Scola, Landry, Brooks - 6/8 9/11 3/4 total= 18/23 (78.3%) Rest of Team - 21/58 (36.2%) The rookies took zero 3 pointers and probably reaped the benefits of playing with Yao and Tracy, but without them, we lose. How in the world does Rick Adelman know to take out a 6/8 Scola and put in an even hotter Landry? Adelman has been coaching by his gut and I hope he continues that. I hope he continues to play with the starting lineup and go with match-ups over who 'earns the start'. There are 36 games to go, I hope Adelman keeps switching things up. It will keep our players on their toes... which seems to keep the theme of what works in the Adelman system. For discussion's sake, why do you think these lineup changes are working? Do you think it matters who starts? How do you think Adelman comes up with these ideas, gut (aka complicated thought that brings too many variables to write an equation) or is it simply going with the hot hand?
Um, some of our starters have very limited basketball skills. Alston is a bad shooter and bad finisher, Hayes ... well. Is it no wonder that (even) rookies do better than our starters?
They did what every other Rockes supposed to do. That is score the buckets when 70% of opposing defensive effort is on Yao or Tmac. What I like about Landry is that he makes them pay when they collapse on Yao. Those are easy buckets by NBA standard, you gotta make those. Scola is a skilled and crafty, but he is a little TO prone when he put the ball down. I felt he tried a little too much without control. Maybe he is acustomed to doing that in Spain where he is the superstar. He still has some adjustment to make. But overall the Landry/Scola combo at 4 does the job adequately so far.
yeah, Scola missed some defensive assignments and Landry went in. I think RA said that all along he wanted to play Carl in the 4th. Love that our rooks are stepping up
He started 2nd half and played the whole way until Yao came back in middle of 4th. I was really impressed with the way the Rockets offense played early in the 4th quarter without Yao/T-Mac on the floor. Tough to remember the last time the team was able to semi-function without one of those 2 on the court.
Just a side note: when was the last time that we had 3 Rookies (none a lottery pick) that all contributed big for our team, and even stayed on the court in crunch time?
Scola is Yao's main backup now. So the 5/4 positions are basically shared by 4 guys: Yao, Scola, Hayes, and Landry, with Novak taking spot minutes. I think Adelman is finally getting the hang of rotating these front court players. Good to see everyone of them can contribute. Now if only the back court is equally efficient...
