Good lord, and I wonder sometimes why I visit the GARM less and less these days. Thanks for the reminder. Bunch of whiny babies.
Actually that is part of the reason they are so scary. They play with reckless abandon sometimes and under control sometimes. When they play under control, they have shown they can win games against the league giants like the Lakers. However, even when playing recklessly, Steve can still go off for 35 and we have enough athleticism to beat any team. Maybe not consistenly, but we can. I think that makes us extremely scary in the playoffs. You never know what you are going to get.
Congradulations on winning this year's Bad Luck Shleprock Award for the terminally miserable. "Wowsy, wowsy, woo, woo."
i enjoyed it...but we've seen this more than a few times before from the rockets. they play lights out with a big spotlight...they win games against great opponents. they come out incredibly inspired. it's the way the play when those things are removed that concerns me...they're not exactly business-like...and it makes them incredibly inconsistent. i'm generally an optimist...but i couldn't help thinking that I had seen all this before when watching them play so well last night.
The good thing is that the all-star break is coming up now, so when they get back, they might not be too full of themselves still when playing the next opponent. That's the way it sometimes seems to be with these letdowns after big wins.
I am still for trading him...as one game does not show a committment. Now, if after 15 games they are still playing this way..ie defering to Yao...then I will change my tune. DD
i don't think it's necessarily that they get full of themselves, but, rather, that they lose focus...they don't carry the same professionalism and intensity from game to game. i recognize there will be down periods during a season where you can't expect them to match the intensity from game to game...but the dropoff for this team is enormous. that's a character issue, ultimately...and i'm not sure that will change. but i really hope it does, because i had a blast watching them play nearly perfect basketball last night.
I don't understand how so many people allow one brilliantly well-played game to blind them to what so many games before have shown. Should we enjoy this win? Of course. But it's one win, out of 82 games, it's no more important than a win over any other teamm we should take it for what it is, but we shouldn't allow it to overshadow the obvious flaws that *still* make up this team. I'm not a fairweather fan, I rather resent that since I'm one of the few people who have advocated a course of action and stay true to it, regardless of this one win. I want what's best for the Rockets, not for fans of Steve Francis or Yao Ming, so whatever looks to improve the Rockets, is what I'll be in favor of. This same thing happened last season, the Rockets were underperforming, the Lakers came to town, and we won a close well fought game. Fans and Sportswriters wrote that that was the turnaround the Rockets needed, and that they were on their way to postseason success. We all know what happened: the Rockets started a losing streak, and never recovered their composure for the rest of the season, ending out of the playoffs. We should learn from our mistakes, not to overhype one win, and concentrate instead on improving the Rockets, so that they aren't the kind of team that goes on lengthy losing streaks and only shows up for big games. Maybe I'm a fairweather fan because I want the Rockets to be better, and I don't see why we should settle for barely making the playoffs, then so be it, but I believe this team can dominate with a few tweaks.
1 win? Well, what about the previous 52, of which we have won 30? Better than any record to that point in the past 6 years, I believe. What about the fact that we have a comfortable hold on a playoff spot for the first time this century? What about the fact that we have one of the top defenses in the NBA? What about the fact that we cruise into the all star break having won 4 out of 5 and just having whipped the consensus preseason title favorites, rather than getting whipped by the lowly Cavs, like last year? None of those things are of any significance, we should merely focus on the flaws...come on, you Cassandras are doing a brilliant job of sucking all the fun out of being a sports fan.
Hot: cheerleaders vs. realists Not: Yao vs. Steve Hot: Pessimism after a win Not: Mobley bashing after a loss Hot: Great game by Steve...how high do you think his trade value is right now? Not: Great game by Steve...has he finally turned the corner? Hot: Free Big Macs Not: First team to 80 wins
I take nothing from this win that didn't see before. This team plays well against teams with strong post presences but with weak perimeter games. Kobe was not himself due to his finger. Anyone can see from the numerous losses to the Mavs, Kings, and Grizzlies that the gameplan for these perimeter-oriented teams is to surround Yao with defenders especially if Cato is in the game, force the guards to shoot jumpers by eliminating the drive to the paint, and then using an uptempo, fastbreak attack to take advantage of the very poor transition defense as shown by the Kings game when Bobby Jackson was laying the ball up over and over again since Steve Francis was wanting to pad stats with offensive rebounds. A big difference between how the Spurs and Lakers play these teams is that they exploit their dominant post presence. Shaq and Duncan are going to kill Shawn Bradley, Brad Miller/Vlade, and Swift/Wright. The Rockets haven't figured out how to exploit this mismatch yet.
consistenly winning is what needed in the playoffs and stay with in the system Steve amy go off for 35 but that means nothing if the TEAM doesn't win .
For the 10 millionth time, you can be a fanatical fan of a team and be critical of the team. Maybe you haven't noticed, but it's not just the fans on this message board that feel the Rockets are an underachieving team. Seems to me that this is the opinion of the majority of the coaches and media I have heard on the subject.
The Rockets are currently 12-16 against the western conference. How does someone like you who holds the above points of view interpret that damning statistic. Do you ignore it? Do you ignore reality because it makes you happier to do so? Please explain.
Comfortable hold? With half the season remaining, there are 5 teams that are 5 or less games behind us, if any of them makes a run, and Portland seems likely to after their trade, and the Rockets go on one of their 4 game swoons where they forget what winning is, then we could very easily find ourselves outside of the playoffs. In the Western conference if your winning percentage isn't near .650, you don't have a comfortable hold of the playoffs.
Someone like me has addressed it at length in another thread (generally a 4k post know it all like me wouldn't say something like this if they didn't have anything to back it up). It is chronicled here http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72723, even with their lackluster vs. WC record, and if the Rockets were to maintain that pace throughout the season, ceteris paribas, the Rockets will still make the playoffs, rather easily as well. So your concerns are misplaced, and your contention has been addressed, you must have been the one ignoring it. Again, if you can make a persuasive case as to why Utah will suddenly flip the switch, and the Rockets will tank, I invite you to do so. But I'm betting that you can't; all factors (especiallly their road record) are against them. The schedule gets tougher for every team down the line. I guarantee that the Rox will make the playoffs. I challenge you your signature for a year that they will. Put your money where your mouth is, Bet me that they won't make the playoffs. Or else concede that it is most likely that they will.
There's a difference between being "realistic" and "fatalistic." They are not the same thing, and what I see from some here is fatalism.
A good point, but listen: I'm not saying we won't MAKE the playoffs, but I am realistic enough to know that these Rockets were in a similar position last year, and managed to lose games at the worst time in a tight playoff race, and for the first half of this season, they are only doing marginally better than last season. I'm also realistic enough to know that last night was the exception to the season; if they played that well with any sort of consistency, we'd be debating if the Rockets are the best team in the West, not if they'll manage to make the playoffs. Unfornately, no one is confusing these Rockets with the top tier teams, instead we are in the company of Memphis and Denver, both teams that have improved alot in the last year, because they brought in key new players, while the Rockets remained mostly stagnant. There is nothing fatalistic here, this is just honesty. We aren't the Chicago Bulls, we aren't the LA Clippers, we have hope, but we could be so much more.
