You really think we can lose to Memphis? Lmao... But seriously, if we start off the season like Boston did last year, I will seriously buy a half a season pack of tickets for section 101.
preseason, scrubs vs starters...okay not all scrubs no one is actually a scrub, but in our teams standards it was mostly for dj and von to get some pt down the stretch those trying to make the time and get back into game shape, no yao artest battier rafer tmac we'll be fine
Seriously, we don't need to care of fourth quarter dumb plays if its just an experiment. Cut DJ some slack, he's going back to the D-league, have some sympathy for the man
preseason, or regular season, bench or starters, The 4th quarter collapse has been problem for Rockets for years. make excuse for it? nice way to solve the problem.
http://www.nba.com/games/20081013/OKCHOU/playbyplay.html#4 Not to be critical, but we didn't have an 8 point lead with 2.5 minutes left. They lost the lead in the third quarter. They only took a two point lead into the 4th. Your point stands however, that there were rotational players in at the end of the game.
The make-or-break point of that game was the steal and Strawberry's "fast-break" with 30 seconds left in the game. Instead of calling a timeout,or slowing it down to reset the O, he had to take it to the rack all out-of-control and against defenders who had decent position on him. Not only that, he doesn't jump into the defender, he actually jumps AWAY from the defender and throws a blind circus shot over his head. you ain't gonna get a foul called avoiding contact, and you ain't gonna make the bucket.. While I do cut him a break cuz he's trying to make the team, its still a bonehead play. Back to the D-League for you homie...
Only Scola was on, and he was having a bad night. The other 4 players contained were all backup/fodder.
From what I saw, it was largely Brooks who BUILT the 8 point lead. Foul trouble made them lose it. They had a 6-10 guy in Wilcox and a 7 footer in Petro during that time, and our tallest guy was who, Scola, at 6'8? Scola's not exactly a DPOY guy either. They HAD to foul them. Yeah I'm making excuses, but I'd like to see you block someone who has half a foot over you.
Damn, wish we had 3 other players to go along with them at the end of games...you know, people to hit shots...stars, if you will.
5:41 85-93 Joey Dorsey defensive rebound 5:18 Kevin Durant makes dunk (Chris Wilcox assists) 87-93 4:56 87-93 Aaron Brooks misses layup 4:52 87-93 Houston defensive rebound 5:30 87-93 Luis Scola misses 17-foot jumper 4:39 Chris Wilcox makes 9-foot jumper 89-93 4:39 Chris Wilcox offensive rebound 89-93 4:18 Nick Collison enters the game for Johan Petro 89-93 4:07 89-93 Aaron Brooks misses 26-foot three point jumper 4:07 Chris Wilcox defensive rebound 89-93 4:01 Kevin Durant makes layup (Earl Watson assists) 91-93 5:26 Earl Watson defensive rebound 91-93 3:35 91-93 Luis Scola misses 11-foot jumper 3:34 Russell Westbrook defensive rebound 91-93 3:31 Nick Collison misses 7-foot jumper 91-93 3:30 Kevin Durant offensive rebound 91-93 3:19 91-93 Luis Scola personal foul (Kevin Durant draws the foul) 3:19 Kevin Durant makes free throw 1 of 2 92-93 3:19 Johan Petro enters the game for Chris Wilcox 92-93 3:19 Kevin Durant makes free throw 2 of 2 93-93
I have to burst everyone's bubble, but if Rafer is shooting horribly who do we turn to. Tmac doesn't handle full court pressure easily either. I trust Artest bringing it up against a PF. This is do or die season for AB. He has to step up and we can forget about Steve.
the great thing about having Artest is that you don't have to worry about this situation again. Teams play with 1 non-scorer on the court quite a bit but consistently having 2 or more out there was killing us in past seasons.