I know this is a bit of an odd new thread. But I can't help but start it, because of how weird that game made me feel. The game was surreal. We jumped out to that tremendous lead, yet I knew the team was going to lose. Why? Because eventually, I knew Dallas was goign to get hot, the team was going to lose patience w/its normal offense, and our backcourt (and Mo, to be fair) was going to try to match Dallas point for point in a fast paced game. We always lose against Dallas for the same reason. And no, it's not because they have more talent (although they do). No matter how much we lead against Dallas - we'll lose - because the team gets sucked into the mind games. Remember Steve and Cat running their mouths a year or two ago? They hold Dallas in contempt. Basically called them a bunch of frauds with no athleticism. Well, they get shown up every time - because of how intent they are at winning the individual battles. The team was fine as long as the lead was big - but the moment there was any adversity, our players insisted on trying to prove their individual superiority. And I could see it happening. And I knew that JVG knew it was happening. ANd he couldn't do anything about it, just as Rudy couldn't. All these things looked clear and inevitable. I knew that the Rockest wouldn't run their O because of lack of discipline. I knew that their defensive prowess would evaporate because of frustration. And I knew that the team would fall apart. And my guess is, they knew it too. Dallas is the boogy team. When we beat them, it will be a true accomplisment. Not because it will say how talented or good the team is - but because it will indicate that they've finally conquered their own mental, basketball demons. Flame away.
I agree 1000% Rockets could beat Dallas - easy. That's the tragedy. Well, I guess it's not a tragedy. Not like an earthquake where a little girl dies. More a disappointment. Pride lands you in the lowest circle of hell; and its the sin that comes before all others. There is no other sin without pride.
Great post, and it's exactly how I feel while biting my nails and witnessing this time after time, game after game against high octane offenses like Sac and Dallas. This line says it all: It's so blatantly obvious what's going to happen when other teams start lighting it up that I just sit back, pop another Rolaids, down it with another Red Stripe and wonder why these kids can't mature into legit 'win attitude' players instead of selfish playground bullies.
Even though we were leading by 16 in the first, I still felt we were going to lose. We will never ever beat them! lol...
Great post. The "tragic" part is not that "they can beat Dallas, easy" :=) It is just the opposite, because sadly, I have come to realize that 50% of the time some players do not do the right things because they don't know how; 50% of the right things they do are not done consciously. The more tragic part is that they may never truly learn the "how"consistently - time, practice, discipline, or whatever - will be the 10th wonder if it happens
Any team that doesn't depend on post play will give the Rox trouble, because of the way Van Gundy wants them to defend. In the JVG defense, staying with your man is discouraged, the guards are required to shade toward the ball. This allows for a lot of open shots as everyone tries to rotate/recover.
It's simple, running teams don't allow the Rockets to get into their defensive set and the Rockets have no idea how to deal w/ that. They also acted like they had never seen a zone before!! Van Gundy and the Rockets had no answer for the zone and it killed us for 3 quarters. Does Van Gundy have a offensive scheme designed for the zone? I was pretty pissed earlier in the game and I realized that Dallas just has better players then we do. Nash=Francis Finley>Cat Dirk>Jackson Walker>Cato Bradley<Yao
Except... ...other teams have generally better personnel than Houston, yet we manage to beat them once in a while. We don't beat Dallas more for sylistic reasons than talent-based ones (though that does come into play). Look at the records this year. Plenty of teams have beat Dallas - but not Houston... and I don't think it's coincidence.
It's like we knocked the piss out of the biggest kid in school, you have to know he's gonna hit you back. Not this team though, as soon as Dallas showed some signs of life they rolled over and let Dallas kick the **** out of them. Their will is just too easily broken.
as I was watching. I was dreading the moment they would start to use the zone. That, and the moment the Mavs would finally start to hit their shots. The zone was surreal, they sandwich Yao to keep him from getting the ball. The Rockets suck against the zone, they need to learn that you CAN NOT beat the zone by dribbling the ball and iso. They only way to beat the zone is by passing the ball in, then out, and then around the arc to the open man. I don't see why EVERY team in the NBA doesn't use the zone against the Rockets.
It's so strange to see BOTH Rockets teams show up in a single half: The awesome team-play one that makes me drool (1st quarter), then the confused, selfish one that makes me bang my head against the wall until I bleed (2nd quarter).
Wow! Scary isn't it? I'm talking about the last part in your sentence..."50% of the right things they do are not done consciously." Heh...it talks about players that do not know why things work right. Sad... An inability to learn, to put it simply.
That will happen as teams mature. The exciting thing is what we've seen images of recently. Everything from tough defense and team offense to a few Kidd-esque type passes from Yao...and STEVE! Simple really. You tend to get the best idea of where a team 'wants' to be, which for young teams is 'where they're headed', when they play weak teams, e.g. Washington. Where they've been...strong teams. Good thread Haven; but I think you start these threads more to send a message than for a discussion amongst us.
It's called matchups. Rox match up well against the Lakers and they don't against the Mavs...never will. It's like the Sonics in the early '90s. Rox couldn't beat those Sonics to save their lives. It was just a fact of life that you had to accept. What really sucked is we always had to face Seattle early in the playoffs. The Rox would have had more championships if the Sonics didn't exist. (The Rox would have beaten the Bulls in a 7 game series...you can't tell me otherwise) But that didn't matter because they couldn't get past the freakin Sonics.
I have been saying since the beginning of the year that the defensive improvment we have witnessed is almost entirely system oriented, based on priorization, and while quite effective, does not, as some have maintained, indicate a sudden leap in the individual abilities of our defensive players who have previously been weak. JVG has instilled a heightened focus on D, and his system and and Yao have allowed players to be more agrressive when their backs were covered; all well and good. But to think that Steve, for example, has suddenly become a good defender on an individual basis is to over reach, IMO. When teams run on us, and force us into individual defensive matchups, the weaknesses we've always had, though lessened by JVG's success at altering our priorities, are nevertheless exposed as being still in place. Example: our transition D is based almost exclusively on the fact that we get 3 back, leaving only 2 offensive rebounders. Against most teams which are not running from the get go, this is effective enough at discouraging teams from trying to press the break. But when the teams press us down the court, 3 on 3, 4 on 4, 4 on 3 or 5 on 4, as we saw last night, we still lose so many individual battles, simply because our individual defensive weaknesses can't be camouflaged by our system.
Finley could jump over cat at will. Dirk shoots over JJ like he is a midget. More atheletism? We were pathetic at one point of the game when Dallas had their run to increase the lead. Cat cant guard Finley, period.
The momentum of this game turned on the cheap flop-fouls called against Yao on the offensive end and the luckier-than-a two-dick-dog bank shot three pointers that had no right to go in. I hate Dallas like I used to hate The j*zz. ( hate in sports is just an expression of exuberence)
Thinking that we can/could beat Dallas easily is what I will like to qualify as the fallacy of the unassuming mind. That is why we still keep losing - 7 in a row and counting. Btw, I could not even finish the game yesterday. It was down right sad. Unwatchable.
