08-09 -Brooks, too inexperienced -Artest, ball hog, low shooting % -Wafer, fought with coach, flake -Landry, coming off a gunshot wound -Yao, can't get touches Still made it past a very good Blazers team.
When Bobby jax is you're starting PG in the first two games of a playoffs Against Deron Williams in Full flight, you know you're in trouble. it was no coincidence that as soon as Rafer returned, we started playing better and actually went 2-2 from there on. i we had yao that year, we would have won that series.
How can you mention the inexperience of Brooks and not mention the inexperience of damn near all of Portland's rotation players. Roy, Outlaw, Oden, Aldridge (the top four players) that was their first taste of playoff action.
You have to factor in the inexperience of the Blazers when you talk about last year's playoff series win. It was a combination of the Rockets stellar play on the Blazers inexperience biting them in the a**
yes, finally some light of truth. the ft differential says two things. 1, the refs suck (as they usually do). 2, more importantly, after down by double digits, the suns realized it's not to their advantage to play the run-and-gun with us. so they made adjustments and slowed the pace down. they can do that since they have the personnel. even collins got a few offensive rebounds and putbacks. we simply don't have a 7 footer. a slower paced game might not be the suns' preferred style, but our team currently is under an even larger disadvantage when playing slow ball. also, with 34 seconds left and we're down 6, it puzzled me why adelman didn't call a timeout. ab passed to chuck for a layup didn't help, either. must go for a 3 in that situation.
Cuz I paid money and saw the 2008-2009 version stink it up. The 09-10 version has a much better chance of being like the 2008-2009 version that the 2002-2003 version.
I attended the game and it was an extremely frustrating experience. -Refs were not very consistent on both sides of the floor. We were in the penalty in the 4th quarter with almost 6 minutes to go, but when we drove to the basket, we didn't get the same treatment. -We gave up way too many wide open layups underneath the basket, at least 6-7 are uncontested backdoor cuts. Just blown assignments and terrible team defense. -We need a go-to player to win consistently. In the waning moments, we had both Brooks and Ariza trying to take over the game themselves, drove into double/triple teams, and putting up bad shots. Ball wasn't swung from one side to another, and the inexperience showed. -Chuck can't check Amare. While he has enough lower body strength to bang with him, Amare has a quick/big first step and once he's in the paint with the ball over his head, there's very little Chuck can do to prevent a layup/dunk. Should've walked out with a win, but we just shot ourselves in the foot by giving up easy baskets.
So your basing his whole tenure with the rockets on last year when he needed surgery? And disregarding the work and progress he's showed in his workouts since the surgery?
The guy is pain free and limp. thats been confirmed by countless sources. the reason he was struggling in 08-09 was he has in tremoundes pain. he could barley run. by all reports by even adelman, that he is pain free. thats the key. if he comes back as the 08 version he FINISHED 6TH IN THE MVP count, he'll be an asset.
I'm basing his quality of play when he returns on last year, yes. I'll bet his stats look a lot closer to 2008-2009 than they do to his 2002 season.
