I know this is going to sound like more Rafer scapegoating...

Some of our guys seem to get tight around crunch time. I'm talking about Scola and Head, I have seen both of them pass up shots they'd normally take to either force feed Yao or swing it to someone else. Rafer, Yao, Battier seemed to play the same as they always do (they did miss more shots). Hopefully Scola is just having a little self doubt as a rookie and he comes around soon.

 

The root of the problem is the laziness:

a) The Pound-it-to-Yao is a lazy offensive scheme. It killed Yao's game.

b) PG's lazy play. A PG should do much more than just dumping the ball to TMAC or Yao every time. An NBA PG should never be always left wide open. With Rafer playing 40 minutes a night, ........ugh, I stop it here.

c) Lazy or passive defense. Yao and Battier are too nice to play aggressive defense. When they do, they can win any team. defense > Rockets offense, no doubt.

 

Actually I agree...back in the 04-05 season we won games a lot more in the clutch. Maybe it was because Sura was hardnosed and t-mac was as explosive as ever, who knows?!?!

 

Looks like we have some Mrs in our starting lineup:

Yao - Mr. Double Double

T-Mac - Dr. Dolittle (and make a lot)

Shane Battier - Mr. Intangible (or Mr. Invisible)

Rafer Alston - Mr. Inconsistency

Chuck Hayes - Mr. Condom (all defense no offense)

And we wonder why we couldn't get past the first round.

 

you will all be choking on your words like terry bradshaw with the giants...rafer will be the starting pg on a team that advances AT LEAST to the western conference finals...the more he plays the better he plays. adelman has made a great adjustment in not splitting minutes at the pg position which is allowing alston to flourish

 

I think Rockets broke down when pressured during the 4th this season. Even during JVG, a full court pressure does affects our players especially Rafer. Probably, this due to lack of experience in dealing with a full court pressure.

 

The Rockets don't have any cold blooded sharp shooters that kill other teams in the fourth quater.

No Vernon Maxwell, Robert Horry, Sam Cassell, Mario Elie, Eddie Johnson, Bob Sura, Jon Barry, etc.

Heck when younger, even Cuttino and Steve Fancis had that cold blooded streak in them.

Some dude that WANTS the shot in the fourth and shoots BETTER when under pressure.

Who do we have now? Last year I thought it was Battier, but he hasn't shot as well this year. Luther Head sure did look like a shorter Robert Horry last year, now he plays his best basketball in the first half.

Rafer is super streaky and seems to be the opposite of clutch. T-Mac can take over a game when healthy, but often chunks up ill advised threes that don't go in. Bonzi is more of a close to the basket player with underwhelming jump shooting.

Scola passes the shots up. Yao gets triple teamed in the fourth before he even has the ball. Chuck ONLY rebounds and plays defense. Steve Francis is out of shape, hurt, and may have missed his chance this year already. Mike James is just shooting horribly. Novak is buried at the end of the bench.

Snyder wears nice suits to most of the games, and doesn't really have an outside shot anyways. Deke is Deke. Our dunking rookie PF isn't going to be hitting ice cold shots from downtown.

I guess that leaves Brooks as an unknown in that situation. He strikes me as a guy that could like that role, but is he going to get the chance?

Where is it? Where is the guy that's going to put the nail in the coffin?

If he's on the team already, I think it HAS to be Battier. He needs to fill that role. He needs to be looking to get that open shot, even if they need to draw some plays to get it to him. He's been a sharp three point shooter in the past, he's hit some big shots before, he's tall and can shoot over people. Heck, he's the guy that was brought in as the "third best player" behind Yao and McGrady. He's supposed to do all the dirty work that helps you not only win in the regular season, but win in the playoffs. I think nailing those big fourth quarter shots when Yao is being guarded by the whole defense and when McGrady is not hot should fall to Battier.

That, or trade for a guy that has that "it" factor in the fourth quarter.

 

i don't think you've said anything most of us don't know already but it's easier said then done. you just can't choose who's going to be open with a double team on yao. that's the opponent's choice. unless you got everyone who can shoot with someone in their face like TMAC, rafer's going to get left open alot during crunch time.

maybe we should ease novak in during weak opponents. ya, know, play him during the last minutes of the first two quarters. i got a feeling he'll be a good sharp shooter, if not for our team, then some other.

 

Rafer can't shoot .

We often see fastbreaks during the game where the pg bring the ball around the freethrow line and take a shot. Rafer does that too, but he misses all.

Rockets need a point guard who can make wide open shots. maybe Sam Cassell can help with them.

 

This is totally subjective but I agree with you. The Rockets have a real problem with taking their foot off the gas pedal when they have a third quarter lead and what happens is the other team turns up the intensity and the Rockets start falling behind. A lot of times I look at Alston during the 4th and he looks tenative. He takes forever to get the ball up the court.

Just winning isn't good enough any more. When the Rockets start to fall apart late in the game that's a problem, and that problem needs to be addressed as urgently as losing games. Adelman needs to tinker with the line up in the fourth quarter.

 

I don't think Alston is flourishing. He had a good run but he's hit a rough patch.

And I would argue that the worst thing you can do is give Alston lots of minutes. He plays better when he's pushed from behind.

Play Brooks damnit! Every time the fourth quarter rolls around everybody on this forum does a gut check and wonders if the Rockets are going to collapse again and blow another lead. Look at the last win over Seattle. The media reaction was overwhelmingly negative because the Rockets came out flat, played flat and pissed away another third quarter lead. Just reading the reaction from the sports media you'd think that the Rockets lost.

 

I also thing Rafer is the root cause. Alston thinks he is better than he is. He has too many mental lapses for my liking. It happened in the last Sonics game and Gene Peterson was beside himself on Rafer's shot selection in the fourth quarter. It was also there last year in LA against Smush Parker and many other countless games in the last three years. As the starting point guard of our team and veteran, he shouldn't have the mental lapses he does. I hope Brooks emerges as a point guard we can go to, to close out games. Or we make a trade to bring that point guard in.

 

signed jacque vaughn

yes, no doubt they get rid of rafer and the rockets problems are all solved...forget that when he isnt on the court the rockets are even worse. Those observations over the past 3 years are totally false

 

Alston's okay but like everybody else he's got his weaknesses. In the fourth he gets tenative, the offense looks flat, etc. Also he looks a lot better when he's competing for minutes.

 

One more thing: I have a suspicion that points in the paint drops off the map in the fourth in games where the Rockets lose their lead.