The loss today, and the way it happened, will be good for us in the long run. Our flaws were magnified for everyone to see and everyone on the team knows we have work to do. We measured ourselves against the best team in the NBA (at this moment) and came up short. Nothing wrong with that. It's a long season and losing today is no big deal. It's back to the drawing board and on to a very long regular season of tuning up for the real season. After looking at what the Nuggets did to the Heat in the 4th quarter today, that also puts some perspective on Sunday's victory. We aren't there yet but there is a long way to go before figuring the potential of the roster we have. So cut the doom and gloom and let's move on. Some of us have said already a stagnant offense would be a problem to start the season and we are right. With all the new players, it will take a while to work out the bugs. I am NOT being optimistic. I'm a realist. I must admit, allowing them to close the game with a 34-9 run hurts. But each game counts the same.
It is actaully no biggie. Losing to Spurs is not a surprise to no one. But the way they lost it is a little bit embarrassing.
Our inexperienced role players/youth was exposed...simple as that. Under pressure, we cracked and they thrived...the Spurs are incredible under pressure as a team, they don't need one player to bring them back, they only play 'clutch'.
That is the difference between a good team and a Championship team. Rox is not there yet. Also, I think they spent too much energy in the first half. At the second half, they were tired, both mentally and physically. On the other side, although Spurs was down big time, but they were still smooth. This team is awesome.
JVG and Yao should take the responsibility for the lose. Maybe this is a good lose for the team and fans to cool down. There are still a lot to improve. The worst thing in this game is that both TMac and Yao took more than 20 shots, which should never happen.
Sometimes I seriously wonder if people think we play in a vacuum. It is as if we are the only team in the NBA, so we should clearly kick every team's ass. The Spurs are one of the elite teams in the NBA. They are absolutely dominant defensivley and have only one loss on the season. We were NOT favored to win this game and you can figure that will be the case for the rest of the season unless something changes. The fact that we are playing and still learning our rotations yet we were up on the Spurs by 19 is encouraging. How they lost sucks and I wanted to throw my remote through my television, but the Spurs are a great, great team and the way we were able to play against them, despite the loss and one really bad quarter is a good sign, not a bad one. It just shows we aren't there yet, but we are better than, frankly, I'd thought we'd be at this poing in the season. I predicted 5-5 over the first 10 games. We will likely go 6-4 and that is impressive.
Hell, the way Bonzi plyed against the Spurs last season, he may have been the difference between a win and a loss tonight.
No loss is a good thing. But losses happen, horrible shooting halves happen, bouncing back from them is what counts. If this loss was really end of the world, like some here seem to react like it is, then the Dallas fans, PHX fans, and MIA fans all would be committing suicide a week ago. **** happens, it's plain foolish to overreact (any one win or one loss).
A good lesson to remember. I noticed how the energy slowed down in the 3rd quarter especially on our defense. Three open shots we gave them. Then when the game got close, our offense collapsed, nobody would want to take the shot and we were not moving anymore.
I think JVG has to take a large portion of the blame for this melt down. He pulled T-mac out of the game when the Spurs began their run. How do you remove your 2nd best offensive weapon at a time when your team is struggling to score? Also JVGs habit of playing guys big minutes caught up with him tonight facing a deep Spurs team. The Spurs used their bench and when it counted they were much fresher than the Rockets. Pop is a great coach and they totally have Yao figured out. They consistently bumped him before he shot and sandwiched him between two defenders all night. He had way to many shots blocked or deflected from behind tonight. Then on the other end they used Duncan against him and it was off the glass over and over again and no one came to help Yao. The Rockets showed how good they could be in the first half and in the second half they would have lost to a high school team wearing Spurs uniforms. On the bright side they beat the Heat the other team that has owned the Rockets for the last decade.
In the fourth quarter, the spurs ran a couple of plays which they didn't run before and caught rox asleep. On the other hand we are running the same plays for the whole game. The defence on Udrich at the end of 3rd Qtr sucks. We were guarding a shooter the same we we guard a driver like Parker. We really should've doubled Duncan and Ginobily more often and give Bowen and Finley at least 1-2 open threes. Those two are not hot at all.
Our bench was outscored 15-45, something like that. We need Bonzi, he is the Spur killer...too bad he's not even a part of our team. We were up by 19 and the Spurs just didn't give up. They did the same thing to Phoenix and Dallas earlier this season. We went ICECOLD the last 15 minutes, something like 2/21 while the Spurs went 10/17. If we had only shot 25% the last quarter, we would have won.. However, I do agree that we needed this loss to bring us back down to earth. I mean, the media actually started respecting our team for crying out loud. On a side note, how do you think we would do against the Spurs in a 7 game series right now?
I agree that this game would have been a nice win and gave a side of momentum with it, but we lost, we broke down in the 4th and really have to improve on that aspect But just look at that we have like another 74 games to improve on this and we ll surely be ready for the playoffs i mean just look at how good we were playing the first half
They simply spent all their energy in the first half. We saw it happening too many times in the playoffs, especially those teams playing against Spurs. They jump all over Spurs in the first half and then Spurs makes a furious comeback and win the game. Oh, I forget Chicago Bulls of the old; they did to their opponents all the time. Those are the Championship teams. Rox is not a championship team. Not there yet.
I too am encouraged by the game: 1. TMac was more fluid than I have seen him in over a year. I had concerns about residual symptoms from last year's back problems. He looked very quick tonight and that is encouraging. 2. Hayes really is an impact player that was missed tonight, especially in the second half. 3. The first half was outstanding, great ball movement, shooting, etc. 4. The Rockets will learn a great deal from this game. 5. The T.O. was rocking. Only problem, the good guys lost. But, what will the team be like when both Hayes and Wells are healthy? And what if Sura comes back? I did think JVG got outcoached in the second half, he seemed to be in a stupor when the lead was shrinking.
Give Duncan credit. Yao and Mutombo owned him in the 2nd Qtr and he bounced back strong, something Yao can still improve upon--put the bad stretch behind and lift his game when it counts
