the more we start to appreciate Yao's defensive and offensive work on The Big Toe. Wolves just have no answer to Shaq's teeth. They can still win this one. But they simply can not contain shaq the way our yao/cato combo did.
The deeper and deeper they get in the playoffs, the more I am starting to realize that, despite their other shortcomings, the Rockets are probably the best team in the league as far as matching up with the Lakers. The Lakers seem to genuinely have difficulty executing their gameplan against our team. They sheer collection of talent is usually enough to get them by.
The deeper and deeper the Lakers get in the playoffs, the more I realize how well the Rockets played in the playoffs. They were far from dissapointing because we utilized our talent pretty well and we have a good core of guys. All we are missing is a bench and a good power forward. I hope the rest of the board realized the same thing: Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley are great playoff players and can improve in every aspect of the game we ask them to. Steve Francis and defense were never spoken together, and both of them were able to cut down on turnovers in the playoffs. I am confident that the whole team can improve even more next year in the area of decision making and lowering turnovers, and I hope we stick with the core of Yao, Mobley, and Stevie.
wow 3 positive rockets posts in a row!! I am in favor of keeping the team together and ask the question how long did it take: bird and mchale? what about magic and jabbar? what about thomas and dumars? these teams didnt just happen overnight yao is freaking 22 i think all you people who want to blow up the team think how you would feel right now if we had made it past the mavs or kings and were playing the lakers in the west finals.. would you think differently?? we have so many bandwagoners out here.... go cheer for the bulls ..ohh wait the bulls arent good anymore..hmm
It took Bird and McHale two seasons. It took Magic and Kareem one. The team, as it's built today, is not going to win a championship. We need to do some tinkering. Oh, and if the Spurs or T-Wolves had a center a diverse offensive game, Shaq would still probably be struggling. Foul trouble hurt him more in our series than Yao's defense.
bird, mchale, kareem, magic, zeke, dumars..it took those guys some time i agree but they are HALL OF FAMERS. i hardly consider Yao and Francis HOFers right now and I think the Rockets did do a very good job of playing against the Lakers but we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking that if we had beaten them, this team would have been NBA Finals bound. We need to tweak this team so that it can have a good chance of beating everyone..and not just the Lakers
I bet you were one of the guys that thought Parker was better than #3 after the first two games of the round!
hey you are right d .. my fellow co worker was in the NBA and he agreed with that Kareem - Magic thing.. it was only a year i was wrong -- but i guess i am thinking more of the years when we were fighting with hakeem and kept trying and trying..we came together and finally won the championship people want to blow up the team and i still maintain francis and yao core should be kept around.. tinkering yes..blowing up no rome wasnt built in a day magic and kareem were HOFers as well
Rockets did gave Lakers 4 tough games out of 5. Only the last game was a disappointment. And 2 of losses could easily be wins. Rockets's inconsitency and inexperience were their downfalls.
lakers in the rockets series weren't the lakers they are now they woke up during the Kings series after losing a couple. Like most confident teams, they played the Rocks like they weren't A grade and didn't "turn on the switch".
i disagree i thnk they played the rockets almost as tough as the spurs. the lakers knew coming in that the rockets played well against them. and as a ton of people stated before the playoffs. is that jeff van gundy plays a style of ball suited for the playoffs.
This doesn't mean we keep the team together, this just means we keep Yao and Cato here. Oh, and Boki, in case we need him to rip someone's shirt up.
Parker was better than Francis AT THAT POINT, and I didn't pass final judgement until the series was over. All I said regarding those two was that Parker's team has better chemistry than a Francis' team, and I still think so.
But the question becomes why they didn't turn it on against the Rockets. People are too freaking eager to excuse the Lakers poor play by saying they can "turn it on when they want." It's partially true, but how the heck is anyone supposed to know when they're just not good enough... and when they haven't turned it on? Last year, people said the same thing... and the Lakers lost. IF they could have turned it on... they would have. My guess is that the Lakers didn't take the Rocketes as seriously as they could have - though they should have, looking at the regular season series. But it's also true that the Rockets D was pretty good. Yao's the only guy in the playoffs that has really made Shaq work hard. Mobley was severely overmatched against Bryant, but still did a good job hassleing him.
The Lakers played drastically different in their first seven games (5 vs. Rockets, 2 vs. Spurs) of the playoffs compared to their last 5 games of the playoffs. They were on cruise control for those first 7 games. Derek Fisher, Kareem Rush, and Devean George are making 3’s that they didn’t make before. You can tell Shaq is just much more focused now then at the beginning of the playoffs. Look at how much better he’s shooting his free throws lately compared to the first round of the playoffs. Gary Payton is much more aggressive on offense and defense since all the criticism he took from getting burned by Parker. Make no mistake. This is a much more determined team then the one the Rockets faced.
Shaq's free throw is not a good indication that he is very focused though. He might shoot 2-12 next game. But definitely he is not so tired against the Wolves.
Fisher, Rush, and Walton made killer 3s against us in game 1 and 2. Actually their bench play in game 2 was the deciding factor that LA won that one.
