lets see. rockets beat the nba champs and rafer leads the team in assists. Oh....but he only scored 2 pts, so he must have sucked...right Jesus, do we really need one of these rafer bashing threads after EVERY game? Even when they win?! Especially from someone who routinely bashes rafer and then wants Stevie franchise-killer to play? Give it a rest 4-1. sleep well
Late in the game when everyone was turning the ball over. Adelman put the ball in Rafers hands. He has pretty good handles but he can't shoot worth a darn. I'd be happy if all he did was handle the ball and make passes. He just can't shoot. Adleman needs to turn the green light off for Rafer.
He shot very poorly tonight and couldn't contain Parker at all. But he was the only guard who could break the press. Adelman called on him to do just that and he delivered. For a while we looked like a crappy high school team trying to break the press.
I must admit, when Rafer took those 3's and I just knew he'd miss them (and he did), I was a pissed off and wanted Rafer to leave the game asap. But while the crowd had that nervous energy towards the end of the game and it seemed as though the spurs were one play away from turning the tide of the game ... Rafer checks in for Mike James, handles the ball well, gets Yao the ball in the post rather easily and somehow our stagnant offense of 2 minutes ago starts clicking. Yao makes 2 buckets, 1/2 fts (freakin Spurs cheap strategy of w/e they did at the foul line), and an open shot for battier. So I appreciate what Rafer did. However, if I were the Spurs ... I would have double teamed off Rafer and force him to shoot those 3's instead of Battier. But w/e, we won. I'm happy and Rafer did his thing ... overshadowing his getting abused by Parker
not like anyone else contained parker...not only on the rockets but in the NBA. This just in...Parker is really good
word his chemistry with tmac and yao at the end of the game should keep him in with 3 minutes left to the end
Rafer saved this game Rafer saved this game Battier inbounds ball. Bad pass. Spurs Score. Wells inbound. Finds no one open. Time out. Alston in. Inbound to Alston. Alston beats pressure. Rockets score. Spurs score. Spurs pressure the ball again. Alston beats pressure again.... The game was at risk of a repeat of the Lakers and Mavs 4th qtr with TOs killing the Rockets late. The substitutn of Alston after Bonzi called the timeout was what iced the game. Anyone who think this is a good time to argue Alston should be replaced wasn't paying attention.
He's never going to shoot well, that's not what he's good at. He's a good ball-handler and a good passer - put in a system where he's not expected to shoot 14-15 times a game he can contribute to a winning team.
So....he still can't shoot worth of crap! he throws up a 3 with a fresh shot clock...bad decision maker
alston showed his worth in the last few minutes but he had a pretty craptacular game before that point. i still like james as that scoring punch off the bench so unless we're getting another ballhandler sometime soon, i'm still pro-rafer starting.
Like i said in the game thread, when you only shot 5 times, or just allowed to shoot 5 times, you miss 2 of those and you already look like crap. Cant shoot yourself back to respectability cuz you dont get extra attempts. This is exactly what people want Rafer to do - take care of the ball and shoot less, keep giving it to Yao, and they still b**** Probably rightfully so, still though...what can ya do with Rafer, except bring him in to handle the ball against pressure d to make people happy
lol ... DonkeyMagic and Carl Herrera with the out of control spin. Rafer played solidly in the final 3 minutes... before that he was total and complete garbage, and that's not bias talking. His shot was typical, but his defense? I think Bill Worrell summed it up best when he forgot to tow the company line by complaining that Rafer was simply turning around and letting Tony Parker just blow by him. Give him some props for the final minute -- he didn't turn it over and he got it to Yao -- but thank God his minutes are significantly down this season.
Absolutely, particularly in the last minute of the game when we are leading like today, he is better than anyone else to dribble the ball and kill the time + his free throw is not bad.
I know no one can stay in front of Parker. Rafer shooting poorly is not bad when he takes 5 shots. It's the 2/14 games that really suck. His ball handling absolutely saved us late in the game. We looked like a crappy HS team trying to break the press and Rafer totally changed that.
Good one!!!! I needed a good laugh! You and Donkeymagic never fail to deliver some when it comes to Rafer Alston discussion.
Look Donkey, he dribbled ok, steadied the offense when the Spurs were closing in, but he shot like crap, his defense was HORRID...and if the Rockets could get a DECENT PG...his butt would be on the bench. He is not an NBA quality PG...if we could get Bibby this team would take off even more.... DD
Did James do a good job guarding Parker? I know Rafer's D isn't top notch, but give credit to Parker as well. I don't think there's anyone on our team that can stop him.
