so many posters here have been calling the suns non-contenders because of the way they play and how they've gotten shaq. suddenly the rockets beat them and the rockets are now contenders again?
Of course you agree, you called this game a lost before it even started if I remember? How could you even call this game a tank? Its one thing for rockets fan to hate on players without good reasons. Its another thing for rockets fan to give up on their team. But its absolutely horrible for a rockets fan to call an elite team tanking after we blew them out by playing smart, terrific basketball. Right now, some of our fans are even worse than the Fakers fan. At least the fakers are satisfied when their teams win. I have never EVER seen a nba fan call their win "given to them as a prize" because the other team was tanking. This is western conference, do you really think the suns don't want HCA? Only dumbass teams would think HCA is unimportant at this stage of the season. HCA means hell a lot for any team right now. O if they were tanking in the first place. why were they in such a big lead in the beginning?
yes it is bad for a team that average a 50% fg% and a 39.4 3pt% but that wasn't entirely my point. They went to alot of high percentage shot this game. They went mostly to shaq and Amare but their shooters didn't shoot well. Of course shaq and Amare were getting their dunks and layups but alot of Amare's and the rest of their guys were missing the shots they normally make. you can't always look at their shooting percentage because they got alot of layups and dunks but if you watched how many of their actual shots clanked off the rim you would know what I'm talking about. My point was that our data on the rockets vs. the suns is inconclusive because we have seen them shoot great against us and bad against us.
Which tells me the actuals are somewhere in the middle. And yeah, the reason they missed those jumpers is because they were hotly contested. It wasnt like they were wide open on all of those 3's. Only 2 of the missed 3's were wide open, and they made 3 or 4 wide open ones. Nobody shoots 100% when wide open. Nash blew one layup. How many wide open 3's did the Rockets miss?? Dis your own team's highly ranked defense much??
Actually i have mentioned on many occasions how great our D is. Your conclusion is exactly what i was getting at though, the suns are somewhere in the middle. The suns make generally make alot contested jumpers, especially Nash. They didn't make alot of them last night and the last time we played them they were making all of them. With that being said it doesn't matter what the opposing teams do if the rockets can keep their offense consistent because the defense will keep them in the game most of the time.
46% is bad?? did you know they shot 58% in the first half and still TRAILED BY 12? for them to beat us, they probably have to shoot in the 2 wins like 70% suer that's below their avg, but they were never in a rhythm. we let amare score all game, didn't double team inside, and force the inside players to either score or that's it. they scored. no one else on the perimeter got involved. we found a new strategy to play them.
I agree. Of course Amare did hurt us but we didn't allow their guards like Nash, Bell, Gircek get hot and burn us with their great inside and out game. In the previous meeting in Suns the situation had been different. We'd let Amare score and we also had let them kill us from the outside.
maybe my posts are misleading or something because everybody keeps arguing with me but I actually agree with what they are saying. I think they shot a pretty good percentage (maybe not their norm) but it was mainly because shaq and Amare had nice games inside. They missed alot of their JUMPSHOTS which they are known for making alot of. Once again, their percentage reflects their good scoring inside but it does not show how much their JUMPSHOTS were not falling. They're JUMPSHOTS were not falling, im not saying that we didn't have anything to do with, im not saying that we can't beat them. I'm saying that we have yet to see an average suns team this year so we really don't know how we match up with them.
It shouldn't matter too much where we are at now, even we do end up against the Lakers or Suns, it is a series we could win. The only team in the playoffs, this year I would say we wouldn't have chance against is Boston and S.A. For both of them, we need Yao to win an entire series, while the Lakers and Suns are not very good defensively and don't always dominate the boards as advertised.....the balance of attacks of Boston and SA would just overwhelm us on both sides of the court.
People think of the Suns still having Marion. He's gone. He was key to them being a bad matchup for us. Suns are really bad at defense. Amare is the worst defensive PF in the league. They can't beat us. I'm serious. Adelman and Tracy and the team chemistry are going to rip them apart. Without Marion, Tracy can just walk into the lane and find our Scolandry's for easy buckets. piece of cake. the only teams we need to fear are teams with defense and Utah (since you must always have a healthy fear of strange people).
We have the same overall record as San Antonio and went 2-2 against them this season. Why do they get the higher seed? What am I missing?
The Suns get ALOT of dunks as part of their game plan. They missed their jumpers because the Rockets hounded them. In the game a few weeks ago in Phoenix, the Rockets didnt hound their Jumpshooters until the 2nd half. That half, the Rockets were committing stupid fouls down low instead of giving Amare a dunk or just playing smart D. He got a heck of a lot of 3 point plays because of it. How do you think San Antonio keeps beating them? They hound their 3 point shooters makign them ineffective. The slashing ability of Shawn Marion is what was the X-Factor before in why the Rockets had so much trouble with it. Take that away and replace it with O'Neal and they have less outside threat. Yao or Deke inside with Stoudamire and Marion at the 4-5 was a mismatch in the Suns favor. Yao or Deke inside with Shaq and Stoudamire at the 4-5 is an even matchup. Sure there is a mismatch with Hayes/Landry at the 4-5 but for the most part, when big Shaq is in there, so is Deke. Stoudamire got the majority of his buckets off penetration and assists from Nash. He didnt take the guy guarding him to school much. More like, he got taken to school when he was trying to post up.
That's why the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl this year. (I would include the rox '95 championship coming from the 6th seed, but The Dream was living on another planet that year and the Houston fans were the only ones who knew until the Finals were over.) This year's team reminds me of the '94 team. Does anyone remember them being called Hakeem and the Seven Dwarfs? This year, they are Mount and Adelman's Eleven.
