IMO, its not about about Snyder love, its more about the Rockets going to a gun fight armed with knifes. Also, I did not see too many wide open threes. In fact, Dallas is one of the best in the league in closing in on three point shooters after they double team a superstar. That is exactly why we needed someone who would fake the three, because they are always running full speed at the three point shooter. For example, the next to last play where Luther shot the three, he was contested very well by Dirk(??). He should have faked the three and attacked the basket. Kirk's natural talent is to attack the basket, because he believes he can out jump most players. I believe that is all the Kirk "lovers" are trying to say, not that he is a better player that Bonzi, Luther or RA.
A couple of reasons from me as to why the Rockets lost the match. Like Tmac said, our guard play sucked down the stretch. I always thought Rafer was a smart PG with a good basketball mind, but even he looked lost when the Mavs went to a zone on Tmac. Look Rafer, somebody is fronting Tmac, you can LOB it over the defender, because Tmac can outjump and outreach him anyway. Luther did the right thing in pulling up. He's too small to finish strong at the rim against a zone anyway. But damn! You gotta make those shots! Throw JL3 in, and he might've iced it for us with his high-percentage runners and floaters. And yes, Snyder should've been in the game to give the team another slashing option against the zone to bust it wide open, who knows why he wasn't. One thing JVG did right though, was to pull Bonzi. His fat post-up behind is no use against a zone, and he isn't nearly athletic enough to go strong to the hoop. Question is, since he recognised Bonzi's ineptness at busting a zone, why didn't he recognise that he had the best solution possible in Snyder? Put Snyder in, put Novak in with Rafer and Luther. Have Tmac play the PF spot with Dikembe. When they double Tmac, swing the ball to Snyder and have him attack the rim. If they close him in, get the ball out to any of the 3-point shooters, and they would've had an open shot. That's what the team should've done IMO. So in short, Rafer AND JVG both lost this game for us.
we play better without Yao my ass. really needed yao to wreak havoc on their asses tonight, hurry back Yao!!!! once again this team struggles against the top teams of the league w/o yao, though their doing a decent job of putting away the teams that they should so far, no doubt we could have beat the mavs without yao if everyone stepped up their game, but with Yao it would just be soooo much easier. missing yao real bad
Apparently some of us are on the same page, b/c I've been wanting Synder back in the line up for some time. Dude took two games to start rising up and dunking on people. Put back dunks, cutting, gettin to the line. I also have to say, that the refs were allowing the Mavs players a lot of freedom when tryin to deny Tracy the ball. I mean, they were all but holding Tracy (sometimes they were holding). But I digress...as it has been said, FT's. Even though the Mavs missed plenty, we had the ones down the stretch to seal the game and missed them.
Speaking of TMac comments after the Dallas game, did anyone catch the interview he did for one of the All Star Game broadcasts (I forgot if it was for TNT, NBATV, or ESPN)? I think he was asked what he'd do if he makes the last second shot to win the NBA finals (or something like that). He said he'd hold his followup, watch that thing go in, knowing it's good, then he knows the crowd will be going wild, his teammates will try to mob him, he'll run fast to escape them, and head straight to... guess who? Jeff Van Gundy. Then he'd bend Jeff's head over and give Jeff's bald spot a big kiss. I thought it's funny the first person he plans to kiss after winning a championship is Van Gundy's bald ugly ass.
