Why Did yao get 31 points. His offense usually isn't like this. Why is Wafer playing so much this year, he never got many minutes in the past. Why did Lowry play 24 mins, hasn't he been just a bench player most of his career?
"Rockets need 2OT to top undermanned Pistons" http://espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=290318010 Pistons really played well (back to back, depleted). I thought they deserved the win. Again, if the Rockets didn't needed the W so badly, they'd benefit more by losing this one. It would be a reality check, imo. The rebounding was pathetic. When the Pistons had an air ball (or close), Hayes and Yao were just standing there, and failed to get the rebound.
Rockets should've easily won this game. Too many offensive rebounds. Battier in the corner on one of the final plays in regulation was messing up the spacing because his man wasn't concerned with guarding him and was crowding Yao. This meant Brooks couldn't get the ball to Yao and the clock was running down and the ball was given to Ron to try and create something with a few seconds left on the clock. A win is a win though! Barry and Battier with dunks this game!
who cares. Battier played a wonderful game, especially in OT. got critical rebounds, got the ball to Yao, defended his man, great help defense, went for the lose ball, etc. He did everything except jack up shots.
Kwame, i'd really like to see video of this again, i still say It was Yao who was too high on his post up. I remember looking at Shane's man (who was too close to Yao) and he was right in front of shane and shane was behind the 3 pt line, for that to be possible Yao had to be the one with bad spacing. He usually is deeper in the post.
Battier is a great defensive player. But he also needs to shoot better - otherwise he will be just like another Chuck Hayes. Let's hope he gets out of this shooting slump quick.
Rockets has some of the best role players and a very deep bench. ESPN have been saying.... "How are they at #3?" Detroit has a underrated and talented bench with Maxell, Affalo, Bynum, and Johnson. Amir Johnson didn't play much tonight because of Kwame, who's inconsistent but had a big game tonight. Media made it known that the Pistons is without Iverson, Hamilton, and Wallace. Having followed Pistons closely, I was not surprise at the way the shorthanded Pistons stepped up. Reminded me of the way the Rockets stepped up in the last game against the Hornets when Yao was out. Stuckey's a tough cover regardless. Brooks' defense picked up later in the game, including the charges he was trying to get. Although some of Artest's shot selection were questionable, he was more effective when he took it to the hole scoring or drawing contact. Ron also did a good defensive job on Tayshaun. I wouldn't mind if Deke played a little more minutes especially with Landry being out. I think Alderman's decision was trying to be consistent with the rotation. Battier played with great hustle. He secured some key possessions for the Rox in OT. This leads me to my next point: yes Detroit had the advantage in offensive rebounding and second shot attempts. In the second OT, effort-wise they still went hard on the boards, but some of the offensive rebounds they were getting earlier turned into offensive taps, and ended in Rockets possessions. Good hustle on Rockets part to get it back, but like the rest of the game, could have been prevented if they did a better job boxing out. This was a good grinding playoff type of win.
He did a good overall job but he is a better player than just a one shot guy. No one is asking him or anyone else to take bad shots but Hayes is a one shot guy. Battier lacks confidence in his outside shooting right now,and we need better outside shooting from everyone who can make some shots.
The team looked a little slow tonight. We rally see why Landry is so important needed his energy tonight.
We have a lot to improve on , especially the boards, but I think we should give credit to the Pistons, which I think people here hasn't realized.
Sadly, that's the way I saw it also. Battier's man sagged into Yao's space and Battier just stood in the same spot. Shane should have cleared the area and try to bring his man away from Yao and leave Yao on one on one coverage. Of course, Shane's man could have disregarded Shane cutting and stayed with Yao and start swiping at the ball also. I've seen that happen. But Shane should have cleared out of Yao's side of the court.
RV6, that's not the way I saw it. Yao had good post position but Brooks couldn't get him the ball, because Battier's man was cheating a lot while Shane just stood in the corner. I'm not sure who to blame for that play - the coaches or Battier, but as a player once you see your man cheating and double teaming Yao before he has the ball, you've got to cut along the baseline and take him with you in order to create the proper spacing needed to get Yao the ball. I could be wrong, but this was my interpretation. I agree, it would be nice to see the video on that.
