The reaction to the game outside of Houston seems to be that the Rockets played over their heads, and Golden State let this one slip. I don't get that. The Warriors are a bad team. The Rockets are a better team, even without their stars. I had them winning this game, and I thought them being down 10 at the half against the freaking Warriors was embarrassing. People can't just look at the offensive numbers and assume the Rockets played over their heads. They played just well enough to win, but they can play a lot better.
Last night was really the first action I've seen so far. What I saw is the beginnings of a dominant defensive team. No pass is safe. No lead is safe for opposing teams. That 3rd quarter was one of the best quarters of basketball I can remember seeing the Rockets play in the 30 years I've been a fan.
Overall, (preseason and first two games of regular season) I think the Rockets are looking pretty sloppy on offense and defense. Which actually makes me optimistic, because I think we can can (and will) get a lot better and more efficient as the team gets used to a new system and new team mates. Any wins we get at the beginning of the season are just gravy.
Let them think we Suck - Who cares. All we can do is go out and play and show em' what we're made of . . . For those of us that follow this team year round - From Season to Draft To Vegas . . . We know that this is NOT going to be a 50 loss team - This is probably a .500 Team that will go into the final weeks of the season battling for the last playoff spot. This is NOT a bad team. We have scorers and defenders and guys poised to break out. If things fall right for us we could TRULY surprise. Stay Tuned . . . but meanwhile let em think we are no good and let our opponents get overconfident - just works in our favor.
I strongly believe that if the Rockets can go into January with a .500 record, we're getting into the playoffs without a doubt. In Oct/Nov we play a total of 17 games - 10 with potential playoff-bound teams including Portland (twice), Lakers (twice), Dallas (twice), Utah, Atlanta, and Oklahoma (say what you will, but they'll make some noise this year). In Dec we play a total of 16 games - 11 with potential playoff-bound teams including Cavs (twice), Dallas (twice), Portland, Detroit, Denver, Orlando, Hornets, Toronto, and Philly (they've had our number the last couple years). IF we come out of those tough months, and IF we get a healthy TMAC back, all of a sudden, opinions around the league are going to start changing. And if by SOME Miracle that Yao is available in April, WHO KNOWS what can happen! WE ARE RED NATION B***ES!!
I don't blame them. A lot of things went in our way and we still barely won. We made almost all our free throws and they missed a bunch. All their bigs were in foul trouble. Maggette uncharacterstically could not score. We had to hit 13 straight shots and half of our threes just to come back. The warriors are not as bad as you think. We were just better than them yesterday. Do you honestly think scoring 108 points will be somewhat normal for us?
Not necessarily....maybe for last night, but in general that's not always what +/- means, i don't want the poster who asked to get confused about it
Absolutely it's normal. I think it will be UNcharacteristic for us to score under 105ppg this year due to 3 BALL STOPPERS that are not playing for this team - RonRon, TMAC, and YAO. As good as Tmac was, he would stop the motion offense and HOLD the ball. RonRon, dribble down the clock like good ol' Stevie, and throw up an off-balance shot! And nothing against Yao, but we were always attempting to go through him, which meant slowing the game down so Yao can catch up to the rest of the team.
Against Golden State I do. Golden State is all offense, little defense. The game is played at a higher tempo.
A lot of things went our way? That is how the game is played. The Rockets were the better team last night. Us hitting free throws and them missing is not just luck. Maggette not scoring much is not just luck. Hitting those shots were not just luck. They played hard and earned the win.
To be honest, even if Yao and Mac were healthy, I would've taken 1-1 on a back-to-back to Portland and GS... Very happy with the start.
I like to read comments from Players and Coaches especially if they are from the other team so here it goes. Interview with Nelson. Nelson: "We didn’t have an answer for Scola tonight. We didn’t really want to get our defense spaced out too much so we didn’t double-team a lot. I thought our big guys could handle him in the low box. But we didn’t play his strength and weakness very well. And he had the big night against us. That was disappointing." Jackson: "But as a whole, I wish I could’ve guarded Ariza more. They had me go on Shane Battier, which I wasn’t happy with. I want to guard the best guy every night, still, regardless of what’s going on on the court, who we have out there." Question: "The fact that Houston played in Houston last night… was without Yao and McGrady… does that make this a worrisome loss? -JACKSON: You can’t look at it like that. It’s the first game. You know, the young guys had to get the jitters out. Get the first game out. They played last night, so they had a chance to feel that NBA grind of the first regular-season game. They made the plays down the stretch. They pounded us inside. When we played small, they beat us up inside… To say we’re going to be a defensive team, we’ve got to work a little harder on it." I thought this part was funny.. Jackson: "I told you, I make love to pressure. So I would’ve loved to take the shot. I want the ball in times like that. But we ran a play for Morrow, he took a shot at it. Just didn’t go down."
we have 3 tough games ahead of us. i don't mind us going 1-4 if we're improving. what i liked from yesterday: 1) AB looked to facilitate earlier on, but stepped up his scoring in the 2nd half when we needed him to. he mixed it up from the inside and outside. btw, i LOVED his transition 3s, make or miss. that's his shot. 2) scola is slowly getting comfortable being a go-to guy in the post. it helped that the smaller corey maggettee was on him a ton, but still, he looked much more comfortable. we need to get him more touches to establish him as a legit threat. he can draw some double teams 3) trevor ariza was GREAT. to be more in-depth, he was GREAT when he catch and shoot. all of his made 3s were directly from pass outs and he simply caught them and shot them, no dribbles. when he did dribble, he looked like a train wreck. he couldn' do jack against stephen curry off the dribble when they were matched up twice in the first quarter. but he dribbled less in the 2nd half so i'm sure he's learning what he can and can't do on this team. 4) the 2 white guys off the bench. can't say much more about them. i'm in LOVE with them. they'll struggle at times, but boy can they shoot. i was sad DA didn't get any time in the 2nd half. dude's a baller. and budinger is going to make more of the shots that he's missed. he's still a little hesitant. great win. a must-win last night. if we lost, this board would have been beyond pessimistic. now time to continue to work on the post game offensively, team defense, and most importantly, gang rebounding.
nothing terribly wrong with your post, other than the first sentence. "don't ever put kobe and yao in the same sentence"? for 1, i have numerous ways to do just that (e.g., kobe once committed adultery while yao never will); 2, didn't yourself did just that (i.e., put them in the same sentence)?
When facing defense like what the Warriors played, 108 points is not abnormal. But against that team, we should be able to defend much better, and we should be able to rebound much better. They don't have any post up players, and our strength this year has to be our perimeter defense.
Lowry should start over Brooks. AB looks like he hasn't got a CLUE what the heck he's doing out there!! Here ya go DD!
okay, i will go for it. it's a slow, rainy afternoon anyway... when yao plays, lowry is a better starter. this year... i don't care. ab still seems clueless a lot of times when he penetrates and is within 3 feet of the hoop. to me that is not a trait of a quality pg. in the portland game, it worked better when we played lowry at the pg and ab at the sg. (granted we've only played 2 games so far.)
