Something has been nagging at me for the last few games. The Rockets seem to be able to gain LARGE leads at various points in the game, but they ALWAYS collapse in the fourth. v. Phoenix, up by 18 after the first. Loss by two. v. Sacremento, up by 17 at one point. Loss by five. v. Portland, up by 10 after the first. Overtime. But here's what's even more telling, imo. v. Portland, Portland outscores Rockets by 10 in the second half. v. Sacremento, Sac outscores Rockets by 15 in the second half. v. Golden State, GS outscores Rockets by 2 in the second half. v. Phoenix, Phoenix outscores Rockets by 13 in the second half. v. Memphis, Memphis outscores Rockets by 3 in the second half. v. New Orleans, New Orleans outscores Rockets by 4 in the second half. v. Clippers, Rockets outscore Clippers by 8 in the second half. v. Dallas, teams are even for the second half. v. Minnesota, Rockets outscore Minnesota by 4 in the second half. v. Lakers, Lakers outscore Rockets by 13 in the second half. Okay, 2-7-1 for in the second half the last ten games for the Rockets. But what's the overall point difference? Opponent outscores Rockets by 48 points in the second half. Why do I think this is important? For the past ten games: Sacramento outscored their opponents by 66 points in the second half. Indiana by 16. Minnesota by 20. Lakers are minus 8. San Antonio is plus 8. I am not going to spend more time manually adding this up, but 4/5 of the top 5 teams (by record) in the league win the second half. The winningest teams don't wilt in the second half; they make their opponents wilt. But back to the Rockets -- the Rockets just can't seem to win it in the second half. Why? And what can be done about it? I know people are likely to say that it has something to do with Yao being less effective in the second half, but is it really that simple?
I too have noticed this trend to collapse as I think everyone else has. It is amazing how even in victory...we often lose composure in the second half and thats why we never have blowout games. How many times this season have you seen the Rockets just totally manhandle a team and beat them from start to finish. How many times have we won soundly? I mean we have had a lot of close calls...like last night...we dodged a bullet big time.
It has nothing to do with Yao's conditioning. Our bench players are not scorers and our starters play heavy minutes and are not as effective in the second half. Yao looks strong to me. Oh... and JVG must have a boring half time speech. And... maybe we don't make halftime adjustments to the adjustments that other teams make?
funny how even the announcers and play by play guys mention that. Somehow if they keep the game close we will collapse?!? come on we are all pros... other teams notice that about us.. i think if Portland came out with a full court press we might have lose this game. J
We go pick and roll in the last two minutes and Yao gets the ball 18 feet from basket if he gets the ball at all. Just hasn't worked.
This was a common occurrance among the '91 - '93 Rockets. They would blow out opponents in the first half and lose by the end of the game. It is an indication that they are much improved from the last few years but they still have to learn how to close out games that they get a lead. Maturity will come.
the problem is our starters play too many minutes per game. and by the end of the season (now) it caught up with them. they start off strong but the fatigue catches up at the end of games. a big point for next year is to improve our bench.
I think team's depth , refs played a role too. Rockets have no depth on their bench, so starters have to play a lot minutes and couldn't hit their shots in 2nd half. Long minutes caused some lack of intensity as well. Also when Rocekts jumped out for a big lead, refs usually start to make calls against rockets. When a team is starting to come from behind, they tend to get favorable calls, just like the Lakers.
