That is the point. SF has to be forced to give up the ball so we can make something good happen. JVG drew that play for Cat. It wasn't SF's choice to give up the ball. He wouldn't unless he is instructed to.
i thought the defining moment was when ming was benched in the 1st quarter. the rox started to play catch up from there on and never truly recovered.
While I agree with you, Charvo, I think that Steve's being forced to adapt this year would make him a top-notch SG (at least on the offensive end). Had we had a decent PG, the ball wouldn't have been in Steve's hands at the end of that game unless he was open for a shot. I still love the idea of a smart, protect-the-ball kind of PG with Steve playing the 2 and Mobley coming off the bench. It would reduce the minutes BOTH Steve and Cat are playing now. If that SG was also a competent outside shooter, we'd be set. Steve as a SG would probably regain his confidence and get back that killer instinct he displayed last year at the end of quarters and games. Now that he's learned a bit about passing to the open man, he'd keep the defenses honest. If things are tough inside, bring Cat off the bench to spread the defense a bit. The problems with that is finding that PG -- he's also got to be 6'5" or taller so he can defend the other team's SG on defense, as Francis would be utterly useless in that regard.
haven, don't be ridiculous. and just for kicks, what was your recommendation on the last shot? from watching the replay, the only decent thing we had was steve driving on horry. of course, duncan was in the lane, making any shot in there quite difficult. the only real good thing that could've happened was duncan go after steve, but duncan's man was yao, who was standing 18-20 feet away. so at best, we're looking at an open 2 for yao. if it goes, we now have 5 or 6 seconds left to foul the spurs and then go the length of the court all over again with no timeouts. i don't see any ideal alternative to what happened. and a drive and kick for 3 is not an option b/c there is no way popovich didn't tell his team to stick to their men at the 3 point line and not collapse on a two just to give us an open 3 for fun.
Hah cracks me up even Lakers fans realize that Steve is overrated. http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=55205&forum=1&start=0
Wish I could edit that. Steve did have a good game minus the shots. Take away all the shots he takes and he did very well. As a PG those shots could of gone to better scoring options who shoot over 40% from the floor.
My favorites, from the wishful thinking department: ~~ this one ~~~ rumor is houston fans hate yao. local media have been taking polls, asking how many people think yao deserves the money that he will be asking for in 2006. it has been reported that respondents in houston have responded negatively. really, guys. im not kidding. im serious. not kidding at all. ~~ and this one ~~~ Here's a trade that would solve problems for both teams: L.A. Lakers trades: SF Devean George (9.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.6 apg in 28.2 minutes) L.A. Lakers receives: C Yao Ming (16.1 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 1.5 apg in 32.2 minutes) Change in team outlook: +6.6 ppg, +4.3 rpg, and -0.1 apg. Houston trades: C Yao Ming (16.1 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 1.5 apg in 32.2 minutes) Houston receives: SF Devean George (9.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.6 apg in 48 games) Change in team outlook: -6.6 ppg, -4.3 rpg, and +0.1 apg. TRADE ACCEPTED Due to L.A. Lakers and Houston being over the cap, the 15% trade rule is invoked. L.A. Lakers and Houston had to be no more than 115% plus $100,000 of the salary given out for the trade to be accepted, which did happen here. This trade satisfies the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Damn it! man, you can't be more right. I would like Francis do whatever he wants except the final shot. No more, ever!
Link: http://yaoming.newclub.sohu.com/thr...ock=false&unarchive=false&tstart=-1&trange=-1 Comment by Yao on his own BBS after the Spurs game: Topic (create by Yao): How should a good defense look like? Rocket's defense is the best in the league. But I want to say that we don't do well in one main area:Toughness. Sometimes we embarrass our opponents with our defense, sometimes we embarrass ourselves instead. In fact we have some improvements today, for example, we fight back twice when we trail by 10+ points. But we can't win the game eventually, this is our another weakness.
wow! i thought we had to suffer through some bad trade ideas. friggin' hilarious. yeah, that'd just solve all our problems.
Here is an idea for an alternative to the last shot. Let one of the other 3 players on the floor that are better 3pt shooters than Steve have the contested three pointer, especially Padgett guarded by the much smaller Parker. farhan says no one was open, but it isn't like Steve was open either. We had the worst shooter on the floor take a contested, off balance, fadeaway 3. You don't need a timeout to realize that that was not the best play.
so basically it comes down to padgett for 3 over parker or steve for 3 over parker. not exactly a travesty of decision making, especially considering padgett had been on the floor for about 30 seconds, 15 of those spent standing while someone shot free throws. there was no great alternative. steve didn't dribble around just to run out the clock and do what he wants. he dribbled looking for something to happen. it didn't, a terrible shot ensued. if i had to pick b/t steve's shot and padgett over parker, i'd probably take padgett for his height. but if i had to pick b/t padgett over parker or continuing to look for something better with 6 or 7 seconds left, i'd probably keep looking. nothing opened up, terrible shot, great defense, game over.
I dont think the Rockets played that bad of a game tonite. I really do think this team is starting to get better. What i like about our team is that we have heart. Our players do a lot of bone headed plays (ie Steve Francis) but you cannot deny the heart and how they always never give up. What i think is soo great about the Rockets is that they can play two ways. They can run up and down the court scoring as quick as possible or they can play that slow down grind it out game where we pound the ball to yao ming. One thing I've noticed that helps us out a lot is when we run down court and force the issue. I think the Rockets need to stop trying to make the entire game half court basketball and play a sort of I'm gonna try to score as soon as possible basketball. We have soo many great one on one players. If we can get them to attack the defense before it sets we could score a lot more easier baskets. Another thing that i really dont understand is why we dont run more pick and roll with yao. Yao has a very good 15 foot jump shot and can shoot it over almost anyone. Doing so would allow francis to penetrate more and also allow Yao not to get tired sooo quickly. Oh and here's another thing. Jim Jackson can post up. So post him up. And another thing... i think jeff van gundy is a great coach (that moochie trade has really helped us out believe it or not) particularly defensively but he uses way too many time outs... why? WHY? we need them for the end And lastly... I think steve francis despite being an idiot is a great player. He really is all about bringing the team together, and tries very hard... he is definitely having an off year and is still adapting to van gundy's system... I think one day he really will understand how to play the game b/c of his heart...but until that day plz let jim jackson or cutino mobley set up the final shots of game... so much better then steve... We are gonna make the play offs
ok, after chilling out a bit, i think that we played a great game against one of the leagues toughest teams. What i liked about the game is that we fought it out at the end. In the fourth quarter we played brilliantly, minus the last fifteen seconds, but we fought, didnt give up, and didnt revert to "i can do this myself without the team mode", i saw passing, hustle, offensive boards hard D (except on ginobli, he cant be contained) and luckier shots by the spurs. consider that everyone expected us to lose badly, but no, we, a team that didnt make the playoffs last year, lost by a nose to last years champions, who are one of the mentally toughest teams in the fourth quarter. i think we did damn good. it may have been a loss, but that was one of the best losses ive seen and evidence that we do have that mental toughness. we've just had 3 games in a row where the scores were very close, and we won out on two and almost won against the hardest ones. we did not collapse. for that, I have hope for this team. I just hope that the team sees the loss as I do and not as a reason to revert back to their old ways.
Stevie is clueless as a bb players and I can't believe all these idiots defending him. The reason JVG called all those timeout is to make sure Stevie run the plays properly at the end of games. JVG is terrified that Stevie will be pulling the "I am the man shooting the 3" routine at the end of the quarter which typically kills 4 possession every game=4pts (1pt a possession typical nba average)=a close win or lose to good teams. Unfortunately he just ran out of timeouts to keep Franchise from making bone head moves in the 4q. Although Stevie made a few baskets, he also threw up 2 terrible bricks hence all the timeouts. JVG and Stevie has major conflict brewing for the offseason because JVG doesn't trust Stevie at all at the end of the game. ahhh only if Rockets had a competent backup instead of 38yrs old MJ. I for one am not a big fan of JVG coaching style, but criticizing him for Stevie's mistakes are just plain stupid. Stevie had tons of time on the clock and the subsequent pnr in which Spurs had Horry, a terrific 3pt defender with long lanky arms rushing at him to prevent the 3, which is what every team scouting Stevie's tendencies already no about him at the end of games. Instead of driving to the hoop, Stevie took a drop step to fade towards the 3pt line where Horry stopped, duhhh? Stevie could of easily scored with 6-8 seconds by driving towards the hoop. As for all the criticism of Rocket players not damn moving, that's because they all left the paint creating space for Stevie to either score a quick 2 or kickout for a open 3. Unfortuantely Stevie already made up his mind to shoot that damn 3 which all the spurs were expecting. Just imagin if you were the other Rocket Players, what can you do? If you cut in the lane contrary to all logic of spacing of ISO on top of the circle, you might ran into a driving Stevie and clog up the paint. If you rotate on Perimeter, you don't know which way Stevie is driving, you know he can't get you the ball at the right time for a 3 pt, and you know that pass won't come. I really don't mind Stevie taking shots at the end of the game if they are shot the defense allow you to take or if he can score at will against his defender. Unfortunately he has really predicatble tendencies at the end of games that defender, fans, coaches already know what he is going to do and know they can defend. I wish we had a stat for SF shots at last minute of every damn quarter, I bet with you he's shooting closer to 20%. The truth is only few elite players can truly claim to score at will regardless of defense played against them, MJ, WILT, KAREEM, HAKEEM. I know Stevie ain't any of them. Even MJ decided to defer to Kerr when he knew his low percentage shots at end of game were not as effective as Kerr's open 3's. The difference between MJ and SF is that MJ being a superior baller has the humility to defer to teammates while the Franchise being to high on his own ability rather than passing the Rock. Send Stevie to the Alcatraz.
