Yeah he's only been on the cover of ESPN the magazine what, 3 times so far, and the Rox are on ESPN once a week seemingly, and an ESPN magazine/.com writer wrote the offical Yao Book, and...etc. They hate him. The people who run ESPN run a business. Yao, dunking or getting dunked on,means business, therefore they feature Yao. Pretty simple really. Who really cares what Marc Stein does with his power rankings? They're no different than a BBS posting, one guy's fickle opinion.
I think you are confused because of their playoff run. They didn't have home court advantage in any of them.
Power rankings are stupid. Just look at records, either over the whole season, or the last 10 - 30 to see who's hot. I think power groupings seem to make more sense. Here's mine. Lonely at the Top San Antonio, Phoenix / Detroit, Miami Making a Run Mavericks, Rockets, Kings, Nuggets / Indiana, Boston Slipping Away Seattle, Memphis / Chicago, Washington, Cleveland, Philadelphia Too Little, Too Late T-Wolves / New Jersey Praying to the Ping Pong Gods Lakers, Clipper, Warriors, Portland, Utah / Orlando, Toronto, NY, Milwaukee Tank Tank Tank New Orleans / Charlotte, Atlanta
what I don't get it why people say we have a bad home record, or play poorly at home...it's almost the same as our road record. the way I see it is, the Rockets play just as well on the road as they do at home, therefore making their performance independent on the venue. I say that's a good thing.
It could be a good thing, but I see it as a bad thing. When the playoffs start, regardless of whether we have home-court advantage or not, we want other teams to be thinking- "Hey, we HAVE to win at our home, cause the Rockets aren't going to give one up on their homecourt." That puts ALOT of pressure on them, cause they know if they drop one at home (if they have homecourt advantage) then they will be at a severe disadvantage - having to win one (or more) in the "Toyota Fortress". Similarly if we have homecourt advantage then other teams will be faced with the pressure of having to take one away from us in our building. Its not just the record, but the whole physchology (sp?) behind having a home court that other teams simply fear to play on because we don't lose at home!
hmmmm.... 23-15 at home 25-16 away looks like a winning record both home and away to me. should they do better at home? obviously...but to moan that we need to learn to win at home could be better put as saying htat we need to learn to dominate at home.. roxgirl is right...I rpefer to see it as that we can win BOTH home ans away....when you take into consideration that many teams dont do as well as we do on the road...it evens out.
We'll end up with the same road/home record or surpass the road record by one game. We'll win two more games for sure.
funny..I ws thinking almost the same thing when I was posting that...except I think we take all 3...the guys are getting back intot he swing...the shots are starting to fall....and Yao seems to be playing with more desire and aggression. Denver scores alot of their points in transition IIRC...and we have one of the best transition Ds in the league...and a very good interior D. If we can keep a guy on the shooters...and play with the intensity that they are capable of...the streaking Nugz should be very beatable EDIT: wait a minute....that article is WRONG...we have no more roadies...all three remaining games are at home
i agree. go by the last 5 or 10 games for weekly power rankings. or just group them like you did. i also agree with your groupings although i think dallas should be in the top group since they are better than the rest in thier group.
