This is my first NBA game, I saw the action up close and personal. Man, was I happy when I heard TMac is back to the line up. Here's some of my observations from the Rockets vs. Nets game: - T-Mac was awesome, he's hitting most of his shots even in warm up. When I saw T-Mac draining 3 after 3 in warm up I know tonight TMac is going to have great night. TMac was bricking at first, but has great passing skills to find his teammate for assists. T-Mac then went nuts at 4th quarter, pouring in 3 pointers like it's a lay-up drill. Even Jordan did not have TMac's shooting ability. Watch closely you see TMac rises up, with good elevation and hangs in the air for a second (and really measure it), and release it and swish. He is just as good as Jordan, and so complete a player, even Nets fans are totally in awe. "Well, there's nothing we can do if T-Mac goes nuts like that." -Yao was dominating against New Jersey. He look so strong, even looking from far away, you see clearly his muscle definition on his bicep and those tree trunk legs. I saw up close and personal how an opposing team can take Yao out of the game: after Yao torched the nets and start to build a big lead against New Jersey, he was basically unstoppable inside and score almost every single time he got the ball in post up; The nets adjusts and send big muscle guys like Marc Jackson at Yao, and front him with both hand on his back. Grabbing, shoving, pushing basically opposing big man is doing WWF on Yao. Yao was pushed, then he pushed back and immediately was called for an offensive foul and picked up his 4th and did not get to come in until late in the 4th quarter. The way Yao was man-handled, getting beat up inside by several big guys each and every game, and he does not have the right to fight back is sickening. Even though he's a huge strong guy, there's no way to stop him playing fair, the refs at least should let Yao fight back just a little. The Rockets can definitely be stopped with McGrady out, you just simply swarmed Yao with 4 guys and dared the other guys to make a shot. On the good side, Yao was active and finish strong whenever he has a good pass inside, he no longer hesitate to make a move. Yao was also unselfish, whenever there's a rebound, many times Yao could have grab the rebound but instead he boxed out and let Howard or TMac or somebody else get the rebound. He's absolutely not stat driven. He could have easily got 10 rebounds last night in limited minutes. - Luther Head definitely deserves more minutes like JVG gave him last night. He has a good shot, great ball handling skills. He can take and make big shots in the clutch. He drained some 3 pointers when New Jersey is making a run to stop the crowd. Head was active as well, running all over to pick up his man. He also was not afraid to go inside trying to strip the ball from big guys. - David Wesley is pretty good defensive player. He did a lot of little things you could not see on TV, he and Anderson take turns to guard Vince carter and have Carter completely disappear in the game. Luther Head has what it takes to replace David Wesley pretty soon. Derek Anderson and Wesley deserves prop for stopping Carter last night. - Rafer Alston looks like an average PG out there, I am not so sure he's the guy that can oil the machine. - Howard looks good but he's old, and he definitely is not our answer in PF in the long run. He can shoot but can no longer fight for a rebound. He lost most of his athleticism. - Swift could be a project, he has great potential, with Yao to become one of the best front court on the planet. A lot of times he does not look like he know what he's doing out there. It doesn't help that JVG doesn't look to exploit Swift's ability to score. Several times Swift was ignored but his teammates when he has good post positions much like Yao was in his 1st 2nd year. Swift is still finding his way on this team. - Mutombo was as good as advertised, I don't know how old he is really. His lay down a guy with an elbow when New Jersey is bringing the ball up court. - Moochie Norris looks like a "chemistry" guy on the team. In warm out, I saw him taking turns to joke with everybody, much like a class clown. It seems that all the players likes moochie, they genuinely enjoy Moochie. He is good for the team chemistry. - I was surprised to see Charlie Ward out there in a dark suit with a coach's clipboard, standing behind JVG. The whole game he did not say anything to the players, he was just standing there. I guess Rockets offered him assistant job to get him off the roster. Rockets has a very good future with TMac and Yao. Both Franchise players are living up to their billings. They are both unselfish, works vey hard on both ends of the floor, and both provides a huge presence to make his average teammate look great. I feel that no matter what happen, whenever TMac and Yao are on the floor, they're going to give you hundred percent effort. I don't think I have ever seemed two franchise guys work so hard yet with so much talent. I noticed how guys like Head, Anderson, Wesley, Alston has wide open shots when Yao was down inside and TMac being chased by 2 guys. I saw how someone post a thread asking what happened if Yao was injured and how will Rockets do, from the look of things, Rockets will be an average team without either Yao or TMac. They just makes everybody else's job much easier. Either one of them is gonna have a hard time when the other is out of the line up. We still need one or two pieces to take on San Antonio though, we definitely need a consistent outside shooter (someone like Ray Allen, Rip, Allen Houston in his prime) to take advantage of Yao being ganged up inside. If Swift gradually becoming what we needed, it's gonna help Yao out a lot. Another problem Rockets will need to solve is how to beat the fronting defense put on Yao when Yao has so little to fight back with. It seems the refs was always looking closely at Yao for foul while the opposing guys can do whatever he wants. I'm not kidding, that's the sad truth, Yao was being stopped by the ref. I wish he could knock the **** out of Marc Jackson and give a flagrant foul to force the refs to make some adjustment. With TMac putting on a show last night we could win with Yao sitting on the bench after help building up a lead, but I can't imagine we can beat San Antonio without Yao. I can't help but dream if we have a Jason Kidd, it's light out for the whole league. He can run the break, make the good plays, hitting 3 pointers with ease with the open look Yao can give him.
Great post. You must have been sitting on Rox bench, I never have any of your game insights when I go to a game but I have never sat courtside. Your observation about Yao's unselfishness and rebounding was also interesting, he took some criticism for his rebounding and this in part explains why he only he had 2 rbs.
That's a cliche that it has been mentioned here in the BBS millions of times. It won't hurt much when we are playing a season game, but the way Yao are refereed will critically determine whether we can go deep in the playoff, or even tackle the championship. I don't understand why Yao are reffed in this way, may be the guys think he is so big and strong that he deserves some pushing and banging from "smaller" guys (who is at least 6'9" and 230 pounds actually). When Yao tried to fight back a bit more physically, the "bullying" concept comes up and he will be called a foul. Perhaps Yao will never get the call that Shaq did. It's Shaq who is an exception in NBA history for getting the refs' ignorance when he constantly plants himself in the paint for 10 seconds, throws smaller guys to the ground and goes up for a dunk.
Like my friend that watched with me say, "I just don't think there's anyway to defend Yao if you're playing fair. I think Ref just leveling the playing field, it must really suck to be Yao getting beat up like that and you can't do nothing."
Ray and Allen? In their prime, they are both max players. If we have one of them in their prime, we will be argueing how many games rockets will take to win the finals, not if. That's why NBA has salary cap, so it gives every team a chance.
tmac is the best nba player i've ever witness. he has EVERYTHING. can drive to the net, mid range, 3 point, passing, defense....just amazing.
Allright, let me throw in a few observations from the game: 1) Swift is soft at the moment. I don't know why but he doesn't attack the basket like he did against Yao any more. Even during shoot around, his layups are unbelievably soft. And he took a few 3-pt shots during shoot around. I was like "too much time to kill?" 2) Deke practiced Yoga during warm up. According to my wife, who is pretty good at Yoga, Deke is quite decent, especially at his age and height. Barry also practiced a bit Yoga during warm up and he was not too bad either. Howard was stiffer and he needs a trainer to help him. 3) Barry made about 5 consecutive 3's during half time break. He hit nothing but net. His shooting touch is still there, but JVG decided to play him less for some reason. 4) Wesley was running like a mad man on defensive end. He could come up to the top to DT Kidd and quickly run back to his man the corner all night long. I see why JVG like to play him on D. 5) Nets audience was LAME! The statium was so quiet trhroughout the game except a couple of occasions. Rox fans might have been outnumbered 1:10, but we were much noiser than the nets fans. Most part of the night, I don't think our players felt they were playing on the road. 6) Nets tickets are cheap. Considering virtually everything around this area cost more than in Houston, this is amazing. While I was there, I bought a few cheap tickets to see Shaq, LBJ and Pacers. Similiar seats in the 413, 423 sections in TC cost $30. Cost to me? $10 per ticket. 7) Lower level seats were half empty when game started, and 2/3 empty after Barry hit that 3 in the 4th. That 3 by Barrry kicked thousands of fans out of their seats. My wife was absolutely shocked. She couldn't understand what kind of fans those are. It was 13 pts game with almost 4 minutes to go. We know miracles do happen, right? Not those fans. After hearing some of your guys complain about the audience in TC, and after seeing what Nets fans are like, I can say the TC fans are most likely not the worst, and that lower level seats problem most likely is not unique to TC.
I also went to the New Jersey Nets game so I thought I'd throw in a few observations of my own: 1. T-Mac is incredibly good at the game of basketball. The game seems to come so easy to him. To think how hard it is to get into the NBA and then to be able to dominate like he can is not truly appreciated until seen in real life. 2. Swift right now is not getting it done and I think the blame falls half on his shoulders and half on JVG's. I mean the guy is in his 6th season and is making rookie level decision making errors which seems kind of inexcusable. That said, he has a unique ahtletic package and I really don't think JVG is playing to his strengths enough. It would be nice to see him come of a screen and get an alley-oop pass for example, or be able to get out and finish on the break. This said, he just isn't playing with any confidence or assertiveness right now either. He was stripped at least two or three times taking the ball to the hole and wasn't the intimidating enough on defense I expected. 3. I was really surprised with how many minutes Head got and how well he played. He showed poise and confidence, knows his role and hits the open 3 with consistency which is absolutely key. McInnis was sent into the game whenever Head was to try and disrupt/distract him. It didn't work and he looked comfortable handling the ball. He is also able to match up with the taller guards like Kidd well and right now it seems like he is really helping the team which is very encouraging at this stage in his development. 4. On paper you have to be pretty happy with your PG, Rafer having 6 assists and no TO's but in reality he really didn't make much of an impression on the game. He is a confident ball handler but got kind of dominated by J-Kidd on the defensive end when his lack of size was exposed. He really has to be able to knock that 3-ball down to keep the defense honest and last night, his shots weren't pretty at all. I would also like to see much more penetration from him too. 5. When Yao stays on the court he can dominate. The referees are still doing a poor job of officiating him. They need to realize that he is going to be subject to defenders who are not capable of playing him straight up so will resort to any means possible to distract him or get him out of the game (see Marc Jackson). The referees turned a blind eye to Jackson shoving Yao out to the 3-pt line only to call Yao for trying to jostle Jackson back and establish position which is not good enough. That said Yao needs to save at least one foul a game by resisting the temptation to get his hand caught in the cookie jar going for hopeless offensive rebounds etc. 6. The veteran perimeter trio of Wesley, Barry and DA are 3x better when T-Mac is on the court. None are adept at creating their own shots (possibly with the exception of DA) and all look best when zipping the ball around the arc to find the open man. The amount of time and space to shoot which was created by T-Mac seems to have cured D-Wes of his shooting slump. Thank goodness for that! 7. I did enjoy watching the small ball lineup which at one point was T-Mac, Head, DA, Wesley and Stro. It seemed fairly successful however you could have put any 4 scrubs with T-Mac last night in the fourth and they would have looked like All-Stars. 8. Yao has a truly impressive following in the Chinese community. I think that accounted for a lot of the Rocket fans in the building last night. The Nets fans were woefully quiet, it amazes me how little excitement is generated when watching the best basketball players in the world. I know someone said how cheap it was but I paid $70 to sit in the upper tier, and not many can afford to pay that every week, so you would think when you do go you would be excited! Apparently not!
I don't know how many people pay $70 to sit on the upper tier (center of the court). Half season tickets for those seats are $45/game and it is not too hard to split 21 games between 2 to 3 people, and I believe that even include parking. Also, behind the board lower tier seats are $40/game if you buy a plan. If Rox were in NJ, I would go to many games for sure. You would think a team with Kidd, VC, and RJ would be exciting to watch but their fans weren't excited at all.
I will take those on teachers appreciation day any time! Otherwise, Rox dancers are a bit too meaty by the standard outside of Houston.
Well, aren't the Nets moving to a new location soon? I don't recall Oilers fans being terribly psyched at the games the year before the team moved to Tenne(****in')see.
Rockets fans are much louder than "New Jersey fans" too, we're screaming like crazy when TMac went nuts and when Yao throws down that dunk and plus 1. The nets fans were like "Damn", could not make a sound.
