the Rockets do have a better bench but the dumb coach wont play wells,novak,or vspan....he is so stubburn to have a 8.5 man rotation, that he burns out the starters...regardless if the bench is better he will not play a 10 man rotation. he has manlove for battier (who i think sucks) , and the only creator outside of tmac is vspan who rots on the bench. watching the suns last night, they went for layups from the opening tip and almost every play was layup and when the defense collapsed they started draining threes, and then they pounded it into a rested amare the rockets on the other hand, pound it into yao from the opening tip, no layups, and in the fourth quarter yao is dead tired and the defenses can then stop anything (threes,layups,yao).....if this team had a barbosa (vspan) running the point it would look ALOT smoother and easier on yao and tmac. but jvg is diggin his own grave, and im not complaing, maybe a first round exit is what this team needs in order to finally play vspan next year(and a new coach who understands how to adapt to the new rules)
Players like Barbosa, Raja Bell, Diaw will never shine in Rockets, cause JVG won't give them minutes. Before joining SUNS, who knows these guys? And now they are stars. This kind of thing will nerver happen in JVG's team. I feel sad for VSPAN.
Spurs played their bench when they were down by 19 points. Unless you watched a different SA game, your argument doesn't support your point.
I think it is mental. They get a big lead and then they get relaxed. Then the opponent takes advantage, and starts coming back. Once the come back gets rolling the momentum is on their side and not the Rockets. The Rockets then start to feel pressured since they just lost a big lead, this causes then to make mistakes, and miss their shots. Here is an easy solution. The Rockets shoud not look at the score board!!! You play the same way when you are up by 15 as when you were up by 5, that way they stay consistent. Great teams don't let up on their opponents, they keep attacking and stay aggresive on both offense and defense.
They weren't their bench warmers - it was their main rotation players still in the game. Novak and VSPAN are not players in the rotation. To put them in prematurely is a big mistake.
And your point is what? T-mac is still recovering. Yao lost a half season. None of these guys have much experience playing with T-mac and Yao -it's a lottery team form last year that's doing really well at 6-3 What's to whine about? You thought we should be 9-0?
So why did Popovich pull all of his starters and put in his 2nd stringers when he was down by 19? And how did this being inconsistent lose him the game? Oh, it didn't!
Indeed. I must be blind cause I saw duncan and parker on the bench and only manu in with bench players.
Novak and VSpan have hardly performed when they were actually given some minutes. Same goes with the sluggish looking Bonzi. The Rockets collapsed to a large part due to turnovers, inabililty to defend against speedy players. Putting the most turnover-prone player on the roster and a fat and slow guy, and a bad defender into the game wasn't likely to be the solution. Maybe Van Gundy should just put those guys in, let them struggle, actually lose all of these games where they have bad 4th qtrs instead of just the one to the Spurs. Then maybe you people will shut the **** up. But somehow, he, Les Alexander, the players, and the organization want to win games. Shame on them. Dumb ****s that they are.
how about not benching yao & mcgrady at the same time like he did against chicago in the 3rd qtr.... this goes back to what calvin said when we had clyde and dream....always have one of your stars in the game at all times! there is no reason to have mcgrady and yao on the bench at the same time, thats when other teams start to make a run against us.
I like the point of the original post in this thread. Unfortunately, if true, it's bad news: The collapses are not cold spells, they're upshifts in the gear of the game. The other team realizes we're really good, ratchets up their game, and we get left behind. In other words, the first two and a half quarters are like the regular season, and the last one and a half quarters are like the playoffs. Translation: We're not ready for the playoffs. Well, OK. Not many teams are. And I'm happy that we're playing the "regular season" part of each game well. But let's take these collapses as early warnings that we need to prepare ourselves for May.
If our weakness is the bench... then we have to learn to live or die by it... if we are up by 20 points... in the 3rd quarter... and JVG feels our role players and reserves are not good enough to atleast hold a lead... then what does that say for us in the Playoffs??? im sure we will get 1 blow out... per series... maybe 2 if were lucky... what happens if it is a close game within 5 points... bottom line is id rather see our bench blow our...leads... then our starters too tired and looking like fools out their... if our bench can't atleast hold onto a lead... then do we deserve to make it to the playoffs... this is a team effort... and looks to me like our team isnt as good as we think....
The monday morning quarterbacking on the coaching after each and every game is just ridiculous. Basketball is not a sport where any team can win one individual game. Look at the NCAA's. Wins are sometimes by last second miracle shots that could easily have been missed. Who's really the best team? That's why the NBA has 7-game series. It may not have the excitement of college, but it sure makes sure the best team - and not the game one winner - moves on. So much goes into basketball - coaching, execution, fatigue that night, emotions, chemistry, and hey - a little luck. There's statistical variation in this game. So you can't judge from one game. If a pitcher throws a bad game you don't say he out of the rotation. It takes a pattern. You wait to see a definitive pattern that's definitely not statistical noise or something else. Change too many things at once - and you create a mess. Not only can you not figure out what's going on, the players will get confused and loose confidence. Too much change is bad. It's 9 games people. It's way to early to be making major shifts when you are 6-3. It's too early to get desperate and put our hands in rookies who were meant to be projects....
That's a good point. It's far better to play our bench now, give them some experience, and lose a few games than it is to go into the playoffs with only 8 players with solid playing time experience. One or two injuries, a couple of players with an off night, and I can see us getting blown out in the playoffs. JVG is playing like a man who doesn't want to lose. He should be playing like a man who wants to win. Like last year, it is evident that Head would not be the solid contributer he is now if he didn't get playing time last year (which was only due to injuries to others). How can we count on Novak, VSpan, and Wells to help us in the playoffs or even next year if they don't gain any experience playing with the team? VSpan and Wells are both professionals, and Novak doesn't need to make many decisions (Shoot or pass, that's it). Point is, other teams don't magically have better benches than everyone else (though there is some luck involved). They develop their bench players.
