Brooks tends to over dribble at times. Reminds me of another Rocket that use to do that a lot. He could also do a little better at creating shots for his teammates. Other than that, he looked good.
i still think the rockets don't have enough height on the team to be a serious threat to anyone. lakers took it to the hole often and uncontested way too many times. if you are going to give the team point blank shots like that, then you are probably not going to win. then, you don't hit your own point blank shots, then your especially not going to win. first game and all...but i'm still pissed off about it...because we had this game and let it slip away. dammit.
They played fine overall, were obviously jittery because of nerves which led to massive turnovers. The one thing that scared me is the reliance on the jumpshot once it had clearly gone south. We tried to pound it in to Yao early in the 4th but he's just not ready. Our perimeter guys need to know when to start taking it to the hole if the shot goes cold. Maybe it was just because everyone was amped up for the Lakers, but all in all, the jump shooting allowed the Lakers to get the game close again.
Enjoyed the game even with the tough loss. If we would've won, the league would have been put on notice. Since we lost, I'll guarantee you the Lakers knows we're in the neighborhood. We'll just have to take the league one team at a time. It must be tough for Yao though. In and out, in and out without ever establishing any rhythm. Got to figure this one out.
Hell, I recall the old saying. . THE PERSON TO WATCH IS THE INBOUNDER! Call comes back . .they usually wide open With battier. . u didn't want him taking that shot! Rocket River
Nah...the Lakers already excused it away as a letdown due to the fact they just got their rings and were coming down from that high before getting back into the reality of having to play basketball. Therefore, they weren't "there" for most of the first half. I highly doubt they are concerned about the Rockets at all.
I thought they played very well overall last night....Don't really have a chance to read other posts, but here's a few things that stood out to me (good and bad and in no particular order): Brooks tends to dribble the ball too much, while he had 9 assists last night, I didn't think he did a great job of actually creating Too many jump shots (IMO) without moving the ball around, when the Lakers started making their come back, you could see they were moving the ball around and pounding it inside, which helped fuel their come back Our bench looks alot better than I thougt they would....I know we were considered to have one of the deepest benches, but they looked very solid overall even without Lowry playing Although I think Yao is extremely important will be one of the most likely factors in the difference of us having a good or great year, the back court play of Brooks/Martin I think will play a more intregal part in the success of the team. When the offense was clicking in the first half it was all Brooks/Martin, but in the second half when they were not playing as well, the offense struggled as a whole Yao Ming looked as well as I could have hoped for considering the lay off....I know he played well in the pre-season, but I was pretty impressed overall with his performance yesterday If Budinger can improve his defense, he will eventually take over Battier at the 3....as much as I love Battier, I think eventually you have to consider Budinger as the starter as some point this season. While Budinger's jump shot looked great and his ability to slash to the basket was impressive, I want to see him create his own jump shot and a mid range game in addition to improving defensively Yes, I know it's the first game, but they didn't look that great in transition defense and rotating in the defensive game, so I hope that's something they work on for the GS game... I know it's only the first game of the season, but those are some things I noticed from the game last night
I was really impressed by the HARD G! Bud came to play this year. The cuts he was making in the 1st half. . .man . . I like seeing that! The superstar call thing is the most frustrating thing about being a rocket fan. Yao doesn't get those I would say on average the rockets are a solid -12 when superstar calls are in play. They have to over come it to win Rocket River
Brooks was far improved at creating shots for his teammates. He set Yao and Scola up with layups that both of them messed up. That's a shame. Brooks isn't at the top of the league with creating offense, but it also isn't really a weakness anymore.
DD - If Kobe was shoting and missing those 1 foot shots . . . how many times would he have been at the line? If it is more than one .. . I wanna Say BALL GAME! Yao and Scola were getting hack to hell with out a call. Kobe GETS those calls and a few phantom ones because it is INCONCEIVABLE of Kobe missing those shots without SOMETHING illegal happening Rocket River
Hayes did almost nothing, just 2 good post defenses, 0 rebounds. Miller defended better at the 2nd half, and catched 9 rebounds, and scored 9 points. It is Hayes the one who should be replaced by Hill, not Miller.
I understand wanting fresh legs out there. But if Brooks had been on the bench and we lost, it would be a valid complaint against coach that he didn't stick with what was working. Brooks had been working nicely earlier in the game, and one philosophy is to go with who's hot.
20 turnovers isnt' gonna cut it....that was painful to watch our lead go away because of 4-5 consecutive turnovers from 'fancy' passes
Kobe only shot 40% though, and that is not including those phantom calls he was getting. We don't have Kobe, or someone with his respect, nor do we have a coach that will stand up for his players out there to get that respect. However, this game showed me that THIS team, as constructed....IS A CONTENDER..... We stack up against anyone, and we lost to the world champions on a very late 3 point shot...in their house, while our team is still finding itself. Tell ya what, I would rather be in Houston's shoes than Miami's all of our players compliment each other.....I think Houston will be fine. One more thing...we shot the EXACT same number of Free throws....the SAME NUMBER !! There was no superstar extra bit...even Brad Miller got 2 free throws late......and that was not a superstar call. DD
I think the problem was Kevin Martin's ineffectiveness in the 4th quarter. He's generally not a good 4th quarter player. You could see his aggressiveness drop as pressure tightened. Suprised nobody brought this up
Yao has the potential to be a game changer like Kobe. I agree with the rest, these Rockets are closer to contending than the Heat as currently constructed. If Yao stays healthy, Rockets are going to be GOOD this year, if in the East, they'd have a shot at the Finals.
agreed! If anything he hustled, and got sandwiched! Thats just out of bounds, but LA gets 2 FTs??? and wins by 2... its funny how any play can help affect an outcome at any point in the game. You take away Martin's BS tech, and give Odom and Gasol about 4 that THEY deserved in return and the game is ours. wtvr.
It was that Brown who made three three points, and we lost. Where was Martin during the plays? He was not even not in the defense picture. Once again, we lost the game because we can not play good defense, the same story over and over again.
