ClutchFans Game Thread: Timberwolves @ Rockets 1/27/2006

I think Tmac was hurting from the nose hit last game, and the Wolves did an excellent job of playing him with their hands face high to hit him when he moved to the basket....dirty b@$turds. But his off night and Juwan having the flu probably cost us this game. What is next: a player tripping on his kids' toys???

The Wolves definitely were a faster team with Ricky and minus Wally. Agree with the question above about players blending in fast with other teams. Probably due to Gundy's complexity and his emphasis on defense. Rafer is just now getting comfortable in this system.

Luther did not get much time tonight. ?? Nice to see Stro put up some points, esp after so much time out. Now if Hayes could tutor him in RB's.

With Baxter & Hayes & Lucas playing well - hoping that either Rybo or Mooch takes the roster hit. Keep Mooch only if we have a reasonable chance of trading his expiring contract - but that does not seem to be a big deal so far this year around the league.

Gundy teams don't seem to get the benefit of doubt with refs - still wonder if refs have a long time grudge vs him. But then we didn't shoot FT's very well tonight.

Yao, come back man!!!

 

Refs screwed the Rockets again tonight. Even with the missed field goals, there were AT LEAST 7 fouls in the second half that should've been called. Instead, they decide to call them for the T-Wolves. There were TWO very late calls against Swift and Hayes in the 4th that probably cost us the game. And the one play where Wesley forced the backcourt violation but the refs just gave the ball back to Minny.

What a bunch of crap.

 

missed free throws**

Also, I'd like to add that Swift had a very good game tonight but he still has much to learn on defense. Don't give up hope on him, he's shown that he can be a good PF.

And what was up with T-Mac tonight? 6-19 shooting? That's just unacceptable from the captain of this team.

 

I miss Yao!

 

IMHO, it has to do either with his mask or that the Timberwolves played no-nonsense defense and double-team on him.

PHOTO GALLERY

 

hayes keeps on keeping on with the numbers game. he's the type of player the knicks or bulls need. ariza and nocioni are the type of players the rocks need. c'mon cd work something out.

 

Guys, plain and simple: we didn't play good enough defense (allowed them to shoot 50%) and more importantly we could NOT buy a god damn shot to save our lives. Everyone was bricking wide-open outside shots.

As for McGrady, many times whenever the Rockets did their usual pick-n-roll, McGrady ended up being guarded by Garnett (7'1" with incredibly long arms and speed), and he's probably the only player in the league McGrady just can't shoot over, the guy was all over him.

But what can I say? They torched our short backcourt players much like the Mavs did in the playoffs last season (that issue just won't go away, we keep stocking up on short guards, I don't understand why). Also, our guards couldn't buy a shot no matter how open they were.

That tends to spell "loss".

What we do this upcoming off season in terms of upgrading our backcourt will determine our future success as a team for the next 3 seasons.

A starting-caliber SG who's at LEAST 6'5" or 6'6" is a MUST, no way around it. We're OK at PF, Stro's value as a defender of tall lengthy PFs in the league showed tonight, and if nothing else that's why he's a must on this roster of undersized big men if you want to have a chance in hell of slowing down the Duncans and the Garnetts.

It's our backcourt, guys, I don't know what else to say...

 

Lack of primeter defender, a big guard who could create a shot for himself and create a few mis-matches are killing us. i think were set with swift, howard hayes and baxter. were finally starting to understand what a truly Integral part of our team bob sura really was.

 

Sometime it really puzzles me. Is it because of fatigure or they just crack under pressure? Or maybe JVG is so strict that they are afraid of bricking it which in turn makes it harder to shoot?

I am wondering whether Rockets had a chance to upgrade the SG position during this summer. CD said in the interview with sina that if the team is healthy, the players we have should be able to get the job done. It's true to some extent, but still wasn't our inability to defend the penetration or tall shooting guard in Dallas series show that we need to upgrade our backcourt, even if Sura is healthy? Or do they really think getting Swift will solve the problem because Yao and him can have a block fest every night?

 

Missed free throws cost us big time, that and all the offensive rebounds we gave up.

Swift played ok, but he needs to rebound better.

DD

 

I don't think it has anything to do with the coach or anyone else but themselves...an opn shot is an open shot, you either can shoot it with consistency or you can't. IMO, we just don't have any consistent guard play for our team, they have their ups and downs and are incredibly inconsistent from the three point line and have been all season long. Certainly, the absence of a guy like Jon Barry and Scott Padgett contributes to our struggles to make outside shots this season. The problem is when Barry is injured or when he leaves most likely following this season, then we will have a total of zero three-point specialists, and a I am a firm believer than you need at least one on each team. Head has a nice shot but he is bricking everything the past couple of weeks. DW is OK but very inconsistent and streaky, and Rafer has a good shooting night once in a blue moon.

In a league that's largely dependent on guards these days, we rank towards the bottom of the league as far as our guards are concerned. McCantis was torching DW all night roday, and at one point I think they went to him everytime to post up DW and he got three or four shots in a row; gave me serious flashbacks to Stackhouse just shooting over DW at will as if no one was guarding him.

There's a reason why Phil Jackson always says he likes big guards, height does make a lot of difference whether or not people want to acknowledge it.

 

Then the obvious question is: what's rockets' plan to sovle it? Do they have any?

Man, starting this coming summer Yao is going to be very busy until the end of 2008 summer olympics. Something needs to happen soon, very soon.

 

Sooner or later JVG is going to have account for his coaching short-comings. I hope it is sooner for our sakes.

 

we suck this year, period.

 

The Jazz are a game below .500 right now, sitting on the 8th seed. I posted before...looking at our schedule and getting Yao back, we only have 4 tough games through the end of February (tonight was a setback though). I think we can be 26-31 going into March. That certainly doesn't guarantee anything, but it's a start. From there we would have 25 games left, and honestly I think 43 wins may even get in...I think we'll even do better than that though. The West is not what it once was! Once you get past the top 6, it's a crapshoot. Lakers, Utah, Minnesota, Golden State, Sacramento, and Houston will be going for the final two seeds...from there I think you can count out GS and Utah, and I honestly don't think Kobe can maintain such a high level all season.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead here...but the point is a game over .500 might be good enough to make the playoffs, and we are due for a run. These guys are not mailing in these games trying to tank the season...they want it.

 

Are you joking? And what coach would have us with a winning team right now? Which coach would have had us even in the game tonight? I know, not a damn one.

Did you not see us shut down their offense tonight down the stretch? As far as offense goes, we're lucky we were even in the game with absolutely no reliable post presense. If Wesley hits that shot and sends to OT (the brilliant fake handoff play which VAN GUNDY drew up), we could be talking about a win here without Yao and Howard in the lineup. That in itself would almost make Van Gundy a genius just for pulling that off somehow, especially on an off night by Mcgrady.

I hate making excuses though...the reality is we should have won, but ask any unbiased person and they'll tell you a team shoudn't even stand a chance without their starting PF and C. IMO, Van Gundy is the one thing keeping us in games by keeping our players focused, and he may be the one thing that kept us in the playoff hunt if we do go on a run here. Don't mean to attack here...but I'm sick of seeing people call for his head when he's had so little to work with yet is keeping us in games and damn near winning them, and not even making excuses when he loses.

 

yes, but one thing our team isn't doing now, or it wasn't doing when totally healthy....BEATING TEAMS WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BEAT!!!!!....if we can't do that, no playoffs or even 'playoff run'. remember, even when yao was healthy, we only won games if tmac and yao put Huge numbers together. tonight was a classic example of when the superstar has an off night (which happens frequently, it's just second nature), we have no one else on the team to pick up the slack. with our luck this year, we will suffer another significant injury before season's end.....

 

i think teams are doing the same thing to the rox they did when tmac was out and yao was the only option.

they are forcing complimetary players to make big shots, so far Luther is the only one that has shown the ability to make it happen.

Other than Tmac the only other rox player that was on the floor that i wanted taking the last shot was Luther.

 

missed free throws cost us this game but ricky davis is a rocket killer(seemingly to me atleast) and showed it again.

we really missed juwon tonight for those droughts but what else is new this year.

one good thing is chuck hayes is continuing to play very very well even matchedup against garnett. swift wasn't too bad either.

 

i was wondering the same thing. i'd put this on jvg. looks like most players didn't play, or didn't know how to play the jvg labled bball. so when they join the rockets they have a hard time to adjust to or learn the system. that's the sad part. players' potential was not properly utilized but their weakness was totally exposed.