If we played Phoenix 100 times, we would lose 90...

I DONT FEAR ANYBODY IN THE PLAYOFF but PHOENIX!

I think we can give Dallas a run and have a shot with the Spurs.


but vs Phoenix NO WAY NO HOW!

 

oh alot of us are admitting it...we're just in dissecting mode right now...

right now I'd like to dissect Rafer Jamel Alston with a dull hacksaw

 

honestly i dont think this game was too bad. they got out hustled in the 4th quarter as the rockets made several tired plays in a row that allowed the suns managable 8-10 pt lead to 20 quickly.

the game was at 8pts going into the fourth, the rockets missed some open shots and yao was pretty ineffective but his prescence allowed hayes and juwan to get a bunch of points and tmac had single coverage most of the night.

tracy was like what 8/28 or 8/29 for the night that is very un-tmac like if goes 12/28 which is still a bad percentage this game could have been a whole lot different.

the 3 ball was not falling tonight for the rockets and that is a huge weapon for us, contrast that with the suns hitting their 3s at the normal rate.

fatigue played huge i think if the rockets played the suns in the playoffs given the way you get at least one days rest, maybe more due to the tv scheduling that will clearly benefit the rockets a lot more. remember they were played on the second night of a back to back on the road while the suns were at home with two days rest that is pretty big considering the style of play of the suns.

the suns commentators even said that coach d'antoni said the team that scares them the most in controlling tempo is the rockets and that he must stress that a lot more against us than other teams.

clearly some of you guys are overreacting. pretty much every starter didnt play too well outside of marion. it was the suns bench that did a lot of damage, d'antoni shortens his rotation even more int he playoffs and the rockets are more prepared as well. yao is getting his conditioning back slowly, teams like phoenix are going to give him even more problems until he is 100% in terms of game conditioning. I think the rockets dont match up well with the suns, but they played good defense through 3qtrs i felt tonight and just couldnt hit some shots, a lot of tmacs shots were short which indicate fatigue to me. come playoff time i think the rockets will do a lot better than most expect against the suns, will they beat the suns over a 7 game series? probably not, but its not going to be a sweep fest.

 

JVG has something about the Suns, it just seems that everytime we face Suns,
JVG just can't think straight in his head.
But...I believe we have a chance to beat the Suns in the playoffs.
Because in the playoffs, everyone has to play half-court offense. And we just good at it. Yes, it's this simple.

 

dude dont give up hope,
the Rockets of championship year matched up horribly with the Sonics,
if Phoenix goes down, we can take the Spurs or the Mavs.
Phoenix is our kryptonite.

 

stop drinking the kool aid my friend. We are in deep trouble. We have 20 games left and its mid march, yet 2 of our marquee players have not been worked into rotation. Our coach is too worried about his fiefdom to see the first round exit bearing down on us. Even when we win, we win by having huge early leads which we try to hold on to. If we meet any of these teams (spurs, mavericks, suns, utah) in the first round, we are done for.

 

the big problem with phoenix is that they can expose our point guards.
their point guards are faster, smarter and they can shoot. if Nash sits, then they come with Barbosa. its not Rocket science. haha Rocket science!

 

I think Yao should've gotten out of his inside game if he was apparently not doing well in it. Apparently he was tired. He should have taken outside jumpers (since he does have the range). Just look at amare taking jumpers all night long because he didn't want to deal with yao inside. Yao should have done that..I dont know who's fault this is..but it's so obvious that yao's jumpers is way more reliable than Rafer or tmac taking jumpers from 3 pt range or somewhere around there. Yao's midrange jumper is still much reliable. I mean they didn't even control the momentum that much tonight. What a horrible game..

 

jvg ain't gona let yao take jumpers on a consistent basis. ever. of course, rudy t would be letting him jack up (and probably make) 3 pointers.

 

The pessimism is getting thick.

I say in a 7 game series we'd win 3 or 4. An obvious 50/50 chance.

Same with Dallas, or San Antonio. But who knows? This Rockets roster is just really getting back together, what 5-6 games or less? Let the rhythm hit 'em, then we'll see how it straightens out.

Just relax... We're not in trouble yet.

 

I recall during the first season of the Yao-McGrady partnership in Houston, the Rockets traveled to Phoenix, faced a terrific Suns team at home, struggled terribly for the first, say, 30 minutes, and then came alive. Yao had one of the most productive fourth-quarters of his career (double-digit points and rebounds if I’m not mistaken); his and the team’s success continued into overtime in which Yao and T-Mac stole the game from a shocked Phoenix crowd. Surely there have been victories against the Suns since, though few to be sure, but that particular one stands out in my mind, the taste of which I’d love to experience once again.

Ever since that game, it appears that unlike other teams who appear to try to guard Yao one-on-one early in the game to get a feel as to how he’s feeling on that particular night, the Suns instead now aim to take him out of the game immediately, frustrate him with sagging defenders and force Rockets guards to make plays. This, in addition to the pace which they wish to maintain, has the effect of wearing Yao out early on so that his energy level is thwarted in later quarters, during which they depend less and less on sagging defenses instead of annoying fronting and buzzing about him with wily, single defenders such as Kurt Thomas, et cetera.

What this really means is that the stand-and-deliver low-post offense is simply not going to work early on. Off-the-ball motion and activity is required to make plays so as not to waste the open opportunities gained from Yao’s presence, which attracts no fewer than two Suns’ defenders at any given moment in the Suns’ first half strategy. When watching this match-up, I always look to McGrady to force things early on, after all, this is the exact time to do it — make the defense pay for sagging on Yao. As can be seen by the results Howard and Hayes produced during this period, the shot opportunities are there.

But alas, a win against Phoenix is always difficult, and tonight it certainly was not in the cards. Although the Suns-Rockets games seem always wrought with the potential for frustration and disappointment, at least we remained close until midway through the fourth quarter. And, no doubt, the sweetness of the victory in Phoenix two seasons ago shall be tasted again . . . hopefully sooner than later.

 

This is not necessarily a good thing. You think people think Yao is soft now? If he played like that... I really don't want to think about the reaction.

I think if he wasn't making layups and short hooks, he's not making jumpers. He just didn't have it tonight. He was getting outmuscled and rejected by FREAKING KURT THOMAS. He played poorly, McGrady shot a million bricks, they lost. It happens, let's move on....

 

I hate these threads everytime we lose a game. The fact of the matter is, its an away game on a back to back night. Phoenix's last game was on Friday, so they had plenty of rest. Yao and Tmac wern't hitting, which isn't going to happen every game. Nothing you can do if they aren't hitting. The defense was incredible. Outside Barbosa being on fire that game, we pretty much shut down everyone on the team.

 

I disagree. Sure he wasn't making his shots (easy ones) and was being smothered by the Phoenix fronting/doubling off the ball defense, but by drawing so much attention he basically gave chuck and Juwan open looks, and he was doing a decent job on defense of intimidating shots in the paint. Therefore I think he was actually doing some good things, until the 4th quarter when he got owned by Kurt Thomas and just unraveled. If you look at the gameflow from popcornmachine here:

http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20070312&game=HOUPHO

you'll see that Yao's +/- today was -5. The overall +/- (i.e. total score differential) was -23. So when he was playing, the team wasn't losing that badly.

Besides, you can't bench your franchise/superstar player so easily. McGrady played poorly, got owned by Shawn Marion, and jacked up bricks all over the place. Should he have been benched? I agree that in the 4th quarter Yao was clearly losing it, but he should be given a chance to play through first half difficulties, especially if he's not in foul trouble and doing good things on the court.

 

Exactly. I knew that year that the sonics could be the only team to put the hammer down on us but luckily they lost in the first round. It's more about matchups. Thats why we can split a series with the spurs and get swept by the suns. Yet the spurs match up so much better against the suns then we do because they can play comfortably at a faster pace. That being said and assuming that the playoffs started today, the spurs would hit phoenix in the second round (assuming both favorites win). Hopefully the spurs win and we can face SA in the WC finals but even if we play phx its better to do so later than sooner. Their legs will not be as fresh and their style will be harder to play deeper into the playoffs.

 

yao did pretty good job with amare both literally sucked tonight... but when amare went out with foul trouble i expected yao to do some dmg and he just can't do much against kurt thomas possession after possession including 3 blocks??? Coupled with tmac's shoot not going in and getting harassed by marion like yao by thomas, u can't beat suns with the 2 leaders being contained like that and allow barbosa of all the suns to dominate the court from 3 to penetrating. But atleast rocket didn't let suns dictate the tempo too much. comes play off, just hope warriors beat the mavs like tonight, rockets beat the jazz, spurs beat lakers then suns and then rocket vs spurs lol

 

The Suns play some of the best defense against yao just based on their tempo. Watching the game on tv I saw that Yao was entered the tv screen late every time and it really delayed them getting into their offensive set. This style of play is not conducive to a man that is 7'6. and the suns are so good at forcing their tempo on teams no matter how resilient they are. Thats why the teams that have the most successs against the suns are teams that embrace the faster tempo. Teams that resist will just get their asses handed to them like we did tonight.

 

Good points. I just hope it's just a matter of Yao being tired this game because of the conditioning. Both games in Phoenix have been in the second night of a back to back (thanks, schedule makers ).

 

Hell if our defense can't stop them from scoring, let Novak play! WHO'S WITH ME ON THAT?!?!?!

 

our two star players stunk up the joint. which, more likely than not, translates into losses against good teams.