There Is Still Hope, But Can History Repeat Itself?

"Penetration is just hard work," Olajuwon said. "Max, Elie and Cassell ... they were willing to work for the win. Anybody can settle for the outside jumper. We didn't take the easy way out."


Wow. I know somebody that needs to listen to those words.

 

Face it, we don't have the heart of the champion, we only have the mouths of of someone who has never passed the first round

 

Thanks for posting this Dane B - I enjoyed reading it again. There is much wisdom in that article. Overcoming adversity through great effort and hard work never goes out of date!

Go Rockets!

Believe!!!!

 

Boy do we miss Wells.

 

"there is still hope"

of course there is! Its a best of 3 and we have HCA!

geez some of you guys are drama queens

ya'll act like we are down 3-1 or 3-0

 

Agreed - we are in good shape to still win this series

 

I think the panic is due to 2 things. I know it is for me anyway.

1) The Dallas series 2 years ago that culminated in the legendary 40 point loss.
2) Tracy's lacksidasical performance in the second half of Game 4.

The Dallas series really left a scar because we went so high at the beginning and then so low at the end. That series really left a scar on the players and the fans. Tracy went into this year's series pretty confident and obviously had the idea that he was going to redeem himself for his previous playoff losses. Now I think he is questioning himself.

The fans expected a really hard nosed performance from the team after the humiliation of Game 3 and it was a little shocking to see them give up at such an important moment. The weird final play of the first half was just the perfect illustration of this.

That said, a lot of the criticism directed at the team over the last few days is still correct. That doesn't mean we are losers, but the last two games have shown the worst side of this team and it ain't pretty. I know I wouldn't be nearly as worried if the Dallas series had played out normally.

 

I'm with you on that. It is basically a new series with the adv. in our favor via homecourt. Yes we had two horrific road games, but I remain optimistic b/c we have not played a decent game yet. Regardless of how well a job Utah has done on defense, this is not the Rockets team that I have watched all year. I believe and hope that game 5 is the game where we come alive and play with some emotion. I truly cannot believe all of the trade T-mac and T-mac bashing that has come about. He has played poorly, but he is no AK47.

 

PS:
My opinion after Game 3 was that the series would go 6 and we would win. Now, I am definitely worried. I think it will be 7 games, and I still give the Rockets a slight edge.

 

I agree with you completely. But we still have not seen rockets basketball. McGrady will come out and will this team: I am not ready to think that he is done. That thought is just astronomical for me.

 

I do believe that JVG has been outcoached these past two games. Horrid shooting is one thing. But you can't compete with a horrid gameplan. The first two games it seemed that JVG made the right changes at halftime. The last two seems like he had no answer.

 

One thing to those nonbelievers out there...

"Dont ever underestimate..the MOUTH of a FIRST ROUNDER!"

 

We havn't seen rockets basketball because Utah isn't letting us see rockets basketball. Did you ever think that our lack of execution was caused by Utah's tough defense? Because that has been the case in the four games we've played.
I don't expect us to play rockets basketball. I expect us to shoot in the low 40s, have T-Mac go 8 for 30, and have Yao settling for fadeaway jumpers or getting stuffed by Okur. We only played rockets basketball in the regular season against teams below .500, so i'm sorry but I don't think we'll be seeing any "rockets basketball" in the playoffs.

 

The problem is we're not shooting in the low 40's. Sure we finally managed to shoot 42% last night, but there was a lot of padding done in garbage time.

The Rockets are hovering around the mid-30's for most of this series through 4 games. I'll give the Jazz some credit, but bottom line is the Rockets are bricking wide open shots. Juwan Howard is 4-21 in this series. No defense can make an NBA player shoot 19% in a series. NINETEEN PERCENT!!! Luther ain't much better at 5-23 for 23%.

And let's not leave out our best player, T-Mac. The guy who said if the Rockets lose this series, it's on him. Well, through 4 games, he's shooting 32-87 for 37%. And this with Derek Fisher and Gordon Giricek guarding him most of the time.

Are the Jazz partially responsible for these numbers? Of course. But I'd say most of it comes down to a lack of execution and frankly a lack of will. The Rockets have to want this more than Utah, cuz no Jerry Sloan-coached team will lay down. Ever.

 

Just like Dallas isn't seeing any Dallas basketball...

They're killing us on the mismatches. By throwing 1 or 2 physical defenders at McGrady they are neutralizing him. By having Okur push Yao far out on the block and having him block nearly a third of all his turnarounds and force him into to turnovers, they're containing him.

On offense...it's not pretty.

There is still hope, but history for sure can repeat, that series two years ago keeps popping back up.

 

I disagree. Its not that we lost, its how we lost, we just got so significantly outplayed it is worrying. Compounding the fact that we barely slipped by Utah the first two games, there is much to be worried about. Utah now comes knocking on our door with confidence gathered from two home wins. Utah has been able to make adjustments, and we can. It really is as simple as that. I don't think going back to Houston is going to change that.

The problems that we are seeing now have been there all season, its just that they are magnified because every game matters. Habits are damn hard to change, and I don't expect the Rockets to be able to do it now when they have failed the whole season.

These games just amplifies our weaknesses. Even if we manage to sneak past the first round, I have no confidence at all that we can past the second round.

Heck, when you have no confidence in your star players to perform even on a one on one basis, then it has to indicate something. We are a very mentally weak team, that's a fact. There is no strong willed leader on the team. Dallas is indicative of that even with all the talent they have. Dirk simply has yet to shown he can take over a game, maybe he will tonight, but who knows.

It feels like people keep overlooking our deficiences when we win, and consistently bash those who point out the objective facts. We all want Houston to win, but the fact is, the odds are stacked against us.

We can either win by heart or talent, or if we are lucky, with both. We have an advantage on neither on a team basis compared to any of the teams that we are facing or might face in the playoffs (I'm not talking about individual based comparisons)

We are not ready as I said earlier in the season, and its a pity. I would love to be proven wrong, but these things are just what I see.

 

I understand what you are saying, but, how is the scenario of Utah losing the first two any diff't from us losing these two? I do recognize the deficiencies, but if you take away the 18 points off of turnovers, don't we have a diff't game? I realize we are a mentally weak team, but I feel the same about Utah. It only takes one game to turn a series around, and I'm not buying that we have seen our best effort yet. The way we lost was horrid, but a lot of things I've felt can be corrected. Being in the right position for boards, protecting the ball, and really T-mac attacking the basket are things I was really pissed about last night. We are a very weak team right now that I believe could also be a sleeping giant with the right spark.

 

I really do give credit to Utah's defense. But to put all of our woes in that basket feels like a cop out to me.