I don't believe I have EVER seen a shooting display by two players on the same team in the same game like I saw last night. Admittedly, it wasn't like they were under intense defensive pressure, but still. Even in a HORSE game that would have been impressive. But wait, it was like a HORSE game. Did Ellis and Curry ever miss?
Yes we lost last night but the Warriors just wouldn't miss last night. I don't think they can shoot lights out against us again. I believe that our defense will improve next time we meet them and our offense will remain solid against their weak defense.
Defense got better when Battier sat on the bench. Courtney with K Mart and Budinger played well together, unfortunately it was only for a short time
That was one crazy game. I was screaming it at the tv but they didn't hear me - I think the biggest mistake we made was in the first quarter. We should have drove to the basket on almost every play. The only way to have won that game last night was to get Ellis and Curry in foul trouble. There was no interior defense from the Warriors, and the Rox just implemented it too late in the game for it to matter in the fourth quarter. You have to drive them to the bench. And if their bench players beat you(impressive as they were last night) then you have some real problems. Which we don't - there were several times we knocked on the door but couldn't get in for a win. hopefully they learn it before the next game with them.
Just imagine how much greater the rockets would be playing if they still had t-Mac and Landry... Man, I miss Landry. Note the sarcasm.
This loss was on the coaching first and foremost. I am a fan of the game who played basketball only through high school and I came up with a better defensive plan to win this game. Simply because I came up with one. I personally believe Shane Battier is also showing that maybe he needs to re-evaluate his aproach on defending wing players during the stretch of the season. Battier said in his postgame interview that "they playing him by the book," but obviously you didnt play by Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry's book because allowing them to beat you on the peremiter is exactly what you should NOT do. I wrote in the pre-game thread that they simply cannot allow them to shoot period. Get the ball out of Ellis' hands and use Jefferies and Hill's length to help off of double teams (which they did not do to Ellis), and keep David Lee off of the boards. Look, I understand that Hill isnt ready to be elite, and gets lost in Adelmans system on offense and can be frustrating to a coach, but he has something the Rockets need desperatly, and Adelman must play him over Chuck hayes at Center. Jordan Hill must play if he is going to give the Rockets what they need by getting better with experience on the floor. Chuck is NOT a center. Same song and dance as last year. Chuck was great on Pao Gasol on Tuesday night as a situational defender who can disrupt his offensive rhythm. Thats what he is. Adelman talking about defense is not going to help the defense, its his job to teach it, or bring in an assitant coach to teach it. Morey knows that you cant win in the playoffs without it and you cant just try to outscore teams like the Warriors. So Rick, your a great coach but you need to step out of the box and teach defense because its the only way the Rockets will get in the playoffs or we will continue to lose games we shouldn't and frustrate Rockets fans that know anything about the game of basketball.
0-2!? We gave up 132 to the Warriors and Ellis had 46? I'm starting to see bad things already from this team. No defense at all is going to kill our season.
yo buddy...whoever came into this season thinking we would be "great" and a championship contender is delusional. we are not up to the level of the celtics, magic, lakers, and soon to be heat. however, we are not that far away either
There were certainly defensive lapses, but some of those Ellis/Curry jump-shots were just sick. I'd like to thank JJ for his defensive efforts. AB looked out of sorts, like he was sulking-- hey, AB, you are still the MAN. Snap out of it!
If your expectations were for us to win all 82 games this year, then you should be upset about our 0-2 start to the season. If you are realistic about the upcoming season and you expect us to win more games than we did last year (42), then we are doing just fine. We still have around 35 more losses to go. Will you complain and gripe like this 35 more times? Will you post what the coach should have done for us to win after every game? C'mon man! Some of this is ridiculous. Already talking trades, changing the lineup, fire the coach.... Oh yeah this is Clutchfans. Home of the knee-jerk posts.
Stop it lol lets see if the Rockets can hold a team under 110 points before we even think positively enough to think they will win a game soon.
As bad as our defense was, if we'd just hit on half of the ten free throws we missed, we would have won. Our offense is decent. Our D, though...
Woke up expecting something to lift my morning.......geeez. Well it just one loss. My thoughts... GS was a team last year whereby Ellis could certainly light it up. But was also a team that lost if you played decent team defense and kept the other players from being too effective. All their starters shot over 50%, except Wright who was 6/14. Houston obviously didnt do too much of either. All those calling for Hill.....Team or individual defense isnt his strength. We probably would have lost by more if he had been in the rotation last night. Looks like the right guys were in there for individual defense since Hayes, Battier, Lee and Jeffries are not slackers. So TEAM defense apparently lost this one. Interesting thought by someone who said mentioned how we pride ourselves in being so deep, but one guy out (Lowry) seemed so very missed for the second game in a row. Sometimes I wish NBA teams had the equivalent of a defensive coordinator. JVG on D with this offense would go far. The good news so far is no one has figured out our offense either. And based on personnel, our TEAM defense will surface soon. ----------------------------------- Tough loss. But certainly our weakness has been hammered home early, and thats a good thing. They have 2 games in the next 8 days, and they are both at home. A bunch of time to rethink and work on things.
besides some bits in the 2nd half, I didnt think our offense was too bad. We had a LOT of layups, drew a lot of fouls, shot a lot of FTs. Our outside shooting was poor, and we didnt set nearly enough picks for Martin, but 128 on 47% isnt too shabby. It wasnt consistent all game, but with a 6'6 center in the rotation...heh, hard to have a consistent offensive gameplan besides GO GO GO!!!! haha
people have a valid concern, piss poor defense and had chuck hayes starting at center still as if it's still 2009.
Rick Adelman: Asleep on the job 1) Let's start with the Lakers game.... Why in the world would you play Yao in the 1st 6 minutes of the 4th instead of the last? THE reason you need Yao is for down the stretch of big games. This decision was totally inexcusable. 2) Yes, Lowry is hurt.... but, with the depth this team has in Courtney Lee and Ish Smith, there was no reason to play AB 42 minutes against the Lakers. He's a Laker killer but you can't wear him out in a game you know will come down to the wire. Plus, you know you'll need his legs in a back to back situation. Guess who didn't shoot well against GS? 3) Jordan Hill! This is a total mystery to me. The Lakers size has caused us nightmares the last couple years. Hill had a great preseason. He's athletic, a shot blocking presence, and he's actually tall. Where was he? I love Chuck... but Odom and Gasol just reach over Chuck's back. We got killed on the offensive boards against the Lakers for the millionth time. Then against GS with no Yao, you decide to play a bunch of midgets out there and allow GS to form a layup line to the hole. In turn, that opens up the outside shooting. We had no shot-blocking presence or rebounding. It's the same stuff that killed us last year when Yao was out and Hill hadn't arrived. Jared Jeffries? Seriously? No offense to Daryl or Rick but height still matters in basketball. Check out the rings on the Lakers and Celtics fingers. 4) Why is Brad Miller out there at the end of the Lakers game? To set screens? Anybody can set a screen. I love Brad... but he can't create his own shot and he's a statue. Put an offensive threat out there. Plus... Battier inbounding the ball? I don't get it. There's some coach's myth out there that he's a great passer. He's not. Buddinger makes the most sense of all our players as the inbounds guy. Great vision, creative passer, good height, and a deadly outside threat if he's left open after the inbounds pass. I'm still scratching my head about why AB would be inbounding to begin with (before we called the timeout). Of course, the one guy missing at the end of the game as a possible option, the best offensive center in the game of basketball! 5) And finally... this one goes to Daryl. I love you, DM.... but at some point you have to realize you can't win championships with the worst defensive backcourt in the NBA. AB and Martin might be ok by themselves but together it's a disaster waiting to happen. I've been watching the NBA for 30 yrs and I'm still waiting for the team that doesn't play defense to win it all. We have 3 of the worst individual defenders in basketball in our starting lineup when you add in Scola. Even if Yao could play 40 a game, he couldn't correct all of those guys mistakes.
