The Rockets are playing incredible ball... but I have just two recent concerns.

Two 48-minute nights in a week will do that to you. Like JVG said, he's not the thorough bred he once was where he could play forever. I expect him to bounce back the next couple of games. Don't forget, he carried the team in two tough games for the entire 48 minutes...that does take its toll.

 

Landry also take a lot of pressure from Scola's shoulder on defence as well, it's hard to hustle all night long against other bigger stronger players, Scola is great, but he's also a rookie. It takes two rookies to do a veteran's job.

 

Scola is not faster, taller, jump higher nor bigger than the person who guards him. Most of the time , he is at a disadvantage physically. He can not post and power people or make quick move around a defender, he is not gonna go strong to the basket and dunk the ball either ... If you post Scola and throw the ball into him to start the offense it does not work to his or the team's advantage.
His is a helter skelter misdirection moves that fool people and allow him to score. It works better for someone else to intiate the offense, make the defense move then allow Luis to find a crack in the defense, pass him the ball , he can be most effective then.

 

I have only one concern - we shoot threes like there is no tomorrow. Our 3pt FGA numbers probably put Golden State to shame. We aren't getting far like that. We saw what happened when the threes stopped falling in the 3rd Q. We get into a slump like in the beginning of the season, we are toast.

 

He takes what the game and defender give him, play within the game and never forces anything. He knows that he has to avoid the fouls due to being over-aggressive so that he can stay on the court longer. Have you noticed any performance/production reduce? No? Then move on.

Give opponents edit on defense, everyone plays extremely hard against Rockets now and wants to be the show stopper now.

The latter.

 

Trust me, I am not trying to knock T-Mac...I am one of the biggest T-Mac homers on the site and think he deserves to be top 3 in MVP voting if he gets this team to a top 4 seed in the West. But these 1-7 type halves have been going on ever since he came back from the knee injury, and that will have to change. I wish he would go back to the warmup that got him out of his shootin funk right befor Yao went down...that would greatly help his cause.

 

we're still improving......imagine how good we CAN become

 

This is true.
As I posted previously, Rox benefited a lot from a tandem of inside threats from Yao and Scola, hence their initial winning streak, which went to 16 games if you exclude the loss to Utah when Yao was out with the flu.

When Yao was out, Landry covered for Yao and we still had a tandem of inside threats with Scola and Landry. Not as potent as with Yao, but Landry did an admirable job. With Landry out, now there is only Scola and Deke, and Deke is not much of an offensive threat. Same can be said with Scola and Hayes tandem.

We need Landry back, since we don't have Yao.

 

I feel the same way. This is what's said of teams like Phoenix and GSW as well. But I think that we've shown that we can weather the storm w/ our defense and eventually wait til our O picks up again. There's no reason to think that our D is going to worsen when playoffs comes around.

As for Scola not posting up... I don't see anyone really posting up in this new offense we've been running after Yao's departure. I think RA's O is starts w/ a passing big man at the top of the key... and then it's a serious of picks til someone is open. We've been running a ridiculous amount of pick n rolls, which is working out... so I don't see Scola not posting up as a problem.

As for the assist to fg ratio... I think the last 3 games are just anomalies cause Rafer's been shooting lights out, and also we've been missing a lot of shots. First, Rafer's usually the guy who dishes out or starts the ball movement, but lately he's been ridiculous beyond the 3. Also, we've been missing a lot the last couple of games, so you're just simply not going to get those assists. However, we were still continuing to rebound, get pick ups... so overall, it hasn't really affected our play.

anyway, go rockets

 

you see the defence locking up on us alot more because they are all dying to end this streak.

I think this is a good test for us at the play offs. Its like we are facing play off type intensity defence in the regular season. That means our offence will be better placed come the actual play off time. It might explain why our assist and FG % is alot lower.

Scola posting up is being nullified. I've noticed he does alot of pick and rolling. Actually both of our PFs do pick and rolls alot with T-mac since Yao went down. Its the way the offence is going to work.

 

Scola = Kevin McHale (the player, not the GM)

 

When the pick and roll is run and Scola gets the ball heading to the basket, he has been swinging the ball over to the weakside to a wide open 3 point shooter.

If the 3 point is falling, this is a well run play. But they will run into problems with this play in playoffs because

a) 3 point shooting goes down in playoffs.

b) Attacking the basket at close range and drawing fouls becomes more important.

Scola needs to be more agressive while taking ball to the basket on those pick and rolls, especially since Yao is out now. Part of the problem is that he is not athletic enough so he has to rely on his jukes and fakes. I am afraid he will be well scouted in a playoff series.

 

the last 3 games have been against teams that have nothing to lose and everything to win if they break our streak. They came at us with everything they got and caused some distraction.

 

Another thing I noticed about Scola was that he is not shooting the open shot well right now and his inside game seems to be in a slump also.