I can't believe we are competitive with the Suns and Mavs without TMAC and Yao. I mean outside of this forum not to many people would say we would be better than those teams WITH a healthy MAC and Yao. We will definetly continue this winning run.
If fans are so pissed off when our BENCH PLAYERS have a 15 points lead but let it slip in the final minutes, what will they say if it were the starters who did it? I find it amazing that our scrubs even managed to have a lead against the Suns, let alone a 15 point one.
He's like our very own version of Earl Boykins...only worse. ::swallows hard:: Hats off to Rafer, he stepped up his game tonight and played very well. Now excuse me while I go throw up; must be that stomach virus going around these days...
i am happy with juwan's play even he shot 2-10. a lot of his shots were on target, but bounced out. JLIII needs to sit on the bench for few games and think about his game. He wasn't making the play for anyone but himself, another word that he jacked up 13 shots.
You wouldn't have said if he would've won that game with that aside what other players are you talking about the only once left other than our starters with star players are lucas, snyder, padgetts, vspan, novak, and wells and lucas did play 17+ mins. and rest of those wouldn't have made much difference on the court other than turn the ball over and silly fouls!! so as I see it we didn't much of a choice!! the only thing I thought before was that JVG should've played bonzi a little more but I understand why he didn't with bonzi's out of game shape and his man boobs developing he wouldn't have able to run up and down the court which is Suns uasual up tempo plays and he would've gotten tired even more easily! so I don't think JVG ignored thing that would've made us win. We gave our best out there and made Suns work hard for their shots.
I did not mind his rotation tonight, I just think he substitutes at the wrong time...he seems to wait until guys are completely exhausted... D'Antonio plays a small rotation, but he does a great job of bringing guys in BEFORE his get tired. DD
DaDa, It's nothing new, JVG has always been known to 'overplay' his guys and has always preferred playing a short rotation of guys he's comfortable with throughout the season rather than go deep into his bench. He's just the type of coach who demands a lot of minutes from his starters on nightly basis...that's classic JVG, and there is no reason to believe he will change anytime soon. He's already stated in the past that he doesn't put much stock into this whole thing.
Cmon guys don't be hating on JLIII. He's just an inexperienced demi-rookie, and this was his first game where he gets significant responsibility due to the loss of our two best scorers. Face it, outside of Tmac and Yao, Lucas is the best offensive option due to his speed and shooting. He's probably the best shooter on this team, and he should carry the responsibility of scoring when he's on the floor without Tmac and Yao. All shooters run cold once in a while, and this is just one game. There's too much hate for too small of a sample size for JLIII. I don't hate him for taking the big 3's at the end. Rather I applaud him for having the confidence to try to step up, because statistically (from Rockets training and practices), he probably had the best chance of putting the ball in the bucket. Once Yao and McGrady returns, Lucas should flourish. Tonight's game is just a learning experience.
I dunno if your a JLIII fan or not, but I would have to disagree. I think the best offensive options in tonights game were Bonzi/Rafer. Alston was hitting a couple 3s, drove to the bucket, and finished on many occasions. Bonzi did a good job in the low post(score, reb, blks), and IIRC, there were two instances where he was backing down someone, and kicked it out for open 3s. As well, the best shooter is Novak. The way Rafer was playing tonight, I be much more comfortable with Rafer taking those shots. Everyone bashed Rafer for jacking up 3s with 18secs on the clock, so I would expect the same for Lucas. Also, Lucas shot way too much, and I felt that disrupted the flow of the team. He would either dribble the ball for 20 secs, and pass it to someone like Hayes, whose under tremendous pressure, OR jack up a 3 as soon as he got to the 3 pt line. I am not hating on JLIII, but when he's bricking shot after shot, he should consider getting his team involved.
That's a great point, and one I completely agree with. His rotation is solid, he just doesn't know when to use his bench. Our team often is tired and worn by the fourth quarter, I think taking our starters out 3-4 minutes earlier than normal would pay huge dividends.
Abuzukie, anybody still remember him? has a good season in the warriors. 10.4ppg 3.4rpg 1.3spg for a rookie. Tonight, he has a season-high 26 points, 7 rebouds, why signed the useless pagett?? JVG really likes veterans. Man that sucks
lucas shouldn't even be in the nba, he is useless, he adds absolutely nothing to this team, he shoots first he's to short and he can't even shoot very well. I would of ratherd keeping Ryan Bowen which I think says alot. Rockets need a pass first backup pg ASAP
I really don't think having Yao and T-mac can be based on this game. The way I see it, Yao is sorta like Mutombo when his put in Phoenix's pace. He'll get lost in it as well. I think to beat Phoenix its all about Mac. Yao will help but he won't be the deciding factor.
well, given what lucas is, he is a 3rd string PG. However, given his lack of ability he made some good runs for us in the first half. specially when he was able to keep pace with nash and run a bit for us. Alston can't run or keep up with nash's pace. whenever alston was in the first half or up to the 3rd quarter, nash scored. I think the really dillema for us in that game was the last 5 min or so in the 4th quarter. JVG was making a very tough choice and all other teams faces when playing with the suns. 1. give up with their 3s and go small (which gave us a marginal lead in the first half and specially the 1st quarter), and give up on rebounds 2. go big, grab the rebounds, but forgo out speed and ability to keep running with the suns. JVG picked the 1 option, which is why we saw the ill-adv jackup by lucas. That was a very tough choice and quite frankly erither way we would lose. It was a matter of which of it would give us a bigger chance.
We almost beat the best team and held them to 100 points and the defensive scheme was horrible? You can't cover ALL the bases, people! We are undermanned on top of that. I do agree that Lucas HAS TO STOP THINKING HE IS ISAIAH THOMAS. Coach needs to try and play Novak a little more also. I know about the whole rookie thing...but I think yesterdays type game could of used some outside shooting. If you know JVG coaching history before 2002, you would know that his teams NEVER wear out during the year. He has always demanded that his players play 40+ minutes. Thats why you do all the drills during practice, you eat your Wheaties, take your vitamins and say your prayers. You have to be in shape. And his teams, like Rileys team, usually wear down the OTHER team when the playoffs roll around. The team hustled tonight for the Coach. If you can't handle the minutes, you can always go to back to college. Or try UPS. Oh wait, they make you work 12hr days sometimes. How about Krogers?
This is so funny... Look at the minutes the Suns players played tonight: Steve Nash-37 Raja Bell-41 Shawn Marion-44 Amare Stoudemire-41 Leandro Barbosa-35 They run up and down the floor all night. And they played a 7 man rotation! Wow, they must be REALLY upset at how their coach just dogs them.
I was at the game last night , my very first one by the way! Very fun even though we lost. I have to agree jl3 took alot of bad shots. Shots the luther head should have been takeing. My friend who was with me at the game who is the biggest OSU fan in the world was even like, "Man i love john lucas but jvg needs to pull him now, he takeing way to many forced bad shots." On a better Note Bonzi played great the minutes he got. I loved the way he hustled on that blocked shot even though he got hurt on the play. His ablity to attack the rim and finish and get to the line really helped us. We really need more set plays for him especially with yao and mac out. There was no really first option out there so the team kinda lost its idenity on offence.
But how long were they each in the game, I would bet they all played hard about 8 or 9 minutes then got a blow...... JVG leaves players like Rafer in there for like 14-15 minutes .....same for others. That is the point Almu.... DD
