[Rockets.com] Rockets Outlast Grizz (with quotes) Thanks. Quick correction on the story Jason, if you're reading -- that last missed 3-pointer was by Rudy Gay (I believe), not Kyle Lowry. Here are some post-game quotes from the story: Ron Artest: [rquoter] "A steal," said a smiling Artest after the game. "That was a great way to start it off. I couldn’t have written a better beginning. "I was just trying to attack the butterflies. I had to stomp on them a little bit, just to kind of get them out of the way. It was definitely fun putting that jersey on, so I had to make sure I enjoyed [the experience]." [/rquoter] Coach Adelman: [rquoter] "You have to understand what the defense is doing," said Adelman. "The cuts are there and your guy is open, but you have to see the defense. You can’t just throw the ball into a crowd… They just sagged in and surrounded the cutter, so somebody else is open all the time – usually it’s the weakside perimeter person – [but] we were so intent on trying to throw it to the guy going to the basket. "It’s just one of those things you have to learn. I was disappointed in the way we played offensively because we’ve been better than that all week long… But I think it’s a great game as far as us breaking the film down and showing it to them." [/rquoter][rquoter] Anyone who followed the Rockets closely last year knows what a bugaboo free throw shooting was for the team. So it was a welcome sight to see the club knock down 26-of-30 (.867) from the charity stripe Tuesday night. Coach Adelman was impressed. Sort of. "Yeah, we did make free throws – we couldn’t hit a shot, but we did make free throws," he said while stifling a small chuckle. "It’s always one thing or the other. But we’ve got some guys who can make them. It’s nice to put someone like Brent [Barry] in at the end of the game knowing that he’s going to make two free throws. But we should be an improved team at the free throw line this year, I really believe that."[/rquoter] Yao: [rquoter] "[In the third quarter] I make some adjustments," said Yao. " I feel like, ‘Okay, this is the game I’ve played before,’ unlike the first quarter when I was like, ‘What do I need to do?’ I’m a little bit like a rookie in the first quarter." [/rquoter][rquoter] A reporter asked Yao Ming why the Rockets had difficulty running coach Adelman's offense in the past when both Adelman and Artest insist that it's easy. Yao' s response: "[Coach Adelman] has coached this offense his entire life. Of course he knows more than anybody. And for Ron, he played for coach before at Sacramento – for how long?" The reporter answered, "One year." "Oh, well that means I’m not smart," quipped Yao. [/rquoter] Brent Barry: [rquoter] More fun from the victorious locker room: Brent Barry says he has to be in constant movement when he's out on the basketball court because, "If I slow down, I’m so old that I can’t move anymore." And finally, we end with Barry extolling one of the numerous benefits of good team chemistry: "I think what’s great is that we’ve got some pretty open lines of communication during training camp. It’s important to talk to one another and try to work things out so that you become more efficient in the way you play. Because when teams become efficient, the game really becomes easy. And that’s when it really gets fun." [/rquoter]
Nice recap. Hopefully we see them run the offense a lot better in the next game. After reading all the glowing reports about training camp I couldn't that this was the result.
thanks fritz! "You have to understand what the defense is doing," said Adelman. "The cuts are there and your guy is open, but you have to see the defense. You can’t just throw the ball into a crowd… They just sagged in and surrounded the cutter, so somebody else is open all the time – usually it’s the weakside perimeter person – [but] we were so intent on trying to throw it to the guy going to the basket. i'm glad Adelman pointed this out. after reading about the great practices i was a little disappointed in the offensive execution. interior defense was 'orrible and perimeter defense wasn't much to shout about either. i'd begun to wonder if the rumors of great practices were just fluff.
yea, they were pretty awful tonight. so awful i turned off the tube at the end of the third quarter. i was hoping to watch beautiful transition offense/defense and they failed me.
For those of you who haven't, yet, PLEASE check out nba.com's highlight of the game, hahhahaha. sickness. did you all see that putback by harris? WOW.
Great recap.Thanks! We scored 96 points ,without T-mac and with a rusty Yao,on a "bad" offense.I wonder how good our offense can be when we have a full roster and better team chemistry on the court.
Thanks so much Jason...I've always thought the Rockets lacked someone like you to give us almost-daily articles...Loving it... I just wish I have your job when I get my first full time job.......
guys, its the first preseason game after one week of practice with this new group. plus practicing against your own team doesnt do any justice to how it is against another team. there was an article about that somewhere. give it time, it does look promising. there were a lot of cuts made that we just missed or passed in late on, and there were open people around the perimeter quite a bit. just excited to see how itll be during the regular season.
heres the link about them talking about practicing against each other. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6043853.html
Thanks Jason! It wasn't pretty the whole game, but there were moments of fun. The fact that our second/third string ended up winning over their first string is a good indication, imho. There were a lot of missed communications both offensively and defensively, but for a first showing it was good to see how deep we can be. As someone else pointed out. We played a game without two of our starters, were able to see 10 players for 20 minutes each and still able to pull out a win (useless though it may be). That's always good for the coach to get a feel for how things will go.
Yeah grizzlies...c'mon National Basketball Team of Yemen Republic can score more than 96 against grizzlies... The O sucked, we should hope it would improved.
Seems like Yao is trying to fight over learning Rick's offense. He needs to get it together and Learn.
