stripped.


overall it was fun because i was close, but it was a sloppy gamewith not too much effort. We really need to work on rebounding, moving without the ball, and most importantly PASSING. our passing is horrible, no one can catch a ball, either because its passed badly, or there is bad awareness. a couple of times when francis passes the ball, he tries too hard to make sure the other guy can catch the ball, making it very obvious to the opponent when to intercept. Lastly, I hope this is the game that rebounds yao back into being a 20/10 player, he really needs to stop playing like a girl and take over the game when he wants to, he proved he is capable of doing it, even when he gives half the effort. He still looks tired out there, but i still think there is room for him to increase his desire and ferocity in the future. But like all things, it will take time.

 

Did you watch the game? Steve Blake was doing all the stuff needed to get his teammates the ball when they wanted. His teammates sucked so bad, that they couldn't even shoot a jumper. A point guard like Steve Blake is right for the spread offense the Rockets have. With Cuttino, Maurice, JJ, and Yao on the court, the offensive talent is spread out with noone being absolutely dominant like Shaq. The purpose of a true point guard is to be able to identify when and where the ball should be distributed to make the best use of the possession. Also, the passes should actually look good. Steve Blakes makes $400,000. The cap savings could be used to improve other areas on the team.

 

I hope people don't think flashy dunks is what makes a good point guard. Sound passes to the right people at the right time is what makes a point guard important to a team. John Stockton wasn't exactly a highlight a minute, but he was pretty darn important.

 

So, is it time to put elbow protectors on Yao?

 

God, I love Jimmy Jack... (And I love that nickname, too). I told you he would be awesome, Nova.

And it's win-win, too, cuz I always despised that fat oaf Glenda Rice.

 

Which is why I wish we could trade him to the Wizards. Not that I'd necessarily keep the players we get from that team, but I'd give them hometown Francis and, say, Boki for Hughes, Kwame B. and Jarvis Hayes, perhaps as trade bait to a 3rd team.

Steve would put fans in the seats there. Yes, they can have him. It would be the one team that we could send him to that would ease the sting of shipping him off.

Steve only seems to really put forth an effort when the games "mean" something (Marbury's homecoming; Lakers on Christmas).