Francis nearly led his team all the way back from a 14-point deficit. The Rockets were out of timeouts and trailed by one point when they fouled Chris Webber with 5.1 seconds left. The All-Star forward missed both free throws, and rookie Yao Ming got the ball into the hands of Francis. The All-Star guard dribbled quickly into the frontcourt but had a bit more time to get closer to the basket or perhaps draw a foul. Instead, Francis pulled up for a long runner that bounced off the rim as time expired. The decision dumped the Rockets (36-33) into a tie with Phoenix for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference. ----- from nba.com
what a freakin awful recap from nba.com! i mean, in that situation you want to be SURE to get the shot off. he shot it with like 1.5 seconds left. (Note: perhaps francis didnt have the luxury of having a little clock in the corner of the screen, and maybe, just maybe he wasnt sure exactly how much time was left). there was definately not enough time for him to draw a foul, and that decision definately did not dump us down to a tie with phoenix. screw nba.com!
notice NBA.COM said a little bit more...which probably means a foot or 2. I think it was a smart decision by Francis and it almost went in which means its not a bad shot.
nba.com's recap is the same (pretty much) as another already posted. i find it absolutely shocking that they are treating the last shot the way they are. i have never in my life seen a last second heave with time running down and no timeouts left questioned, no matter how bad it turned out or was. this was a decent look from about 35. and the fact they keep calling it a decision?? wtf is that? this isn't like choosing to throw it to a covered posey at the 3 pt line instead of down to yao open under the basket. it's called you got five seconds to go the whole court with a guy behind you and one in front of you, try to hit a game winner. there's not exactly a lot of room for flexibility. get as open as possible as quick as possible and throw it. like someone else said, does steve have the freakin clock running in his head like we have on the tv?? he had 1.1 seconds left, well damn steve, why didn't you know that. you weren't counting 1-mississippi's in your head? you didn't have it measured down to the tenth so you could release it right at 0.1 seconds. you were trying to maneuver down court and pay attention to the D? man you're stupid. and he should've drawn a foul??? that's the biggest wtf of the whole thing. what was he gonna do, force bobby jackson to foul him. just run full steam right at bobby and see if he can get to him before the clock runs out while not even attempting a shot. they act like he was driving to the basket and had all the time in the world. and furthermore, there seems to be this perception that getting closer means it now just automatically goes in. yeah i'm sure the 28 footer he could've got at 0.1 if he had the clock running in his head would've been so much easier than that 35 footer. stupid people. and duhvine is just a great addition to the board. now i'm thinking the 100 post rule should apply to posting, not just starting threads.
Thanks terra for getting that from a PROFESSIONAL source (nba.com). Notice the wording: "decision". Steve Francis decides the games for us. He is our best player. He should take the responsibility for our wins and losses. If he doesn't want that responsibility, then he needs to learn to PASS MORE. When he does... he will become a GREAT player!
Listen up and I'll say it again. He should have passed it. And from watching the replay 4 times, it looked like Mo Taylor was open. But then again, I maybe wrong, but don't take it like I'm a Francis hater. I honestly thought during the preseason that he was gonna be MVP this year. So ya'll need to stop hating on me and really hope Francis BECOMES even better... especially as a PG.
duhvine, you really need to stop taking crack. it f**ks up your mind. francis showed me something last night. he's definitely developing into a better point guard. he was distributing the ball well and he was hitting the clutch shots and if he continues to play like this, he could be a triple double threat every night. his teammates just made a lot of mistakes. yao, taylor, and cuttino all made stupid mistakes. if you minus those idiots mistakes, the rockets win. there were no timeouts, and less than 5 seconds remaining if i remember correctly and they inbounded it from backcourt, by the time, francis got up court, there was no chance for a better shot than the one he took. francis also took fewer shots in the beginning of the game if i remember correctly because his teammates were missing everything. only after they started missing everything, did he start to look for his own shot. overall, i think francis played under control for the entire game and he should be praised for doing so.
Come on duhvine, now you're not even sure if Mo was open or not? If you're not sure, then how can you criticize Steve for not passing to him?! And since the buzzer went off during his shot, how could there have been time to pass and shoot, unless he passed right after Yao gave him the ball? With no timeout, 5 sec left, and the length of the court to go, a shot by either Steve or Mo was the best we could hope for since they were the only two who were shooting well. The game was lost on the free throw line. Simple as that. Several of the players were guilty there. Steve passed plenty last night, but only he and Mo were making their shots. Look at his assist totals over the last couple of weeks. He has more double digit assists there than the rest of the season. He's been doing a great job lately and to blame him for last night is way off target.
Steve is a good player, not a great player... You base all of this on the last shot at the buzzer? In which case, I guess Webber, who I might add is in the running for the MVP, is just a "good" player because he missed those free-throws? Steve had 38pt and 9ast againts one of the "so-called" best pg's in the leauge. With his play right now, Steve could easily be rated above Jason Kidd...
First of all, the poster that started this thread is an idiot. I mean, you would pick the ONE play that Francis didn't make and overlook the number of other plays in the game that put the Rockets in position to possibly win in the first place. *lol* Francis isn't a great player b/c he didn't "will" his team to victory last night? What the hell do you call what he did then: "Keeping the team from getting blow out in the toughest arena in the NBA by scoring 38 pts, dishing out nine assist, and grabing five boards, but comming up short on a jumper that would've won it?" Well, what about against the Lakers, Jazz, Heat, Grizzles, Clippers and Warriors to name a few? He either hit a three to tie the game and send it to OT (in which the Rox would go on to win) or made a game-winning assist or played near-flawless basketball in these victories? Oh, but he's not a great player right? Would you rather him pass to the other 'HOT' shooters in the game for the potential game-winner, like Mobley, Griffin, Posey, Yao, Moochie???/ *haha* Fool. Secondly, to terra....mighty conveniant of you to pick out SOME of the things in the nba.com recap, but not all of it in which they (the writer) states that if it were not for Francis the Rox would not have won. Also, if it were not for his teammates shooting the team in the foot (with missed freebies, key turnovers, etc), Stevie would not have even had to be in that position. Here's THE REST of what nba.com (the writer) had to say in their recap, which you conviently left out: And here's the espn.com recap:
maybe he is just joining in the Francis hating this board once had b4 the All-star break..... though after the break, this kind of thread is hard to find.... but it came out this time due to this??!!! duhvine.... try taking a pass with 5 sec left and a guard in front of u and try putting up a shot, while running the whole court length..... replay the whole situation urself.... if u can manage a pass in that time or score urself, tell us then..... yeah, they are NBA players, but still, reality is something even NBA GREATEST players can't do anything about it.... 5 secs without a timeout to set the play up...... almost impossible....
He's has consistently been passing up the big shot as of late... He is the "Franchise" and should want the last shot and he's not going to make them all, noone is... I wouldn't have it anyother way... BTW...Who were you thinking, pass to CAT...
Ok, let's just your imagination for a bit and imagine you're Francis in that position, now there's no way you can look at your clock, teamates, oppponent, the rim and the ball at the same time in a pressure situation like that. Players probably count down the time themselves to get off a good shot, so let's say Francis started the count down him self at 5 as soon as the ball hit the rim, he got the ball around where he would count between three and 4, crosses the midcourt around 2, got to where he shot the ball around 1 --- what would u do, pass to Mo? takes more than a sec probably for catch and shoot, go a little closer, takes more than a sec probably for to reset and shoot not to mention with a player in your face, take the shot.... hm doesn't sound so bad now does it). And for those of you that want Steve to be some sort of super human that looks at his teamates, the ball, his opponent and the rim at the same time, I would dare u guys to try this next you drive: get on the highway, open a conversation on a cell phone (must use one hand for the cell phone, no of that ear plug crap), do your hair with the fingers on the hand holding the cell phone that are free (only need 3 fingers max to hold the phone), while b*&ching at the driver next to you, come on give it a try. If you successfully complete all of the above in unison for more than 5 seconds than congradulations, you've prove to yourself that Steve made a bad decision.
I'm sure if Steve had actually made the shot, that the same guy would be arguing on how poorly the arc of the shot was, or how it was too perfect.
SOme of these people are just terrible... Stevie is a GREAT player. Bottom line. You can see it on the court, and you can see it in the numbers. Go look at his numbers. You can only compare him to the Superstar Players such as Kobe, TMac, AI, etc. 22 pts, 6 boards, 6 assists, at 45% shooting. What coach in the NBA wouldn't want to be able to count on that everynight. Steve Francis may not be considered a superstar on the level on Kobe, TMac, Garnett or DUncan, but he is without a doubt a Great player. He stepped it up in a big game. He did what leaders do, put his team in a position to win. He was nearly flawless. What the heck does he have to do to get some respect? If he would have passed the ball he wouldn't have been criticized for not shooting it.
Steve is definitely only a good player. He has too many weaknesses: - Poor defense - Cannot run the break well - Has struggled to get teammates involved - Scores well, but he is nowhere near the McGrady/Iverson/Kobe level A great player not only has superb talent, but makes people around them better. Duncan and Garnett are definitely great players, and Steve is a couple of levels below that. But there's nothing wrong with that. If Steve is the #2 man for this team, we can be a very good team.
