Losing to SA in SA minus the best player in the conference should deliver one clear message to the Rockets: They don't measure up to the Spurs. I am not sure anyone does to be honest, but if T-mac and Yao are going to talk championship, maybe they'll realize that right now, it's still all talk and there's a reason why they are 35-1 underdogs. Before you reply with your poisonous venomous personal attacks....I do still believe (And at 35-1, it's a cheap gamble wink wink). In the end, the rest of this season means nothing. It's all about the playoffs. It's all about having the team healthy - both physically and mentally. Nothing else matters. The Rockets could play .500 and it doesn't matter. This team can play, but we don't know if they can't be the Spurs. Right now, the answer is probably no. So hopefully this team will go back and realize they can't win with what they are right now...that they'll have to step up...that they will again need to be humble and listen to JVG. And Houston's title hopes will lie in what Yao Ming we see come May. He's playing soft, we know he can play hard, but we don't know what Yao Ming will show up in the summer. If we see the Yao we saw against Phoenix....this team will go all the way...if we see the Yao we've seen the last week....let the Yao hating commence!
Good Post. This team needs both Yao and T-mac to be playing well if they are to do anything in the playoffs. Hopefully Yao will start to play a little better than he has been the past few games. Additionally we need Juwan Howard back and healthy. Other than Yao we have no other post presence right now and the offense that we miss from Howard is clearly affecting this team. Still believe the Rockets have the talent (if healthy) to go all the way to the Western CF and challenge the Suns/Spurs for a trip to the finals.
Yes, YAO is the variable and maybe that's why so many people on him right now. But if my memory is tight, yao peform always drops in late Mar/early Apr, and bouce back fairly amount after
The Spurs are a lot like our championship teams. Everyone thinks Duncan is their whole team, but they play great as a team even without him. They are not championship contenders without Duncan, but they are still very good even without him.
They won today because people like Robert Horry stepped up. Also, I think we can give the term "CHOKE CITY" to the Arizona Wildcats. They ruined my bracket.
If we had to lose a game, I woulda picked this one. Just ask the Kings. You can play beautiful free flowing basketbal all you want regular season. Playoff games are another matter. Hopefully we stay humble and hugry.
I mostly agree with you. If the Rox have all of their players (including Juwon) and bring their "A" defensive game, they are 50/50 at worst to beat anybody. If TMac continues his improved shot selection and Yao steps it up a notch come playoff time, watch out! Of course, there is no guarantee this will happen. I'm tired of the regular season. Let's get the playoffs started so all the teams and their fans can put up or shut up! Most fans of the WC 5-8 playoffs teams (except the Kings) feel pretty good about their round one chances. Let's see who the pretenders and phonies are.
I was watching the game and early in the 1st qtr the commentator mentioned that the refs were calling the fouls very tight on the outside and let them play on the inside. That plays to SA's strength and the Rox weakness. Yao doesn't like rough play underneath and we don't really have a 4 to scrap with him. The refs really tilted the balance of the game IMO.
Well, Yao better start liking it rough because the playoffs aren't going to be tougher, not softer, then today.
I don't think Howard would've made much of a difference in this game. This was a team loss where we couldn't rotate our D fast enough to deal with the Spurs' ball movement. Howard also wouldn't have been responsible for defending Ginobli. This will be a good loss if it gets us to play better transitional D OTOH though a loss is a loss and other teams are going to look to imitate what the Spurs did.
Nice post, you won't get any venom from me on that one. This medicine came at the perfect time. I don't even think that JVG fully realized the difference in the Rockets and the Spurs until this afternoon. Several things from that game should send a clear message: 1) Manu outplaying Tracy when it counted (pure effort). 2) Yao not taking advantage of a weakened frontcourt. 3) Spurs defense on our backcourt. 4) The real meaning of "stepping it up". Juwon Howard will definitely help us when he comes back, but the Spurs were playing without their starting power forward as well. Walton mentioned on one of the breaks that the Rockets lost with better talent, and I also agree with that assessment.
I agree wholeheartedly. The problem is - as many have noted - that Houston will have trouble in a long series because Yao simply isn't consistent on a nightly basis. One day he's Superman and the next he's Clark Kent. You just have no idea what you're going to get out of him. Actually you really never know from one quarter to the next. Anyway, this should server as a wake-up call that this team has improved dramatically, but still has a very long ways to go to catch up to the very best.
Hopefully the Rockets can bounce back and get a good win against the Jazz. As Greg Anthony put it, the Spurs came out with a killer instinct and we didn't. We need to come out and give good effort every night. If you don't, any team can beat you, ANY team.
Yep. Emphasis, *pure effort.* The Spurs had just lost three games in a row to Detroit, NY, and Indiana...they won vs the Hawks. The point that Pop was trying to emphasize on the Duncan-less Spurs was that they can't play each game soft and passive. They should attack! And that's what they did. They are NOT using Duncan's absence as an excuse to loose *every* game. Over the long run, Duncan's absence will hurt them; of course. But Pop told them to not focused on that. Just come out and play like Duncan was on the team. The Rockets came out and played like Duncan was *not* on the team. And it showed. Our players did not match the *pure effort* role players of the Spurs.
Everyone is writing "good post," What's so great about it? It points out the obvious, the Spurs are a better team than the Rockets and that Yao needs to play well in the playoffs. Whoopie frickin' doo. Why start a new thread for that? By the way, there's never a "good loss," it's a "good loss" only for you, so you have a reason to start threads that can say "let the Yao hating commence!." How convienient.
A loss can be a good thing if you learn something from it. SA exposed a lot of our weaknesses today, and without Duncan no less. If the Rockets take something from that...especially SA's intensity displayed through the whole game, and put forth that same effort come playoff time, then this loss will wind up being a positive step foward in this team's development.
One of the few times I've felt this way since December, but Van Gundy got outcoached today. Yao running all over creation, setting picks and stuff. Van Gundy should have kept his huge keester in the paint and let him dominate.
Effort and motivation waxes and wanes in the NBA, that is why we lost. That is why Memphis lost to the Hornets at home. As someone pointed out, the Spurs had lost 3 in a row prior to the Atl and Rockets games--they needed to prove they are are not completely hapless w/o Duncan. Don't make too much of it, the Spurs w/o Duncan would have 0 chance in a 7 game series assuming the Rockets are at full strength.
