Lowry was the reason we lost. He stunk it up out there big time in the 4th quarter. Shoulda kept Ish out there.
I've always been a big supporter of Adelman even if his decisions were questionable at times. I've always disagreed with people who thought Lowry was better than Brooks. I've always believed Battier was someone who could always contribute. I even bought into the whole stupid intangibles crud. I've always believed Yao would make a comeback to his former self. And I've been telling everyone I knew this summer that the Rockets would be something to watch this year. I WAS WRONG!!! THIS IS INEXCUSABLE!! LET ME TELL YOU THAT THESE ARE NOT MY ROCKETS!!! WHERE IS THE HEART AND THE HUSTLE THAT MADE THIS TEAM WHAT IT WAS??? I still think this team can turn things around, but I really do not know the team that played out there tonight. Adelman needs to go. He's getting senile. Maybe this team just needs more time, but its not a good day to be a Rockets fan.
24 0 - 2 0 - 2 0 - 0 0 3 3 2 0 2 0 1 0 That zero stats for your starting SF Battier is the reason we lost.
Another painful loss. Dang, we are too good to be doing like that. Adelman has to find a formula... And a defensive one cause it is the problem.
As a DC Area resident, I attend the Wizards-Rockets game every season, and last night was no exception. I wasnt able to get tickets in advance, so a fellow rockets fan and I ended up scalping tickets at game time for $40 each, and they were the best seats I've EVER gotten in my life! We were in a suite with 3 other people (the suites are set to accommodate 18 ppl total) at center court Usually, there's always a big turnout of Chinese residents, but last night was probably the biggest I've seen. They ended up making some announcements in Chinese, and during half time had a Chinese music show presentation which is something I've never seen in the past. It was funny because a lot of fans had signs that read "GO YAO" in Chinese and English on one side with "GO YI" on the other lol. Now to my rudimentary analysis of the game... Ish Smith: As he develops, I believe that one day he will be a very serviceable backup PG in the NBA. I dont think he'll ever be a starting quality guard for a contending team (I could be wrong...but I doubt it), if for no other reason, his lack of size hurts him defensively against the better guards in the league. Rondo, D-Will, CP3, John Wall, D-Rose, and other elite PG's are much bigger than him and pose major defensive mismatches for our team right now. Last night he had a lot of difficulty hanging with Wall, and although he has good lateral quickness, he's surprisingly poor at playing through picks and relies too heavily on his quickness to compensate for poor positioning. Offensively, I still see him tentative at times, and feel that part of that is due to a lack of confidence. Flip Saunders took advantage of this fact and had Wall roaming off of Smith defensively, which stagnated our offense big time. Wall forced at least 3 different miscues late in the game because Smith couldnt do anything on offense, and its why Adelman pulled him late for Lowry; Lowry may be struggling a little right now, but he plays with a ton of confidence. I'm not going to comment much on Shane because so many people already have. The only note I'll add is that he only took 2 shots last night, but both were uncontested 3's which he HAS to knock down if we're going to keep him in the lineup consistently. In the past, he hits those, but last night he didnt which was disappointing. C-Bud: I love his athleticism when he's out there. He didnt shoot well overall, but he creates for our offense quite well. There were times where he got by his man and missed contested shots close to the basket, and I figure the more he plays, the more that shots like that go in. His quickness also proved useful in getting us a few key steals. I was surprised Adelman pulled him late in the game- I really felt we were a different team with him on the court last night. Hayes: This is not going to be a surprise to anyone on this board, but I didnt realize how badly undersized Hayes was until last night (I guess sometimes you have to see it in person to believe it). As I've said in the past, I consider Chuck to be an exceptional defender, but last night there were a number of instances where I found him out of position which is uncharacteristic of him. I counted at least 5 different offensive rebounds by Blache/McGee (3 in the 4th) that were retrieved right over Hayes head as he didnt box them out well and was standing too close to the basket. I dont blame him for a lot of the flak ppl are giving him; he's never been a strong offensive player, and played admirably when Yao was hurt and we didnt have many options behind him, but now we do, and Adelman needs to adjust to that reality. Like many other posters have already said, I was extremely disappointed in Adelman's reluctance to adjust lineups according to matchups on the court. Say what you want, but McGee/Blatche are far more athletic than Scola/Hayes or Scola/Miller which are the two bigs we played most of the game. I would have liked to have seen us go with a lineup of Hill/Miller/Scola and two guards to compete with the Wizards size. Hill may not be as good of a defender as Hayes, but he's much more athletic and is a better matchup against Blache or McGee. Martin played a phenomenal game for the first 44 minutes, but was out of his element for the last 4 which saw him trying to force the issue and take bad, contested shots, or pass out of difficult situations. Final observation: For a team with so much offensive firepower, we still dont have a go-to guy to run our offense through. Scola is most effective playing within the flow of the offense, hitting open 8-16 foot shots, getting put backs off of misses, and running the floor for layups, rather than having the offense revolve around him. Until we can figure out who the offense will get run through on a regular basis, we will struggle to develop an identity and have stretches where we seem out of sorts. Right now we're not a very good team, and lost to a pretty bad one last night, which should be cause for concern, even if its early in the season.
I have never seen so many 7-footers dribbling the ball around the court with an uncontested dribble as I saw last night. Blatche, McGee, Yi, they all dribbled the ball all over the court and our bigs simply trailed them around with their hands up. The most stupid defense I ever saw in my life. Not a single guard poking at the dribble to make them stop. Dribbling around in the paint. Looked like an elementary school game. For goodness sake, how long does it take to figure out that most of Blatche's offensive game is predicated on his dribble and to take away his dribble? On the other hand, Jordan Hill...........bless his heart.......catches the ball in the paint, and decides to dribble in traffic, instead of going straight up and taking the jumper or taking one definitive dribble on the way to the rim. And the Wiz did contest that dribble and stole the ball from him. What? This game was a total joke. We are totally exposed, naked in front of the whole NBA. Every team in the league is going to attack us at will in the paint. We have nothing on the interior, we don't even contest any shots. Now, if Yao is out, it is going to get worse. Elton Brand is starting to look good. At least he contests shots. Brand and bubba boy Damp. All any team has got to do is put a guard with some quickness on the perimeter and let him have at us. Dude beats our terrible sucky perimeter isolation defense and then he's in the paint and going up against.....nothing. Dunk, layup, or assist. We are getting lit up like NY on Thanksgiving night. If you are going to play Scola in the post, and Martin on the perimeter, you need a center on the court that is a highly rated defender and rim protector. It's as simple as that. The only big we have jumping the screens and helping the guards defensively is Scola. And he's not exactly fast. Then when he's jumping the screens, we're left with Hill or Brad Miller trying to defend the rim. Hill's got the athleticism but he's just not mentally wired to play bball at a high level. His mind doesn't jive. Miller has no defensive skillset besides hard fouls. Ish was probably our best perimeter defender in this one. Does that tell you anything?
Yeah, I agree that right now, AB is our most consistent offensive threat who can create his own shot and doesnt fade late in games. The problem is this: Adelmans offense, at least traditionally, was designed to work inside out. Chris Webber, Divac, and even Brad Miller to a certain extent, were relied on to catch the ball on the block or top of the key and make the right decisions (who to pass to, shoot, drive, etc.). Right now, it seems like he's still running that same scheme, but with Brad Miller, Chuck Hayes, and Scola (usually the PG passes to the SG, PF comes to the top of the key and gets the ball, SG runs around him and the PF either passes back and rolls, or keeps it and passes to someone else, or drives to the basket). Miller still poses a bit of a threat as a shooter, but Chuck poses none, and if Scola plays with his back to the basket, he's better at doing so on the block, not at the top of the key as it requires more dribbling/maneuvering.....
True, it was weird that Miller did not play late last night, he was doing a good job when he was in there. I think Adelman has no idea whom to go to at this point. DD
So did you see when J. Magee blocked the crap out of Brad Miller's lay up attempt to the basket? I admit I laughed so hard I couldn't help it. Man this is the NBA and if this was playoffs he would really get exposed. You have to have guys in the paint that can jump and play defense with a strong mentality. Miller needs to be catching the ball around the free throw line and shooting.
I remember that, but he blocked a few guys last night (I remember Scola specifically amongst others). But that was one play, not the whole game. I actually think Miller played pretty well; he didnt play much, but he was active on the glass and in the lane, and is very physical, which is something McGee is not. Also note that McGee is not a standard NBA player; he's got crazy hops and athleticism, but hasnt developed a consistent offensive game and is prone to bite on pump fakes which is why its not uncommon to see him play with a lot of fouls or sit for a lot of the game. I agree that Adelman isnt always sure of who to go to, and thats odd because in the past he's been so good at game planning and creating matchup problems for the other team. Last night (and the whole season up till now for that matter) he seemed extremely reluctant to sub guys out who were getting beat. Hayes played 25 minutes, but was regularly getting beat defensively by Blache and Jianlain. Against Yi, Jeffries would have probably been a better matchup, but instead, we stuck it out with Hayes/Scola on him, which was a mismatch since Yi plays on the perimeter. It just seemed so obvious to get Jeffries in there, but instead, he sat on the bench and didnt see the floor....
It is flat out amazing that Rick keeps asking Scola to guard guys on the perimeter...when that is his weakest area. In fact, I think that is not stubborness, but stupidity on his part. Agreed on Jeffries, I figured he and Hayes would rotate as situational defenders based upon need. Low post guy to guard = Hayes Perimeter big to guard = Jeffries Not sure what Rick is thinking....probably ..."I hope Yao is ok"... DD
the reason we lost was that we played a team with superior talent on their home court. simple as that.
To me it's not about McGee vs Miller. It's more about us not having what it takes downlow to win consistently in the short term and in the longterm right now. At the ned of the game we lost but that one play happened in a crucial moment of the game. I know you understand all this and right now we are just stuck in a bad spot as a team. We can fix this though it just takes time and moves.
