Wow. I still cant believe our team allowed Warrick to look like a superstar out there. Do you really expect a team to make the playoffs doing BS like that? Really?!?!???! Im sorry but im speaking the truth when I say this team isnt going to the playoffs this year. Yeah I love if they do but they wont. Im not putting on homer googles like most of you. Call it like I see it. This team isnt playoff type and gonna be in same position like last year and be around last in lotto picks. Maybe next year but this year is out of the question. Like I always said on here, Rockets are the tease team who never fails to disappoint. Just when you think they look like they are getting it they will come up short like always. Spurs will cream us Saturday and be right back under .500.
So many things went horribly wrong. Warrick and Carter being INCREDIBLY hot and making so many tough shots, the officials screwing us over, Scola being out, Brad Miller's huge mistakes, Martin's horrible shooting night. But what's amazing is that we were one shot from taking the game to overtime anyway. I'm not giving up on this team. They are really, really good and they will rebound from this.
They are good and having an off-night can happen for the even the best of teams, especially if one is missing a guy who played 311 NBA games straight. Still, only 17 games left, and that margin of error is razor-thin now.
No doubt they will rebound from this...but will it be enough? This was a tough loss and with how the teams ahead of the Rockets are playing, it's going to be tough to move up to the 8th. Going to have to beat teams like the Spurs coming up..
Positives from the game. -Dragic made AB look silly on both sides of the court. -Dragic plays extremely well with Patrick Patterson. -PP is going to be a superstar -Kyle Lowry should put an end to wanting to trade assets for Chris Paul instead of a SF or C.
We win with Scola. No doubt about it. And is there any doubt about Patterson? Morey's highest pick seems golden. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. DM has found pieces to work with. This year doesn't matter.
Whowow, never judge talent after games vs. PHX. By your logic Warrick is a future superstar and Vince is still one of the best players. There's no D involved, everyone can shine in these games.
Brad looked sick there, like he might puke on the court. Ah, well. Scola's absence, "Down" Hill's first half, Chuck's rare poor game, Kevin Martin's funk, missed free throws, and the ref's incompetence (or cheating-- one or the other) were all, in themselves, bigger factors in this stinking loss than that one Miller turnover. It will be interesting to see how we play Saturday.
Scola is very important for the team, more than the average perception about him. With him back to the starting lineup and (hopefully) fully recovered, Rocket will be back on track for the playoffs.
I've only just seen this, I reallt feel for Brad, he was on the verge of tears after the bad pass, then he got to worried to pass again so started to dribble the ball up court like a drunk bovine, another bad pass, gets the ball back, and then finds himself in the passing lane with time winding down. If he makes the shot he's a hero and we go on to win in OT, he doesnt, so he'll probably cry himself to sleep the next few nights. Tough, tough loss. Puts us well back now.
we lost the game because of kevin martin. he looked like he had barely seen a basketball before. he was pure slop and his shot is whack. if he even has a semi-decent game, then we win even without scola. and, brad miller isn't clutch at the end of games. i don't want him in the game at the end of games with the game on the line....because he screws it up.
We really lost because Scola was out. Martin's poor performance coincides with Hill defending him. Hill is a top defender in this league. We were toasted on the interior mostly. Sure VC got hot. But Warick was the dude killing us early and often. With Scola in there, Warick would have been on the bench in foul trouble. With Hill and Hayes playing alongside each other, Warick was able to stay away from fouls because neither guy is a primary scorer type guy. Warick was able to shadow defend for most of the first half. If Scola is in there, Warick is likely on the bench quicker with 3 fouls and he is likely having to play much softer in the second half. He still wound up with 5 fouls even though he really wasn't challenging defensively most of the time unless Patterson and Miller were in there. Not to mention Gortat taking our bigs to school. We needed another big to neutralize all that, a big that can score in the paint, collect fouls, and keep the defense flat on their feet because of his two dozen fakes he throws with every touch he gets. Patterson was nice, but he was basically getting his off Lowry or the pick and pop. That's one piece of the game that he's got down pretty well. The next phase of his development will be when they start giving him the ball down low and letting him make a move with it. He's got the potential but if he is going to have a chance at being a star in this league he's got to be able to score in the paint off some sort of post moves. We didn't have that piece of Scola's game last night and it cost us dearly. The truth is we are not good enough to win games against .500 and over teams if even one of our top 3 scoring options go down. We played as good as we could last night under the circumstances. You cannot expect Martin to be able to give you 25 every night. There are going to be some nights when the defense keys down on him. That's what Phoenix did. They threw Grant Hill at him and then helped Hill when Martin went on his drives. And it was the logical thing to do defensively considering that Scola was out. They decided to see if Lowry and company could beat them. And Lowry and company couldn't get it done, even though Lowry had a great game. We did not have that consistent go to threat in the blocks and we needed it to go with our pick and pop perimeter game. Brad Miller is at his limit in about 10 minutes per game. Any more minutes than that and his lack of footspeed up and down and defensively starts to hurt us and his fatigue factor starts to hurt us. When Brad plays big minutes, our odds of winning decrease.
Martin looked bad because Grant Hill was playing the best defensive I have seen this year so far on one single player. Give Martin credit for making a couple really tough shots that he had to work extrememly hard for. Hill just simply worked his butt off and deserves recognition. As for Brad Miller being clutch... he had one of the worst games of his career no doubt, but he's consistently been one of the smartest bigs in the game for years and years. He is probably the most un-athletic, but is effective mostly because of his experience and heady plays. He just had a really really bad night and he knows it. If you really think he is "unclutch", look up video from the 09 playoffs vs the Celtics. The Rockets lost this game because they were outplayed on the defensive end, and Vince Carter and Hakeem Warrick played out of their mind. Simple as that. It just comes down to a few defensive stops the Rockets couldn't make and yes... some luck on offense.
Wow you're clearly very knowledgable about the NBA, why don't you next tell us a story about that terrible 40 year old defender named Mutumbo. /SARCASM BTW BECAUSE I KNOW 90% OF YOU KNOW AS LITTLE AS THIS GUY DOES
Exactly... Grant Hill worked his butt off tonight and deserves recognition. The fact that Martin was even able to score 15 pts was remarkable.
