When I watch the Spurs play, I cant help but wonder why the Rockets can't play with the kind of energy that the Spurs have. Esp. on offense.....in all honesty are teams are alike in most ways.......both have high energy pt. gaurds in Francis and Parker....legit big men in Yao and Duncan.....and a solid group of players around them.....JJ, Mobley, Taylor; Manu, Bowen, Rasho......the Rockets offense needs to run like San Antonio's.....I see no reason why it cant be done......Yao, not just backin down every time....flashin around like Duncan.....movin w/out the ball......steve constantly movin.....The spurs are alwayz movin.....and thats wut gives them different options and almost alwayz a good shot......Rockets need to start movin and pushin the ball always and stop w/ this half-court throw it down to Yao offense......itz not going to take us anywhere......spread the floor and utilize all ur weapons......
The one encouraging thing about this is that the Rockets have the blueprint on defense set. There is no doubt in me mind that we will be a top 5 defensive team while JVG is the coach. We just need to take care of our 1 & 4 situation.
The Spurs' management has been one of the best in the league over the last few years, and they were fortunate to have Tim Duncan. That allowed them to dismantle what didn't work (a group of three-point shooters around TD) and got what works (cheap athletic foreign talents who can shoot and penetrate). The Rockets don't have that type of a management team; nor do we have a special talent like Tim Duncan.
Shooting and penetrating don't mean a thing if you dribble into quadruple coverage or long enough to get quadruple coverage like our boneheads. Then there's this Parker point guard guy... http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2552939 Point is, LA trails because Parker rules Payton By JOHN P. LOPEZ Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle SAN ANTONIO -- The great implosion of the Lakers -- often talked about, always overanalyzed -- could well be upon us. And you might be thinking the only remaining mystery is whether this Lakers season will be remembered for the Hall of Fame talent that failed, or the childish grudges that prevailed. You might be wondering: Was it all just a comic tragedy or a tragic comedy? At least in the case of what Spurs point guard Tony Parker has done to Gary Payton in this series, perhaps setting San Antonio on course for another NBA championship, it definitely is the former. Without saying a word, Parker has gotten into Payton's head more than Payton ever has done with his famous trash-talk jabber. . . .
We need different role players to be like the Spurs. Their players are all godo at passing into the post, and all good at positioning themselves to get the ball back. Some move towards the basket, some move to the open J, some move to the open 3. The key word is move. Boki does this quite well, Posey used to do it as well. Francis needs to do it more often. We also need some more spacing, we need someone who terrifies the opponent from 3-pt range.
maybe the brains start on the side lines . . . Rocket River basketball IQ . . most overused phrase this season
Also . . . .YAO needs to be more Agressive like Duncan I don't think JVG will allow Yao to do as much as DUncan does Rocket River
they have better team chemistry, and role players... guys like Malik Rose and Charlie Ward who don't even get minutes for the spurs would be playing at least 20MPG for the rockets... also, they can play both BIG and small ball...they have some great matchups bringing gino and horry off the bench...and almost all their contributors can shoot the ball (parker, turkoglu, bowen, horry, gino, duncan and even rasho to some extent)
Game 1: SA outscores LA 17-3 in fast break points LA has 21 turnovers against 15 from the Spurs Game 2: SA outscores LA 18-4 in fast break point LA has 15 turnovers against 8 turnovers from the Spurs The Spurs just have smart players that don't turn the ball over and know how to get easy transition points. The Rockets don't.
Can the current Rockets players run motion offense to perfection like the Spurs? We cannot even finish 2 on 1 fast breaks in most cases.
The differents are: -Parker is better than Steve -Duncan is better than Yao (I hate to say it..) -We dont have Manu
Duncan played smart. He was actually quiet last night. Just attract the defense and let TP take over the game. A general doesn't need to fight teeth-to-teeth with the ememy, but has the ability to take over when necessary. TD is a true general, and doesn't care about fancy stats. That's why he's better than Kobe and Garnett.
O.K., since you insist: 1. Their players (overall) are sooo much smarter than the Rockets, they make so many more good decisions and fewer bad ones. 2. Their organization has made sooo many more good personnel decisions and so fewer bad ones. Who were Parker and Ginobilli three years ago? 3. All the rest is execution, and the Spurs do it better, much better. 4. Chemistry, intangibles, et al. The Spurs have it, the Rockets don't. After the hype faded (after the Rocket's first playoff appearance in forever), reality set in: the Rockets are a relatively mediocre team that fell bassakwards into the playoffs (after a long losing streak) and got booted out in five games by a slow, overthehill and overrated Laker's team. That hurts. Time to retool.
