The Rockets cannot get any respect... I watched the Sports Reporters this morning-one of the sportswriters said that Dallas will come back and win the series... I've been reading articles on the Dallas-Houston series and most still think Dallas has a better , deeper team and will probably come back and win it in 6 or 7... I hope we win by 30 tomorrow!!! I would hope that would shut them up-but you know they'll say the Mavs play better on the road and will still win the series And if we do win this series they'll try to cover their ass and say , "Yeah, we knew it would be a close and hard fought series so we had to pick the higher seed! " (Even though they picked the Mavs to mop the floor with us ! ) Idiots
That was one of the weirdest games for me to watch as a fan. I've never been that split while watching a game, loving watching my team win while hating watching my (other) team choke. Weird. I've never been this split before during Rockets-Mavs games. Anyway. Given that I said earlier that I didn't see how the Rockets could win the series, I figued I owed a trip back to this thread... I'm still not convinced about the Rockets, but I was impressed with what I saw. TMac was about what I expected, Yao was unfortunately about what I expected and Mutumbo was a lot more than I expected. I think the Rockets guards physical play was key to keeping the Mavs out of their offense. I thought Terry actually played pretty well and his assist numbers will go up (a little) if the Dirk gets his head on straight. Clearly the Mavs played one of their worst games of the season. I haven't seen enough of the Rockets to say if that was one of their best or just typical. I think everyone expects the Mavs to play better in game two. So, it will be very interesting to see how the Rockets respond. Clearly the pressue has focused on the Mavs now. I don't buy the talk of Ryan Bowen as the second coming of Chucky Brown (I loved Chucky Brown!), so I don't see that working much in game two. But Tmac and Dirk is exactly the kind of matchup that drives Dirk crazy (athletic, long players - Prince, Miles and Marion). If the Mavs again fail to capitalize on the other matchups when TMac is on Dirk then the Rockets are in great shape. I think the Josh Howard defense talk is a little misguided. Josh's job is to hold TMac below 30. That will be the grading point for me on who wins that battle in each game. I use the same scale for defending Dirk. Although, I would be dissapointed if both don't score 45 in at least one game each. It is the playoffs and they are the superstars. --Drof
Yao played as expected? Yao vs Shaq 2004: 15 ppg Yao vs Dallas 2005 game 1: 11 point So yes, prepare for much more productivity out of Yao. I'm sure a year later against Dampier/Bradley, Yao can produce a little better than that. If you claim that Dirk had a bad game, then so did Yao. Be fair. So yes, game 2 will be stepped up...on both sides of the court.
Hahahaaaaaaaaa, I am going to smile all the way into my sweet dreams tonight....... I am so happy and I want to cry.......
Heh. Wow. I guess this is what I get for having split feelings about the series. My hometown team is saying "what the crap were you thinking?!" Anyway. What I've learned: 1) I knew JVG would out coach Avery, but I underestimated how great the difference would be. JVG seems to have been perfect and Avery has made numerous critical errors. 2) I would have bet money that Dirk would not suck this bad against anybody. I've watched him hold his own and/or dominate against KG, Webber, Malone and Duncan over the last few years in the playoffs. The Rockets D is awesome, but Dirk looks like a rookie in the playoffs this year. 3) It's not the chemistry of the Rockets bench it's the veteran smarts. It's been a long time since I've seen a smart Rockets team (sorry Francis and Mobley fans). The whole Rockets team is playing very smart basketball. Props to JVG for making that happen. Another random thought dawned on me during game 2. I was thinking "wow, the Rockets players are all smart veterans why didn't I know that about these guys?" and then it dawned on me that almost the whole freaking team is made up of Eastern Conference refugees. I mean, outside of Yao (and maybe Bowen) is there anybody on the team that wasn't in the East that last few years? I thought that was a weird quirk given the recent history of East-West imbalance. --Drof
you can't ignore the fact that T-Mac's late game (really ALL game) defense has been INCREDIBLE. He's been called on all season long to defend players in clutch situations and hasn't let us down. Staying on his feet until he knows the shooter is going up...forcing tough fade away shots. We are witnessing greatness right now. I dont' care what happens from her on out, you can't discredit these two performances he's had thusfar in these playoffs...simply incredible.
You need to recognize that this isnt just Dirk not playing well....the Rox D has alot to do with it. Easiest way to tell....when they are up on him and playing him hard...he misses....when they are slow on their rotations and dont get up on him...he swishes them.... We were much slower in staying on Dirk in th e4th...adn he reponded by sinking a few.... This is not Dirk just missing easy shots....this is the ROckets defense(Bowen, Tmac and the helping D) forcing him into shots he isnt comfortable with or making him rush the shots. And I disagree...chemistry is a LARGE part of what makes this team go...has been since before the AS break. They genuinely like, respect and trust each other...compare that to the Mavs b****ing at each other when the going gets tough....IF we can take game 3...Dallas will implode...they dont have near the chemistry and trust in each other that the Rockets do. and in answer to your earlier post....game 1 wasnt even close to how well this team can play...game 2 was much closer...but still not their best... Game 2 was a fair sample of the standard ROckets game in the second half of the season.
Rockets2K, I stand corrected. I should not have said it is "not" the chemistry. They do have amazing chemistry. I should not discount that. I'm just so happy to see the Rockets full of guys playing smart basketball. The Rockets made very few, if any, boneheaded plays in game two. I better stop now before I bring up some old Francis-Mobley lovers back out of the closet. heh. --Drof
