Hey, Lopez, You want Steve to Pick Yao up too and hold him up to the rim so he can just drop the ball in? I'm so damned tired of people saying everyone in the universe from God all the way down has to do more to help Yao have a good game. This is the playoffs. He he can't step it up himself, he doesn't deserve the hype everyone's heaping on him. Damn, if you get Shawn Bradley the ball consistently two feet away, he'd be unstoppable too. I thought the point was your all-world, soon to change the entire game big man should be able to at least back in and create a shot. Now we're told he must recieve the perfect pass at the perfect time to be effective. And it's all Steve's fault. The famine in Africa, no WMD's, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. All Steve's fault. If Steve was only a better point guard, I could have scored with that hot chick at the bar last night... Puleeze...
I can't remember a decent piece of article Lopez has ever written. He is basically saying that if the team didn't win it's the PG's fault and #s don't matter. Using that line of thinking, the following players need to move to a need area code by the end of the season, because none of them have any wins so far in the playoff: Nash Marbury B Davis J Williams Miller By the way, none of them has put up better #s than Steve, but it doesn't matter because stats don't produce wins. Thank you for the lesson, Lopez. Thanks for showing your true color. Hoping/wishing your starting PG to have many TOs to prove your point. Despicable.
Just found out another Chron writer to ignore. The article is complete garbage. Sounds like he has been a regular board member this year.
1. How do you know why Kobe was smiling? 2. The And1 move that Francis did on that play was a jump shot. I know that might be a little too flashy for some, but not for others. 3. Remember the very next possession when Francis got the ball? He nailed a 3 pter. I guess that was a show off AND 1 move too. 4. Francis' drives were smart, and effective. They either were buckets, sent him to the line, or forced the defense to collapse on him, so that his teammates would be open for the easy fg attempt. It's fine to not like Francis and there are legitimate reasons to criticize him, but his performance in Game 2 isn't one of them. Not working hard certainly isn't a legitimate criticism of Steve.
Exactly. No to dick-swinging. Yes to ball-swinging. Here's one Francis "basher" who will give him credit for what he's doing in this series. He's trying to apply his prodigious athletic talents to the less-fun tasks that will help the team win (passing, defense, boards) instead of the fun stuff he's grown used to (dribbling, driving, scoring).
Exactly. Some people are just blinded by their hatred for the guy. Regardless of how well he does someone will always find some way to attack him. I guess getting a triple double just wasn't good enough
I agree, Francis should have just crossed Kobe over with a sick move a should have posterized Shaq. If it was Yao in Francis' shoes he would have just bowed his head down and played scared.
I am dumbfounded at how the chronicle can still hate on Steve for playing his heart out in LA. Blaming him for the game two loss is just absurd. In game one, wasn't Steve who created the wide open shot for JJ? Blaming Steve for his team going cold in the fourth quarter of game two is ludacris, he played a flawless game and the mistakes that cost them the games were not made by Steve. If in game 1, Payton was the one who slammed home Kobe's air ball, then you could have blamed him, but it was Shaq and nobody is talking about how Yao failed to box him out and then compounded his mistake by fouling him. In game 2, it wasn't Francis who fouled Kobe at the end of the third quarter that gave them 3 free throws and pushed the Laker lead to an insormountable double digit lead. I am in noway blaming Yao, JJ, or Cat for the losses but just saying that blaming Steve is plain and simple stupid.
Another fallacy is that they didn't get the ball to Yao when Shaq went out. I'm pretty sure he missed at least three shots when being guarded by Malone.
Francis's second game was nearly flawless, one of his best game in this year. The only thing you can complain about is when game was on the line, he setup too much on perimeter, it was not necessary meaning he had to pass the ball to Yao, but I rather see him driving strongly to the hoop than settling for outside jumpers. But criticizing him not winning the game based on his game 2 performance is just not fair.
Francis played an excellent game and IMO he did all we asked of him. I think Lopez is saying that even though Francis did all he could the Rox still lost which may have more to do with how the overall team works than what any individual player does. This might be a problem of the JVG system not being suited to the personnel. OTOH this might just be that we don't have the overall skill to contain the Faker's big three. Francis didn't lose the game for us but Kobe (who wasn't Francis' man) and Malone plain beat us.
I agree with you, Francis plays with a lot heart, but he's does it the wrong way or the hard way. His lack of smarts and intelligence on how to play the pt guard position stunts this team's growth.
I remember that play I remember his teammates moving to get position under the goal I remember his teammates moving to set a pick I remember his teammates moving to get open No . . Wait. . NONE OF THAT SH*T HAPPENED Steve was on one side. . his teammates on another NOT MOVING AT ALL . . NOT DOING ANYTHING NOT A GODD*MN THING . . . As JVG would say . . they left him on an island and did not do a d*mn thing to help him. OH but that is Steve's fault OH BTW where was JVG yelling for that precious player movement? In fact . . seeing how not one was moving perhaps the coach actually called this play but no . . .it is all steve Rocket River
Thank you, this was, I believe, the "implicit" point of this excellent article. The Rockets don't have the necessary "parts" to take the "great leap forward." It is not about lack of effort, except perhaps in Ming's case.
it was a curious thing too because it seems YAO LEFT THE PAINT MORE when shaq left. . the issue is . . .who directed him there I don't remember steve waving him out .. . soo either MY Genius level basketball IQ did it himself or his coach told him too Shaq was out . .Yao taking 20 footers YAO TOUCHED THE BALL but he either passed it, fumbled it and turned it over, or was shooting long shots AN ASIDE: last year Yao was VERY consistant from 15~20 this year with the concentration on his inside game his jumper is not as automatic JVg has improved his inside game but his outside game is now diminished. Rocket River
This is the kind of sh**t I don't like about America media. Just tell the fact, don't make up things, doing imagenation. So if Yao is doing well, but the Rockets lose, then we need better supporting players; when Francis doing great, the team lose, it's his fault? Francis doesn't have to play like Stockton, or Kidd. He is just fine to be a high scoring guard, like Zeke. We don't have to have a dominating PG to be successful, someone can share a bit more ball handling will be enough! It's JVG's responsibity to figure out a way to use all this players. Win or loss, it's on the whole team, you idiot! If Yao didn't get stripped that many times, if he could have got a few more rebounds, and if he didn't duplicate his stupid AND-1 foul on Shaq right under the basket; or if J Jackson just play within his role; or if Mobley attacks Bryant more on the offensive end; if Cato just crash the board instead of trying post-up-then shoot from 18ft; or if Talor could rotate faster on defense; if JVG has done better substitution, had the team drop the ball inside after O'Neal's 4th foul; maybe we would have won game ONE, and maybe game TWO. What we've seen so far is the Lakers is a better team, but the Rockets can compete with them, and that's all we have wished for before the series started, and it's happening.
Maybe Lopez is one of our board members here. We've chummed the waters and the sharks are circling Francis. Francis played a great game Monday night. We do need to be able to get the ball to Yao more; that's Steve's undoing. Not that Yao is perfect either. This article could have been written with the same facts and a slightly different slant. "He made these mistakes, BUT THIS IS WHAT HE DID RIGHT," rather than "He did this right, BUT HE SURE DID MAKE MISTAKES"
I agree with you that he works hard...but, just like in the business world, there's a big difference b/w working hard and working SMART.
