LA didn't excecute down the stretch. They lost. The Rockets excecuted in the 4th quarter better than LA did. The season is only measured in Wins and Losses. You play with the players you have and one team wins and the other team loses. I can guarantee you the Rockets don't feel it's a "Hollow Victory".
How hollow is your rookie center going perfect from the line and field and finally busting out against the defending champs. So what if they were "Shaq-less", we were "Cato-less"... We still scored 35 points on them in the 4th and outscored them by 11!
I didn't realize that we outscored them by 11 in the 4th quarter. Good point! However, 2 consecutive games in which the shot clock expires without in the final minute or two should give one pause.
What two consecutive games are you talking about? Against Phoenix Steve passed the ball to an open Eddie Griffin before the clock expired. The shot just did not drop. In Phoenix the execution was very good up to the point of the shot. Kind of like in the LA game last night. Kobes execution was very good until the missed finger roll.
Let me take it a step further. The last three games have come down to the final second. Against Portland we executed the play to perfection and won the game. Against Phoenix we once again ran a play and had a wide-open shot. Unfortunately the shot did not drop and we lost. Against LA, the Lakers had to finish the game from behind. The play was executed just like the Rockets executed theirs against Phoenix two nights earlier. The ball just did not drop through the hoop.
Crash I wasn't referring to that play where Grif got the shot off. Wasn't there a play almost immediately prior to that one when the shot clock expired? My apologies if I am wrong about that.
Yeah it was the one where Marbury scored the go ahead points for Phoenix. The Rockets received the ball down by 1 point in the 4th for the first time with 6 seconds left on the clock. That is when Eddie missed the shot on the last play of the game.
Zilch go back to your dark hole where you hence came... What you do not understand is that the Rockets are a new team learning every game and while they may not be as good as a Shaq lead Lakers team they are constantly improving and will be a much better team by the end of the season then they are now and then lets see how your Laker team fairs... go back to your hole laker loving troll this is a Rockets board
oK Crash I will defer to your memory of the game over my aging one. Once again, I am sorry if I fabricated something.
Old Man I try not to respond to personal attacks. I'm the biggest Rocket fan I've ever met. I'm not delusional about the team, though. Thanks
Where's all that great coaching that Phil is supposed to provide? Does anyone still think he's the greatest now. Anyone can tell Bryant to jack up 40+ shots. Where was his great team defense in the 4th when we dumped 35 points on them? Give me Bryant and Shaq and I could win a championship. Take Shaq away and look how bad he looks now...
I'm not a Lakers fan (if the question was addressed to me). I gotta admit they are the dominant team in the NBA. And I give Phil credit in the ego management department.
The ? wasn't directed at you in particular. They don't look too dominant without Shaq... It's nice to see them losing and us winning for a change!
Umm, are you looking at last year's schedule or something, because they dont play again until Jan 17, 2003.
Go a little easy on this zilches guy fellas. He may have a poor choice of words in "hollow victory", but I think we can all agree that if Kobe's easy layup at the end would have gone down, we'd all be lamenting the many mistakes our team made down the stretch - beginning with Steve's dribbling out the 8.2 sec of shotclock in the final minute.
Ok, we beat the Lakers a few years back with SHAQ and KOBE. And this was during the time we didn't have a strong and consistant center. We added better defense (Yao + Griffin + Hawkins), we added a veteran player with one of the best 3 point shooter in the league (Rice), we added Francis's maturity and leadership, but most importantly we added a WIN, and we still get bashed. We've beaten the Lakers short handed before and when the Lakers are without their player, we still get bashed. quit the hating.
Well guys, a win is a win. This is NOT the BCS! There are no extra point for quality wins. There are no extra points for margin of victory. There are no extra points for quality opp ( or lack thereof ). It is scored as a WIN or a LOSS...period. Sloppy play, bad calls, poor shooting, etc means nothing. Only the final score. It is concievable that the type of play may be cause for concern, it by no means lessened the victory. NBA teams play 82 games and there are some nights you just have to gut out a win, especially on the road against a tough playoff caliber team ( with or without Shaq). While you have a point about Shaq not playing.....hollow victory it is NOT
