The Rockets' best regular-season player against LA didn't score

I suspect the refs will send Kobe to the line for over 20 attempts in Game 2.

 

It sure looked like Sasha was completely in Wafer's head last night. Why? I have no idea...

 

Being honest:
The Rockets can play a little better.
The Lakers can play a LOT better.
The refs are coming in Game 2 as well.

 

The Rockets can play better too, this is two evenly matched teams slugging it out.

DD

 

James White will take Sasha to the school.

 

Nor did we shoot the 3 very well either. Both teams could improve, but if Lakers front next game, look for Shane and Scola to have bigger games.

 

fixed.. 18 turnovers.. no Wafer to show up... you do the math..

they beat us in every statistical category and we win..

 

Individually, some Rockets can and will play better but at the same time don't expect Ron to shoot 8/15 and dish 7 assists, Brooks to go for 19 or Yao to drop 28/10 every game for the rest of the series.

I expect Von, Scola and Landry to produce more offense but realistically the team put together a pretty good game last night. They will have to play better to win another game.

That isn't taking anything away from last night's win. It was awesome to watch but these Lakers are going to come back angry on Wednesday. The Rockets need to just keep playing their style and hope there are always 2-3 hot hands on any given night.

 

I keep hearing analysts and columnists bringing up the Lakers' rust and Houston's perfect game. But, Houston didn't play anywhere near perfect, from the turnovers, dumb fouls, lots of missed open/easy shots, and 27% from 3 point land.

Just look at how analysts talk about Yao Ming, they act he has never been any good before. Yet, he is one of the better big men in the league. It's obvious people have never really sit down to watch us.

Brooks and Artest already being dismissed as to say, they won't play that good again (while Scola, Landry, and Wafer are total non-factors again). Odom, Bynum, and the rest of them will just come out tear through our lucky defense in game 2, like it doesn't even matter.

 

I totally agree with OP. The Fakers' coach and players kept saying that they can't play worse. What they don't get is that Rockets didn't play their A game either (but still won in a convincing way). That's a manifestation of how great this team can be. I like what that ESPN journalist wrote: we might be seeing a paradigm shift from this series. NBA, where humility, hunger and hardworking wins!

 

I think wafer was WAY to amped up for the game....playoffs/former team/etc.
He let vuja-biatch get in his head and out of his game....had a brent barry sighting because of it....
Hopefully, he can be a little more composed during Game 2 and cause some damage.....

Same goes for Landry too....GET A BODY ON ODOM FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!

 

Pressure is all on the Lakers now. Just keep a cool head and play your game.

 

Wafer back pain may still be lingering. He may feel more pressure to do well against his former team. Playoffs are a different kind of animal from regular season games. Also, as one other poster noted, Lake scrub Vujacic seemed to got into Wafer's head a little bit with his trash talking.

 

I'm not so sure of that.

I'm sure the league is seeing what Kobe did to Battier (referring to the knee/elbow after the whistle blew.) I'd be really hard pressed to believe ticky tack will begin to whistle against our warrior, shane.

 

***** Great analysis man. I think we can shock the basketball world and win game two if we come with our game faces on. I think this Rockets team is more hungry than the outside world knows. I suspect that they all thought that the Rockets were happy to get the round 1 monkey off of their back and would quietly go fishing for the Lakers.

But this teams seems to have a confidence about them that many just can't seem to grasp. They are not waiting on next year for a new FA or Tmac to come back to take them to the promise land. I believe that this team believes that they can win NOW! All the way baby!

 

i am not buying the rust theory either. funnier still is the waking up a sleeping giant/oops LA is gonna be mad now crap. i hope they are really mad, all the easier to frustrate them. their sense of entightlement is gonna be the noose we hang them with. and yes, the rox can play better.

 

It took a couple games in the Portland series for Von to warm up.


Wait for it.......

 

Good thread and very good points.

With regards to Wafer, I think he was just frustrated because Sasha played him physical and most defenders keep a little distance from Von. It has taken me the Western Semis Game 1 to realise opponents could've shut down Wafer quite easily if they had just played him more physical and stay in his grill. It seems Von needs the space and is annoyed by a man so close to him, he's lucky Artest on his side .

The specific things that happened between them that I saw:
- Sasha bumped Wafer near midcourt, which could've been a foul but it's the playoffs and the game has already turned soft so I'm glad they didn't call it. This caused a travel which Wafer just shrugged off and said okay, it's going to be this type of game
- Wafer brings it up the court, Sasha pressures him and steals the ball
- Sasha was having his way with Von on offense. Sasha just ran off a pick and made an easy layup while Wafer was trailing a good 3 steps.

Let's hope Von watches the films and Artest schools him on how to play more physical defense because with the way Wafer is leaving his man, not being able to keep up with his man when he needs to chase some1 off a screen and such is going to cost us. It's going to cost us because either Wafer will try to score on the guy that just schooled him and force the issue or he will get benched and we have to put up with a 35+ year old guy with no defense at all.

I'm glad the way RA handled it, especially late with both Brooks and Lowry. Doug Collins praised Rick for making that substitution, among several things.
Has any1 else noticed Rick does a much better job of substituting in the playoffs than he did during regular season ? It seems like he brings and takes out the right guys at the right moments. Maybe it's a coincidence but I like the rotation so far, except for some points in the Portland series with Brooks but RA wants players to play through it sometimes.

Also something worth mentioning, Doug Collins said Phil Jackson is a coach who likes his guys to figure out themselves how they need to stop a run instead of calling a quick time-out. RA does the same thing and it has frustrated me and I'm not the only one , but if Phil is praised for it, my guess is it's a good thing. Collins knows his stuff so I'll take his word.