the game was played largely smoothly...but we had one Achilles Heel... Frontcourt defensive woes: The Rockets were again exploited by an opposing frontcourt player, as Amare Stoudamire — after being outplayed by Landry for a long stretch of the game — finished with 23 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, a block and went 2 the line 10 times. Amare got stronger as the game plodded along. By the end, the Rockets simply could not contain him, especially close to the basket where he initiated his move off iso-plays from the elbow bUT MAN hats off to the Carl Machine scored a career high along the way...
Without realizing it you have provided support for others' arguments. The caliber of the supporting cast was less than stellar. Whether you like it or not, even with Yao, T-Mac typically initiated the end of the game plays. That to me constitutes being the best closer. It doesn't have to mean you hit the shot, but you were a major factor or the reason why there was a shot!!! Even with some doubt about his health, I still feel more comfort with the possibility of him being on the court at the end of games with this current roster.
I think there's something else that we all know. Neither have you! What NBA team did play for while doing it? Were you their closer? Did you do it more than one time? Where's the youtube footage?
we need someone. either a healthy cooperative tmac or someone we get via trade. so far he is worthless trade wise so thats y ppl r hoping he comes bak and contributes. im one of those who believe budinger can be our go to guy but we still need an inside presence and budinger still needs more experience. actually AI wouldnt be bad. he can run the break, still a decent scorer and probably can still close games out. but a little pricey and who knows wth is goin on with his offcourt drama. man i miss sam mack..
Budinger had a ton of open shots, but couldn't nail any of em. I think he has a long way to go before he gains the confidence he needs. He also made some poor decisions in the Suns game. He should try to dunk the ball like Wafer more often.
Yep, it's a tough loss but not too unexpected. We are slowly shoring up our end of the period play. Now let's work on end of the game play. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending where you are in the debate, Tracy would help a lot here on the perimeter. No doubt about it. We would still have issues because of size and that can't be fully addressed until next year, so we'll live & die this year with Hayes, Scola & Andersen in the post. Unless something happens before February, this is our lot in life. We're not going to win every game but the games we lose will be by the same way, no post defense in a half court game in the final period. This also affects the psyche of the guys someway as witnessed by last night's game. I guess we just don't "panic" very well. If we had lost to LA this pill would've been harder to take, but as it is, I'm not to bumbed this morning. Enjoyed watching the game.
Hate to say it.. but these refs are getting more and more obvious with their subjective calls.. and it really seems like there is an agenda in determining the outcomes of these games.
I wonder when the coaches will figure out that Ariza cannot dribble?? I swear every time i see him with the ball i get the same feeling when i see the Texans hand it off to Slaton...turnover....Ugh...Cant wait for T-Mac to get back so we have some one who can actually dribble around the defender.
Some random thoughts, after sleeping on it: The player who impressed me the most last night was Grant Hill. That old man must have practiced shooting. Amare has come all the way back. The Suns are really good, fundamentally sound. They looked like the best team we've played this season. Carl played great. Ariza was trying to create too much, again. Should've played Bud and Andersen more, given them some of Battier's minutes. BTW, will we ever see JT on the court? We might've won except for some annoying defensive lapses (especially the help D on Amare that left the bucket wide open to weak-side cuts) and turnovers (please don't dribble more than once, Trevor!). Those are mental errors, hopefully correctable. We live to fight another day. Oh, and dear Rockets: RUN!
If a team shoots 52% and shoots 19 more FTs, they should win by a wide margin, yet the Rockets hung in there. TMac would of helped, but no shame in losing like that. Time to beat up some Minnesota (under)dogs.
I am so proud of Grant Hill for sticking to the game and not letting his injuries bother him. Regards Tracy McGrady's Orlando injuries
I just re-watched the entire and I thought that the 2 main reasons for this loss were 1) Amare stepping up in 3rd, 4thQ when the game could have swung to either team, and 2) poor officiating in the 4thQ (probably more obvious to those who attended the game). But it's always easy to shift blame away from the team. There were lapses of concentration throughout the game that involved slow rotation on defense or simply letting a player slip into open space. The end-result, especially when playing a good-shooting team, was an easy 2pts for Phoenix. Early in the game, Battier and Scola were guilty of this on numerous occasions. This game also highlighted our lack of size as when Frye was on the floor, one of our defenders was drawn out to the perimeter, freeing up room for Stoudamire to operate. Kudos to Hayes for his efforts but it was simply a mis-match in size. We sorely needed a big body to bump and bang with Amare to contain and prevent him from going off in the second half. Finally, when the game started getting close, the lack of a veteran, mature ball-handler stood out. There was a breakdown in the fluidity of plays called, partly because of Phoenix stepping up on defense to pressure the ball-handler and closing down the space between the post and PG which hindered a pass into the post. Often, the response was a drive into 2,3 Suns in the paint or a shot under pressure (Budinger was super in hitting some of them). And someone needs to recognize that when your 3-ball isn't falling after the 1stQ, then stop insisting on going to it! Run your plays, move the ball around to the weak side if you aren't open, and use the shotclock! Overall, while I didn't have high unrealistic expectations for this season (7th or 8th seed would be great), and I accept that it's still early in the season and the team will undoubtedly be better and stronger over time, unless we get bigger bodies in the paint to defend against the Amares and Howards and provide help defense against teams loaded with bigs, we will be 'figured out' and things might start getting unstuck as the season goes on.
