I just read the Houston Chronicle and noticed this quote by Francis in the paper today. Francis on his career high 39 points: "I did score a lot of points, but I could have shot the ball better." Is it just me or would it have been nice to hear Francis say "I did score a lot of points, but that does not matter because I did not get my teamates involved enough and we lost."? Where are his priorities? Should he be more concerned with his shooting % or getting his teamates involved? Steve on Yao Ming: "He did not play particularly well." and "He wasn't a factor". Hmmmm Steve. Yao played only 11 minutes and I do not even recall you even looking like you were considering getting him involved, much less seeing you pass him the ball even once. Yao did not play particularly well because he wasnt given the opportunity to!!!!!!! He wasnt a factor because you wouldnt get him involved in the offense!!!!!!!!! I love Steve's game, but he has a ways to go before hes capable of leading this team to the promised land, if he can at all. Lets hope this is the season where Steve finally "gets it".
While he wasn't given a lot of minutes, he didn't play well. That fall away J was pathetic. He looked like his feet were glued to the floor. He got schooled by smaller faster players. His rebounding sucks. Only Collier looked worse, really worse... It's one game. But no excuses. That was allowed in preseason.
in case you didn't see the starting lineup, steve was the SG for the game, while mooch was the PG...stop hating, indiana isn't a mediocre team, they're deep and talented at most positions. true SF did put up some forced shots, but who else is gonna score? EG was struggling, Yao and Boki struggled, Collier is worthless, and Cat did his fair share...that was it, Francis was the offense.
Steve did well and all but there was something that bothered me. With about 4 min left in the 4th quarter, Steve decided to break his career high instead of trying to lead Rockets into a last-minute attempt to start a run. Now before you guys, who claim that he played SG tonight, start trippin out, I have to say one thing. Ya, he did play SG, but so what. It's not bout what his job is in the line up. It's not about he did his fair share. Steve is the leader in this team. Atleast he should have acted like one yesterday. I saw the whole game. Not once did our all-star gaurd do ANYTHING to pump our team up. He never tried to rally the team to play harder defense or to give directions to Eddie (since he was having a bad night) or telling Boki to cut while he penetrated. 39 points is very impressive, but a loss is a loss. I'm not blaming Steve only. A lot of players screwed up. It wasn't our night. But what I saw yesterday was a disgrace. If we're goin to win, Steve needs to step up and be more than just our scorer.
The point is, Yao had one shot and it looked bad. I agree. But the "Big 3" took shots that looked bad too. Its easy to say that he had a bad game because the one shot he took looked bad. Whos not to say that he might have made his next 4 (if given the opportunity) and ended up with a decent game because of it? Its all about his confidence right now. Thats my point. The only way you are going to get into some type of rhythm is to keep trying. In that respects, he wasnt given an opporunity. And really, no one else was either. His rebounding and defense not withstanding, but maybe if he was given an a few more shots, his game wouldnt have been as bad as it actually was. I agree in one respect in that, even if we were healthy, this was not a gimmee win. But it doesnt matter who starts at PG. The fact is, Steve and Cuttino are the playmakers on this team and they have the ball in the hands more than anyone else, by far. Who else is gonna score? Who else was even given a real opportunity besides Eddie?
NeoMatrix- Moochie played point guard in name only... Moochie brought the ball up, but Steve ran the offense in the half court. We do not have a true point guard on the team: Neither Steve or Moochie are good point guards so for us to win we must find a chemistry that works without a point guard.
Agreed. Wow that was hard to do... I think without the "protection" of EG at least doing OK, and/or KT, Rice, or MT to take some heat off inside, the Pacers were able to fix on Yao Ming more than normal. It's not like they had to guard Collier. Yao Ming looked really slow and lost out there too. The young Pacers big men looked much quicker. Anyone notice Steve makes it hard for Yao to set a pick, he dribbles away from the pick and Yao Ming tries to adjust out.
Steve does do that. He kind of steps back away from the pick and then moves to the hole which just allows his man to cicurmvent the picker that much more easily. Plus, not as much last night, but I noticed a few times in the preseason, that when Yao would set the pick for Francis or Mobley, that he would roll to the the basket aftewards while at the same time, Francis and Mobley move to the basket. Thats a traffic accident waiting to happen. Francis should keep his position on the perimeter after the pick and then use Yao's height and reach to throw a lob pass on the roll.
They need some work on that PnR. If they got just that down for Yao right now, and posted him low once in a while (the old throw it in, throw it out), that would help Yao Ming's O tremendously. It's about how the guards run their man into Ming and then the timing of the roll to the basket, or staying high if Yao Ming's man leaves him.
Look at the boxscore of the Clippers last night. http://www.nba.com/games/20021030/CLELAC/boxscore.html Andre Miller dished 14 assists with only 1 turnover. His team shot more than 50% from the field. (I don't think the Clips are known to be a high percentage shooting team.) They still lost at home to a mediocre Cleveland team (by a last second shot). Go figure. Compare that to Francis and the Rox. P.S. Elton Brand was 0-6 for 0 point and 3 boards in 27 min. You think Yao Ming was horrible last night?
First of all Tito Maddox isnt ready to be a full time NBA point guard. Second, Cuttino isnt a forward. Third, we need Glenn Rice. He shot the ball very well in the preseason and he can post up. Also he's a veteran who dosent get rattled easily. The team could've definately used him last night.
FYI, Glen Rice (you know, the 10+ year veteran) was asked, not even 10 minutes after the last horn, by Lisa Malosky (sp?) to comment on the team's performance. To paraphrase: 'We didn't play well. We're at our best when everyone's involved. We have a lot to learn from a game like this.' You can read into those thoughts anyway you'd like.
OK guys here's the situation at hand...Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley, obviously jealous of the publicity Yao Ming received in Houston, wanted to show the rest of the league how great they really are.. They pretty much did that(to couple of bench players), but in turn forgot about the rest of the team. What happens when two people ball hog and only pass to each other? The rest of the team will play like chumps. Why? Think about it when was the last time you played a game on the playground and gotten not one but two ball hogging, rock calling, no look passing but blames on you for not catching sob? How did you feel as the teammate? Did you want to give that 110%? Heck no, all you were thinking about is how you can get you next shot without these ball hogger taking the ball away from YOU. And this is exactly how Eddie Griffin, Mooch, and the rest of the Rockets felt which in turn created the unmotivated plays on offense and defense. The Rocket's 'team' for last night was not much different than a handful of talented street ball players. Many of you will explain that the injuries was the main reason for the massive amount of shots taken or that both player played their little heart out.... No question Francis and Cuttino played hard on the Offensive but what happen to that same intensity on the defensive end? And if injuries and suspension were the main reason why did this game look so much like the B.S. Iso I saw last year...are Glen Rice and MoT that big a part of the team? I guess this is great Welcome game for Yao, it'll give him a lesson on playing with Francis and Mobley, Shoot the ball and be one with the Black Hole!!!!! So here's the Conclusion guys....Francis or Cuttino...pick one cause Houston will not get out of the first round of playoffs with both starting....ever!!
There were variable factors as to why the assist numbers were low. There are cases where you could say that the shots were not made after the dish off. But the real problem was ineffective ball movement. Forget assist numbers for the moment and instead, count how many plays there were that at in a half-court offense, there were at least 3 touches or more before a shot was made? How many open/unchallenged shots were created? How much rotation was there between the guards and forwards to open gaps and find holes? Unfortunately, there are no stats for that. But clearly, there was not much of a motion offense happening. Point is, if not Francis, someone has to take charge on the court to get the offense moving. But since Francis is the proclaimed "leader" on the court, he's got to take the burden of blame. Off the court, Rudy has to. It's Okay to have an off night and to lose a game. It's not Okay to condone bad habits.
At the Lottery Steve Francis told the media "We dont need a Point Guard". Was that because he thaught Norris was going to take over the job this year. I considered that Francis to be the Leader, does he know what is expected from him? I didnt lke the 3 Guard starting line up, I never have! The game is for Men,Big Men!
My hand has more than 2 fingers, but that pretty much sums it up: Rockets = 2 great streetballers and some guys to stay out of the way. Also, if KT, Rice and MoT are that important that they will make the difference in us being beaten by an EC team without their backcourt and us getting up in the playoffs - we better sign them to extentions. Though I blame Rudy for this one. He's the coach and he could have/should have stopped what was going on.
So it is Steve's fault that Griffin shot 1-11. Steve should take the blame for the aweful shots that other people took?
Steve did play great and is a helluva player, but there many times he had Eddie posting up on a smaller guy but chose to shoot a contested 20 footer. Also many times on a high pick w/Boki he rarely gave the ball up. Players that aren't great like Steve is need to be set up. I kinda wish he had a Magic Johnson mentality, setting up all your teamates who aren't able to create their own shots. It's gotta be all about winning. The same can be said of Cat at times.
