it was a good game, down to the wire. enjoyed it. gotta kick myself tho for thinking the game's over when rockets are down by 16. everyone say yao sucks, but u gotta give boston credit for their defence on yao. perkins and davis were fronting yao at every possession and they were just too strong for yao, especially davis. but yeah, that missed layup was pretty sad. that missed free throw by tmac at the end was crucial too. anyway i stayed up late here in the uk to watch the game and im pleased i did that
The Rockets are not that far away from elite status. PF, check. SF, check. C, check, except last night when Yao looked like his feet were nailed to the floor. SG, check, TMac is getting there, still can't shoot at his career average consistently. PG, except for Brooks, a nightmare. Will we ever wake up!? Artest had an off night shooting, so did Yao. Overall, I was encouraged.
My thoughts after being at the game... 1. FANTASTIC game all the way, but again it was so disappointing to see all the corporate posers leave when there was 47 seconds left, I mean come on. 2. Yao played terrible, they defended good but come on Kendrick Perkins and Baby Shaq shut down the "best center in the league" and "leader of our team"? If so then we have a serious problem, he just plain sucked. His shot was off on offense and he was not paying attention on D. 3. Everyone crying for AB to start, I agree that he has been better thus far but I feel like his energy off the bench is more important for us. 4. Artest had a pretty bad shooting night but the guy is money on the open 3 and is a beast on D. 5. Props to McGrady his second half was amazing he did everything he could on both ends to keep us in the game. For those watching on TV I am not sure you could see the steal which ended up with TMac doing a flip into the first row and being head over heels until the trainer went over and pulled him out of the chairs (he just was back on his feet when we were back on D) and then immediately got another steal. Yea his missed FT stung but he was 7-8 overall and i could tell from across the building how much that miss disappointed him. 6. The refs seemed especially unfavorable tonight, but we always say that. 7. Overall we lost a game in which the Celtics played great and we got a terribly game from Yao a bad shooting night from Artest and no Battier... I am ok with that. And we showed serious heart in the second quarter when down by so much. 8. Whoever the punk clown was over by the Red Rowdies that got into it with that Celtics fan is an embarassment to our city and doesn't deserve to even step into the toyota center, move to Dallas. I think harassing the fans of the opposite team is fine and expected to a point but when it gets to the point that it has become personal and is ready to break into a fight?? Go back to yer hood and stay there til you learn to be civil.
Here is my take.... In the end, we have a better and more talented team than the celtics...Artest didn't show up, and Yao played like he didn't belong in the league....we did not have Shane Battier who is a huge defensive contributor....if he can shut down kobe, dont u think he could have shut down Allen? Plus, the celtics have had a whole year and playoffs to gel and get used to each other....rockets are still trying to gel and learn how to play with their new additions.....with all that being said, we lose only by 4? come Jan when we play them again, consider we have a healthy roster....it will be a different ball game. Rockets begin to roll around end Jan / Feb time frame..
And to anyone who says "well garnett and peirce had off nights" ..no..they didn't have off nights, Hayes pulled a battier and stuck his hand in his face all night...that can't be said about Yao who misses an open dunk .... that Yao will not be on the court every night, typically it will be the one we are used to seeing
Come on boys! Let's work through this. I know it was tough game for Rockets, but we held our ground and lost the game by 3. Btw. Yao really need to dominate Perkin. If you get dominate by Perkin, you're going have tough game against Lakers twin Tower (Gasol/Bynum) and Chris Minh on the bench.
I am surprised we were even that close. Besides the short stint in the 2nd qt, we played like crap all night. Tmac did a good job attacking and being aggressive today, but thats not enough. This team has a long way to go before they can compete w/ the bostons and LA's
this game was alright. Brooks needs to start. Battier needs to come back to be on Ray Allen and artest on pierce. Then life will be easier. Dont worry about this game. Basically another preseason game and we almost pulled it off. Scola stepped it up.
Offesively, Tmac is ok. But I have to say Tmac will remain a defensive liability utill he loses some weight and gets his knee fully recovered.
to say that those 4 are redundant is not right. Scola and Landry are the 2 main guys, Chuck's a good defender and Dorsey hasn't even played. if you watched the game last night all the rox had to do was put Landry in for Yao when he was struggling and the Scola-Landry combo would've brought it home for us. and can anyone tell me why we always have Chuck doin a pick'n'roll when he can't hit a layup or a jumpshot. it's pretty much tellin the defense to double the ball screen
Post Celtics view, my view anyways. -Yao will bounce back, just hoping he is going to stay healthy this year. -The Rockets have a deep, deep, deep bench even more so than Boston. -Our big three is better than their big three. -Artest is as tough as nails. -Tracy has been playing well and looks to be motivated. I'm happy seeing Tracy take less jumpers and getting more assits to his teammates while going to the basket. Also hopping he can stay healthy this year. -Scola is the real deal. Look for him to have a monster year. -Barry, Shane, Artest and Scola got hustle, passion, have a high basketball instincts and I.Q's. Add to that they are all vets. -Brooks has so far exceeded my expectations and this team has been running better with him in the line up. Rafer's play has been sub par and his shooting? Nonexistent. -We sorely need Deke to rejoin this team. We might have got a "L" in the lost column, but I'm extremely confident the next time we see this team we'll be better prepared. Go Rockets!!!!! Get Red!!!!!
Gotta agree Yao played horrible yesterday. I wanna see AB more involved and Skip taking fewer shots. Just have him bring up the pall and pass (how hard is that). We could have taken that game but even with all the **** ups and bad ref calls it was still a close game. Once we are running full force these type of games should be a steal.
Did anyone see Kevin Gaynett talk trash to rafer toward the end of the 4th? rafer got the tech insted, what the hell?????
This was a game where Mutombo would have helped while Yao tried to get his focus back ... Also Ron took a lot of ill-advised jumpers, several three pointers outside the rhythm of the team offense, it allowed boston to build strong stretches generally the game was well played, I think pierce got in artest's head , he was scoring on him and artest got out of the team mentality, taking some poor shots
Kendrick Perkins: “I knocked down my shots. I can’t even remember the last time I hit two jumpers in a row, yet alone three. I bought 75 tickets for family and friends and it was good to get a win." Well, in my first post ever I'd say I called that one.
