I don't know what Newlin saw, but I saw 3 well run plays at the end, and Mobley's 14 second inbounds play was not that bad. I'll take Cuttino's jump back J from the free throw line against NYs D that smothered everything any day. Really though, with 1 min left Cuttino ran a good penetration play with Willis and Thomas on the strongside and Rice sliding out weakside for the 3. Cuttino jumped and spotted Rice wide open for the <b>5 point lead</b>. That was well run. That was the game winner. Sure I saw Cuttino dribble into Rice at 3 point land with like 4 minutes left...ugly. I saw another shot clock go down. I saw Tierre Brown get pulled by Rudy. But I also saw a last minute play with Rice and Moochie running a center pick and fade. It looked like Moochie was "pounding" like Jeff says. It wasn't. Willis and Kenny were setting up a picket fence for Mobley who broke around it, timed perfectly with Moochie's pnr, and Moochie found him. However, Moochie's man left him to cover Mobley....Mobley spotted it and bounced it to Moochie for a wide-open 18-footer...miss. There was some break down. Just like how we got NY's clock to go off at least twice in the final 7 minutes. But, I'm still seeing increased commitment to the weakside. I don't care what anyone says; we are trying to change this offense. There is evidence. The players have to get their timing down. When they fail to set up, ugly things happen. I did think we ran a little more...which is pretty impressive against NY. DLS, Mobley was playing much better D against Sprewell than Torres. Spree never got by him. Spree eventually had to run Cuttino through the NY Giants to get open in the 4th...and he hit the catch and shoot. btw: According to the announcers, Torres was trying to get back in with 2:30 left in the 3rd, but there never was a stoppage in play. He then played the 4th Q until the 7 minute mark. What exactly do you want for Torres that game. Cuttino only had 34 minutes, and Walt had 8. Rice was hot. Why are you b****ing about 18 minutes for Torres???? especially since Cuttino played the better D on Sprewell???
Thank you Crispee, You guys blaming the coach just don't get it. You don't REST a HOT plalyer, like Rice in the 4th quarter. Heck, the problem is that NY turned up their defense and our defense did not match their intensity. DaDakota PS. If Torres keeps playing like this, he is gonna make Mobley expendable, and he plays WICKED defense.
Torres and Mobley have much different games. Mobley's a go-to player. Torres shows awesome potential, which is exciting (or it would be, if all these "moral victories" weren't getting me down), but there's no way he'd make Mobley "expendable." But I'm being nit-picky. Sorry, it's late and I'm extremely grumpy. The thing is, I'm really excited about the future. I didn't see all of the game, but I liked what I saw of Brown, even though his stat line doesn't look too good. Brown's young and needs maturity, but he showed PG good instincts while I was watching, particularly in transition. I liked a lot of defensive plays I saw in the 2nd quarter, notably by Griffin. But I'm so sick of waiting for the future. Yeah, I know; we've saved so much time rebuilding thanks to the genius of CD and company, blah, blah. But while waiting for the future, you've still got to have something concrete to keep you sane. If you think Stevie's not going to sit down and have a long think if we don't make the playoffs, you're a fool. Forget about whether you think he has a right to do that or not given the Rockets rebuilding around him. If we miss the playoffs like last year, end on a down note, he'll be sitting down trying to figure out whether it's worth it. Hell, I'll want all the Rockets to have existential moments if we don't make it again. I know it's a long season, but I don't see how we'll make the playoffs if this slump isn't the lowest point in the season. If we don't make progress soon, this team won't start clicking and winning games consistently until the last ten games of the season when it's too late.
The only reason Spree was getting lose on any of our players was because of those nasty picks, nothing you can do about that other than switch and create problems for yourself. Mobley and Torres were getting lost in the picks. And I am not b****ing about the last plays. We clearly lost the game when we let 17 points go down the drain. I'm b****ing about that 3rd quarter. During that 17 point choke job, why not switch it up, with say Torres or Griffin? And at 3 minutes left when you say Torres checking in, the lead was not good(13-10 from17)?, momentum already shifted. Yes Mobley got hot for a second but he quickly cooled off and made some mistakes. Put new blood in. That's is my b****ing in a nutshell. Substitute. Mobley with 37minutes just coming back from injury, thats not a lot? I'm not blaming Mobley, I'm just, justfully so, questioning our strategy. The fort is falling in and we don't call for backups. We keep what we have on the floor with no minor adjustment, to keep us sparked. I know I'm b****ing but this is legitament b****ing material.
DaDakota, Not blaming the coach for the 4th quarter, for the 3rd. The momentum was shifting right iinfront of his eyes and Rudy pulled his pants down and started playing with himself, drinking his magic soda. And nobody is even talking about resting Rice, make some minor adjustments in the 3rd quarter. We didn't match thier intensity like you said. So what do you do?? You get a f*c*ing spark plug, anything to change the tempo, pace, ora, whatever the f**k you call it. You call a Charlie Ward? Yes you adjust to that to fight their spark with your spark. I'm talking Sam Cassell, Carl Herra, and Chucky Brown war cries. Chucky and Carl were roleplayers. Yet they sparked the team many times (even in playoffs). That is what roleplayers are for.....Torres, hell even 5 minutes for Griffin to change the defensive tempo. Can you agree with this? Remember, we are talking 3rd quarter.
