moving tmac to the 2 and starting bowen was a great move that threw off thier game completely. defensively bowen and tmac held pierce and davis well below thier season average, while on offense tmac's size advantage made him unstoppable. we obviously can't change the lineup before every game, but it worked last night.
T-mac wont score if Bruce Bowen or Tayshaun Prince guard him, so we can't let R.Bowen start in that case, we need someone can score, like DA or something.
JVG made a wise and very good move by starting Rybo at the three and moving T-Mac to the 2, and the defense of those two players on their two best scoring threats was the ultimate reason why we won the game. Yao, of course, gets a mention here as well (although he wasn't guarding their best players) because of the fact that when they tried to go at him on the inside, he absolutely shut them down and OWNED the middle on defense like I haven't seen him do all season. DA even played excellent defense on Davis the few minutes he was on the court. The Rockets just looked angry and determined to punish someone last night, and I have not seen that all season long until last night. If they play more like they did against the C's on defense, all they'll need is about 85-90 ppg to win against most teams and we'll be able to get thing turned around. They played with a chip on their shoulders and with more attitude than I have seen throughout this young season (every single one of them did, including DA/Stro/DW, which was really good to see). Yao looked mad, T-Mac looked pissed off as if someone beat his mama, and they guided their team with that warrior mentality last night, they were the 'pitbulls'; I hope I can see that more often from our two stars, and I hope it will be a change for good because it's not really a positive that we have to have guys like Sura on our team who will get in people's faces and rough it out to whip his teammates into mental shape. I have always thought that the reason why the Rockets struggles are more pronounced was because they were rather 'soft' collectively as a team, which was more or less due to the fact that they picked up a few players who were more known for their layed back demeanor. Sura is a key player for this team, no question about it, and not to derail this thread, but that goes to prove what I was saying in another thread about how a player's impact on a team goes way beyond the stats sheet.
On this team I think it is important to have a scrappy defender at the swingman position next to Tmac. With Sura out, Bowen fits the bill. Hopefully down the road the Rockets can acquire a more overall talented swingman to pair with Tmac.
Agreed. Much as I want JVG gone, this was the right move. Would like to see a real nba player like Al Harrington next to Tmac on the wings. We need some rebounding help at the 3. Tmac is great, but not at that.
I hope we don't have to have a Fire JVG/Give props to JVG after each win/loss. I don't know why some people don't learn from last year -- it's still early
Uhm last time I checked Ryan Bowen is a real NBA player as you put it. And I might add that he outplayed most of the guys on the floor last night in terms of hustle, energy and tenacity. I'd take that eight days a week from a guy over being an AndOne type of player as it fits into the team concept much better.
Agreed. He's a glaring hole on offense, but he's so good with everything else he does on the court that somehow he makes up for that deficiency. Come to think of it, Is he our Dennis Rodman/Ben Wallace?
So your saying we need more threads based upon "Firing Van Gundy", "Trading Yao", "Tanking the season", "The TMac trade bieng a bust", "Stro is a bust", "Wesley is worthless"....? Jeezsh....it's a losing team...not a team of losers... Something is needed to counterbalance all the negativity...why not look for some positives?
whoa whoa ...he still needs to be fired(JVG) . However, there was gametime adjustment that needed to be made.
just to clear things up i didn't start this thread to defend JVG, and I don't feel that everytime we win he deserves a "give him props" thread. he made the game winning play last night is starting bowen and moving tmac to the 2. that let everything else fall into place for a great win. for that alone he deserves some credit. the next win might be thanks to a great performance by yao and maybe ill feel like starting a "give yao props" thread. i'm sure then i'll get labelled a YOF. there still are some people on this bbs that don't affiliate with any of the "clubs". i am niether a YOF or YOH. i don't want JVG fired, but i don't want his contract extended. yes, I love luther head, but he doesn't have a huge following yet a few of us still call it like we see it. that's all this is.
Well he doesn't have an Afro and I hope he doesn't wear dresses.... And while he does hustle, I'm not sure he is ready to win RB title yet.
looks like we'll be using this lineup again on this roadtrip because of sac, sea, and lakers big guards and small fowards
