Prior to the trade, without ariza we had no one who could or was willing to make a move at the 2/3 spots. That's why our games were horrible. This game isnt really one of those. We just are out of synch due to the new guys. Plus, it's against a contender, who's healthy, and we're not. Ariza would have just keep the deficit respectable...but then again these guys are keeping it respectable now too.
Dwight Howard: 10-10 for 25 points and 15 rebounds. ariza would not have made a difference this game.
I think tonights game shows how important Yao is/was. Dwight was awesome and rarely is vs Yao. Say what you want about how good he is (and he is) but Yao stifles him when they meet
I didn't even notice he wasn't playing, Rockets look like the same team that give up 100 points in the paint me. If anything it shows how Rockets have no direction in 4 quarters without landry, and no Huffort without Lowry.
0-3 without Ariza (if you recall the Wizards game a few months back). We lose by an average of 21 points.
It's not Ariza specifically, or Lowry. It's not playing defense until the end and giving up anyway. It's not having interior size for help defense, the last few years we always had Deke when Yao was out, now we have nothing. Saying David Anderson can pick up where Deke left off on defense is laughable. When we traded Carl away, it weakend us inside somewhat. It wasn't that Carl was a great defender, but he hustled, something we sorely lack at the moment. It's going to take awhile for the new guys to remeber what it's like to win, they are used to losing so they don't put out as much hustle. This is why we lose, too much individual, not enough team. It's going to take a few weeks to work out the kinks, if even then. My only fear is that the losing attitude takes hold.
You guys are kidding me, right? Ariza playing the passing lanes disrupts the opposition's offense? Wow. I'm sure his length helps this team in some capacity but I promise you nobody on the Magic thought at any second tonight "hey, let me try this pass because Trevor ain't here to challenge it." Get real. The team lost Landry and Lowry and Martin is slower than we hoped to acclimate (Brooks gets some credit for that for looking Martin off for the entire first half of tonight). Meanwhile, Chase shot 56% tonight for 13 points and 6 rebounds in 31 minutes and didn't take any r****ded shots.
Not only Ariza. Kyle is the more important one. Without him, our bench is not as explosive as before at all. I really miss him.
When everyone is hot, AB is good to add more. If others struggle, AB has no ability to make everyone on the court fight as a team. He is simply too short and not strong enough to make good passes or attack the basket. In this aspect, I couldn't see he would have any improvement in the future.
Martin is still out of sync. We have a weak post game. Injuries piling up. Our post game used to be Scola/Landry similar to AB/Lowry combo. This factors into open 3s. And that seems to be where we live from seeing as we can't get near the rim.
