hey i heard yao sprained his ankle....IS HE OKAY? if he's truly messed up, we can kiss the playoffs good bye since he has been our best player recently and we can't win without both yao and tmac.
27 and 18 for the big fella. This guy has finally arrived, but right when T-mac decided to leave. 13 points for T-mac.....those are not superstar numbers, i dont care if scores low points againt crappy teams (like some of the ones we played lately) but to score that against a good team...thats just horrible....im quite disappointed in him.
God, I hate the token RyBo-dives-on-the-floor-slamming-his-grill-and giving-up-his-body-for-the-good-of-the-team moment that endears him even more to JVG.
TMac has to attack the basket. If he only settles on his jumper, he is not the special player that can help the team win. Hopefully, his back can hold up.
Ah well! The Suns are a great team and the Rockets just don't have the shooters and/or athletes to match up with them right now, especially when TMac is not playing like himself. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't wait until Amare comes back for them cause I think the Rockets match up a whole lot better with him out there. Allright, next two weeks are crucial. Let's take care of business before we have to play both Dallas & San Antonio twice the two weeks after that.
Poor Yao, he must have wanted to win this game so much... Okay we lost. But I still think JVG game plan is fine and it's just our players can't make their shots. 0.227 shooting rate at 3s is not promising. We are fine if we won the next 5 games. Suns to us is just like us to Clippers. The way they played just exposes our weakness to the highest degree. Too bad (or So glad??) we don't have a chance to meet them again in this season but it won't be a bad matchup if we met them at the WCF this year. Surprisingly Yao did not get a turnover when he was surrounded by 2/3 Suns players (I didn't watch the game but accordingly to the "live broadcast" in this board ). And surprisingly TMac was 0-0 at FT line.
You weren't that far off the mark as far as Yao's line goes...I wish I could say the same about the final outcome :/ .
Well, Yao has revenged the Suns, but the rockets have not! And Yao's 5 assists tonight is much more than his average, but way fewer that it should have been for this game. Sigh, our outside shooting~~~~~
I have been saying all year that the supporting cast for the Rockets is waaaaaay below par. Not even close to a contender status. The main problem is the absence of consistent shooting. It was never more obvious than tonight. You can't have 30% or below shooting from your two starting guards and your All Star forward and play the Suns. When you have no consistent shooting, teams can have a field day, you have increased their defensive options tenfold. Bottomline, the Rockets do not have consistent, accurate shooters. After TMac, Ming, and maybe Barry, where are the shooters? And don't say Wesley, his percentage is deceptive. When it counts he seems to disappear. And so does Alston. And so does Head. Even Bogans can't seem to hit since the Clipper game. Howard is not bad, but he is not a "shooter." The Rockets are one of the poorest shooting teams in the league from a consistency standpoint. Until this changes, they have no chance against the better teams.
Look, the game plan for any team plaing Rox is just this simple: 1) DT Yao hard all night, TT him if needed. Refuse him the ball. 2) Hit Tmac hard a couple of times and then he will settle for jumpers. 3) Clog the lane and let other Rockets players shoot from outside all night long and not worry about it because their shootings are more often ice cold than luke warm. I wish we still had the shooters like last year. This summer, we've got to stop our love with veterans. We need to find our own young gunners who are less likely to sit out most of the season.
I think, Head needs to stop shooting, his open shots are way off! and he makes ton of bad decisions. and his shots looks so weird.
Damn guys. I missed the game. Had to work late. Tmac only 13 points??? WTF. Did marion shut him down or did he just have an off night?
Here's what I saw tonight against PHX 1. Rafer is back to being his typical self. Go figure...he had a few good weeks, and now he is back to playing like he was when he first got here. Committing STUPID fouls, and turning the ball over (dribble off his leg/foot, bad passes).I noticed it Friday, yesterday and tonight. GET YOUR CRAP TOGETHER!! 2. Keith Bogans, though I like his size and agressiveness going to the rack, CAN NOT shoot from outside. His J is brutal! 3. Our Defense SUCKS! Dont give me the "well it was PHX" bull**** either. Maybe if we quit letting the opponents guards ABUSE us game in, game out we would already be in the 8th seed. Isnt that why we drafted Luther? Isnt that part of the reason we brought Rafer in? Wasnt that the focus of our entire off-season? They let Nash get into the lane at will, and everytime he got there all 5 guys watched him as he smoothly dished out for a wide open 3 Which leads me to my next point.... 4. Can we PLEASE knock down a wide open jumper every now and then? Im getting sick of watching us clank wide open 3s. It never fails...we have a chance to get some momentum going, but we just cant knock down a shot. 5. JVG is a MORON!!! Why in the HELL would he even put Deke in the game against the Suns? Who is he going to guard? Marion? NOPE! Diaw? NOPE! White dude? NOPE! Any of their bigmen? NOPE! Why did BOWEN see the court? They were leaving Juwan open ALL NIGHT, so you know for damn sure that BOWEN was going to be left open. To not even hit the rim from the free-throw line is just a disgrace to the game of basketball. PERIOD! 6. This team will only go as far as TMAC takes them....YES, I said it! While Yao has been playing extremely well, and he continued that tonight, he can not carry this team. TMAC must put this team on his shoulders and take over. We can not afford him to have many more games like he had tonight. PATHETIC....thats the only way to discribe the game tonight. To give yourself a chance to win going to the 4th and to just PISS it away.....brutal! 3 1/2 out with 3 teams to overtake is definitely do-able, but if they have any more games like tonight then FORGET IT. With our remaining schedule we cant lose games that our within our reach like we did today. These remaining games will tell us what this team is made of. Either we roll and head to the playoffs with serious MOJO (and teams actually fear us), or we PISS it away like we did tonight!
