Bull****! Francis is a much better two than he'll ever be at the one--at least offensively. After all, isn't that the favorite mantra of most of you Cat haters? Between his minutes at the one and his minutes at the two, Francis should have been leading this team in minutes......that is, of course, if his all around game is better than Cuttino's. Unfortunately, it isn't. The only thing he has on the cat is athleticism. Besides, I wasn't talking about history.....I'm talking about this year under a new coach. Cuttino leads this team in minutes because, despite his occasional boneheaded lapses, he is the most consistent offensive and defensive weapon this team has. He has the highest FG% on this team for players who don't make their living underneath the basket, and he always gets the hardest backcourt defensive assignments. Francis can't handle so-and-s0?--that's okay....we'll put Cuttino on him. He's also a shot guard averaging more than half the assists our starting point guard is averaging.......good for number two on the team. He's not perfect, but on THIS team, he's the total package.........and he's ours for a bargain basement price that barely dents that little constraint that most of you are oblivious to......you know.....the one called the "salary cap." You broken records need some new material.
1) From start of game, until 3:22 of 1st quarter, NY played man to man, Hou 23- NY 6. (total 8:38 mins) 2) At 3:22, Penny checked in, NY played 3-2 zone until 7:49 in the 2nd quarter , Hou 10- NY 13. (7:33 mins) 3) At 7:49 Mutombo in, NY played 2-3 zone (mixed with 1 on 1 for 2 plays) until half , Hou 21- NY 18. (7:49 mins) Half time score 54-37. NY played even with Hou with the zone. They actually outplayed us with the 3-2 zone. If you watched the Rockets at all, you should know the 3-2 zone put the defenders where the Rocket players like to be, up top and on the wings. Stupid NY zone .... not !
I'm no cat hater, I just think he is what he is, an average two guard who can put up some big soring numbers if he's hot and a player who plays pesky defense but can't shut anyone down bigger than him. You are correct that Francis was Mobley's backup at the two for three seasons. That's precisely why he has the most minutes. Francis can't be the starting one and the back up two the whole game. There was no one to back up Mobley. Rice was never healthy, Posey was a three. Francis had a back up who got a lot of minutes. Moochie. Then Francis would come in with Moochie to spell Mobley for some time but since that combo can't work for too long, Mobley couldn't sit on the bench for to long. Its as simple as that. Mobley's minutes has been a problem for this team the last three seasons. If Cuttino's all around game was better than Francis's he at least average close to the number of rebounds Francis's does. When Mobley gets his first triple double, you may can argue that, but Francis is the most well rounded player on this team.
I think this is why Steve and Cuttino sometimes don't even use Cato's picks. However, Yao sometimes does very risky picks in which he can get called for an offensive foul, but it definitely frees up the guard to drive right to the basket for a layup.
Thanos was talking about the offense. Anyway, our defense was pretty good under Rudy. So what you said is not true.
Wrong. Are, in the end, the Rockets statistical defense was as good as Seattlle's and Utahs last year. Thats not very impressive if you ask me. Yeah they started off strong but in the end the Rockets were an average a little above defensive team last year. We the excetpion of Jim Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy has taken the same group of players Rudy had, and turned this into the best defensive team in the league. Last year the Rockets were good in spurts on the defensive end and did set a franchise record by holding their opponents under 80pts on 10 different ocassions last year. But this year we are not even at the half way point and have all ready shattered that record by holding opponents under 80pts 12 different times. I think people are seriously overrating Houstons defense last year and really not apperciating the record setting defense the team is playing this year.
No, I was not saying that we did not improve on our defense this year. I really appreciate what JVG has done to the defense. But people are not overrating our defense last year. If anything, people are UNDERrating our defense under Rudy simply because we are so good this year. SRF said that the Knicks would've scored at least 100 points against us last year. That is seriously underrating last year's defense.
Obviously, that won't show up in the box score. Neither will it show how many times he boxed out for teammates to grab rebounds, how many shots altered, etc.
Uh... there's a house now? I feel tired. YOU mow the lawn. We can argue about X's and O's, offenses and defenses here all week, but the best thing I saw last night was the Rockets' focus and intensity. It was the same in the LA game. It's that x-factor that's been so terminally absent in all of our embarassing losses. When this team gets in a groove they really feed off of each other. It seems to help achieve this mentality when we're on the 2nd of a back-to-back, particularly if we just lost, and tv helps out quite a bit, too. When the Rockets come into a game treating it almost as if it were a playoff game, they often step things up quite a bit. It's almost as if they stop thinking and their athleticism kicks in. They execute. Fun to watch. Yeah, the Knicks sucked hard. But that doesn't discount that the Rockets pwned last night, either. I want to see that same focus more often in the next half of the season. And post-season.
That is because the Knicks did avg 100 against Houston last year: 2/24/03 @ MSG: NY 102 - Hou 95. 12/27/02 @ Hou: NY 99- Hou 83.
