I'm wondering if anyone else agrees with me that it seemed like JVG mailed in the Minny game a lil too early.. He didnt even seem to put up a fight in the closing minutes of the game. Such as intentionally foul to stop the clock.. Put in more pure three point shooters. whatever. I dont know what was going on but it seemed like JVG gave up on this game because. 1. he felt we had no chance? 2. wanted to teach our guys a lesson about being overly confident? J
I think he was frustrated by our PFs' play, otherwise he wouldn't put Deke and Yao in at the same time.
I dont think that he completely gave up. The Rockets did a very good job pressuring the ball and I think they got 2-3 steals in the last minute or so...
Probably after he knew Ray Allen was injured... j/k, but seriously no.6 is such a hot seat now.. Correct me if I am wrong, Sonics locked no.3, didn't they? (highly unlikely Spurs falls behind them)
Clarence nearly fouled out, and wasn't doing anything anyway. The closing minutes of the game was the only time we could score. JVG will not quite. Why would you think that? He would not give up a game no matter what. We just haven't been able to hit open shots, or hit free throws in the last 2 games. Defense could be a little better too.
You have got to be kidding... You should know VG by now... aint no way he threw this game...no doubt in my mind. If it was a throwaway...Yao and Tmac wouldnt have been in the game with less than a minute left.
If we made some freaking freethrows the game would've been pretty close near the end. JVG did not mail it in.
I totally agreed with R2K here, there's no way in hell Van Gundy would want to lose a game, losing a game kills him more than any agony a fan would feel when their team lost. Phil Jackson might do that as a psychological ploy to get his team to focus.
I am luke warm on Van Gundy -but - He is not a quitter. He has the never say die- never surrender atttitude. Do not worry he will not quit on you. I am not hating on the man -I have respect. He is excellent on the X's and O's, but there is a subtle -intangible he is missing. He has difficulty making the adjustments you see Pockovich or Larry Brown make during a game to adapt to the opponenets weakness. Point and counterpoint if you will. He knows the dynamics and can analyze the game and break it down, but had difficulty adjusting his team to exploit the opponents weakness. I am not dogging him- I cannot articulate this, as it is the toughest coaching challenge.
Gundy didn't foul because there was enough time left to not to have to. If they didn't shoot and make that dagger with 55 sec. left, we had a decent chance to get the ball back twice. That would have opened the door to possibly tie the game. JVG never gives up, it looks like some Rocket players did, however.
I think JVG doesn't want us to move to high up in the standings. As the situation stands, the team that we matchup the best against is Seattle. They have no one who can gaurd Yao. Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis aren't happy. If we keep moving up, yes we have a slim possibility of obtaining the homecourt advantage in the first round, but that will match us up with much stiffer competition. I'm not saying that we are scared of these other teams, but just that our best chance of advancing in the first round goes through Seattle. Just my feeling. I don't see how our style of play just turned a complete 180 in the last two games against Boston and Minny. How does our run and gun style consistiong of crisp ball movement revert back to the walk it up and then play one on one style? Do you think we could be peppering in a couple of losses just to maintain position?
No way he mailed it in, if you wanna look for blame, look to our shooting which has dissappeared in the last two games.
JVG will never allow the team cherry pick our opponents when we HAVE NOT even secured a playoff spot.
We had an identical record last year and collapsed the final weeks then, as well. It's possible that players just get worn out by his style.
The #6 spot is not a lock. Memphis is only a game behind the Rockets. The Rockets need to do everything in their power to stay away from the 7th spot since it very likely means they will match up against the Spurs in the first round.
It wasn't JVG who quit a little early. Remember in the first half when he had to call a 20 second timeout just to b!tch at the players for just watching a loose ball pass them by?
the reason I asked is because I was screaming at the TV wondering why we werent intentionally fouling to put people on the FT line and give ourselves a chance. We could have played it out. J
I would put the onus more on the players to make the adjustments, I would bet that JVG is telling them what to do...
exactly. we didn't need to foul, but we just came up short when we needed stops. the strategy JVG used was the right one, it just didn't work.
