I can accept this lost, McGrady defensively is nowhere near to his abilities due to his knee, but he gave us a great contribution offensively...I can't blame him for his only miss on the FT. With Battier on Allen I think we pair Boston very well. Yao played bad, but it's only one game, I hope this game will ignites him some fire!! GO ROCKETS!!!
They won because they shut down Yao and Artest tonight. Celtics defense won the game. Big props to Tmac tonight for stepping it up tonight and for finally showing that passion.
After this game, I miss Deke so much. We don't have to play Deke 20 min everynight, or even we don't have to play him all the games. But when something bad happens to Yao like tonight, with Deke in our roster, we can easily walk out of the Toyata center with a win.
4 point loss. Let's do the math: -No Shane Battier -VERY off night by Yao -WTF?! Technical given to Rafer Against the defending world champions, I think the Rockets are in business.
I think the rim shut down Yao more than the Celts. Anyways, let's hope he bounces back for Portland's game.
The only thing that really bothers me is the fact that we shot 40% and allowed Boston to shoot 50%. But if you factor in an untypical game for Yao, I can live with our production today. The offense was bad, but it was people that on average do really good (Yao and Artest went 7-30). Scola, Brooks had good games. The rest were average but not bad. We lost to a good team, can't really complain.
You know what, I am not dissapointed. Of course it is always painful, we lost. But it was a great, close game. That's what the NBA is all about and that's what's best in this leauge. What is even better, we were able to fight till the end after a shaky start and a big lead that Boston had. - Once again our shooting was terrible and once again it happend at home. Rick will have to practice at Toyota Center as he did last season when we had the same problems. - Rebounding was our big problem, we couldn't secure them. - I don't know what to say about Yao. The big fella plaed pretty well and suddenly, out of nothing he started being terrible. I mean it was a really TERRIBLE game for him. He missed dunks, layups, hook shots. It was so painful to watch him. And if you have to put this loss on anybody's shoulders, it has to be Yao. Perkins just took him back to school - Ron maybe didn't look very bad but he did played bad. Was he 3/16. Just no comments. Gotta do better than that. - Tracy McGrady played great game. He was great in the 2nd half leading this team to a close finish. Too bad we couldn't finish, too bad he didn't hit that 1 ft. But it was a great game for him, 9/18 against that great defense, especially playing 'without rythm'. But he found it tonight for sure. He finally got his jumper rolling and hopefully he will have a great rythm for a long time. BTW, good time to catch it, right before a tough road streak. As I said, too bad he didn't hit that free throw, but still, 7/8 is great. And hopefully his kne is ok, after that collision with Allen. - Good game for Barry, Brooks, Scola. Rafer as always terrible. Just take him out, sit him for a couple of games or just don't allow him to shoot the ball. He has been killing this team since the beggining. - One thing about this game. More shots for McGrady in next games. I mean, put him on the high post, or even low. Run some screens off the ball for him. Looks like he is back (hopefully) and we need more T-Mac. - Ray Allen was terrific. - Wait till the next game. We will be in better shape (hopefully healthly) and will just play together for a while so the big 3 will probably look better.
Its just one game, but what was dissapointing to me is yao did nothing on the brds and I don't think he blocked a shot.
Deke is a black hole. You think he is going to D up defensely against Garnett and Perkins and big baby. Other than shot blocking abilies and height what does he do? He doesn't run the floor that's for sure.
Positives: Tmac - played great, carried us. Scola - quietly played a great game, his hustle was awesome Free Throws - is this a fluke or will it continue all season? Heart - 16 point defecit erased, tmac into the stands Brooks - should be penciled in the positive category permanently Negatives: Outside jumpers - too many, Artest and Mac should of driven to hole more. Yao - off night, exploited by thibo, but partly his own fault (dunks wtf) Alston - seriously Im ready to be done with him (head/alston/francis for Hein?) Size - we do not match up well with taller teams, outrebounded Officiating - alot of phantom bs calls, rafer technical wtf ? Terrible fans - atleast a fourth of the posters here are embarrassing If we proved one thing tonight its that we can roll with the Celtics no problem. We had a chance to win it even without Battier.
Great game.We fight till the end without Battier against the defending champion.I think will be better prepared next game. Too much Ray allen tonight,but we shout down PP and KG.
The lose itself is nothing, and I firmly believe that we are much better than that. The fact is that, over the course of the all four games, I gradually realize that this is not the Yao I want to see, however, I am afraid that I will never see the JVG era Yao again. I don't know, maybe RA is not the best coach for Yao, maybe TT knows how to guard Yao too well, or maybe Yao has simply lost the edge due to so many injuries. Just can not believe he lets scrubs like Hawys (the young guy in Kings) and Perkins own him. And I can not believe RA let Perkins rape Yao without coming up with any defense plans. I thought we could have used AB more and Rafer less, I thought we could have used Chuck more and Yao less, and thought RA is always slow to react to a bad situation, and our offense is not as good as his reputations in Kings live up to, yet our defense is slowly slipping away (damn I miss Battier). Finally, thank Tmac, Scola, Artest and co for their hard work, Yao needs to look at himself in the mirror though...
get rid of rafer pleassseeee i beg of anyone who has the power just get him out of a rockets uniform. Bring starbury idc anyone other than rafer! and another 7 foot shot blocker. bring in steven hunter, theo ratliff idc we need size we are way too small. Rafer just sucks i see no one defending him after this game
This game wasn't a huge disappointment reason being it is still too early in the season to pass any judgment. Sure there are glaring weaknesses such as Ming's poor play, Rafer's and Artest's poor shooting, but heck once the oil has run through all the rusts and everyone remains healthy, the Rockets should be firing on all cylinders come post season.
I just wish the refs would have watched every illegal pick that Garnett and the rest of his team set when Allen ran around them. You can't move at the last second to get in the defenders way. Also, on the other end, our players need to learn to get in the way of the offensive player that is running around the pick. Say Yao is guarding Garnett, he needs to get in the way of allen and at least bump him a little off his path to allow McGrady to get around the pick in time.
Man, Yao Ming was AWFUL in the 4th. Blocked like 4 times in a row, and looked scared....yes....SCARED to shoot the ball.
