We almost beat Dallas last night and we got a solid, but not great game from TMac. We D-ed up Dallas pretty good down the stretch, but just couldn't hit our FTs and our shots were there, but just didn't fall. I was thoroughly disappointed that we didn't win after playing so hard, but I thought our team still played pretty gutsy. We can talk bad all we want about how Alston and Head played bad, but our team still played their hearts out and left it all out there. I mean just look at the play of Chucky Hayes down the stretch. He was so solid on D. He was diving on the floor for loose balls, making strips and playing really inspired ball. The major thing to look at, is that we were three points away from beating the NBA's best team and we didn't have Yao in the lineup. I really think that if we continue to push ourselves like we are and then plop Yao in there, we are going to be a really tough team to play. We will most definitely be the "dark horse" team that you just don't want to see. We can beat anybody out there. Think Dallas can stop us then? Maybe, but our offense should run so much smoother with a real dominant presence down low. Here's to high aspirations and a healthy Yao in the Playoffs!!
here here!! haha the rockets will be a force in the playoffs. theres no dount in my mind why we cant win the finals.lets go!
whats so scary about that thought - scary for the other 29 teams perhaps Quick vent .... I hate the all star weekend. Yep, and you know why... not just caus the dunk contest sucks, not just caus the skills challenge is of 00000 interest to me, not just caus i fear seeing something untoward happen with Tmac...well those things don't help for certain, but what I really miss are ... Rockets games!! when you've had a disapointing loss like the one we just had, you cant wait to bounce back in the next game...4-5 days to wait sucks.
Hayes is such a hard worker, he was really impressing last night. This team is exactly like Hayes, has a lot of defense tenacity but the offense is ...poor at least. Yao will solve some problem when hes back, however, don't get too much into the "if we have Yao" mentality as Mavs clearly had a bad game. They were missing FTs, took ill shots as well. They didn't put out their offense at the full strength, so to speak. But it is clear that we do have a chance of winning a 7 game vs them.
I am really really happy we do not have to play Dallas anymore during the regular season. But not because the Rockets would lose. It would be because we would play them with Yao and kick their ass. I think the Mavs truly believe they are much better team than the Rockets. Let the Rockets surprise them when they meet in the playoffs!!!
without being a huge homer, i truly believe that this team at full strength beats down dallas in 5 or 6 games.
don't get too ahead of yourselves... ...remember 2 years ago, t-mac AND Yao had great series against the mavs, but our role players did crap, we did not have Juwan or battier or hayes, but we did have a deadly shooter in Barry, a spunky guy in Sura, and Wesley who performed for us.
Not just dangerous but deadly. We burned the Mavs when we first played them earlier this season with both Yao and Tmac playing and healthy. We are indeed a dark horse come playoff time.
I'm still skeptical. I've contended this before. Even with Yao, Dallas is hard to beat because they're good at adjusting to in-court situations. We always seem to blow leads against them. With Yao in the game, it's a toss up. They just adjust their game differently. The rockets are a little more rigid and a lot of it depends on Rafer. Like i said before, we can beat 90 percent of the teams out there, but I'm iffy against the Suns or Dallas. I'm not too concerned about the Spurs.
We shouldn't underestimate Avery Johnson, and we should hope that JVG has some tricks up his sleaves to counter Avery's tricks. We can't rely on Yao's return as an excuse. Avery's gameplan will be different then.
...remember all the bad calls and no-calls the referees made against the rockets. Also, Houston was team Jurassic back then. It was a geezer squad versus a young, athletic Mavs team. Yao was still learning and not yet playing at an MVP level. And yet the Rockets took them to seven games. So there is reason to be optimistic for a change.
