[Fox Sports] Charlie Rosen analysis on Rox loss to Mavs

That was a great critique of the game. But let's not make the mistake of saying that game is the whole season. Yes, we have flaws. But as someone else pointed out, the Mavs play a system that's been in place 4-5 years. We're still getting used to a new system, coach and players. I'm incouraged that we stayed with them for 44 minutes on their floor. As we get used to ourselves, we'll stay with them and even pass them in the final 4 minutes. THIS SEASON!!!

 

Good article but his best points were:

1. Yao needs more touches/shots

2. T-Mac needs less iso's and more screens and curls for his shots (like in Utah)

 

I also felt that Yao needed more touches and Mcgrady come off more weak-side screens/ and or drive to the basket, instead of settling for jump shots from the top of the circle. Granted, he did miss a couple of shots in the paint.

 

I like the term Rosen used to describe Yao-enabled passwork: "assist-pass," which will never show in any boxscore or on even the most sophisticated stats sheets of John Hollinger and Knickerblogger.

Also to be noted is the recognition of Bonzi's assist and rebounding, in spite of his poor shooting.

 

How does this differ with 98% of this bbs?

 

Yes,Yao needs many more touches in the paint .

 

I thought, for once, this turned out to be a great analysis by Rosen. Since it was the only game on last night, I'm sure he watched it from beginning to end. Several great points he made in his analysis:

1. The Rockets aimed to defend high-screens in several different ways: Going under the screen — which allowed too many open treys (the Mavs were 8-of-18). Occasionally switching — usually only when Battier or Hayes were the switchers — which was fairly successful. But for the most part, the Rockets wanted the man guarding the screener to sink into the middle with the nearest perimeter defender sliding over to help the man being screened. However, when Dallas really needed a bucket, they cleared out a side and ran wing screen-fades that left too much ground for the designated helpers to cover — and resulted in several critical baskets on wide-open jumpers.

This was a critical defensive error that cost dearly for us towards the end of the game. New coach, new team, but still same mistake. We can't guard a PnR worth a dime.

2. The Rockets' offense was extremely unbalanced. McGrady took 31 shots (making only 12), while Yao was 9-of-12. This, despite the fact that Yao's passes out of double-teams always generated good looks for others. Indeed, McGrady posted more times than did Yao.

Admit it Tmac, with JVG gone, you thought you could get back to your scoring champ days again. But come off it, if you wanna get past the first round, you gotta get other teammates involved more. It was painfully noticeable last night that you tried to take over at the end when you just didn't have it left in you. RA's offense is designed not only to make you better, but to also make EVERYONE ELSE better as well. Share the ball a little, rather than force your shots.

3. James took too many forced shots, going 4-of-13, and made several lazy wing-passes, and was also atrocious on the defensive end.

Yup. One telling sequence was when he went for a baseline layup against TWO Mavs defenders (one was Diop), with Yao standing outside the defense on his right. All he had to do was fake the layout, dish it out to Yao between the two defenders and that would've been a basket. Instead, his shot got blocked by Diop.

 

Fairly accurate...Nothing we can't fix for tonight...

 

That's fine, but I hope you weren't one of those people blaming Tracy for not taking over the game in the 4th quarter against Utah (game 7).

When we lose, he's either going to get criticized for trying to do too much, or not enough.

 

Good analysis but I didn't see one mention of the main reason we lost...Jason Terry hitting for 31 OFF THE BENCH. Many of the shots he made were pretty well defended, they just went it, that's not going to happen all the time.

Let's beat SA tonight and go from there.

 

I think the 4th quarter problem is the point guard problem. Our pg cannot control pace.

 

Truth of the matter is, without him the Rockets fall to the crapper.

I agree with your analysis, it's Tmac drive Tmac be agressive Tmac take over.

Tmac has a bad game oh Tmac you aint Kobe Tmac blah blah blah

What about the fact that the announcers even saw and said that "no one else is scoring besides Yao and McGrady"

How about when Jason Terry went ape nuts on Rafer in the 3rd qtr, and Rick Adelman left him in the game anyhow.

Forget the crap though, punch the ball into Yao against Dallas and pressure Dirk like GS did. Dallas can play that herky jerky style but they buckle under pressure defense.

 

The unfortunate thing is that we have this kind of a schedule so early on. I and everyone else should just take a fifteen-game breather and wait until we can perfect the offensive flow against scrub teams, then see how we do towards the middle and end of the regular season when we've got some real confidence under our shoes.

Yes, it looks like we have a lot of problems at this point, mostly coming out of the PG position yet again. But just give it time, there may actually be talent enough on this roster to meet the demands of our shortcomings this year.

 

PNR defense in the 4th is the ultimate problem for Rockets. They just can not solve it.

a memo to RA: Never use Yao to defend pnr in the 4th.

 

I don't know why, I just can't find myself to read a Charlie Rosen article. I truly hate this guy. I don't care if he's right this once out of 100.

 

....and what kind of "drastic measures" would you suggest, Charley?

 

How is RA supposed to control what players the other team involves in the pick and roll?

Or do you think he should just bench Yao?

 

It's all about matchups. Rockets don't matchup well at all with Dallas. To beat Dallas you need an athletic team, that's why Dallas loses to teams like the Hawks and was knocked out by GS last year. Dallas struggles to get their offense going against those teams.

To beat Dallas, our bench will have to be VERY important. Scola, James, and Bonzi all have to contribute off the bench. The comforting fact about last nite's game was that all 3 of them were terrible and the game was still close for 44 minutes. Much better than last year, when we were clearly the inferior team.

 

Tmac's biggest problem is his shot selection. Sometimes just horrible. He makes some and becomes hero. But more often than not he misses. I'd rath see him driveto the hoop and miss than throw up 30 feeters with defender right in his face.

 

Dallas have great outside shooter and defenders. Our biggest advantage against them is at center position. Once we forget that, we are bound to fail.