this is WITHOUT their starting PG Harris, the game would have been a lot more lopsided if Harris played, Barea sucked when he played.
but we also have 2 superstars that have been together for 3+ seasons(albeit, not full ones). they should be able to pull together and just take over the game.
Well there's no panic, but there are certainly some concerns. - Tmac took almost 30 shots again. Either he has to be automatic or the shot selection has to improve. In the 2nd half they were guarding Yao one on one and we still weren't running the offense through him. - We allowed quite a bit of cuts and open looks from three. Barea and Diop had easy cuts to the hoop. Terry got too many open looks to get him going. Honestly, the D was not that bad. We did a great job on Dirk, but we have to focus on shutting down a team as well as one star. We haven't played good pesky D since the first half of the blazer game. - Better timing on the rebounds please. There were some gimmes we lost and the refs screwed us on two key possessions by calling bs loose ball calls on Yao and Chuck. Oh well.... We didn't play that bad. Mavs stepped up their D in the fourth and we buckled. Good for them. Hopefully we get them back when we realize Yao can score too.
It is early in the season. I for one am looking forward to the rematch game in H-Town on the 21st on ESPN. The Rockets will win that game you can book it now.
I don't know who's dumber - Rafer Alston for his mental breakdowns in the fourth quarter or Adelman for playing him in the final minutes of close games this season....is Stevie Franchise really that bad? It's not the obvious things with Alston, but an airball three pointer, a ridiculous double clutch drive into two 7 footers, and a completely blown pick and roll assignment(seems like his job was to prevent the pass from Terry until Battier had time to make it to Dirk - he had help on the other side) to leave the MVP of the league wide open for an mid range chip shot. Of course that was preceded by a few lazy passes by James and some confusion by Scola on who his defensive assignment was on several plays including leaving Dirk wide open for a 3. Defensively, we can't stop the pick and roll as we either have a weakness at the PG or one at the PF. It's funny because on NBATV they had a short clip where Avery was saying in the 4th Quarter the Rockets only have three plays - an isolation with McGrady, pick n roll with Tmac, or Yao in the left post. The irony is the Mavs have one play in the 4th - Terry & Dirk pick n roll which is the one damn play we can't seem to defend against Dallas(or Utah for that matter)....
The only reason i would be panicked is because of the fact that we said we had depth on our team which we do but they didnt come throught tonight dallas had 6 players in double figures and we only had 3 who seem to be the same every night yao, tmac and mj. Someone else needs to step up for us to win against elite teams and like someone else said before myself the fourth quarter collapses are too familiar so I definitely dont blame people for going into panic mode. Free Stevie I think he could help hopefully.
our offense doesn't look too much different than last year - except yao gets touches on the high post a little more. where are the screens, cuts off the ball that we were expecting
the game was basically over when rafer got in the game and shooters like terry will burn any player and team
We DID destroy the Dallas Mavericks. Remember our home opener last year? The one where we beat the Mavs by 30? The one where Yao scored 36 points on 12/16 shooting and McGrady scored 8 points on 4/11 shooting? Too bad Adelman had to introduce a bankrupt system which makes Yao into a stiff and not get fed.
Tracy needs to shoot a little less, he was calling for the ball almost evertime on the offensive end,other guys need to get involved to put pressure on jason terry and company. The wealth offensively wasn't spread around properly and this isn't good when the rockets have scola,james,bonzi,yao to help balance the attack. Also Yao needed more touches in the low post. He was 9-12 from the floor and everytime he got the ball in good low post position he scored.I think you beat dallas by controlling tempo and this wasn't done in this game, it was too many jump shots in crunch time that resulted in long rebounds and a jason terry fast break pull up jumpers or drive to the hole. Seemed like whoever was to bust open in the final 5 minutes was going to win the game and the rockets didn't execute down the stretch. -Too many bonzi wells,shane battier turnovers -No pressure on jason terry defensively -Too many mcgrady jumpers which resulted in long rebounds -Not enough balance offensively -More yao was needed in the post to control tempo and dictate the flow of the game Too many jump shots,Too many turnovers and the rockets should have made the game a scola and yao attack in the paint.
even lost at Dallars, I still think at least one positive I have seen. I consider the strategy tonight for Yao as a good alternative. He was full of energy all night. He controled board as expected, scored at low post as well as high post, created some chances for outside shoot. I think this is what I would like to see. Look at T. Dunken or KG, what they did is just like this. We really don't have to put Yao at low post for offense all night if he has some other gifts. Another thing is that it seems we are lack of guy to deal with fast PG like J. Terry or T. Park. Is SF3 capable? Also, out PF is still weak even Scola is good enough in many cases. In my mind, Kato of many years ago is always my favor fighting to C. Boozer. It was a good game anyway.
