Might have been towards the end of the 2nd quarter. I just know that we wasted the lead when Ariza and Battier came onto the court.
When Brooks was guarded tightly, somebody in the starting lineup will have to handle the ball more. Nobody else in starting lineup could do better than him. Ariza is put into that situation by the coach, and lack of 40mili in staring lineup is the direct reason for that. He is asked to do too much because our talent level. An to be honest, ball doesn't stop in his hands nearly as much as Tmac and Artest. So don't just hate on Ariza that much without looking at tht big picture. He'd be a very good role player once Yao comes back or we get a star player on this team.
Ariza isn't as bad of a ballstopper as Tmac or Artest, this is true. But at least the latter 2 can make strong drives to the basket and draw contact. (In Tmac's case, this only happens when he has one of those nights when he's not mentally soft.) As for how he'd play when Yao comes back, I hope he'll fit in when that is the case.
He's not making as much as Tmac and Artest when they were on Rockets either. You expect too much from him, just because you didn't get what you expected, you start hating on him. But be objective, he's not the biggest reason we lost some of games to better teams.
I was actually defending him 5 or 6 games ago when people started comparing him to Tmac. I argued in his favor, saying that he was a better player than Tmac. but in the last 3 game stretcch, he's been on a decline and hasn't shown signs of improvement. Until he does, I will point it out.
If you play well you get credit, if you SUCK you get blasted. Trevor has been sleeping on a TNT mattress. DD
Well, he gets blasted even after solid games. And people make it sound like all problem is solved by getting rid of Ariza. That's just not the case. It's a scapegoat thing.
I'll make another attempt. Tonight Ariza had a couple of good moments, with some steals, while hitting half his shots, but overall, the guy sucked pretty hard. The topper for me was Ariza leading a fast break with two trailers. He never even thinks about passing the ball, blows it, runs back to the other end and immediately gets a stupid foul, his 5th. The only good thing about that was it glued his arse to the bench. And we weren't playing the Suns. Scola looked really, really good on offense. I think the multiple back to backs and the brutal schedule caught up with him, as it caught up with the rest of the guys. We should be getting into a good stretch now, so I hope everyone's game picks up. Lowry was superb. All over the court, doing everything, simply amazing! Air Bud? What ankle! Hard to believe a 2nd round pick could become so important to the team so quickly, but we missed him when he was out, and we're a better team with him in the rotation. Look at the way the minutes were distributed. Everyone who played had at least 20, and only Battier (who also had an outstanding game) played more than 33. Andersen stepped up. Really, all the guys played well except for Trevor. I hope the dude gets his head on straight and soon. It was the Knicks, but still a great win!
Well, you forgot to mention that fast-break opportunity was the result of his steal. He did one thing good and one thing bad on that play. Not necessarily the best example of suck.
I'd say fouling a jump shooter was a bigger degree suck. On this play, I believe he's ahead of his teammate and didn't expect a charge would happen. That kind of play happens to star players a lot even without the steal, just ask Battier. More of a good defensive play than a suck play.
I disagree. I'm far from a Trevor Ariza "hater," and was thrilled that we got the guy, but he is not a "star player" and he also blew that play. I don't care how you want to look at it. I looked at it on my DVR at least 3 times and it was brutal. Total suck, since suck seems to be the proper nomenclature.
It would suck less if he tried to make the right play and the defender knocked it out of bounds or whatever. Or the guy he was passing to missed it or fumbled or traveled or whatever. When you are going 1 on 2 and screw it up that badly by yourself, there isnt any way to hide the suckitude of that play. Fouling on the next defensive set was icing on the cake and I was relieved that it resulted in a quick hook from Adelman(granted it was 4th foul in 3rd quarter)
Ariza didnt play well, he just happen to hit shots he usually misses. His decision making still sucks, as does his body language.
I think Trevor had his best game as a Rocket, because he did not take more that 10 shots and only played 23 minutes! If fact, he only took 8 shots today. :grin: If he can limit his shot attempts to under 10 per game, then I don't care if he goes 2 for 8 every game. This is because, he does not get more than 8 good looks at the basket during a game and therefore, any more attempts only indicates that he is forcing his shots. When he is not jacking up 18 shots a game, he usually does enough other things to help us win. He just needs to learn to hide in the weeds on offence and pick his spots. His points need to really come from fast breaks created by good defense.
Until his body language stops sucking, it'll really hurt the chemistry of the starting lineup. Thank god for Ariza foul trouble, or we might be facing our 4th loss and a meltdown here at clutchfans.
I had the best seats in the house. You all looked at the back of my head every time the camera passed center court. Great game.
I agree with you 100% Entropy; I was very upset after the NO game. Some posters here were dimissive of those of us who were unhappy with the loss, saying 'it was only one game', but really it wasn't. For all that Chris Paul is part of that team, they're a sub-par team this year and we should have had a win. Could have had one, and very nearly did! Makes me grind my teeth to think of it..and we've taken down the Suns and the Lakers before too. If we'd been playing last week like we'd played earlier in the year, we could have won at least one of those games as well. We defeated ourselves by losing focus and playing sloppily, slowing down the ball. I admit, those are simplistic reasons for our losses, as there are other considerations such as the grueling, grinding schedule that our guys have had. Possibly other things within the locker room that we as fans know nothing about. Well, onward. One can only hope that last night's overall good playing, energy and much needed win will inject confidence and a newly refound determination to play not only hard (which we've come to expect from this roster), but within Adleman's strategy for many more exciting games soon.
Anyone think the losing streak was a result of TMac's status with the team? More specifically, the trade rumors about getting Bosh, or Iggy, etc?
