Orlando Sentinel: Francis: "I'm not a punk. I'm not a sucker."

Hey, if Sura could take out all opponent's starting PG in every game, then he would have earned his paycheck already.

 

I appreciate Francis' effort while he was a Rocket, but I'm glad he's gone. We now have a much more controlled team. I just couldn't stand seeing someone try so hard, yet make so many unforced turnovers. With Stevie running the team, we had to go up on an opponent and stay there to win...it seemed he always lost his composure when we were down and had to make a comeback to win. Last season if we went down 5-10 points in the third, you could pretty much call it a game. With this new group of guys, we have the composure and skill to make those comebacks. Although we are slow to start, we usually do a good job of keeping our cool and slowly but surely get back in the game.

 

there is more than a handful of games that Magic came back down 10 in the 3rd to win it....

Rockets is 8-9 against Eastern conference and 13-10 against west....

Magic is 10-11 against East and 11-6 against West....

hm... seems to me that both team play worse against Eastern conference team than the West.....

 

The win was no fluke. The Rockets won rather easily despite Orlando's advantage on speed. I still like Steve but the long term implications of getting T-Mac could be great for us if we can surround him and Yao with younger players who have some experience and toughness.

 

TiVo doesn't lie...

Orlando had cut the lead to 4, then the Rockets scored to go back up by 6. Francis went to the floor looking for a call, but didn't get it. The ball came off long and the Rockets took off on a break As Sura ran past Francis (who was still laying on the floor), Francis reached out and grabbed Sura's right ankle and pulled Sura's leg out from under him. Sura went down hard. Wesley ended up with a layup for an 8pt lead and TBS cut to a commercial.

In realtime, I just saw Sura go down, but I didn't know why. I hit rewind (today's technology is so cool) and re-watched and you could clearly see Francis reach out and trip Sura. That's when Sura got in his face and TMac stepped between them.

It had nothing to do with a hard foul. It was a bush league move,there's no other way around it.

 

Hill over-rated? C'mon now it sucks that his contract hampered the magic in not being able to sign another big name to play along side with t-mac in orlando, but he is not over-rated. this man was a walking triple-double night in and out, fundamentally and one of the smartest players around. On top of that he is a class act on and off the court, injuries are a part of the game, but it annoys me when jerkholes like Malone can play injury free for pretty much all of his career and then a player like Grant Hill gets the prime years taken away from him. There are a lot of overrated players in the league, Hill though is not one of them

 

What a punk and a sucker (whatever that means).

 

i like Steve. But he's a "punk" for pulling some crap like that.

 

They're one of the worst defensive teams and one of the worst at protecting the ball. Sure they get up and down the court, but they also allow other teams to do the same.
Steve doesn't score and defend well enough to justify playing an offense that allows him to do what he wants.
You know, it's ironic that people complain about Tmac and all the jumpers he takes when it's that very quality that allows him to quickly get back on D.

 

What kills about threads like this other than the fact they are started by people who are supposed to be so happy he's not here yet they start threads about him every other day and have his quote in their signature, is the pettiness.


I was watching the intro to today's game and they were showing McGrady flexing his muscles walking off the court Thurs. I couldn't help but think about how much grief Steve would catch if he did something like that. Some of these things are just way overblown.

 

McGrady was boo'd everytime he touched the ball. If he wants to flex after a win and taunt the crowd back, I'm OK with it.

Steve was given a standing ovation. Any taunts he wants to do to the crowd would be a slap in the face.

You can't compare two different situations.

 

I didn't say anything about Steve taunting the crowd, I'm referring to the thread topic.