Great game by the Rockets. I can not wait until we have a healthy Shane Battier and a healthy Tmac. Tmac, despite not shooting well, was very aggressive (10/11 free throws, 0 three point attempts) and passed well. However, I think Tmac may have cost us on defense a little because of his injured knee. I am not worried because he will improve as the season goes on (and especially in the playoffs). Man, chuck and ron artest on defense are AMAZING. I love the way that both ron and chuck can rotate on guards and forwards. Those two right there can guard almost any position, and throw in a healthy Battier, man. Sorry for the long post.
Agreed. Yao had to play all those min., not that i want him to or saying he should play extended min. but this is only the second game of the season, and Adelman in a smart coach Yao's min. will be reduced in the games, to come. Brooks is a great player but i think he needs to stay coming off the bench, the reason he looks so good in preseason and in this game is because he is allowed to do his thing and score, if he was a starter that wouldn't happen, there are enough scorers starting. This season is going to be great!
Why are people complaining about Yao's minutes!? If it's a close game nobody should have a problem with that. Now if he's in there during a 20pt blowout then there's reason for concern. And to all the T-Mac haters the guy did take it to the rim and got himself 11FT's and kept the game close when Dallas was making its run in the 3rd. Can't say he was being selfish and b****ing either, he was the head cheerleader on the bench.
well Barry will not play in crucial crunch time with the clock ticking, unless a trey is needed. T-mac is GOING to be the tmac of old when we need him to be. and how is this possible you say? RON RON!!!
Thoughts from the game: - AB arrived when in the 4Q Jason Kidd came to near mid-court to deny him the ball - Love Brent Barry's two time-outs in a row. Calm and cool, and teaching AB at the same time - Rockets basically played without 4/5 of last season's starting for the entire 4Q (TMac, Battier, Scola and Rafer who played the last minute) - Ron Artest - need I comment? - Amazing defense by Artest and Chuck in the 4Q - gave Dirk and Howard nothing. Once Battier back, that unit in the 4Q can really protect a lead.
Thoughts: Brooks was awesome in spite of coming off his injury, Way Too fast for Dallas pg's. Imagine when he is fully healthy? I loved how Yao is showing Emotion! Especially throwing his shoulder into Howard. Hayes defense is the reason we were able to pull away. He is so underrated by this board. Brent Barry looked a lot faster than i imagined he would.
yao played great once again. but 41 mins on a b2b. if he keeps playing like this, another stress fracture isn't out of the question. REST THE BIG GUY. play him 33-34 mins.
Sometimes i couldn't tell if it was Hayes or Artest guarding Dirk....they both did a great job of bumping dirk out of position, i've never really seen chuck do that out in the perimeter, he usually just tries to stay in front of his man really tight, but doesn't bump them with the forearm. Either Ron gave him that tip or chuck saw Ron do it and used it himself. I think last year chuck woud have been called for a foul on that, but with Artest's reputation as a great defender, it allowed him to do that as well.
ron is as good as advertised. him, hayes, battier on the floor together will be stifling defensively.
Artest is just a beast - on BOTH ends. Hope he can keep his emotions in check over the course of the season.
i disagree. i think Barry will play a lot of games in crunch time because of his skills and veteran knowledge. how do you know T-Mac is going to be the T-Mac of old? if you're talking about T-Mac pre 2005 then you can say goodbye to him...that t-mac is long gone. Current t-mac needs to worry about not messing up the offense.
Wow, it's a great win. Consider rocket is on back to back.. even without Tmac at the closing Q. Oh Man, I like the win.. Look at how the change of play by dallas now.. and still Rocket is better.. We must have a good season this time.. Here we come June!...
Barry will provide leadership and confidence in tough situation. Artest is a beast on both ends of the court. Yao played too many minutes, but he did have awesome matchups the entire game. Brooks has taken over backup point and is very good at it. Awesome game tonight let's keep it up
Overall thoughts on this game: *they remind you so much of the '95 team with the heart and grit of guys like Artest and Hayes. *that sequence where hayes and artest took turns on howard pretty much summed up the defensive potential of this team. *yao was absolutely incredible tonite. way too many minutes though. 41 minutes for yao is inexcusable, especially on a back to back. *the second unit is so cohesive with hayes, artest, barry, and brooks. barry, even though he doesn't score much, really provides as a calming influence to allow aaron brooks to attack. contrast this with having luther head playing major minutes last year off the bench... *ron artest is kind of like an every-down-back. he has the stamina to continue attacking the entire game. this is crucial because t-mac just can't do that at this stage. but t-mac can still serve as a great facilitator as we saw tonite. *aaron brooks showed tonite just how important the pg position is. his penetrating ability opens up so many opportunities for this team and is a dynamic we have never had in the mcgrady-yao era.
