5:15 Kevin Martin enters the game for Jordan Hill 84-93 5:05 84-93 Jason Richardson misses 24-foot three point jumper 5:05 84-93 Orlando offensive team rebound 5:05 Luis Scola loose ball foul (Dwight Howard draws the foul) 84-93 5:01 84-95 Jason Richardson makes 2-foot two point shot (Dwight Howard assists) 4:39 Kyle Lowry offensive charge (Jameer Nelson draws the foul) 84-95 4:39 Kyle Lowry turnover 84-95 4:26 84-95 Jameer Nelson misses 15-foot two point shot 4:24 Kyle Lowry defensive rebound 84-95 4:20 Kyle Lowry backcourt 84-95 4:03 84-97 Hedo Turkoglu makes driving layup 3:45 Courtney Lee misses three point jumper 84-97 3:43 84-97 Dwight Howard defensive rebound 3:27 84-97 Dwight Howard traveling 3:27 Houston full timeout 3:16 Terrence Williams makes driving dunk (Kyle Lowry assists) 86-97 2:49 86-99 J.J. Redick makes 17-foot jumper (Dwight Howard assists) 2:30 Courtney Lee makes 24-foot three point jumper (Kyle Lowry assists) 89-99 2:00 89-99 J.J. Redick misses 21-foot two point shot 1:59 Terrence Williams defensive rebound 89-99 1:52 Kyle Lowry misses two point shot 89-99 1:51 89-99 J.J. Redick defensive rebound 1:30 89-102 Hedo Turkoglu makes 28-foot three point jumper (Dwight Howard assists) 1:30 Houston full timeout 1:22 Kyle Lowry misses 24-foot three point jumper 89-102 1:21 89-102 Jason Richardson defensive rebound 1:02 89-102 Hedo Turkoglu misses 13-foot two point shot 1:01 Courtney Lee defensive rebound 89-102 0:55 89-102 Jason Richardson shooting foul (Kyle Lowry draws the foul) 0:55 Kyle Lowry makes free throw 1 of 2 90-102 0:55 Kyle Lowry makes free throw 2 of 2 91-102 0:35 91-102 Jason Richardson step out of bounds turnover 0:31 91-102 Hedo Turkoglu shooting foul (Kyle Lowry draws the foul) 0:31 Kyle Lowry makes free throw 1 of 3 92-102 0:31 Kyle Lowry makes free throw 2 of 3 93-102 0:31 Kyle Lowry makes free throw 3 of 3 94-102 0:09 94-105 Hedo Turkoglu makes 25-foot three point jumper (Jameer Nelson assists) 0:01 Kyle Lowry misses 26-foot three point jumper 94-105 0:01 94-105 J.J. Redick defensive rebound 0:00 End of the 4th Quarter 0:00 End Game Last 5 minutes with Scola on Dwight. As much as the hypothetical match-up causes problems, Dwight didn't have a single point, 3 assists, one foul, one turnover, and one defensive rebound (no offensive). Not like the guy completely dominated Scola and there was a refusal to take him out.
The reason is very simple. Dwight is a liability just like Shaq going down the stretch because of his poor FT shooting. They ran plays all around Dwight with no intention of getting him the ball except to finish dunks and putbacks. And that is also why we went with Scola on him because we knew that they weren't going to be feeding Dwight the ball and we could get away with it.
But we needed Scola's scoring and him playing Dwight does not allow Luis to have enough energy to score the ball. It is a yin/yang thing. DD
Uh oh, maybe he is talking about his contract not being extended and being a selfish player.... That is the danger of not extending contracts, people just play for themselves, and don't give a **** about the team. Can't blame them one bit either. DD
I have consistently been against the McHale hire from the start. He strikes me as a basketball version of Matt Millen. I just don't buy into him as a viable head coach at all and for Morey to replace a coach like Adelman with him is a head scratcher. I equate his wanting to coach with that of Isiah Thomas wanting to coach as I see both of them doing so more as a matter of ego than actual commitment to coaching. It would not surprise me at all if he were to simply walk away if the team is not successful. As for the label Coach Fix-It, that's a name Wade himself used to describe himself to the Dallas media who then ran with it. Wade is OK in the short run but his history is one where the longer he's around, the worst things become. Plus, I remain suspicious about the circumstances of his hiring where his daddy Bum gives Kubiak his "vote of confidence" and then Wade, who just so happens to need a job after his flame out with the Cowboys, gets hired. As for my level of "disapproval", I have seen precious few indications coming from Houston teams - particularly the Rockets - over the past decade that would lead me to believe the folks in charge from ownership on down have the remotest clue as to what it takes to put a winning team on the court or field. I didn't just start watching the Rockets 10 or 15 years ago - I was a follower from the beginning when they moved here from San Diego and over that span of time, one can see patterns of bad decisions that can wear down even the most ardent fan. I have simply become cynical about this owner and the organization he's created.
I'm very skeptical about the hire at this point. I told myself I would withhold judgement until the start of the season, and I have. This was a bad start for McHale. He certainly looks the part, but he's got to walk the walk. We'll have to see if he can make the proper adjustments to get this team on the right path going forward.
+1 I'm a skeptic too. But we'll see if this offense gets better. It was ugly and not even efficient. But who knows, maybe McHale doesn't like fluid offense. Maybe he likes rough play, but we don't have the players that can do that.
How was it a bad start? Were we favored against Orlando? Were we better than them last year? Can we give it 10-15 games to see what we got first? He doesn't even have the rotations set at this point after game 1. Let Sammy D get integrated and Patterson come back and get in the rotation so we can really see what team we have.
It's not the loss that made it a bad start, it's the decisions McHale made. Like playing Scola and Adrien at the 5, and playing Budinger 30 mins while he makes no shots and plays terrible defense.
Well welcome to knee-jerk reaction city. In clutchfans everything is judged on wins and losses on the latest game. During our pre-season games it was all about how Mchale was doing such a good job developing our young bigs. Now, Mcfail is causing us to lose games with bone-headed decisions. Rick Adelman, OTH was such a substitution genius, he would never play guys who will shoot us out of the game. Oh wait, Adelman did the same thing last season, except when Adelman is playing Brooks and C-bud major minutes despite them sucking, he's just "instilling confidence" in his players. When Mchalel is doing the same thing, he's just being bone-headed and doesn't know what he's doing
And don't forget that since Scola is able to pull Howard away from the basket TWill got a driving dunk that Howard couldn't contest. 55 second mark of this video. It was 3:!7 left in the 4th. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jOaWt00zv6k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
McHale will be good to teach the youngsters, but he's a looooong step down from Adelman. With no focused lineup----two top 40 (in the league) players (Scola and Martin) and a bunch of up-and-comers----we could be in for some pain. Granted, they tried to sort out the mess by getting Pau and Nenê, and I'm sure Morey'll keep trying until (1) the Commissioner dies and can't obstruct another trade (2) he succeeds in spite of the Commissioner (3) he's fired. Anyway, one game, one loss, not a huge deal. But the trade-that-wasn't really played with Kevin Martin's head, and he's either got to shake it off or we need to find him a new home in whatever other deal might occur. The possibility of the latter, though, is affecting the possibility of the former: I'm prime grade A trade bait, I don't have a long-term future here; clang; clang; clang.
I don't get this love for NeNe. He didn't say he'd come to town anytime soon. He said Houston might be a choice if DEN dumps him. That was not going to happen. Well his 14 points 7 rebounds are not impressive I don't care if he is that efficient.....
