I like to look at year-over-year growth (sorry, I had to throw in the business referece). In this regard, AB has done as well as one could reasonably expect. I still have doubts about him being a starting PG, but for a 2nd year player to have 2 stellar games out of 4 in the 2nd round after doing good against Portland in the 1st round, I'm satisfied with that progress. His inconsistency is maddening and the decision-making isn't quite there yet. Maybe next year AB will be the 15/7 starting PG the Rockets need. I'm on the fence slightly leaning towards no.
"Must.Take.Ball. Out.Of.Brooks'.Hands" What Phil Jackson will be trying to figure out how to do for game 5.
Lets see Brooks will show up the next game with Yao out of the lineup. No more excuses since now Yao is out. Brooks wasn't the only one showing up tonight. ALmost the whole team did. The Lakers 2 games running streak just wasn't ready for the different tempo that they were use to with Yao in the lineup. Expect them to do alot better next game. Brooks better show up are the season will be over.
Great scoring game, and as usual, when Brooks is scoring well he can be spectacular. The problem has been that he has one game like this and then two games where you would rather not have him on the floor. But maybe not having to try to get the ball to Yao will focus Brooks more on being aggressive and scoring more consistently. Certainly we need good PG play to win. It's all about developing consistency.
he plays better when he is in scoring mode and not having to worry about setting others up. dude will be a very good scorer as he matures. like i said, he has exceeded my expectations this postseason. smh at all those who say he's a scrub
we came back when yao was on the bench in game 2. we whup the hornets' butt in their homecourt without yao earlier this season. we won without yao before this year. we've shown REPEATEDLY we can win without him, even v. great competition. this team has heart, talent, and skills.
He plays better when he doesn't have to think ... he has especially excelled in a phoenix suns style offense where his quickness causes more problems. He played great today.
This. Actually his strength and weakness are not so different in this game than other games. For some mini-sample, see 4th quarter.
1 for 4. 2 TOs with less than 5 minutes left and a near 20 pt lead. 4-4 on FTs. He wasn't thinking, he was trying to run the clock out. If you guys want to throw his points late in games that are losses under the bus, then you sure as heck can't use his TOs as ammunition.
No, it's not thinking. I think it has to do with the defensive pressure. Watch next game. and I don't really mind 1 for 4 either. Brooks shouldn't pass up open shots and try to create something not there.
yao has missed 6 games including today. one of the games, brooks only played 9 mins b/c we still had rafer so im not gonna include that game into this. the other 5 games without yao: 26.8mpg, 19.2ppg, 53%fg, 44% 3pt, 2apg
I'd like to see what Adelman has in store for that trapping defense for next game as well. We didnt see it til about 8-9 minutes in the 4th quarter. I thought they did a pretty decent job of it in this game. Only 4 turnovers for the 4th quarter, and a lot of shots just rimmed out in that 4th quarter.
Wrongecon, Wrongecon! In case people didnt know or doesnt understand basketball, it takes pg's longer than any other position. There are exceptions to the rule, but the rule normally works. A young lead guard has to learn how and when to setup, run, scorer and everything else. Its no different than steve nash in phoenix or parker in Sa or even cassell once he left houston. He's a young guy with 30 starts under his belt. If he was still making the same mistake after his 3rd year, then we have a problem. For all those guys that want the pass first pg, when was the last time a top 5 asst pg has won a title? You would have to go all the way back to magic in the 80's. Hell, when was the last time a guy avg 8 asst and won a title? Yep, back to magic again in the 80's. So what does that tell you?
Hilarious that some of you scream "after a bad game the AB haters come out, where are you when he has a good game?" Here I am. Great game by Brooks, and if you ecstatic over this game, as oppossed to a whole season and playoffs of consistency, then you are just wrong. The problem is some of you will live with AB having a great game and then 3 or 4 really bad games. Its just not worth it. Did anyone not believe AB wasnt going to have a game where he put up 20 shots once Yao was announced out. Thank god his shots were falling today. Some of you guys love AB but hated Francis for the same reasons. Dribble dribble dribble, shot clock running down, no pass, bad shot. At least Francis was a consistant finisher, and got to the line. For as breakthrough this game was, the two previous games of pound the ball, drive and never dish, get blocked and bad decisions erase it for me. With that said....I hope AB learns to be a PG, get his team involved, understand playing to you teams strenghts-like a 7'6" guy in the middle, or a wide open 40 percent 3 point shooter, and to not always drive with the intent of taking bad shots. I reserve hope.
