I would blame Les Alexander for spiking JVG's drink, which caused this tragic accident. Deke is the video cassette recorder? Huh? We're in 2007 buddy.
LOL! Ah, there's plenty of blame to go around, and the bbs has taken turns. Game 3 was Tmac's fault. Four was the role players. Six was Yao's. The truth is it was a team letdown everytime. Can anyone honestly say we played ROCKETS basketball at all this series? This bares little resemblance to the regular season team. But it's the playoffs and it's time to step up. I do think people underestimate the role player's lack of scoring in game six though. Outside of Tmac, Yao, and Rafer, we had 5 people who scored 6 points or less.
JVG refuses to develop the bench. Wells is a bonehead, but if JVG was not so near sighted, he would have handled that situation better. Rockets is suffering the consequences right now. With Bonzi, you defintely won't have a game with 0 bench point. If Rockets lose tomorrow, I want him go.
Look at it this way...The Jazz two stars are Boozer and Deron Williams. They had pretty decent games Thursday night, but it isn't like they set the world on fire. Williams: 15 points/ 5 rebounds /8 assists/6-11 shooting Boozer: 22 points/9 boards/ 9-16 from the floor. Again, solid nights from their stars but nothing spectacular but they still win. Why? Because Okur chipped in a huge 19 points and Kirilienko had 14 points/ 4 dimes/ 5 boards/5 blocks/3 steals. I know we expect Yao and Tmac to be world beaters by themselves but that is not how it works in the NBA. It really and truly takes 5 to be consistant winners in this league.
Key for Jazz last night: AK-47 showed up. With Andrei Kirilenko from games 1-5 the Rockets pull that one out.
Jazz has much better salary structure than us. They have 4 all start level players in their starting lineup. With TMAC and Yao taking 30+M in the cap space, it takes genius GMs to surroud them with enough talents. Another way is to develop young talents.
2 Will Not Do Our big two, regardless of how well they play (and it hasn't been that well), will not be enough to get past the second round, or even tomorrow, for that matter if they don't get some significant help from unlikely sources. We've modeled ourselves after the inside-out duo of Kobe-Shaq. But take a look at the supporting casts of the two experiments. The Lakers had clutch veterans who would knock down huge shots and initiate their own plays...Derek Fisher, Brian Shaw, Rick Fox, Robert Horry. I remember critical stretches where neither Kobe nor Shaq even attempted any shots or made assists. Now contrast to our supporting cast of Head, Alston, Hayes and Battier. Shane is the most reliable of the bunch, but I would take any of those Lakers ahead of him when it comes to offensive contribution (and those guys weren't exactly slouches on defense either). If we don't make it out tomorrow, at least we have surely identified our needs...a third scorer and proven veterans who will not shrink under pressure.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged… Why do you look at the spec of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye… First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
I hate to point fingers at anyone, because quite frankly, we've just been playing as bad as a team than anything else. But one player comes to mind: Luther Head. For all his supposed "ice-cold" attitude, he hasn't done JACK in the playoffs. His shot looks tense, he's moving like he has the jitters, and he's diminishing his game to jacking up jumpers. That's not what made him a key contributer off the bench. It's the 3-point shot, as well as the ability to at least drive and get baskets off hand-offs that made him better than guys like Damon Jones. He HAS to step up and play like he did during the regular season for us to win game 7. Battier is Battier. Strictly a 3-point shooter, and good for the occasional hook shot down low. Thing is, the Jazz's lineup really doesn't afford us the matchup to post him for the hooks. And Rafer...well Rafer's pretty much doing his best, however limited it may be. Bottomline is, we're not playing Rockets ball at the moment. Some of it's due to the Jazz's physicality, some of it might be due to playoff jitters. I can't be sure, but the X-Factor in game 7 is Luther Head. If he steps up and does something else other than camping at the 3-point line, we'll win. If not, hey, let's pray that Tmac and Yao bail us out.
having a point guard that could penetrate and draw the defense, and make layups and floaters would help. i'm not a rafer basher BTW
besides yao over matches biedrins or harrington and tmac overmatches stephen jackson... i see all other positions being out matched especially the baron davis:alston matchup.
