And after Francis hit the shot to tie the game, he followed it up with an air ball on the shot that could have one the game. On top of that it was poor shot selection. Face it, Francis did not get it done under pressure when it counted most while Kobe had ice in his veins as usual. That's why they get the respect they do and why we get the leftover scraps at the bottom of the conference.
Face it, this is Steve Francis. He can be superman all game then dribble the ball off his own foot in the final seconds. I've seen Kobe do it before, too. But with Francis (and Cat) it is a consistent thing. You can set your watch by it. Dude's remarkable talent, toughness and heart is only bounded by his utter lack of discipline and poor decision making. I am so ambivalent about him that I don't care if he is traded, anymore. Just get a real PF to get Yao's back and a PG who isn't a turnover machine.
Clutch... I shouldn't come here and post a "The Rockets lost and I need therapy" thread. No one is in a supportive mood right now! Stevie did not lost the game by himself. But those two plays do stick out in my mind as crucial.
I agree with most of what you're saying. Francis has, however, in this series made it harder for me to say get rid of him. Clearly, he is a competitior that is able to raise his game to the next level at playoff time. If the guy could just learn how to play the basics of his position, the guy would be an absolute stud. Unfortunatley, he can not consistently be counted on the way he plays now.
This game wasn't Steve's fault. You can point to just about any individual play and find a play in which he really blew it. In a game this close, any such play is outcome determinative. If you want to finger a player for the loss, it'd have to be Mobley. His mistakes weren't as high profile - but man, he really blew for 3 quarters. It seemed like he missed a dozen wide open 3's (though in reality it was probably 3-5).
How many times has Kobe been to the playoffs, and how many times have STeve and Cat. You can not, and I repeat can not forget this fact when saying that Kobe is clutch yada yada yada. Thats like saying O but Jordan would have made that shot or Stockton wouldn't have turned it over. Its just the beginning guys, we will get better. Think of this year as an experiance gatherer.
Tough loss, not Steve's fault in fact far from it. We missed too many open threes today, that's it in a nutshell.
For those of you railing on steve for his airball at the end of regulation, looked like derrick fisher had an arm planted in steve's torso, then JJ shot an airball, then kobe shot an airball, not a pretty end of regulation for anyone. And how was JJ's turnover NOT a kick-ball by kobe?
Cat's defense on Kobe was awesome, awesome, awesome. And his drives in the lane in the fourth quarter... awesome.
There was no reason to start this thread other than to piss people off. Everything that could've been said should have and could have gone in the game thread. I for one am sick and tired of threads instantly popping up after a game about how a player sucks and should be gone because of that games performance.
Notice all the doubles on Kobe . I'm not blaming anyone. I don't think we played poorly. I think the team should be proud. I'm just saying that if you had to single out a player - it would be Mobley. Those missed 3's were much more valuable than his good defense on Kobe.
Very possible. Rockets, especially Francis, have exceeded my expectations most of this series. They have competed in every game (whether the Lakers have been at their best is another discussion) and Francis has shown me that if the guy could just learn how to make a pass and shoot, he can be a valuable asset because he can get open whenever he decides to. But do not underestimate the importance of how a team plays under pressure in crunch time. The Rockets need much more playoff experience to be fair, but it was very clear who performed and who did not when the pressure was at the highest it's been in this series and it wasn't anyone in the red uniforms.
a. so what. does francis have to shoot 100% down the stretch to not be a choker? he hit a huge shot and then he missed the potential game winner. i'll take 1 of 2 if i can get it. b. kobe airballed the very next shot, it happens. iirc correctly steve had one turnover in OT, not two. his dunk on malone, a layup soon after it and the game tying shot were nice to even get us to that point. he missed a jumper, get over it. man, 4-22 was the real killer. i can't believe how bad we are shooting 3's outside of game 3. game 1 and 4 both had crucial last second plays, but damn if we could shoot for crap in either game from threeland we could've won both.
exactly. you would think we didn't just take one of the best teams in the nba, one of the most pressure-tested teams in the nba, to overtime after trailing by 14 and put up a great fight on national tv even with our outside shots killing us. i'll take the effort and execution from this game almost every time and assume we don't miss 18 3's.
One thing I hate is that every time we lose a "big" game, you can always count on some douchebag posting a "see, I told you we suck" type thread. I mean what's the point?
