At the end of a close game the Spurs go to the hole, and our guys shoot jumpers or dribble out the clock. That is all the difference there is between being an elite team and a marginal playoff team. Will the Rockets ever learn to play as a team, and play smart? They give game after game away with their moronic decision making. So many turnovers, so many blown chances, and yet, they hang in on guts alone. I simply think this mix of players do not work well...Francis is Oil and Ming is Water, one or the other....and I would choose the 7'6" guy. I mean dribbling out the last 14 seconds and tossing up a contested 3 pointer.....Francis is just an idiot. DD
Ron, I don't think that will work. I think the team suffers from a lack of identity...is it Yao who is the first option or Steve? One has to go to make the WHOLE of the team better. Steve should be traded like Marbury...though Steve is not even NEARLY as good as Marbury. DD
I think the clock starts on the missed Rebound...so it was a bit less...either way...how does 14 or 15 seconds make a differnce on his idiocy? DD
I don't under stand this rant, DD. Most of the time, I tend to agree with you to a certain degree, but tonight's game was against the Spurs. The world champions. The fact that we got it down to a 3pt game was a miracle in and of itself. The reason they had to settle for jumpers was because they have a huge defensive presence in the middle named Tim Duncan. Yao may be 7'6", but he played like he was 6'6" in the paint. JVG is not an offensive coach, with backcuts and screens and such so easier baskets can be made. JVG is a "dump it in the post, f*ck the rest of the offense" coach. If anything, it's not our team "smartness" that dictates the types of shots we get, but the coaching strategy.
I am pretty sure that JVG has players cutting, but the only 3 players on the Rockets who consistently cut are Pike, Padgett and Boki,and for some reason they are not playing. Like this team needs more defense??? Sheesh.... JVG needs to get some offensive players in there. DD
I don't think a 6'6"guy can shoot 11/16 against Spurs like Yao did. Also, JVG is far from "dump the ball in the post". I actually think he is more and more conservative on using Yao. He is putting Yao along the 3-point arcs to set more and more picks. We should have played Yao more down low tonight. Yao does well against tall but not too quick defenders.
Yao hit a nice array of turnaround shots and hook shot tonight, i think yao was used very well tonight, and 25 points will say the same thing i am. yao's only problem tonight was not grabbing enough boards, but i'll let him slide on that tonight.
I was just kidding DD. I think Clutch's recap (last sentence in particular) on the front page of www.clutchfans.com says exactly how I feel.
despite steve playing an all-out hustle game tonight, he is not a point guard. I am sick of him from a mental standpoint. there is no reason to ever believe he can run a team. It's been 5 years, and he should have improved by now, the thin ice has cracked, the last leg has finally crippled, the last bullet has been used, He may be a little short but so what, put his ass at the 2. and bring mobley off the bench. Iverson is 6 foot and he made it to the finals being a 2 guard. The biggest reason is he having is worst year as a pro is because he can't multitask...DD hit it right on the head here. Francis was interviewed on TNT, and he said the following "I'd shoot that shot again." Not what you want to hear from your leader. He has no clue what is right.
Yep JB, That is what I said, he simply can not multitask it makes the rest of his game suffer. Just tell him to go out and SCORE the ball, and he will be a lot better imho. DD
I agree on the part about the other team doing layups instead of shooting. It is something the Rockets are going to need to develop. Ofcourse the last shot of the game had to be a 3. BUT, Gino going over Yao twice to give the Spurs the win late, is something I wish the Rockets could do. The Rockets really blew this one, they had a chance to win it. The Rockets shot 71% for much of the 4th quarter. If only that FT by Spoon late in the game went in, then we could have gone for two instead...ofcourse that is just like saying if only the FT by the spurs didn't go in...and blah blah I am babbling. Damnit....I wish we won.
Yes, we could have made a couple more MISSED shots, but 83 pts is not that bad against Spurs. I think we shot ~45% tonight. We lost the game because we couldn't defend PnR involved our big guys, mostly Yao. Time after time, Parker and Ginobili broke down our defense after the pick by Duncan or Nesterovic. I don't know if the coach didn't tell them, or the players were just two dumb to react. It's so frustrate to watch because you saw it's coming, but felt helpless because you knew our guys couldn't defend that. Just frustrating! --daoshi
Don't worry. The Rockets are a young team. They'll be much better next year. Oh wait- that's what I said three years ago. Hmmmm...
