his defense, grit, and intensity were always there. those aren't the main reasons we got him here. we got him here to score. and the reason we won was b/c ron made 2 clutch shots to just shut the door on the nuggets' come back. and those scores? came from on ONE dribble. as long as ron isn't expected to be a playmaker, he's efficient and effective. leave the playmaking to tracy. ron just needs to finish plays. i still prefer him to post up more. that will come with time. i'm glad we got rid of the pick and roll and isos for ron. he's just not very good at those plays.
I think we saw last year that we don't badly need Artest. Even Artest was quoted to say he thought the Rockets would've won the championship last year if Yao didn't go down. He just makes us better on both ends of the floor. When you're hampered with injuries, he is a major luxury to have.
The Rockets shouldn't be running pick and rolls or isos that often for any player. And let's face it, this team lacked a pair until Ron Ron showed up.
That's the reason why brooks makes so much sense. Tracy is the pg when he's on the floor. Rafer is basically the sg. Its no accident tracy runs the offense. Like I've said many times is that ur playing against yourself with rafer as a sg. Brooks is a scorer that can play some point. Playing with tracy allows him to do what he does best and that's putting pressure on the defense. When he gets rge outlet, he's pushing it, he's not waiting for tracy to give the ball too him. That's why tracy is kinda like magic in a sense. He plays the point on offense and the 2 on defense. Rafer isn't a consistent enough shooter/scorer/playmaker to take advantage of the looks and creases he gets. On the 2nd unit with a guy like shane or wafer and landry, he doesn't feel the need to give the ball up to start the offense, then he would be a better player.
Great win. But just think if they had played good defense for both halves? Also... don't know if it's just my perception but when Landry was on the court, except for a couple of hustle plays, it seemed like no one informed him there was a game being played. He wasn't his usual self. A good test will be consistency in the next few games + the three in a row against Cleveland, NO and the following back-to-back against Utah. How they play these three will, I think, help set the tone for this team and tell them what's needed ahead -- barring any more injuries.
Good game! Kudos to everbody. T-Mac, pls be consistent! I'd see you play 20/5/5 every night rather than a triple double today and then totally dissappears in the game after....
i don't fear the lakers as much as i do before simply b/c their defense is atrocious. they may say they're not giving the effort. well that's not true. they play a matchup-zone and gamble way too much (it worked earlier on b/c teams rarely see the matchup zone). but even earlier on, the lakers give up a ton of wide open jump shots. now teams are making those jump shots. their 1-on-1 defense is just terrible. if we match up with them, we can score on them. and i think our defense will reach another level once we're healthy to slow them down.
I can't believe no one brought this up already. Ron came off the bench I like this idea, it keeps the rythem of last years team but gives us that extra fire when we need it.
