wow i hadn't even seen Battier's stats, you would think he shot terribly the way he's been hated on, he was 2 of 4 and 1 of 2 from 3pt....he had a steal, a block, and ONLY ONE FOUL. Philly has some good swingmen so one foul is a good job. Rockets were also + 6 with him on the floor. He also only had 1 turnover, so whoever mentioned he lost the ball like 2 or 3 times was incorrect. He didn't play great, or even well, but he doesn't deserve to be bashed...
the thing is no one even bothers to guard him. and he's never moving on offense except setting the occasional screen and just stands in the corner 3. our offense never involves him in anything so it's like we're playing 4 on 5. stats can be overrated. watch the game and you see why. one time today he took a dribble and he looked like an absolute scrub.
He's a spot up shooter, thats waht he does, he banks out at the 3 point line like he's supposed to provide spacing for yao or tmac inside
you can be a spot up shooter and do SOMETHING else. gotta make yourself a threat. we're basically playing 4 on 5 everytime down b/c nobody cares to guard battier.
Houston "AntiClutch" Rockets can't even pull out wins against average Eastern Conference Teams. These losses are so depressing. When the going got tough they abandoned the game plan just like the NY game and I knew we were going to lose. So sad. A change needs to be made.
Well he makes up for it with his defense, hustle and does the other little things to help you win games. Its not like opponents have been leaving him wide open to help out on other guys, if that were the case, shame on the rockets (especially the guards) for not rotating the ball over to the open battier who took only 4 shots today
you can't say that. he had an open shot today but pump faked then pass it back out. there are many instances this year and past years where he REFUSES to shoot despite how open he is sometimes. his defense and hustle are great. but then why can't chuck hayes get 35 minutes a game then like battier? we expect battier to be a threat also. hopefully this is all due to his injury still. if he's hurt, sit.
Maybe it was too early in the shot clock? now when you're talking about Chuck Hayes now we're playing 4 on 5, because the man can't do anything other than score on tip ins
that's the same thing as battier, who can't do anything other than shoot the spot up 3. chuck hayes can at least curl to the basket for layups (though he sucks at that sometimes), get offensive rebounds... they're basically the same player this year.
But isn't that the perfect compliment to guys like Yao, Artest and Mac who need the ball to be effective? the man minds his own business and spots up in the corner lol. Just the fact that his defender is sticking on him, creates spacing and room for superior one on one players like Mac and Yao to operate.
no, have you seen him today WITH the ball? one time he had to dribble through an opening and towards the basket and just looked beyond awful doing it. there's a reason he's minding his own business in the corner. and no, his defender is not sticking on him at all times. they know he doesn't shoot much so they can easily rotate back if they wanted to.
I live in Australia and don't get to see many games, but I pretty much check the scores at work every day. We always seem to be up by about 7-8 points in the 3rd quarter and end up losing. What's up with that? And if we're down by the same margin in the 3rd, we never manage to come back. I check the scores, we're winning, I go back to work. Then when I check the scores again at lunch time we've lost. This happens SO often and it sucks!
TRACY McGrady touched elongated index fingers with Dikembe Mutombo, bumped fists with the staff at the scorer’s table and announced, “I’m back.” Well, that’s nice. Welcome to the Rockets’ 2008-09 season … again. Let’s see if he can stick around awhile this time. Finally, the Rockets’ lineup looked like the one they expected to employ this season, as for just the third time no key parts were missing. Having a full-strength squad and a solid-playing McGrady won’t erase the sting of Wednesday’s 95-93 loss to Philadelphia, however — these Rockets are not supposed to lose to the 76ers at home. “It was a bad loss,” said McGrady, who scored 24 points to lead the Rockets. McGrady, who has missed 16 games this season (and was declared a missing person by authorities in several others), topped the 20-point mark in consecutive games for the first time since early November. None came in the fourth quarter, which is when the Rockets need McGrady to be at his best. His end-of-the-game launch of a potential game-winning 3-pointer was blocked by Samuel Dalembert at the buzzer. “He’s 7-foot with a 7-5 wing span,“ McGrady said. “I thought I got it off, but he’s a long guy. “I thought he was far back to where I could get a shot off. It felt good when it left (my hands), but Jesus, what can you do?” The Rockets need to do more when it counts. They should be embarrassed. The Rockets had as much as a 14-point lead in the third quarter and a nine-point lead with about 10 minutes to play, but they struggled to close out the Sixers at Toyota Center, scoring only four points in the final four minutes. This is the fourth time this season that the Rockets have lost a game in which they had a double-digit lead. Even Yao missteps Usually dependable Yao Ming, back in the lineup after missing two games with a sore knee, even blew a free throw with 48 seconds left that changed the complexion down the stretch. This should have been the start to a string of games in which the Rockets could make a move up the standings. Only three times this season have the Rockets had Yao, McGrady, Ron Artest and Shane Battier available for the same game. They have lost all three of those contests, but that’s not a reason to panic. The Rockets blew this one, but they still have nine of their next 11 games at Toyota Center, with their next seven foes having sub-.500 records. The Rockets play only three winning teams in their next 14 games. It’s time to celebrate wins through the soft part of the schedule, not gift-wrap a win to the likes of the 76ers (22-22). Having a solid-playing McGrady is darn near worthy of celebration itself. “I’m starting to get my rhythm back,” McGrady said. “I‘m starting to trust my legs. Each game is getting better and better.” For those of you who were wondering when T-Mac was going to show up this season, he was spotted in the building in the third quarter. Hot, then hurt He had a legitimate dunk, not that baby struggle dunk he has been doing all season. He drilled 3-pointers with the kind of lift on the jumpers we have rarely seen this season. He even tried to block a shot. It was a T-Macnificent quarter, with McGrady pouring in 13 points — he made three 3-pointers — and adding a couple of assists. But late in the period, Rockets fans’ hearts sank as they so often have watching this oft-injured star. McGrady drove into the lane and dished to Luis Scola for a basket. When McGrady landed, his left knee buckled. You could see he was in pain. Again. He grabbed his left knee as he ran back on defense. He limped through a possession. He limped to the bench when a timeout was called. Rockets trainer Keith Jones met him there. The good news was McGrady didn’t even have Jones look at the knee. McGrady dealt with the pain and stayed in the game. “I tweaked it,” McGrady said of the knee from which he had loose particles removed last May. “Even the doctors told me that’s what it’s going to be for the remainder of the season. “There are going to be times where I land awkwardly or plant awkwardly and it’s going to trigger. It’s just a matter of whether I can (take) the pain and keep on playing on it.” ‘Keep grinding’ He kept on playing through it on this night, though he scored just one more field goal the rest of the way. “We just have to keep grinding, keep digging and find an answer,” McGrady said. “It’s the second half of the season. We’ve got to be better, a lot better.” http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6235961.html in regards to tracy tweaking his knee in the 3rd.
what happened during the last play? Battier was open and didn't receive a pass, what do you think he would have done hade Tmac passed him the ball? SHOT IT. He shoots when he has, he doesn't like shooting bad shots and he believes in looking for a better shot than a 3 pointer, that's why he doesn't always shoot early in the shot clock even if he's open. If philly wasn't guarding him its because they didn't think tmac would pass him the ball, i'm sure that applied on other plays as well. With tmac and ron out, there's plenty of shots to go around, but when they play, they are always going to get their 10 shots, and that's 20 shots less for everyone else, if you want to blame someone, blame those two for not moving the ball around more. Yao gets his 10 shots too, but at least they are higher percentage shots.
No he doesn't. He has basically turned into a starting sf version of Chuck Hayes minus the strength, defense, and rebounding...basically, he's a scrub.
The problem is that the progress they're making is just getting them back to where they were last season.
