Awesome win. It was great not seeing Brad Miller out there. I honestly hope he's out longer. He's pretty much useless. Nice to see AB playing like himself again. It seems like Brooks plays better when Kevin Martin is not there. I don't think Brooks will be having games like tonight once Martin is back.
Although I've never hated on AB, I will admit that I was doubting his place on this team. Nothing like a nice refresher like tonight to remind me of his skills and what he can bring to the team. Great win and team play as well as coaching tonight.
Great game: Hill hustled well and scored within the flow of the offense, but we still miss some interior D and a guy that can pull down the boards. He's no Yao, Mutombo, or even a Chuck Hayes. Can't wait to get Chuck back in the lineup. PP has proven to be able to take the mid-range jump shot, and he's developing a nice bank shot (TD style). So excited about this guy. He is our 3 for the future. Loved the small line-up. AB hit some huge shots and he certainly looked like the AB from his MIP season. Coach's idea of pairing up AB and Lowry over starting Courtney Lee was an interesting move that lead to great results. They play well off of each other, and once KMart is back in action, I hope we get all 3 of them scoring and playing good defense. The Rockets need to play better down the stretch though. The last 2 minutes of the game was like watching a football game. To avoid the back-court violation, passed the ball past the half-court line, bringing in Bud for every offensive possession and taking him out for defensive ones. Glad they pulled through. Bring on the Thunder next.
Rockets 22 games winning steak ended by Boston. Rockets 5 game losing steak ended at boston. Go rockets
Big, big win tonight. Keeps us within striking distance of .500 and the 8th spot. It would be nice to tie the series up with OKC.
Couple of things that i noticed that worked very well in tonight's game: 1) AB back in the lineup - this one is obvious. However, after seeing the team struggle defensively earlier in the year, I personally think AB should continue to come off the bench to provide instant offense and not worry about setting players up. It also helped that AB was matched up with Rondo defensively for much of the night, so he didnt seem like a liability defensively. 2) The combination of Hill and PatPat - This front-line, defensively, i think worked very well! You have athletic bigs here that can defend the basket and block shots. PatPat on defense looks like Chuck Hayes Lite, but this guy can shoot, block shots and can play above the rim. His bball IQ seems to be off the charts! 3) The defensive minutes from Jeffries. - i've never been a big fan of Jeffries, regardless of what he brings defensively. He just never seems sure of himself and usually has a hard time catching the ball. But tonight, he played very under-control, relaxed and played very well! I liked what he brought tonight and if he gets more minutes, i hope he can contribute like he did tonight. I'm really hoping that the coaching staff views the game tapes for tonight's games and realize that we need to give Hill and Patterson more minutes, especially Patterson. 17 mins for Patterson are NOT enough. These 2 are athletic, and ball-hawks when it comes to rebounding and attempting to block shots and if Adelman gives them a chance to play together, that's a tough front line to score on, IMO. Hell, add Battier, Lowry and AB to close games - you're pretty much set to close games out. Bring in Martin when the game becomes a free throw shooting contest.
Anyone watch the ESPN highlight reel? (I didn't get to watch the game). They called one assist from Lowry to Budinger a pass from Brooks, then called one later an assist from Lee when again it was Lowry. That is just poor sports reporting honestly, how can you miss a gigantic "7" on the back of someone's jersey?
Watching Hill, Hill, Brooks, Lowery, Lee and co just shows with the right pieces the future is bright.
He plays like one. He certainly doesn't play like a point guard. He shoots, shoots, shoots some more and dribble, dribble, and dribbles some more. This games shows how useless he is. If his shot is not falling then that's it. He does not contribute any other way. He can't pass, he can't defend and he can't get to the line. Aaron't wouldn't have had the game he had without Lowry. DD, you call Martin Fool's gold, what the hell is AB? Oh and, Brooks in no where near as good as Martin.
Sorry, maz, there are multiple ways to define a PG. Some shoot more, some pass more, some penetrate more, but they are all PGs.... And AB can pass just fine and has been on great defensive teams. Take your hate to the Trugoy, Jopa, CXbby thread.......this one is for knowledgeble fans that like both AB and KL. As for Martin, I like him but he sure does disrupt the offensive flow with this flopping etc....and we have lots of wings, if he is the most covetted player by other teams, that can net us an upgrade, then sayanara ! DD
Wait, did you just say Martin disrupts the offensive flow with his flopping? Then what does Brook's dribble dribble dribble shoot shoot shoot ballhog mentality does to the offense? Last night Brooks played Martin's Role. Martin and Lowry are both better than Brooks. Here, I'm going to put it very simple that even a 1st grader will get it. Brooks + Superstar = disaster Martin + Superstar = Awesome Brooks is not effective if he isn't the first option. The only reason he kinda plays well with Martin is due to Martin's only flaw, he's not selfish. Martin always plays within the offense. You bring a superstar and Brooks will destroy the team. I don't know what the hell you are looking at when Brooks plays but this is exactly what he does.
How was Brooks effective with Yao? He could never deliver the ball to Yao when he was fronted. Brooks averaged less than 10 shots per game. That WAS the reason he was effective. He had Yao and Deke protecting the rim and masking his defensive mistakes. You're going to tell me Brooks is effective now? Please....You saw what happened in the first 5 games this year with both Brooks and Yao. Don't let your man love for Brooks blind you.
I'm not a Brooks hater. I actually love the guy. But he's not a facilitator. He's a scorer.......period. The lineup worked last night. But it is a gimmick lineup. I really don't see that lineup working more than a few times against a few matchups. But I would love to be wrong. The ball movement last night was phenomenal with Brooks and Lowry out there, until the last 3 minutes when we were going to our "closer" instead of continuing to move the ball and keep the defense off balance with our unpredictability. Once the game came down to the end, and we were going to our "closer", all of a sudden, it got tight, as Boston keyed on Brooks, forced us into a couple bad possessions because we were trying to iso Brooks, and then the game got strung out at the end. If we had gone to the iso with the "closer" a couple minutes before we actually did, we would have lost the game.
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mpfGBxxTDAI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mpfGBxxTDAI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
100% wrong, he is a fine distributor, and a scorer. In fact he is our best distributor in the half court offense. Scola missed at least 4 or 5 perfect set ups at the elbow from Brooks last night in his role as a distributor. I wish people would actually watch what he is doing out there before commenting, misinformation like what you posted is a problem. To explain that too you would cause me to talk badly about our often injured center, and that is a waste of time. DD
