I was sure of it. After the third period ended, I knew exactly what was going to happen. We were going to do the exact same thing that has been working in the first three games of the season. We were going to keep Yao in a bit longer, then sit him for the rest of the game unless our 2nd unit wasn't working. Our final lineup was going to be: Tmac Artest Brooks Barry Hayes/Landry Reality: We brought in our entire starting lineup to finish the game. Wtf? I know it seems like a contridiction, but seriously, our 2nd unit + Tmac and/or Artest is obviously the best thing we have going this year so far. Especially with the way Yao had been playing in this particular game, why did we bring him back in? sigh.. But the season is young. The chemistry is still building. Battier's still out. 4th game of the season. Measuring stick. I question Rick's rotations, but I must trust in him. He knows more than I. We'll be fine. /rant
we should, yao played like crap, but even worse than that is the way we played defense on allen, who score at will. we should put artest earily. there is no way we let a shooter like allen get that many open look
NO... it was Yao Ming blowing TWO wide open EASY baskets... One where he was at the rim and the rim got the better of him, (the side of the rim blocked his shot) AND when one of the Rockets missed, he got the offensive board, and tried to lightly lay it back up... He needs some Ron "No Layup" Artest Juice THAT and the missed free throw by T-Mac down the stretch at the end of the game blew it for us (when he was fouled when he shot up a 3-pointer.) THAT is your five point turnaround that could have WON the game for us! Yao Ming needs to MAN UP, and grow a pair! Artest needs to get in his grill and fire him up! NO LAYUPS YAO!!! THIS IS THE NBA! Also, the FIRST HALF officiating! OMG... I swear, are the officials working AGAINST the Rockets (when it comes to better teams?) I am really starting to think that...
ALSO, THEIR DEFENSE ON KENDRICK PERKINS... OK, YEAH HE HIT ONE WIDE OPEN SHOT, THEN ANOTHER, THEN ANOTHER, THEN ANOTHER... OK ROCKETS??? GUARDDDDD PERKINS MAYBE? PUT A HAND IN HIS FACE, HMMM... I WONDER WHO SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT? YAO???? *COUGH, COUGH*
Yeah, we could've won tonight.. I actually expected us to lose this game, the problem isn't the Celtics, the signs have been there all season..............we have been struggling all season on transition defense and stopping dribble penetration....our defensive #s have been ok, but in reality we've sucked on D. And we suck Tijuana donkey balls at home offensively.........seriously what the hell is going on? Even against crappy teams we struggle to put the ball in the hoop. Houston has alot they need to shore up. They need to focus on building some kind of home court advantage and this time it isn't on the fans.
artest would have definitely stymied allen's production, BUT if we had battier the game would not have been close. artest is not a good defender on allen because of all those screens boston runs for him. artest is simply too bulky to slip past the screens to keep up with allen. Next matchup with the Celtics, we have Artest on Pierce and Battier on Allen. GG! We definitely should force the Celtics to go small next game. End of the game lineups: PG- Brooks SG- McGrady SF- Battier PF- Artest C- Landry (for offense) or Hayes (if we need defense on KG)
lol Take it easy RocketFan. I was just as frustrated as you are. We slipped up in a lot of ways, I think my biggest complaint is that our coaching staff didn't take advantage of what was being shown to us on the court (that our 2nd unit was working against Boston, not our starting unit) On the other hand, perhaps, Rick decided on playing our starting 5 to end the fourth as a challenge for them to redeem itself after allowing that huge run in the first half. They are our leaders after all, and we should expect them to lead us to victory against the best. This loss will make us better, watch.
Scola, Tmac, and Brooks came to play everyone else was a no show. Yao Ming was embarrassed by Perkins almost every play in the second half. There was this one play in the fourth where Yao got off about 2 inches from the ground and got blocked by Perkins right in his face. Yao has a good 8 inches on the man. He lost his confidence when he blocked his own dunk on the rim which he has done a few times this season already.
Blame the pourus defense on Allen on gimpy McGrady. They switched so many times when Allen was running TMac into the ground. There was only a few min stretch when TMac looked "not so gimpy" (steal coast to coast layup). I do think if Yao had a better game, it would've been another win going away.
TMac was on fire in at the end of the 3 qtr. Adelman should have kept him on the floor for the entire 4th but decided to sit him down and cool off. He brought him back with about 6 min and TMac never regained his touch. Aldeman decided to call nothing but plays for Yao, when it was painfully obvious Yao didn't have IT last night.
