Hawks were just too athletic for us. They also have too many weapons on the team, and we also gave up way too many rebounds.
1) This imminent trade thing is KILLING our team right now. Something is up with the chemistry, it hasn't been the same since the end of December. 2) Ariza needs to see the pine. He can be effective if his minutes are a little more limited. 3) Also, anyone else notice how frustrated Brooks was today? He looked livid at one point. I've never seen him like that. I think he deserves superstar calls. He's approaching that level fast.
That one sequence where Josh Smith went up through 3 players, missed the shot, got the rebound back, shot again and got the And1 typified our defensive struggles.
Sadly, I have to agree in part. Win or lose, the one fun thing about this Rockets team was that they had no, and I mean zero, quit in them. Then Trevor starting chucking bricks and cheating on defense, and now the whole team is playing with mopey hang-dog expressions. I can live with the lottery, but please, no quitter mentality. That stuff is contagious and can stick with a team for years.
To be fair, January is BRUTAL. Once we get past this ridiculous homestand it gets easier. I'll be happy if we leave the month at .500 But yeah, Ariza is getting too many minutes. He'll be worth the midlevel as a #3, but he's clearly not a superstar. I don't know if Brooks can really be #2 though. I think we need a bona-fide superstar. C'mon Morey!
Ariza's minutes were cut. He only played 23 compared to his usual 37 minutes. You guys are funny. Taylor scores 7 points against a bunch of scrubs at the end of a game and now is starter material. I understand Ariza is sucking right now or all season but don't get too excited about Taylor.
Ariza and Budinger both played around 20 minutes. Ariza got the decrease in minutes everyone seemed to want, and Budinger got quite the increase. Yet we still lost.
At some point, people will realize players win not plays. People can talk about running the offense and playing off the ball and blaming this player or any player. How many players on the rockets can start for the lakers or spurs right now? What about the nuggets or blazers? Hell, what about ok city or memphis? This team doesn't have enough talent despite taking lakers to 7 games last year. Its easier to sustain that energy level for 3 or 5 games, but for 82 is basically impossible. They've exceeded what i thought they would do, so i'm good. Now if they can push shane and tracy off the roster and stop fooling themeselves then we would be ok.
