Jonathan Feigen at the Chronicle has a new blog post up, which sums up exactly how I feel. http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2008/02/rockets_road_run_rolls_on_are.html Throughout the season you want to do two things: win games and get better as a team. To sum up, the Rockets are winning but their progress in playing Adelman's offense and playing together as a team is painfully slow. Yes, they look a lot better than they did at the beginning of the season. But fighting their way back to being a good team is kind of pointless, isn't it? They were a good team last year. They were a playoff team last year. They've just never been a winning playoff team. Consider: three games in a row now that are "must wins" if the Rockets want to reach the playoffs. Three games in a row where they come out with zero intensity and look flat and lifeless. Three games where really crappy teams are allowed to stick around until the fourth quarter, battling it out until the final minute. A few lucky baskets and the Rockets could easily have collected a loss or even two. The Rockets won, and they look good. But they don't look great. They look beat-Minnie/Indy/Milwaukee good. They don't look beat-NO/Dallas/Phoenix great. Anyone disagree?
Ok maybe he has a point. But if they look like crap and win...is that not a good sign? It's better than looking good and losing.
Pro's: We're winning and staying alive in the standings Con's: We're barely beating some bad teams and we're clearly lacking something
I would normally agree with you, but the fact of the matter is we have 2 wins against SAS, 2 against Blazers, then 1 apiece against the Jazz, Pistons, Suns, Warriors, Lakers, Nuggets, Magic, etc... In other words, I am not too concerned as we have shown moreso this year than previous years that we can beat elite teams.
Man, I'm glad somebody else thinks there's a problem. The Rockets are getting by now on pure talent, because they're not playing with any energy or effort--they're underachieving. How can you play a string of games in January against crappy teams like Seattle, Philly, Indy, etc. and not have one blow out? Even worse a bunch of those teams took the Rockets to the limit--they were competitive games right up until the end of the game.
I care to disagree. The Rockets have this tendency to play down to the level of their competition. Hence, they allow crappy teams to stick around. But when it is time to show up against the "good" teams, they show up! Then it is just a matter of whether their shots are falling or not!
And I agree 100%. But one, that crap is unprofessional. And two, how many times have the Rockets been bit in the ass because of it?
Feigen wrote this after the Milwauke game. Still applies. The Rockets won't beat really good teams with the play they've exhibited of late.
there is a fact some people are ignoring: any NBA team's homecourt is hard as hell regardless how crappy the team is...
when was the last time we had a 3-0 road trip? yes the quality of teams wasn't great but you can never complain about a perfect road trip. also, minny has been playing MUCH better lately. they were 5-2 in the 7 games prior to facing us. they won in oakland, then beat phx at home, and then lost a 1 point game in boston. give it time. the pieces are coming together.
Your points are well-taken, but then again, last year we had a couple blow out games and still got booted in the first round. I, unlike Feigens, like to place the emphasis on getting better so that once we hit the playoffs, we are playing at a really good pace and chemistry. I could care less how many blow out games we have in the regular season. Just look at the Patriots. They blew out plenty of teams in the regular season, and it did nothing when everything was on the line. Lets just take it one game at a time and hope that our offense becomes more fluid and we continue to build our team chemistry.
My concern isn't really with blowouts. Supposedly this was a must win road trip. Speaking of the playoffs, the Rockets aren't even in the top eight right now. What would have happened if they'd lost a couple? Would it even be possible for them to catch up at that point? So if those games were so important what is the excuse for going out and playing like the season's already over? If it's overconfidence let's not forget that it manifests itself in two ways. One is that you play down to the level of crappy opposition. Two is that you take the foot off the gas pedal when you build a lead, even against good teams where you're supposed to know better. Yeah, this team is missing something. Killer instinct. I hate to diss Rafer all the time, but if they could get a good veteran point guard like Kidd who could just come in and be the undisputed leader of the team, call the shots and run things I think it would make a world of difference.
It's been going on for years.Even if they come out to play well against the bigger teams,it's only a matter of time before they get blown out by them.
Exactly. Playing down to the level of your opposition is a symptom. It's not the disease itself. The other sympton is easing up once they get a lead and playing like the game's already won. The fact that the Rox still have symptom one is not making me optimistic for the playoffs, assuming they can get there. Trade everybody and their dog for Kidd. A core of Yao, T-Mac and Kidd would be killer. Yes, it's impossible but maybe Morey can sign a deal with Satan or something.
Tmac is shooting a lot better than his season average and the team barely beat weak teams. The key here I think is the usage of Yao. He dominated when Tmac was out, and these three games he is rarely used in low post, but often used as screen setter or decoy. Yao averages 11 shots in 37 minutes, while Scola averages 8 shots in 20 minutes. Rockets still don't understand Yao is by far the most efficient scorer on this team, and inside out or pass to cutter from low post will result more easy baskets. Yao average 11 shots isn't going to get the job done against good teams, the opposing centers all had career games against him because they were never in foul trouble and they didn't need to spend that much engergy defending Yao.
last year was an abberation. firstly there's no way a team with its superstars out for long stretches and the team being held together by mutombo and scotch tape and **** was supposed to do that well in the regular season. that's a 1 in 10 season right there... if tmac and yao had been healthy ALL YEAR they would have been happy to have had that record. to say because houston was a good team last year and we could just expect 50-60 wins every year as a given with teams retooling and improving every year in the West is just ignorant second, the lack of success in the PLAYOFFS was also an aberration. the utah series was absolutely winnable and a couple of defensive rebounds and the rockets are in the WCF. houston wasn't as good as you think in the regular season and weren't as bad as you think in the post. coaching regime change wasn't made simplistically to make a "good team great." no single coach can guarantee that. change was made because les alexander wanted a more up-tempo offense and due to a notion that yao wasn't being fully utilized in the low post. simply and accurately put, a coaching change was made simply because the owner wanted a new coach winning ugly games, although it seems like treading water is EXACTLY what this team needs right now. the key pieces come playoffs will be the scrubs: the rookies and bonzi. win lose or draw ANY playing experience for these will yield dividends even if we dont see it now. the other key piece is adelman's judgement. as long as he's tinkering around, even when things dont work and games are ugly he's getting to see what works and what doesnt. and here progress is being made... compare RA's rotations now to earlier in the year when Houston hit its first depression in the road after tmac was hurt... it's miles ahead what did you expect? a new coach to magically make tmac shoot better at the end of games, to magically make yao run faster or dunk more? these are 25ppg guys, ANY coach would have marginal improvement for tmac and yao. the idea was to get more pieces and have a coach who could get more out of the supporting cast. it's a work in progress. we really wont know until the playoffs if we end up at plus, minus or even with RA versus JVG
Yeah I Agree! This has always been a problem for us, we win a game against phoenix next thing you know we're cocky against sucky teams and we don't hustle. I also think yao has been gettin tired. I hope he gets some good rest tomorrow. Anyone else notice that t-mac and yao are never hot on the same day?
