Juwan shooting wide open shots from the freethrow line is good offense. Luther Head shooting wide open threes is good offense. Shane Battier shooting open threes in the corners is good offense. Yao in the post operating with his back to the basket plus drawing fouls is good offense. Running the pick and roll with TMac to get him good looks at the basket or passing angles is good offense. The offensive gameplan was fine. Sometimes the shots don't go in. You don't panic and run out your bench scrubs hoping for some kind of miracle because Howard misses a couple shots, you just hope that he will hit one, maybe get a FT so his confidence improves and he can heat up. The gameplan is fine, the execution leaves a lot to be desired, but this should be a good wakeup call. Tomarrow they can get in the gym, work out their shooting woes and go back into the game on Saturday with renewed intensity. They just aren't going to shoot under 40% every game, eventually they will get back to their average and the games will go a lot better.
Agreed this was a horrible shooting slump- more that 5 min in the 4th Q without a basket.....We will be fine
this thread and the blame on jvg is ridiculous. seriously, when your team misses easy shots and wide open shots and only 4 players score, you blame it on the coach? you all have lost your minds...
JVG didn't cultivate a beach all season. You can't expect these guys to come in and play at a high level when the playoffs start. Snyder hardly played, the rookies didn't play and he ran Bonzi Welles off. So what do you expect.
i expect professional basketball players to make easy shots. i guess thats too much to ask for these days.
This sounds nice but in reality they aren't getting great wide open shots. Utah knows there is going to be no dribble penetration besides McGrady so they can stay at home on our shooters. Even Gundy in the press conference said "We are not getting good shots". I do agree with you though that a lot of the wide open shots created by Tmacs penetration have been missed, but I would say the majority of our shots have not been open jumpers. 75% of our scoring is generated from Tmac and Yao, our role players have stunk it up this whole series. This series will be a dogfight and we are second round fodder.
This site has its positives and negatives. Threads like these are the negatives. The fans that can't make up their mind whether they are for what is going on or against what is going on are annoying reading and such a waste of time.
1. Hey, grizwalds, the point of this forum is to express opinion--stupid or negative. Let the negative nellies have their say too--makes for interesting read. 2. Part of the problem is that we signed Bonzi to be our bench points in the playoffs and expected a contribution from him. Uh, that plan backfired. 3. We win this game going away if we get anything from Juwan and Luther tonight--which we had all year. 4. I counted 15 wide open missed shots (meaning, close to the basket layups or jumpers where a player was at least 3-5 feet from the shooter in the second half and lost count. Imagine how many we missed in the first half too. The offense is fine--Utah is totally banking on this result and frankly, we finally choked on it tonight. The funny part is we were still in it going into the 4th. 5. This shooting funk we are in will lift for at least 2 of the next 4 you have to figure. Someone is going to hit some shots other than Tmac and Yao at some point. 6. Kirk Snyder is a non-factor which is why he has been with three different teams since being drafted in the first round--I would love to have him on my YMCA team, but dude is a #9 or 10 on any NBA team, so do not expect much from him. 7. Lucas would get eaten alive physically by Williams--yes Alston is not much better--but Lucas would get smothered worse. Lucas will be a factor when we get past this round.
He isn't the GM. Juwan was here before he was as well. Coaches don't miss or make wide open shots all game long.
Really? He never played Luther, Juwan, Deke or Snyder? Calling BS on this one. Also, Phoenix uses a shorter rotation than JVG does, so I guess they should lose as well
it is. Thinking that game was lost b/c of coaching just shows the serious delusions that some people operate under
Juwan Howard was brought here during JVG's tenure. Anyway to the subject of the thread. JVG was outcoached but not during this game. He's been outcoached by not developing his bench or getting more penetration plays to diversify the offense. Those aren't problems though that can be fixed now. Utah played a JVG type game plan almost to perfection and while our D kept us in the Jazz got more hustle plays, second chance shots and ball control to make the difference. So the JVG game plan can work but the problem is whether the Rockets can execute enough offense to make it work. The problem we've got is that its too late to break in personel who've only got limited playing time or radically change our approach. Like it or not we are stuck with what we got now and we are going to live or die with JVG ball.
To me, it really just isn't a matter of coaching either in the first two games or this game... each coach is who he is, neither changed his stripes during the series. For that matter, none of the players changed much from what they are during the season, either. The wins simply went to the team that had better energy and better mental focus for more of the 48 minutes in each single game. In the first couple of games, Utah largely played fine, but lost focus for a while and Rockets went on a run. In the 3rd game, Utah had consistent energy (even though inconsistent offensive execution) Rockets were pretty much doing the same-- great defensively for most of the game, and at least made enough shots and hustle plays to stay close despite the shooting slump. What doomed the Rockets and opened the game up was getting frustrated at the end and forcing offense, trying to be what they are not... that's when the turnovers and gambles turned into easy points. For my money, when they were down by 6 in the 4th, I'd rather them just keep doing what they've been doing... shooting the same shots and take my chances with those. In any case
Sorry to be picky but Luther Head definately changed. Here was a guy who set a record for consecutive games with a three not being able to buy a shot.
you cant polish a turd. by getting more penetration? do you think that jvg sets up plays and tells them to not penetrate? I dont buy that. Basketball players always have a green light IF they can get past their man. As much as people like to think that JVG is controlling on offense, he really does give a lot of freedom. The others problem is who penetrates? luther is shaky, it isnt battiers specialty, rafer doesnt finish...and not to mention yaos congesting the lane. Rockets dont have good penetrators outside of tmac. '
Why am I not surprised rafer was mention in this thread even though he only took 5 shots... Come on, I don't like rafer either but everytime we lose its not his fault. How about the other 5 guys that produced nothing? JVG played 9 guys this game, and there's nothing else he could have done.
because T-Mac shot too early and his teammate bacame to cold hand. T-Mac need to distribute ball more in the early time and let teammate involve and take charge in late off the game.
That part is true... but while Luther's luck changed on his shots, he's still who he is... still medicore handles and passing skills, still primariy a jump shooter. It's just that Luther is such a specialist on shooting that the change in shooting luck really affects him. The Rockets simply were missing a ton of shots they had made at a decent clip in the season. They can't let that affect who they are...just keep doing what they do and they'll be fine.
