You know this is untrue. It SHOULD have been a 50-50 game with luck determining the outcome. By intentionally fouling with 32 seconds to go down 3, it was the odds of a 70% FT shooter missing twice in a row, then having to still make a 3 to tie. Not sure what the odds of that is.. not good.
What indication did you have that the rockets could come up with a stop in the 4th qt? I can tell you what play they were going to run and I will bet my house rose would've gotten to the rim. Sideline left screen with rose and deng or rose and noah or rose and guns, it didn't matter.
On offense... When no one on the team can hit a 3 point shot, The Rockets will struggle. That's the basic end of story. You double down on post players (Scola) and clog the paint when Lowry, Lee, Martin, or whoever drives. I'm not saying that the team desperately needs Brooks over or Lowry, but I mean that is pretty simply logic. Given that, why isn't this team running more? Yes, the Bulls played very well defensively and got back often but only 9 fast break points off 19 turnovers? Because we have tons of issues in the half court, Lowry needs to push more, under control of course but press the issue some. On defense... This season we have continually seen the Rockets fail to be able to defend the Pick and Roll. That is their kryptonite. Scola would show fairly well, but then got called for ticky-tacky fouls, but no one else was showing. Miller never left the paint on a single PnR he was defending. Lowry tried to run throw picks to stop the shot or stick with Rose, but Rose is just to speedy, especially off a pick and with Lowry exhausted from high minutes. That was just bad PnR defense in the 4th quarter. Combine that with horrible rotations, leaving 3 pt shooters open. We continually talk about Martin being a bad defender, but the Bulls hit a lot 3 pts with the bench in there. No one played passing lanes to tip balls away, players were helping off of people they should not have, or they were sitting in no mans land not fulling clogging the paint or sticking with their man. Lastly, why not trap the guy with the freaking ball (Rose) as soon as he crosses half court? If nothing else, you force the Bulls to waste 2-4 seconds to start their offense. Then after the ball is out of his hands, have Lowry be a pest in ball denial against Rose. I don't know something instead of letting the Bulls easily get into their PnR sets and execute easily. On coaching... Um, when the team cannot score and the other team is on a major run to take control of the game, having any go-to scorer would be nice. Or even just have a set play for the in game players to run. You know something. To excuse Adelman some, that Lowry 3 pt that was removed hurt. it was in the middle of that stretch, and the Rockets would have taken the lead back with after that 15-0 Bulls run with the counter they went on. If that shot was initially waived off, Adelman calls the TO sooner and gets Martin/Scola in faster. So it allowed the Bulls to maintain momentum and extend their lead. However, the call to foul when they could have held them, and then taking 2 pt shots was stupid. I know you want to "extend the game," but the Rockets were already out of timeouts. Without the timeouts to move the ball up and give your team reasonable shots, you have to go for the win or go home shot earlier. And I don't know maybe run a play for Kevin Martin (supposedly your go-to shot maker) or Battier (who was the only players to hit 1+ 3 pts today). Overall it was just horrible execution and game planning.
Lots of folks dogging our 2nd unit tonight. I don't get it at all. Three key members of our 2nd unit didn't play with the 2nd unit tonight. Budinger sat on the bench with an injury and Lowry and Miller played with the 1st unit.
Are you kidding me? Last I checked the Bulls do not score at a 100% rate. So Rose was hard to stop. You play D, and whats the WORSE that can happen? He gets to the rim and you get to keep your house. SO WHAT? By fouling you get them to the line and hand over free points, and you are in the same situation anyway. At least give yourself a CHANCE to win. By fouling that chance was robbed.
You can't entirely blame Kevin Martin for his lack of performance in the 4th. He had a lot of things stacked up against him. His shot wasn't falling, he had to play 40+ minutes because the bench sucked so bad, and he had to go up against a very good defender (Ronnie Brewer) with fresh legs. Man, the bench couldn't have picked a worse time to play horribly. Not only did our starters play a lot of minutes tonight, which might have been a big reason for the lack of production at the end (purely speculation on my part), but now the team has to jump on a plane, fly out to Oklahoma City and play the freaking Thunder tomorrow. Honestly, those bench guys better show up to play tomorrow because this team will desperately need them.
We win this game if we have better basketball IQ. For example, Scola would get an offensive rebound and go 1 on 4 trying to put it back up. Two on one fast break, and we throw it away. Things like that are common with the Rockets. Also, when the hell has the "get a quick 2" strategy ever worked? I've never seen it, you can't rely on the other team to miss freethrows. With <1 min left, we dribble inside for layups and we're down by 5. It just doesn't work, we needed to get a three. Hell, throw it out to Miller and let him fire away, and see what happens. Sadly, he was our best three point shooter (and best shooter overall IMO) tonight. I really wish Martin would at least attempt to be agressive in the 4th quarter. He had 14 through three quarters and none in the fourth. I think we need to make a trade if we expect to somehow salvage the season.
Adelman started the foul maching because the rockets couldn't get stops in the 4th qt. Rose was going to get the shot he wanted and adelman felt that maybe guys will miss free throws and they did. I'm not saying it was a picture perfect strategy,I'm saying that if they had shown they could get stops, he would used that method.
Thibodeau vs Adelman. This game proved that defense wins games. The Bulls' defense was absolutely stifling.
Lowry needs to work on his jumper bad, when you are not a threat and the D sags off you, EVERYTHING becomes harder.
And what do those numbers have to do with him guarding Lee??? Those ar emostly offensive stats with a bench team that sucked as a whole. and for those talking about Kmart's disappearing act in the 4th, it's been stated before his game just doesnt work as well when refs swallow their whistles. A perfect example is that layup he had late where he was fouled and they didnt call the and 1, when they had been calling less contact the whole game. Kmart is a great shooter, but when the defensive tightens up he has to drive and depends on fouls to be called because he's not great at scoring in traffic close to the rim.
No Brooks, Yao or Bud, but still had the game before we gave it away. That's encouraging I suppose. But same song and dance in the 4th, team always falls apart, coupled with RA going a stretch without a proper substitution. I think he finally put Scola and the starters back in, but after Chi had stretched the lead. RA, if you do that again, I'm going to cut your ears off and make a necklace out of them. :grin: This team just isn't going to be a good defense squad, teams like Boston can really turn on the D and shut teams down when it's crucial. Houston can't stop anyone when they need it.
looking at the boxscore...too many guys playing 40 mins...against a young team that's going to wear you out...cause you to make mistakes like turnovers and not rebounding enough..not defending consistently...i still can't believe a few minutes couldnt have gone to hill, JJ, and taylor.
