The decline in rebounding and free throws is simply a function of missing Yao Ming, IMO. Carl Landry picked up the slack at the beginning of the season making almost 90% of his FT's, but he's fallen off that a bit lately. The poor three point shooting is a function of Trevor Ariza, quite simply, but he's not too much different than Ron Artest was at the tail end of last season (a bit worse). I'm not too worried about it. Last night was a poor shooting night from 3P and the FT line, and the Lakers are so tall the game just exemplifies what we're missing compared to a championship-caliber team.
You're definitely not just seeing things. I've noticed this too lately, but mostly I've noticed it in December. Honestly, I think it's happening because of our schedule. So both fatigue and lack of practice. It just doesn't seem like our guys have their legs under them most nights. 1st quarter last night looked terrible...some how they found the energy to keep playing the rest of the game, but that's where we lost that game...and I'm guessing that's the reason we lost it. My theory is that we're going to have a better 2nd half of the season than this first half because we'll have more practice time and because we'll have more time to rest between games (these back-to-backs, playing 96 minutes of full court basketball 2 or 3 times a week is killing us). We started the game last night with what? 1 of 5 on Free Throws? And that included Aaron, Landry and Scola? What was that about if not tired legs? I think this offseason should include massive endurance training. I love the play style, but it's beginning to take its toll in combination with this schedule.
i think you mean KEY-matchups. hahahahaha i think it's just that time of year though. they have been playing hard all season and the holiday season just ended and their schedule has been relentless especially last month with four separate back to backs. they should start to heat up over the next month leading up to the allstar game. historically between the end of january and the end of the regular season the rockets finish pretty strong. so for all you nay-sayers just be patient and STOP THE HATE!
