I think that has a lot to do with Adelman shortening up the rotation in the second half. Chuck has been flat out better than Scola so far this season, and he played virtually the entire second half. And as much as people hate on Rafer and Mike, they are simply better than Luther Head. The Rockets played with more intensity on the defensive end than they have in a while, and of course Bonzi stepped up after not showing up on the road trip.
The Rockets played very well w/out him. Very true, they came back, I was impressed. But they couldn't close the game without him, that is my point.
They ran out of gas from expending the eneergy in the comeback, you could tell by the missed foul shots.
Point taken. But I don't see how Luther Head, if given enough minutes, can play any worse than Mike James at this point. With McGrady out, I expect much increased playing time as well as solid contribution from Head.
CALLING SCOTTIE PIPPEN. CALLING SCOTTIE PIPPEN: PLEASE WRITE AND TELL US HOW LIFE WAS WITH THE BULLS WHILE M.J. WAS IN EXHILE FOR GAMBLING AND YOUR "NBA ALL-50" ARSE HAD TO BE THE FACE OF THE BULLS. YOFs: this is your chance to bash me for implicitly stating that Yao, like Pippen, is not capable of carrying a team to the promise land. Tiger: c'mon, man! Yao is a fantastic player, but he's more Rik Smits than Kareem. Don't fool yourself into thinking that our team having Yao means that we should win without T-Mac.
Maybe we need to wait and see what happens. I think we remain very competitive even w/o T-mac. I guess Yao will just go beserk again instead of thinking so much. Might not be a bad thing, actually I think of this as a blessing in disguise.
You're still pulling out that Rik Smits garbage? Would Rik Smits get 20 FT's in a game, ever? If Smits jumper wasn't falling he was worthless. Yao at least made himself a major factor tonight even though his shot was off. That stuff is ESPN hate circa 2005. Can't believe supposed Rockets fans are still bringing it up. BTW, has McGrady carried a team anywhere, except first round defeats?
Oh god, not another Yao vs Tmac thread. Seriously, between this, the Rafer sucks threads, and the 'Let's trade for ***' threads I'm going to put everyone on my ignore list. Tonight was NOT a train wreck. We were down by as much as 17 (maybe 19?), and managed to come back w/out Tmac. This was not a horrible game. Bonzi stepped up and played another monster game. Hopefully he can string more of these together. Hayes rebounded and played D like a mofo. I'm so glad he's on our team. Train wreck? The major trainwreck for the last two games has been James for me. He's been a dribbling machine, getting the ball, putting the blinders on, and driving to the hoop in traffic taking an incredibly low percentage shot. Either a one-handed fadeway jumper, or an off-balanced rainbow shot, or...the list goes on and on. The other trainwreck is the LACK OF 3 POINT SHOOTING. We were pretty good last year in the regular season. It looks like we left off from where we were in the post season.
trainwreck? OMG,is T-MAC out for season?no? then where comes this trainwreck? yes we may lose a lot from T-mac's injury but come on, where are all the talents we were proud of during the summer, you can't expect T-mac to be superman
its funny that the Clippers are playing without their best player Elton Brand and without their starting PG, Shawn Livingston, and they are having a good season. They only have a 37 year old PG as a leader. Its time for people to step up. We've got more talent than the Clippers, we just need that Clutch City heart and swagger.
I thought we played better second half, but execution down the stretch is the worst poop. We score like 0 baskets in last 5 min.
But Rockets almost did it without T-Mac. Lakers took an early lead when T-Mac was on the court. We almost came back while T-Mac was being sent to hospital. What's wrong with the Rockets in the end of the game was missing some FTs. They played pretty good without T-Mac in the 2nd half. Bonzi took T-Mac's scoring duty was quite impressive. Thanks Yao drawing double team, Bonzi attacked the rim agressively. We came very close at the end. This could have been a very nice come back win if Yao and Bonzi made those late game FTs.
Actually Pippen had has best individual season and the Bulls won 55 games that year w/o Jordan(they won 57 the year before w/ Jordan. I'd say that was pretty respectable. They ended up losing to the Knicks in 7 games who were much deeper and went on to the NBA Finals in 94. No one player can carry a team by themselves anymore and win an NBA championship but just like Pippen, they can come really close or at least make it to the second round. I hope Yao can carry the team w/o TMac like Pippen did w/o Jordan. Although it will only be a week and not an entire season.
