Does anyone disagree with this now? Same old routine where the other team decides Yao will not score. So we take 20 of our 24 seconds to figure that out and then throw up a crazy shot or commit a TO. This is a strategy for failure. It isn't Yao's fault, it's a failure of the coach to diversify the offense and put in players who can score when teams play intense defense against us. Adelman putting AB in the game with less than 10 seconds in the game made me want to blow up. People, we have a coaching problem. 22-17 turns into 20-19 for no good reason at all.
I said the same thing after the last game. It was a mistake to take out Aaron Brooks. I knew right when that happened, when we had Rafer, Luther, and Shane on the perimeter, that the offense the rest of the way would be "Let's waste 20 seconds of the shot clock trying to pass the ball into Yao 12 feet away from the basket!" The loss was predictable at that point. No excuse for the absolutely terrible transition defense from Bonzi to start the quarter. Then Scola subs in for him, and the next possession he also loses his guy in transition. I could just roll my eyes at this point.
Your team is up by a good margin in the 4th. Which players give you the best chance of blowing the lead. #1 candidate: Luther Head.
When our team looks absolutely desperate, why leave them all out there to keep choking!!!? well, i guess this this team is just going to keep forcing things and continue to be so predictable to the opponent. firstly, i'd like to blame Rick for this loss as he is absolutely horrible at 4th quarter rotations, it really makes me sick. I could tell we were going to lose early in the 4th when dumbass didn't even change the lineup after several obvious weakness' were exposed. rafer and luther looked tremendously SOFT and chokey. - yet dumbass just stood there looking like a dumbass instead of bringing in james, brooks, wells, novak, landry etc. and scola much earlier before the whole team was already dumped and pwnt. LETS SEE HERE!!!... Rockets were up 16, and suddenly the game is tied..... hey Rick, you big dumb ****ing ******, why don't you just leave all those choking players in there since they look too scared to even shoot the ball, and can barely pass the ball to the nearest defender without turning it over!!! you're the man. Mike James, he may be off his game a little and in his own world not fitting in with this team right now, but he would be perfect to throw out there to change things up. it was so damn obvious that Rafer and especially Head for crying out loud, were plain choking. Maybe James would have ran out there fearless and made some shots and layups. When the team is playing absolutely horrible, you have to make changes, anything. Hell, take out 3 of em. Biggest problem though, is just forcing the damn ball to Yao every single time up the court. I kept shouting: "****ing shoot the ball or something!!!" play as a mother****ing team and stop choking, ****ies. Rafer/Head = crutch time chokers Brooks/Scola/Battier/Novak/Landry seem to have much more heart and would have at the very least, had a much better chance of winning. Atleast they would play hard, not scared. Battier only turned it over since he had NO ONE to pass it to since he was the ONLY one cutting in the forth quarter. Rafer and Head just kept running by each other passing it back and forth to each other and pussyingly trying to get it to Yao, and not moving with the ball at all, or getting anybody else involved. I saw Scola in great positions alot where he's open near the 10 foot mark holding his hands out, and guys just glance over him and steer the ball towards Yao everytime. Head and Rafer in clutch time...you just catch, look for Yao, just stand there for awhile and watch 3 defenders cover his ass, say to yourself: "dayumn, they got his ass covored!" , look around again but don't notice open teammates cause your so scared your vision is zoning out, then while your so scared you can't even breathe, try to dump it to Yao real quick, ... "damn, picked off again." I like Head and Alston alot, but there are only certain situations where they are productive. I've noticed that Head always plays awesome in the forth quarter if the team is passing alot and making plays. However, if the other team has the momentum, he is a horrible, turnover, shot-bricking, defensiveless rotting turd. Yet, he played the whole 4th quarter, ...Adelman. Come to reality and stop trying to want these players to be something they're not. Just because they are good starters, does NOT make them clutch players. Ask McGrady, or watch the 07 playoffs..... !!! There's no shame in resting starters for the end of a game. I think we should give Scola alot more looks when teams zoom in on Yao like they did tonight, he'll make them pay. How about leaving Brooks in there who seems to have tons of heart and is a very aware PG who can break down the defense better than any other of our point guards. I've not seen him choke up one time in his rookie year so far... let him play if Rafer or Head is choking please.
Adelman has got a reputation as a player's coach. It's nice that he showed a bunch of trust in his starters and left them out there. But trust is something that has to go both ways. If someone puts their trust in your then in turn you have to step up and play your guts out. Alston and Head didn't. They shouldn't be a lock to close out any close games from now on. The rookies get out there and at least they keep on trying and they don't give up. That's what's worthy of trust.
The problem is this is a continuation of a pattern we've seen all season. Adelman is way too slow to make adjustments. It isn't nice at all to show "trust" in a player (Luther) who is clearly gagging and can't do anything right. We don't have the luxury of massaging feelings. Every game counts now. I bet Luther's confidence couldn't be any lower since he was left out there and failed so miserably. I think he missed his last 12 shots. Way to build confidence "Coach Concrete Head!" I'm not saying AB is going to be flawless and poised closing out games, but tonight was clearly a case where he couldn't have done any worse than Luther. Luther doesn't always choke in 4th quarters, but it doesn't take very long to figure out where he's at. Being jittery and hesitant 4 straight times down the floor is a good predictor.
Early in the game when the Rockets can score, they get it to Yao as part of the offense and it usually involves swinging the ball around a few times. Late in the game, they stop swinging and try to go straight into Yao. When you dont have any other options, its pretty easy to shut that down. Rockets need to just run their offense instead of trying to circumvent all that and go straight to Yao. Yao will get it, just have to be patient and be willing to let other players shoot in the flow of the offense. Ya know, kinda like how the team built the 16 point lead in the first place. And Aaron Brooks on the floor at the same time allows a penetrator to take the ball with 7 seconds left and break down the D when they are not allowing the ball to go into Yao.
