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T-Mac ( B): Decent start to the game followed by an amazing 2nd quarter. Tracy took over the 2nd quarter and brought back the rockets single handedly into the game. However he mysteriously disappeared in the WHOLE 2nd half. After the first half it seemed he was going for a A+ game. It is hard to understand why he didn't look for his offense again. Battier (D): No offence in the first half what so ever, he didn’t even attempt a shot. Started the 2nd half by taking the first shot for theRockets made it ANDthat was the last we would hear from Battier on the offensive end. He grabbed couple of rebounds and had few assists overall he was barely noticeable during the whole game. Mutombo (C-) The night started on the wrong foot with Mutombo picking early fools against Duncan. He would not see much playing time after that, he did however have one nice basket and since he is a nice guy he gets away with the C-. Alston (D) He drained a three from at the start of the game but missed 6 shots after that and finished 2 out 7 from three-point land. Turned the ball over a lot and couldn’t run the offence effectively during his time on the floor.Not much on the defensive end either. At one point made a nice steal only to give it right back with a careless pass. Howard (C-) Was missing in action during the first half. Showed sings of life in the 3rd were he finally decided to be aggressive made a couple baskets, grabbed rebounds and went a few times to the free throw line. Not a memorable performance but one of the few players that at least tried. He also was somewhat more aggressive on Duncan defensively then any other player JVG put on Duncan (except hayes who was over agressive)but he also failed to slow him down in the end. Head ( D) Really struggled to find his game tonight. Turned the ball over too much and couldn’t hit shots he normally makes. Snyder (B+) One of the few bright spots of the night for the Rockets. Was moving without the ball and cutting to the basket during the first half. Was surprising to see him sitting on the bench for most of the 3rd as he was the only offensive threat the Rockets had besides T-Mac. He took some bad shots in the 4th but the game was long over by that time. A solid performance showing he can be counted in the future. Hayes (C-) Not much to say except he tried to stop Duncan and failed like everyone else did. Picked up 4 fouls in record time and was benched, he re-appeared later for a brief moment and missed a AN EASY layup. Big Jake (D): Jake on the was brought into the Rockets team to help deal with players like Duncan. He had a bad first quarter followed by a slightly better 2nd were at least he grabbed couple of board and was more present defensively. In the fourth he took one of the ugliest shots you will ever see in an NBA game, overall. 3 RB’s in 20 mins for a man his size is just not cutting it. Spanoulis (D-) Finally he came in with 12 mins left in the game and played them all. He picked up 3 TO’s right away and never looked ahead from that moment on. Didn’t do much after that except one drive to the basket which resorted to a foul. Very disappointing performance in garbage time for spanoulis. Don’t expect to see him on the floor any time soon again. Lucas( INC) Couple of nice baskets in garbage time and couple of assists Novak( INC) Made a few long-range shots and grabbed few quick rebounds deep into garbage time.
JVG basically reiterating that we have a lack of depth compared to the Spurs-hence they are the better team. We need to address this issue somehow in the offseason with a new PG.
JVG (C) : Hard to grade JVG on this game, seems his hand was forced on this one.Early fouls on Mutombo and Hayes didn’t give him much choice. Snyder played because Bonzi was not available so that was not his first choice either. But why would he keep Snyder on the bench in the 3rd after the great first half he had? Instead he decided to play Head who was clearly having an off night. For a while in the 2nd quarter the Rockets seemed to have enough movement on offence to take it to the Spurs effectively but in the 2nd half they became stagnant again, JVG should delt with this issue yet no changes were made and the game slipped away. In the end he shares with the players the responsibility for this bad home loss.
Interesting that JVG would say that McGrady and Battier played well, without mentioning Snyder. To me, it appeared like Battier had no effect on this game. I didn't notice him making a lot of defensive stops (I did miss a few minutes in the first period, though). He was invisible on the offensive end, for the most part. He didn't make many mistakes, as usual, but this was one of those games where he didn't really have an impact either.
"The Rockets began bickering loudly and demonstratively on the bench, and trainer Keith Jones jumped between his team's most celebrated players before things escalated further. Beginning with a Rafer Alston turnover that saw him benched less than four minutes into the game, Alston shouted at Juwan Howard. Howard shouted at Alston. Alston then began shouting at Jeff Van Gundy, before Mutombo began barking at McGrady, with McGrady going back at Mutombo. Jones rushed between them if only to interrupt long enough to get something else accomplished with the time out Van Gundy had called. Jonathan Feigen" wow i didn't see that on tv
i guess rafer didn't like being on the bench so much in the first half of the denver game even though it seemed to work out good for the team. maybe jvg gave him more minutes after this this time around to avoid a bad situation.
Battier was defending Duncan at the 3rd and part of 4th quarter, and Duncan had very few points during then. Battier played great. Too bad JVG didn't put Battier on Duncan earlier - we might have had a chance.
not that i think this would have any kind of carryover into future games, but wow yao couldn't have picked a more perfect time to come back. the team needs him to lift their enthusiasm.
Well, not like Yao had any choice about when he returns, but I know what you meant Go Rox!! Show them what you got!!
Everyone stunk tonight....and in the press conference JVG said Battier and Tmac were the only 2 that did well. BS...they sucked too....it was a team game, the entire team played horrid.... If you are going to bring the hammer don't spare the teacher's pets. DD
