Trust me, I'm dead inside But the spectator in me has to hand it to Roy. That was one hell of a shot. It's early in the season and we're not rolling yet. Give this team time. Once we figure ourselves and our rotations out, we will be unstoppable.
I don't think anybody was slacking other than Tracy and Yao on occasion. As good as Tracy played in some facets, he still isn't moving well on defense or without the ball on offense. I have a hard time thinking Yao ever doesn't try, but I'm searching for answers to explain his total lack of presence on so many plays. In my opinion, the Blazers mostly killed us with their superior speed, athleticism and frontcourt length. I really think that Artest, Brooks, Alston, Hayes, Barry, Landry, Scola, etc... gave it their all. They were either too old, too slow or too short to get to those loose balls. There were certainly lapses of effort on both sides but I think it was our physical limitations as much as anything else that led to that rebounding discrepancy. Their long bigs (Pryzbilla, Aldridge, Frye) were just out jumping our mini PFs or out quicking Yao. Their quicker perimeter players were usually getting to those long offensive rebounds before McGrady or Artest or Alston or Barry could get to them. It was also poor team defense. Rotations were late and players look out of sync with each other on that end. I have to think this is at least partially a coaching issue. This is the same team that was among the league leaders in defensive rebounding the last few seasons. Maybe the "JVG defensive discipline is wearing off" theory has some merit. Or maybe it's just not having Battier out there to communicate. It's not a lack of Battier's rebounding by itself since that isn't one of his strengths.
I didn't get to watch the game at all, but I can't be upset about only giving up 38 points in the 2nd half. Perhaps the perceived lack of hustle is a result of Battier not playing and Scola not even playing 25 minutes.
I hate to spam threads but: The official timekeeper should be an NBA Referee, not an employee of the arena who prolly lives in the home team's city.
Its not an employee of the arena. I think the timekeeper for that game was employed by the Celtics. He's basically as impartial as any ref would be in the sense that he doesn't really care either way if either team wins. They do that for all time-keepers, they always get someone unbiased (in the sense that they don't work for either team).
As if the Celtics don't hate the Rockets after that preseason game. Then there's all the talk about Houston's big 3 and potential to win it all that is stealing the Celtics thunder. Anyways, I hope the Rockets take it out on the Clippers tonight.
The offense isn't built to go running after every single loose ball this early in the season. This offense is built to run effective plays.. Outside of McGrady we do not have one athletic person on the roster and you want to them go fighting for loose balls? that's a losing situation by its self. Now the rebounds, yeah we should have been dominating the boards with YAO Freaking MING. But as we can all see Yao is not playing up to his standards at the moment, so that by it's self is a losing situation. This offense still hasn't gelled with Artest, but it will. The world hasn't ended yet my friend. Matter of fact, it has only begun... don't take the loss toooo hard even though we all stayed up to freaking 1am to watch the final minutes of the game. If you want to see this team hustle for loose balls game after game after game in the regular season, you are in for a rude awakening because we will loose that battle every single time since only Artest and McGrady are the only able bodies to actually pull that off on a nightly basis. Scola is capable of hustling, but not night in and night out. Plus, saving energy for these next few games is crucial. The Portland win would have been a nice boost to team moral, but it isn't exactly a crucial game at the moment and loss isn't actually hurtful, it is only going to help the team get better in the long run.
