What I don't understand is how somebody on the other team always manages to play the "game" of their life and like they got something to prove? Yi played a great game, Blatche played a great game, John Freaking Wall got his first career triple double against us... seriously are we getting paid to pad opponents' stat lines?
It's because we suck on D and the Wizards were playing with passion especially since its the first game after Flip Saunders walked out of their team practice.
Rockets have a history of making players on other teams shine. Anyone remember the night that Michael Red went off on us and played out of his mind? Our own Moochie Freaking Norris went and helped him celebrate his career shooting night after that loss.
Must be a Rockets and Texans things. Happens with the Texans too. No coincidence they both stink on D I guess it's good no no-name guys have gone off yet. That's good isn't it? At least the Seyi Ajirotutu of the NBA hasn't gone off on us.
What?!? You honestly think Dampier is gonna turn this team around?!! That'll just be another waste of money. The Rockets should just play their young players and see what they got- sink or swim.
This was one of the things that caught my attention tonight. When the team on the court took the lead and was gaining momentum midway in the fourth, Adelman came in with a platoon substitution with, of all people, Battier and Hayes, who could not throw the ball in the ocean. Lowry should have been replaced by Ish much earlier in the quarter as he was obviously not doing his job but he was played more minutes than he should have. Many CF posters have criticized this tendency by Adelman to suddenly sub a player when he is hot. The Rockets hardly scored after that fateful substitution and Hayes was overwhelmed on the boards after he subbed Miller. This one was clearly on Adelman.
I believe we now may, in the words of Bill Simmons, rename 'Yao Ming' to 'Yao Ming's Expiring Contract'. Are there any young phenoms on the horizon worth tanking for?
i think people are overreacting (i still think this team is pretty damn good and will make the playoffs), but here are some thoughts. offense tonight looked bad for reasons that i've mentioned, but this team was ranked 5 in offensive efficiency heading into this game. There were problems this game that I've seen before, but let's not go crazy. Also at some point someone responded that teams know that we're cutting and just bump us and that's why the offense looks bad. Cutting is literally moving in one direction and quickly changing directions to through the defense off. The problem that i saw tonight was that the wizards were overplaying the dribble handoff. The correct play should be to cut back the other way towards the basket, but no one did that tonight. As a result, the dribble handoff would fail and you end up with a power forward with the ball at the top of the key with a dead dribble and everyone out of place. Lowry doesn't look great but honestly thought there was a stretch there where he played pretty well. For all the good that Ish does, you can sort of tell that the team is unsure of what he's going to do when he has the ball. Kid definitely has talent but the team just doesn't know him that well yet (and vice versa). Scola has looked awful on defense the entire year. I don't know how to explain this because he was never particularly quick and many times it honestly looks like he's just not trying particularly hard on D. Watch some of the highlights from the lakers series in 09 and look at how scola played defense there. We need some of that. Where the hell are the charges? People are running into the lane and we're either fouling them or just letting them past. Last year there were lots of times where someone would run down the lane and a Rocket would pick up the charge. Doesn't seem to be happening so much this year. Normally i think that it's bull**** when people bring up psychological reasons as to why a team isn't playing well. But the team does look a lot more tense and nervous this year and they aren't playing with the same freedom that we've seen in the past. I personally don't think there are that many stretches this year where we've played the way that we want to as opposed to the way that the opponent wants to. I think that it will get better and the team will start winning and find a groove. The talent is there and honestly the team hasn't played that badly to start. People need to give the players and coaching staff a break. Steve Blake misses a 3, Courtney Lee hits 2 FT and this game is 3-4 with some good wins over playoff teams and doing it with injuries and a changing roster.
It will be better for the Rockets' chances in the lottery and better for another decades long playoffs drought.
Cant even stay healthy playing 24 minutes a night?. Just trade him while he still has an ounce of value
Typical YOF. bash the Rocketys to propup Yao. I cant wait this overrated injury prone hack is gone. The YOF's can all go as well
lol chill man...Hate your opponents...Yofs want the rox to win just as bad as you. The way I see it, its not just Yao that was the problem, it was our entire front line. They are struggling against long atheletic PF/C. I really do feel sorry for Yao though...Its sad really that he gets hurt so easily after all the hard work he has put in. On thing you have to admit is that Yao put everything he has out there on the court for the Rox. You can't really complain about that. I understand your frustration and I feel that same way. But to insult Yao the way you just did is probably uncalled for. Yao played his heart out for the team and has done all he could. It is just not enough thats all. I am with you though to trade Yao. I think it will be better for both the team and yao. He is probably more suited in a Big Z type roll to come off the bench and play approx 20 min per game. The Rox really need to consider rebuilding right now, and i mean REBUILD. not to keep guys like hayes and shane around no more. Also I really don't see scola in our future either. We really need to start from scratch.
