Went to the game last night. Turnovers. Missed wide open jumpers that the Bobcats were hitting. Players forgetting to rotate on defense. This is what lost the ballgame. The only criticism coach deserves is that he should be playing Barrett and/or Weatherspoon. Regarding other players: 1. Nachbar- I specifically watched Nachbar the entire time to see why he doesn't get more playing time. If this is why, no wonder. First of all, no one passed him the ball, even twice when he was wide open (thanks, Jim Jackson). And he had no opportunity to get rebounds because none of the balls came even remotely close his way. The 2 fouls called on him were ticky-tack at best- one was clearly Kapono bumping into him on a drive. Nachbar didn't miss defensive rotations and hustled the entire time on the court. His lack of production had nothing to do with his play. That's the truth. 2. Howard- Very clueless for much of the game. Clank after clank after clank. He's just too inconsistent- whereas someone like Boki doesn't even get a chance to show whether he's consistent or not. Howard's had plenty of chances- to the end of the bench he goes. 3. Sura- Hustled, key rebounds, a few mistakes- he did fine. 4. Ming- Boy, he's got to keep being dominant throughout the game. He had great stretches, and then just faded. Really, you can't complain about 20 points and 14 boards, but the turnovers will kill you. Coaching staff needs to make it a priority to run practices that emphasize Yao handling the ball or passing out quickly when another defender comes to strip the ball. I helped coach HS basketball and we had a big kid who always got the ball stripped- when we worked with him on positioning and passing, he cut down on this tremendously. Shap would be the best one to teach him because no one gets slapped as much as him on attempted takeaways. 5. McGrady- Amazing, amazing passes. Special player. I think he gets disheartened when the rest of the team doesn't step up. I saw and heard him actually being a leader last night- telling guys, "We'll get it back, don't worry, we got it." Unfortunately, the rest didn't come through. T-Mac isn't the problem- yes, he made a few mistakes, but so does LeBron, AI, Duncan, etc. If you can put up 26 points, 7 assists, 3 steals, etc. on a regular basis, you're allowed a few (not 10 turnovers, though!) 6. Jackson- Hustled- but you know, what surprised me because Jackson is one of my favorite players is that he absolutely refused to pass it in certain situations when Nachbar, Lue, or Yao were wide open. C'mon, Jim, we don't need Taylor from a year ago! Pass the ball around! 7. Mutombo- Grabbed rebounds, forced bad shots, etc. Without looking at the stat sheets, I'm telling you, Deke had a much stronger impact on the game in the brief time he was in there. Offensively, he wasn't passed the ball, so what could he do? I know no one probably wants to hear this, because the Rockets definitely deserve blame, but I saw the Bobcats hitting a lot of shots from 15-18 feet out that they don't normally make, even with guys in their face. I think the Bobs ran into a little luck that helped the win just as much as the Rockets' mistakes. The loss wasn't that bad. Definitely not good, but it wasn't as terrible as it seems on the surface. Van Gundy didn't make some of those mistakes, though. Let's not give him all the blame on this one. Partly personnel mistakes on JVG's part, partly mistakes on the Rox part, and partly unusually good playing on the Bobcats' part. I'm still thinking playoffs, but the window is indeed closing. Other teams are having problems, but they've already gotten above the .500 mark. Now that we have "blown" the easy part of our schedule, it'll be curious to see how the team responds to tough challenges. BTW, Toyota Center was a great place to watch the game. Only thing is, I had tickets in section 410- holy moley, those seats are high up! I had U2's "Vertigo" spinning in my head the whole time. Good experience, though. Although $7.50 for a Bud Light is, well, a little too much. Merry Christmas, Rox fans. Go Rockets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Corrections to above: 1. Nachbar- What I meant to say is that Boki is not given enough playing time to even show what he can do, Cmon, JVG, put Boki in when you've got Sura, Jackson, McGrady, and Yao in! What harm could he do? 2. Shap is, in fact, not some fictional character who is prone to legions of attackers swarming in to strip away his livelihood, but would be the basketball player known as Shaquille O'Neal, or Shaqqqqqq!
