Live from MSG Tonight...

Almu -
JJ is locked up for 3 more seasons and never tops $3m!

 

This is a post I really enjoy reading. Makes me proud of this team even if it's just momentary because of tonight

 

not sure I agree with the mobley points

but ya gotta love jim jackson

guys a solid addition to the team.q

 

Agreed on most of it. This was a great team effort. Yao and Steve take a lot of criticism, but both looked great today.

I still don't know what I think about Mobley. I've been going back and forth on him for years.

Love his effort, quickness, and shooting ability.

Hate his propensity to take stupid shots and ignore open men.

I just don't understand why he does it. Surely, not taking completely r****ded shots has got to be the easiest thing to correct. I think the situation would make sense if Mobley were just a selfish, me-first player - but I dont' really think he is. He seems selfless enough...

*shakes his head*

 

Just got back from the game. Stayed til the bloody end and enjoyed every last second. Many Chinese in attendance and the crowd was so amped.

I was yelling for Moochie and he played very well. I really think the guy can play and since the trade he's played well. At the end of the game a bunch of the Rox came over to hug the dude like JJ, Yao, etc. I felt really happy for Mooch because he always seemed like such a good guy and the fans in NY seem to like him. He was tied with Van Horn as the Knicks leading scorer.

At the end of the game they were chanting "Patrick Ewing". They also were chanting "overrated" a few times. I felt bad for Marbury.

 

Came back from MSG also and stayed til the clock hit all zeroes. I have to agree with you Almu. I think MSG is the best place to watch basketball even if you are rooting for the opposing team. The crowd has so much passion for the game win or lose. It is in stark contrast to the Toyota Center.

I also liked how a timeout was called with about 2 minutes left and the Rockets up by 20+ points. Since I was in the cheaper seats, I couldn't tell what that was for...was it just so JVG could scold a bad play? I thought it was kinda funny but a lot of groans came from the Knicks crowd that JVG was still coaching until the bitter end.

There were the usual crowd of Rockets and Yao fans, but I thought it was less so than last year. It might have just been my section, but I do think the Marbury homecoming might have contributed...

Anyway great win and really just a great environment to watch a basketball especially if the team you are rooting for wins Seeing Knicks fans go home in disgust...what more can you ask for?

 

Other Rockets fans in attendance were Beyonce, and I think Jay-Z is a rockets fan cause he's always includes Yao and Steve and the Rockets in his songs. And then there's that Sex in the City chick that is in love with Cuttino Mobley. Apparently they are "good friends" and she went to see Mobley play against the 76ers. I wonder how he is celebrating this win tonight...

As for the mentions of getting rid of Cuttino in this thread, I must disagree completely. This guy is one of the few leaders on the team, he brings his defensive intensity every night.... He's one of the best defenders in the league for crying out loud. He never gets an off day cause he's guarding the best players in the league day in and day out, and his shooting ability is the best on this team for this year... thats for sure. JJ is shooting well too, but I think Cuttino is the best pure shooter we have until Pike proves himself. I love Cuttino for his leadership, his defensive presence and his offensive ability. The guy plays hard on BOTH ends and is a great influence in the locker room. You GOTTA love this guy.
I can't say enough about him, not to mention that he demands so little for a salary... all he wants to do is stay in Houston and play. He loves Houston more than most Houstonians. WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR? The guy is a great find on our part, and was a 2nd Round draft pick even. I hope Cuttino Mobley stays here for a while. I would have bought a Mobley jersey but.... I never know when he could get traded
Props to Cuttino, this guy deserves respect.

 

There IS a reason Mobley leads this team in minutes.

This reminds me of JVG talking about Ward. There's players that the general public think are good.......and then there's players that people who actually know enough about basketball to make a living at it KNOW are good.

still......the Garden is a great place to watch a game.

 

JJ is a big time player.. Since I live in portland I dont get to watch many Rockets games but whenever they're on National TV I watch and it seems JJ plays better than normal.

 

Big thanks to you NY guuys for the views fom the Garden.

It must have been great getting to see that game and seeing all those pissed off NY fans.

Agree about JJ
Agree about SF playing this kind of game all the time...that would be so sweet.

Do not agree about Mobely..for the most part he has been consistently god this year on D and with his shooting...a few mistake aI can live with in exchange for what he brings to the floor.

Yao did do better this time....but he still has a long way to go.

 

I went to the game tonight as well. MSG was definitely electric. The Chinese crowd was very strong and mostly rooted for Rockets and Ming. I saw Kim Catrel, who is so hot, Jay-Z, and Beyonce Knowles, she pretty hot too. Jim played lights out tonight. I was pleased with just about everyone on the team including Mobley. I wish Francis would learn to pass on the fast break though. There were several times when Francis just makes the game tougher than it should be. Ming played well even though he was getting doubled a lot and Mutombo was putting his hands all over him. Cato had a nice game but he seemed frustrated from the start. On one ocassion he had a shot blocked or stolen and was visibly upset and flailed his hands while everyone else raced down the court. JVG looked pretty upset theat Cato didn't hussle. Mo T was his usual black-hole self but I am happy he was making shots tonight. Overall it was a nice rebound from yesterday.

 

JJ is the perfect complimentary player. You need someone like him on any championship caliber team. But you also usually need two stars to play like stars consistently. Unfortunately, both Yao and Stevie are still pretty inconsistent. I think we have the right role players...guys like MoT, JJ, play hard and have skills. We just need our primetime players...Cat, Yao, Stevie to be a bit more consistent since they are the stars.

 

Great to see so many Rockets fans in NY

 

Jim Jackson has been disappointing most of the season. I don't know how many WIDE open shots he's missed this year- too many.

He's great for the team when he hits his shots like tonight, but that only happens once every eight games or so. He should be brought off the bench like he was in Sacramento. He's wearing out playing starter minutes, and his shot is suffering.

 

Another MSG attendee here. I've been to several Knick playoff games in the Van Gundy era and the energy in the arena before the game tonight was as electric as those postseason contests, if not more. The ovation for Marbury during his introduction actually gave me the chills.

But, of course, this is New York. Five minutes into the first quarter and there were already cascades of boos descending on the court. I've never seen a crowd taken out of a game quicker than tonight. The Rockets completely demoralized the Knicks from the opening tip ... it was methodical, merciless, and damn wonderful.

I went to the bathroom after the first quarter with the Rocks up 31-14 and it was full of disgruntled Knick fans. Somebody loudly quipped: "Boy, am I glad we made that trade!" Everybody had to laugh.

Some other notes:

- Got to the game early and saw the teams warming up through my handy binoculars. Steve came to center court and playfully jumped on Shandon's back while he was stretching. Shandon and Weatherspoon were sitting a few feet from each other across the center line engaged in a deep conversation. I wonder why Spoon got no minutes tonight.

- For all of Rocket Rich's ominous posts about dissension in the ranks on Van Gundy's style, I noticed that when Steve checked out of the game for good in the 4th quarter, he immediately sat right next to VG and the two were talking back and forth for the remainder of the game as they watched the action together -- pointing out stuff on the floor, discussing things, etc. Didn't seem like enemies to me. That said, I did notice that Steve bristled a bit going into a first half timeout when VG grabbed him to bark in his ear ... I actually tried to read VG's lips and two words I made out were "get back." VG is constantly waving his arms at his players to run back on defense. Mo Taylor is definitely lackadaiscal running back up the court.

- I honestly have no idea how any poster can criticize Mobley's performance tonight. He didn't shoot a high percentage but for the most part his shots came in the flow of the offense. He had some crowd-killing threes as well.

- Maybe Franchise's game tonight will put aside some of that "Marbury is better than STevie" talk for awhile. Francis ate him up all evening. I mean ATE HIM UP. Crossovers, threes in his face, and an incredible block on a lay-up attempt. Marbury made a lot of terrible passes tonight. He looked extremely tentative, although he did rack up 10 dimes. Could have been 15 if he knew that Shandon can't shoot. At some point he'll realize. But seriously, Marbury's gonna need to be the Knicks' Baron Davis for New York to succeed. He can't be looking to distribute, he has to look to shoot.

- Agreed on the above poster about Stevie's troubles on the break. He got bailed out at least three times on stupid Knick fouls, but there were several three-on-one opportunities that were thwarted by bad spacing and Steve's tendency to run up the middle and challenge the basket without looking to the wings.

- Yao's stats weren't very impressive but he played great. His shooting touch was outstanding.

- I felt really bad for Don Chaney tonight. The "Fire Chaney" chants were loud and frequent. I saw his postgame conference, and he claimed that he heard a chant but didn't know what the fans were saying. Yeah, right. I thought it was classy that Van Gundy defended Chaney in his postgame comments, saying "Coaching had nothing to do with the outcome of tonight's game." I don't think that's totally true, but it's a nice gesture. Chaney will be gone by the break though.


All in all, a great game to witness in person.

 

I would be really excited if this game was against somebody besides the sorry knicks. They are horrible. I hope the Rockets can keep this going!

 

I watched this game and kept thinking to myself:

Damn, if they put Steve out there and told him his only job was to score points, he would be one of the best scorers I have ever seen.

Imagine what it would do for him if you took away his duties as floor general and offensive coordinator and just told him he was there for one thing: to score. He would be so much better at it. With his various duties as is, he's much much more of a prolific and natural scorer than Mobley is. He's always averaged more points than Cat, and that's with him trying to find an identity and battling with unnatural responsibilities. I would love to see him assigned purely to the scoring role on this team, as Cat sort of is now. There aren't many players in the whole world that are more suited for it than he is.

 

By the way ...

How sweet is this picture?