Impressions of last night's game This one seemed to be an experiment on the part of the Lakers to see exactly how little effort could be put forth to get the W. Kobe showboated lackadaisically like he was shooting around by himself, Horry and Fox did everything they could to be invisible, and Shaq obliviously stumbled and staggered around the court like a drunk. The Lakers effort reminded me of why I sometimes do not enjoy regular season games between teams with big gaps in talent. It really doesn't bring out the best in the better team. Despite the score, this game never felt close to me. Reminded me of the time I went to see the Wizards play the Pacers last season. Just not a good matchup. Anyway, here are my impressions, obviously biased: Eddie Griffin: When EG doesn't hesitate he's really got a nice looking three. He also ran well, played aggressive on D, rebounded EXTREMELY well, and unlike many Rockets, knew when to pass. He was just active all the time. Two negatives were that he clanged most of his shots after the first quarter even though he was still wide open on quite a few of them, and that he still was not at all utilized in post offense. Grade--A Oscar Torres: I've said it before and I'll say it again. Torres shoots with bad form, especially from 15 and out. Unlike Larry Bird, this is to his detriment. He puts his arms straight out almost directly over his head and does a split-scissor kick when he jumps. His percentage doesn't look too bad, but 4 of his points came on a wide open jumper from 6 feet, and a dunk because Kobe wasn't paying attention bringing the ball up after the game already was decided. Take those away and OT is 2-8 (with 2 3s and 0-5 from 2pt. land). Some of his shots he missed horribly, either by airball or by skimming the backboard. Defensively he played all right, except when he was guarding Kobe, who embarrassed OT a number of times. Grade--C- Kelvin Cato: Not much to say here. He played aggressively enough and rebounded well, but just doesn't have any moves in the post. I won't give him credit for shutting down Shaq, because there was nothing to shut down. Shaq was out to lunch. Grade--C- Cuttino Mobley: With Steve Francis Mobley tries to do to much. Without Steve Francis Mobley tries to be God. I may get blasted for this, but I think he is hurting the team right now. He basically refuses to pass the ball until it is too late, which almost invariably results in a turnover. By tyrannizing the ball, Mobley makes his teammates cold and brings some of them down with him. The only player I can think of who played this selfishly is Chuck Person. Mobley shot well in the 2nd half but a couple of those shots were when the game was winding down and the Lakers were just trying not to foul. Cat did play good defense though. Grade--D+ Moochie Norris: Moochie played OK, but he HAS to learn that it doesn't take seven crossover dribbles to beat an opponent into the lane. THIS ISN'T PICKUP, MOOCHIE!! His clowning should not be tolerated. I don't think Mooch is deliberately selfish, but he needs to be more efficient in distributing the ball. Otherwise he needs to be benched. Mike Fratello made a comment last night that really struck me. He said, "It'll be interesting to see what Rudy T. does here. With the way Moochie is dribbling, it'll be interesting to see if Rudy tries to get the ball out of his hands for a while." I agreed with Fratello's suggestion, but what was striking was that his suggestion was that the best thing for the Rockets was for the point guard not to handle the ball--WHEN HANDLING THE BALL IS THE PG'S PRIMARY FUNCTION. Also, Moochie is horrible defensively. Grade--D Walt Williams: He played well, but had no business being in the game for 38 minutes. He seemed to have lost his wind toward the end and it cost us. He's really just an average player who normally plays pretty smart. Not much going on defensively. Grade--B Tierre Brown: I thought this was not as a great game for Tierre as the stats suggest. He did a great job penetrating but he seemed shocked to find that he had beat his man and had found daylight. He missed open teammates a number of times and forced things a little too much. Still, you can't argue with 12 points in 14 minutes. Grade--B+ Kevin Willis: I have little to say about Kev. He missed badly on another long-range jumper, and this was near the end when the game was close. I still can't understand why he shoots these shots. I have never seen one go in. Ever. Grade--C Terence Morris: Rudy should not have bothered to put him in the game. He came in when Mobley picked up his third foul only to be replaced by Griffin 100 seconds later. That was an insult and probably embarrassing to Tmo. Rudy should have just subbed Griffin for Mobley. I'm sure the extra 100 seconds of rest the 19 year-old got didn't make much difference. Don't get me wrong, EG belonged in the game, but I see no reason why Tmo shouldn't have gotten some of Walt's and Torres' minutes. He played well in the last game and might have been given a chance. The Rockets still would have lost, I'm sure, but at least Tmo might have been brought along a little more. Walt is not in the Rockets future, and Torres just does not deserve 17 times as much PT as Tmo. Grade: DNP (those 100 seconds should not count) Collier & Langhi: DNP--Collier may get PT next year, but not this year unless Willis or Cato are hurt. It might even have to be both. Langhi is finished with the Rockets. I know these grades seem low considering the Rockets bench played the full strength Lakers close, but the Lakers just weren't trying. HoHoHo, happy holidays to all.
Tmo, once again I am in agreement with almost everything. Like the last time, we see OT differently. Regarding Mobley, it is so unbelievable how ineffective and limited he is. And this is all between the ears with him. Instead of all those summer workouts he needs go to clinics for the mental aspects of the game. He lacks maturity and that refinement that as a 4th year player, he should have. He is motivated and all that but he has to understand his limitations and play with them. The negatives to his game at present is unacceptable high and are frustrating the team. The bottomline on Brown which you undervalued was his repeated ability, early in the clock, to get into the teeth of the defense; something that Moochie had difficulty doing. The day the Rockets realize that constant speed and uptempo represent their salvation is the day we turn this thing around. Brown would not be a limitation in that format, if Moochie should go down after Francis comes back.
Regarding OT: I think he is better after watching him play more--he's fairly savvy on offense and knows how to get easy buckets-- but I just think his form is bad, and that he'll never be a great shooter because of it. And I do think his defense is overrated on this board. But OT is no doubt a keeper. Ultimately I think he may be more effective as a 6th man. Regarding Brown: I agree. He penetrated more or less immediately in the half-court set. At times, though, he just didn't seem to know what to do after that.
Time will tell. Right now, I am of the complete opposite opinion. To me, his form is classic high release. The high release is an art form, and it looks different. imo, we are seeing a high release, not a hitch. Kenny has the hitch; Oscar is working on the Reggie Miller/Eddie Johnson high release. These are the qualities of a high release. This is what us smaller guys do to avoid being blocked. I'm 6'1, but had to play small forward in HS. I didn't like to be blocked. lol. I learned that you must shoot with only wrist and full arm extension directly over your head to avoid being blocked. Add a quick release to that, and presto, you aren't being blocked. imo, that is exactly what Torres is doing. Mobley's method of not being blocked is to do the jump back with somewhat of a high extension, although a lot of that look is due to his long arms. People call that a bad shot...not if you practice it. Mobes is only 6'4, while Kobe and Francis are generally taller and out-jumping their opponent, so they only have to square up and aim. Bird's bread-n-butter method was a step back with quick release.
The reason for the flaw in his technique could be due to the fact that his development took place in South America and he may not have had the benefit of proper developmental coaching. On defense, he will need to have a little more discipline and as his familiarity with his opponents improves, he should excel. I have said before and still believe that he has prolific scorer potential. By that I mean he can be a 20 pts a game scorer which is what Mobes and Francis did last year. Whether he is a sixth man or not will depend more on the other talent on the team and team chemistry and politics requirements, as oppose to, any limitations in his game.
Miller IS a good comparison. What Oz lacks right now that Miller has is the usage of a form identical from shot to shot. If your form is going to be unorthodox, it must be very consistent. If you look at Miller's/Torres' high release the shooting elbow isn't pointed at the basket, which leaves less margin for error, because the shot can be not only short or long, but can also more easily be wide left or right. A very small error and its a brick, whereas with a shooter with form like, say, Ray Allen can still keep shots in line laterally. Torres' misses almost always are either wide to the left or right. The question to me, then, is whether Torres has the motor ability to take shots with the exact same form. Maybe, maybe not. To do so is really quite a feat.
I cannot say whether he is always right or left. And quite frankly, you haven't seen enough of him to say it. By my count, you have only seen Torres twice. I know there is a tendency for bball fans to make quick conclusions (scouts must do it), but to say he is always left or right is foolish. Torres missed the game winner 3 againt Indiana.... long.
Good post, but I disagree about Mobley -- last night, he didn't have a single point by the half. He wasn't shooting at all, and rarely saw the ball. The Rocks went to a high pick and roll with Eddie Griffin and Moochie almost exclusively, but Moochie spent most of the time just dribbling. I wish Mobley had been more aggressive last night -- I hardly saw him do anything until midway through the third. When he was aggressive against Kobe, he did very well, and was hitting some key shots. I think that it's become accepted to bash Mobley for being a ball-hog, but I really didn't notice it at all last night. Moochie was the ballhog . . . it routinely took him 15 seconds to get set to run a play, and typically we'd just barely get a shot off in time. Furthermore, I REALLY liked the game that Tierre had. He did appear to be surprised, and hesitant when he beat his man off the dribble. Midway through the fourth, the Rockets were rolling with Tierre in the game. Then Moochie came in and our offense went out of sync. I love Moochie, and he was an awesome backup last year, but he's really hurting the team this year IMO. He spent far too long dribbling and bringing the ball upcourt. Oscar's shot reminds me of Drexler -- although Drexler had better form with his legs. But Torres gets the same kind of elevation that Clyde did. I do wonder if his ankle affected his shot somewhat though. Eddie was aggressive, and played very well defensively and offensively. But he needs to take it down low more often. He did very well posting up. I think I may have figured out Cato's problem. At the beginning of the game -- midway through the first I think. Cato had a dunk attempt that he just botched. It wasn't a difficult dunk, and it wasn't tipped or anything -- he just flat out missed it. Kelvin was coming from the baseline, right by Shaq and a few others. The ball basically hit back iron and popped up in the air about 12 feet -- and we've seen him do this time and time and time again. Yet, when he had that monster preseason, he was making those dunks. And I believe he can do it, but his problem is with his jump, not with his arms or hands. Either he times his jump incorrectly, or he doesn't get enough elevation. If he worked on his leg strength, I think he could make up for any timing problems on the jump, and start to hit those easy baskets. I agree 100% on TMo -- I would have liked to see him come in instead of Walt. Williams did play fairly well in his minutes, but I liked what I saw from TMo when he was in.
Perhaps I should amend my statement. But I do think it is true of shooters like Miller and Torres that they are more likely to miss left or right than other shooters. So it doesn't really matter how many times I've seen him, unless he shoots with different form in other games. All shooters still will miss short and long too, though, so you're right--there is no reason Torres should miss 'almost all' of his shots wide one way or the other. At the same time, that is the way it was last night.
Hey I won't argue about Moochie. But do you remember the play (I think in 3rd quarter, definitely 2nd half) where Mobley got the ball at the top of the key, dribbled back and forth a couple times trying to get a shot but couldn't get open, then just put his head down and drove to the basket, got tied up, and as a desperation move tried to kick the ball out to either moochie or brown on the perimeter but sent the ball into the stands? The guy just doesn't pass unless forced to.
I think you were a little harsh on some of our Rockets. For example, you graded the Wiz a B (3rd highest on the team), yet complained that he shouldn'tve had all the PT. Perhaps your Tmo bias had something to do with it??? People have already gone into the Oscar Torres thing, so I'll leave it alone. But the one that gets me most is Cato. I was genuinely impressed with Cato's performance this game (but I think some of that has to do with how well Eddie Griffin played). Cato only dropped 2 good passes, and one of those drops fell right into EG's hands for an easy basket. For the most part, Cato held Shaq far enough away from the basket so that Shaq couldn't get too comfortable. You said about Shaq, "there's nothing to be shut down," but that's absolute hogwash. The fact is, whenever they'd take Shaq out of the game, that's when we'd go on a run. Shaq was the same consistent dominant force inside. Don't let the Phil Jackson spin fool you. This off-game Shaq had was related to Cato's defense. Shaq had a hard time getting anything done when Cato was working him. Cato's a big guy and if he sets his mind to it, he can stand up to Shaq. With a healthy, motivated Cato (and 4 other healthy stars), we can actually match-up well with the Lakers!!! However, I must take a moment to rant & rave about Griffin last night. Man, was he something! The best thing he did was step inside the 3-point line for his first shot. Sunk that one. Sunk a couple more outside shots. Then when the defense respected/defended his outside shots, he'd cut inside to the basket. He moved really well on that high-pick play we always seem to run for him. He gave it different looks sometimes staying outside, sometimes rolling inside. He played great defense. He was active all throughout the 1st half. I was disappointed when he came out in the 2nd half looking for the 3 instead of building on his 1st half performance. He should have again taken a step inside the 3 point line and got his shot going again. But that's okay. He'll have even better games this season
Vengeance, Granted, it may be a little harsh to call Mobley 'selfish', but you have to agree that it's frustrating to see Mobley force shots, he needs to do a better job at picking his spots. And as for Moochie, someone said it correctly in either this thread or another, he is killing the team right now. I've never whined and groaned, watching Mooch just hog the ball, as much as I do now whenever Mooch has it. And if it weren't for Brown, you would think it's because of the 'system', but Brown does a fairly decent job of getting the ball up the court and into the offense effeciently. I really have no complaints about his defense, I just have to give Fisher some credit for shooting the 3 well last night. And once again, why does a team with so many solid spot-up and catch-and-shoot shooters insist on creating its offense with the dribble vs. the pass?
The Wiz doesn't control how much PT he gets, and thus playing too much won't affect his grade too much. His performance I thought pretty good, until Rudy left him in too long. As for Cato, maybe I should upgrade him to a C. 1-6 from the field alone should take him from A to B, and if you think Shaq was giving 100%, we will have to agree to disagree (look at Shaq's body language and his moping around the court). Except in flashes, he just didn't seem to me to care. Do you think that if the Rockets were to meet the Lakers in the playoffs, Cato would hold Shaq to 16 points on 6 of 16 shooting? I don't.
I'll have to say that I really enjoyed watching the game for the most part. Here are the things that struck me. Obviously, Eddie had a very good game. However, I was more impressed with his rebounding and defense, than his offense. His jumper was falling, so he put up good numbers, but I don' think he will do that consistently, unless he moves most of his offense a lot lower. I really liked his activity on the boards. The assist he had to Willis was nice. Crispee, he passed for an assist! He gave Kobe some problems with his help defense, and of course, the back to back blocks he and Cato had on Shaq almost made me pee my pants. This game should be a good confidence builder for EG. Walt actually had a decent game! He should have another by the end of January, or early February. Rudy and Moochie are horrible. Can you imagine Phil Jackson, for example, allowing Moochie to pound the ball to oblivion if he were coaching this team? No, I don't Phil to coach the Rockets. Even the TNT announcers mentioned more than once how Moochie was dribbling too much. I will take Tierre Brown with his sometimes out of control, rookie mistaken', make something happen with the ball, anytime. Please Steve, get well and get Moochie's stylin ass on the bench. I, too thought Cato played with intensity. Not much offense, but when we are mostly healthy, we don't need it. Cat is Cat. I don't know how much his ankles are bothering him. I do think he is more effective with Steve playing him, but Kobe was handling him pretty well one on one. Again, I'm not sure how much his ankle problem contributed. I would have liked to see TMO get more time, also. Okay, now for the really wild observation. I haven't seen anyone else comment. I didn't see it during the game, but as TNT was running the credits and showing some clips from the game, Kobe was clowning with Cat at the free throw line. I don't know who was shooting. Kobe was laughing and talking to Cat and kind of leaning into Cat and messing with him. Then, Cat leans over and bites Kobe on the shoulder! Kobe looked completely stunned. Who else saw this?
I agree that Mobley doesn't always make the best decisions. But I think that people use no restraint and unfairly label him as a selfish player in EVERY game, regardless of what he ACTUALLY did. Truthfully, I wish he would've been MORE selfish last night -- he didn't see the ball at all until the second half. When he was aggressive, going after Kobe, he did well -- especially when driving to the basket. There may have been a couple of plays where he could've used better judgement, but that could be said for every player, from Eddie Griffin to Walt Williams to Kevin Willis. Yet everyone just piles on Cuttino game in and game out, regardless of what he did.
"I got more minutes and more into the flow of the game," Griffin said. "I just felt comfortable. One thing I've noticed with this coach, every time you get a play that works, he keeps going to it. People think of me as a big-game player. I just try to do as much as I can." Even a rookie can see this
LOL! I saw it....yep, yep, yep. That was pretty funny; we were all laughing, "EDDIE's first pass! We saw it!"
I agree with just about all you say, TMo, I also see the differnce in the young guys vs the veterans. Brown doesn't waste dribbles, he gets to the basket quick and effenciently. Torres is a good mid range shooter so why not get him more mid range shots, f**k a 3. Morris should get time with Griffin at the 3/4 for our frontline. To me Tierre Brown should be really pushing Norris for playing time. Its like our team runs alot better and quicker with him in the game. We played hard, but they have 2 greta player to our none right now.
