is pathetic. With Yao being in the fold offensively, this means Francis has less of an offensive load to carry, which was the #1 excuse for his piss poor defense. White Chocolate has abused him in the past, and didn't relent tonight. I hope Francis works to improve his defensive skills somehow. If it means less offense, then so be it.
Right now, we're a better defensive team than offensive team. Tonigt's game was an anomaly. Read around. Articles everywhere are praising Francis' improved defense. He has improved. It's just J-Will. He likes to turn it on against big players. Who bigger than Francis? Give them a break. Grizzlies got lucky. Its not like the Grizzlies played brilliantly and made it impossible for the Rockets to win. The Rockets were a single shot from winning this game. ONE shot.
I agree. His individual defense is bad. But what can you ask for? For him to try his best and improve. He's trying on defense, and he's improved from his previous seaosns. Seriously, this loss is meaningless. It might even be a good loss. It might help us realize what type of game to take to the Heat and Wolves on their court. Like I said. Cupcake win. This one's on Francis. He said this one was on him. He took responsibility. All it means to me is that he's going to have a phenominal performance in the next game and the next time we play the Grizz. To look on the bright side, count the next game and the next Memphis game as wins.
Sane,I hope they do learn from this loss,but no loss is a meaningless loss especially against a talented but relatively inexperienced team like the Grizzlies.Francis has improved his defense to some extent but it's still pretty weak.Today the guys were trying to outscore them without putting much effort into the game. I agree with you that our defense has been better than our offense this year but bad habits keep on creeping back. The players should not get down and work harder to overcome their weaknesses and play as a team on both ends of the floor.
Why is it that when the Rockets take a final shot, it's always a very difficult shot. When the Rockets opponent takes a final shot, it's usually somewhat easy.
i don't like Steve's defence but we got to take into account that he twisted his ankle twice last game....and i doubt it can be fully healed in days. plus there are 3 other teams asking themselves the questions "why are we losing to grizzs"... we gotta understand that grizzs are much better under the lead of hubie brown. but tough loss....really tough loss
Steve's defense is a shoddy, esp. if he gives a few inches to his taller rival. Personally, I'd like to see Steve take more "risks" and attempt more steals at the ball. The turnover ratio is just killing us instead of helping us. I have nothing wrong with Stevie being offensive minded, but for all the points he scores, it means little if it's negated by an equal, or greater point total than his PG rival. I find ANY game where Rockets give up 100+ points a defensive failure. And it's not just Steve. However, if the Rockets insist on playing man to man, the guards HAVE got to take out their opponents. theSAGE
Can the Rox design some shots so that Steve can take? like the ones Bibby took in last year's WC final, I remembered Webber setted some picks, screens for him.
I think we just took this game way too lightly. I think when the guys saw that they were going against the grizz's they thought alright easy game. time to showboat and have some fun. We just need to take all games seriously. if we were in dallas's position yeah then we can let games like these slide. But we're a new upcoming team that needs to show the world. We need to bring the A game every second and an A+ game come play off time
Francis just has bad defensive technique. His footwork is way below average. Instead of keeping his body low and his feet apart, he stands more upright. Also, he doesnt slide step from side to side. Instead, he turns his body, favoring the direction in which he think his man will go which almost always allows his man to blow right by him. Steve looks like a matador sometimes. That being said, when you have the athleticism that Steve has, defense is all about effort and desire. Does Steve desire to be a good defensive player?
Why aren't we in a zone to end games. SF is a terrible one on one defender. The Rocks D is improved this year because our INTERIOR defense is better. Our perimeter D is just as bad as it was last year. DaDakota
Francis can't allow Williams to get 25 points like that. The play at the end of overtime where Williams easily drove right past Francis was alarming. Steve had zero chance to stop him on that play, not acceptable from an All-Star.
Two questions: Did we play any zone D against the Grizz? Who is the better defender, Francis or Rice?
I just upset with what Steve said after the game. "I messed up...blah...blah.". Noone needs any freaking apology. Hey man, it's time to stop making rookie mistakes. I felt like he was out of control, same shnit in the Hornets game.
The story of the game was defense plain and simple. The Rockets defense was getting sliced and diced by Williams, and it was simply opening up the Grizz entire attack. The interior defense could have done a better job on sealing up the paint, but there is only so much you can do when the perimeter defense allows penetration after penetration. My thinking as to why we did not see much zone last night was b/c the Grizz were on fire from the perimeter (Person and Williams were hitting everything they threw up) and this would have only made the situation worse. However, there simply was way too much guard penetration last night and that basically caused the Rockets defense to fall apart. I wish this would have been harped on more in the Chronicle, b/c THAT is where the game was lost. If the Rockets had given their traditional defensive effort, holding the opponent to around 90 PPG and 42% shooting, they would have won this game easily.
When it comes to ending close games,it looks like they go into isolation mode and stop moving the ball. It seems like they don't know what to do and forget what has been working for them in the game. I think Steve and Mobley have a lack of trust in the other players and also have a lack of confidence in themselves and end up forcing things which leads to more mistakes like missing free throws and defensive assignments. Glen Rice has to be more assertive on the court especially in tight situations and show them what they have to do to close out games as he the only veteran player that we have on the team.
