Julio-R- is having some computer issues and it came on a short notice, so sorry for the lack of a full preview. The red-hot Memphis Grizzlies are coming to town tonight against a Rockets team which finally has Tracy McGrady back, but have a pitiful 4-11 record. The Grizzlies are coming off two confidence-boosting blowouts against Toronto and Orlando, both of which they held the opponents under 70 points. The Rockets will have to hold Pau Gasol to an off-night and look out for kickout passes from the post. Damon Stoudamire, Eddie Jones, Shane Battier and Mike Miller are all great three point shooters and they excel in kickout threes from the corner. I really want the Rockets to go a win streak, so I'm picking us in somewhat of an upset. Rockets by 5.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Locke:</div><div class="quote_post"> The Rockets will have to hold Pau Gasol to an off-night and look out for kickout passes from the post. Damon Stoudamire, Eddie Jones, Shane Battier and Mike Miller are all great three point shooters and they excel in kickout threes from the corner. </div> Sorry. That doesn't work. Pau Gasol was held under ten points against the Magic on Friday and the Grizzlies won by 22. You have to do a lot to stop this team, because they win through defense and team play. Like I said in the Grizzlies forum, I'm predicting a 98-95 win from the league's 3rd best team.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">Sorry. That doesn't work. Pau Gasol was held under ten points against the Magic on Friday and the Grizzlies won by 22. You have to do a lot to stop this team, because they win through defense and team play. Like I said in the Grizzlies forum, I'm predicting a 98-95 win from the league's 3rd best team. </div> I'm not saying that holding Gasol to an off-night will guarantee a Rockets win like holding a guy like Kobe to 10 points will. However, it definitely makes it a lot easier to win with Gasol struggling. If Gasol is having an off-night from the field, we won't have to double him frequently which would then mean we'll be better prepared to defend kickouts. Damon Stoudamire and Bobby Jackson can both create for themselves though, so it'll be a problem.
I've just started watching with 6 mins left in the 2nd quarter and see we are down by 20. WOW, what a great news!
...You have got to be kidding me. McGrady's doing horrible right now, basically making none of his shots. Everything is out of sync for the team right now, not looking good. Twenty some points deficit not even at halftime.
i just dobn't get it..... our plays are good its just the shots.... jvg should have alot of practice where you only shoot....
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AznxBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">After this beating, Van Gundy's ass is so going to be fired.</div> I sure hope so............
i dont c how gd their plays are...nobody knows where to run on the court....there r sooo many off passes....the swift and moochie turnover was a joke...everything looks so jokes....jvg got no offensive plays going that r designed to optimize his players' strength...no plays at all except post up yao and p and r with tmac.......crayz..
Yao's doing a good job so far but we fell behind early and never got back up. Let's give the Grizzlies some credit here. They've held opponents below 70 two straight games and it looks like they'll do it again. Simply put, the better team won, although the game's not over yet.
i think the rockets should feel embarsed for several reason.. mat bullard's son was here, mosses malone was here, rudy was here, memphis played last night and we had 3 days rest
griz won the game already at the end of 1st quat....the whole rockets r shattered on the court..again....they look lost offensively ...and i thought jvg was a D coach...but how come we can't D for ***.....fire him..must
For a blowout, the Rockets actually did a pretty good job, if a pretty good job can ever be done in a blowout. We made two less field goals than Memphis, and shot 0.2% worse. We outrebounded them, had 12 offensive boards on 37 misses, and sent the Grizz to the line just 14 times. We were killed on defending the three pointer, that's all. Pau Gasol had a somewhat off-game but the Grizz managed to get off 32 threes and make 15 of them. Stoudamire went 6-7, Shane Battier went 2-4, and Bobby Jackson went 5-8. The Rockets meanwhile, were 3-15. Besides the threes, 21 turnovers surely didn't help us out any.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Locke:</div><div class="quote_post">For a blowout, the Rockets actually did a pretty good job, if a pretty good job can ever be done in a blowout. We made two less field goals than Memphis, and shot 0.2% worse. We outrebounded them, had 12 offensive boards on 37 misses, and sent the Grizz to the line just 14 times. We were killed on defending the three pointer, that's all. Pau Gasol had a somewhat off-game but the Grizz managed to get off 32 threes and make 15 of them. Stoudamire went 6-7, Shane Battier went 2-4, and Bobby Jackson went 5-8. The Rockets meanwhile, were 3-15. Besides the threes, 21 turnovers surely didn't help us out any.</div> like the coach said, ''the 7 game slide wasn't all that bad, we saw some good things.'' so i guess tonight is not an exception then if you see so many good things. sry...but don't u feel a bit funny saying this line? (no hard feelings, i just duno how else to word this) ''we were killed only on defending the 3s...the Grizz managed to get off 32 threes and make 15 of them...'' that's pretty bad. it's enough to prove that once again we are not defending properly on rotations. If we play well on D, then players should not hv to sprint to open 3s to try to distract them. Players do have their responsiblilties for this defect, but i think jvg should hv the most (+ he is well known to be a D coach, if he can't make us a good D team, he shouldn't stay). we have been struggling on D since day1 of this season, not rotating properly and getting killed on 3s and long 2s.. ya, yao did his job tonight, but others really hv to step up and do their role. i don't kno, but i feel that tmac's back worsens when i saw him play tonight. He seemed off and not as explosive.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting steam03:</div><div class="quote_post">i dont c how gd their plays are...nobody knows where to run on the court....there r sooo many off passes....the swift and moochie turnover was a joke...everything looks so jokes....jvg got no offensive plays going that r designed to optimize his players' strength...no plays at all except post up yao and p and r with tmac.......crayz..</div> That's a fact.....JVG offese is soooo predictable, the problem is we're settling for jumpers and no one is making them, the only other player who can penetrate break down a defense and get layup's besides T-Mac is L Head. And you know T-Mac's back is'nt in shape to drive the ball.
Alrite, it is a joke to call JVG a defensive guy again,ever. Look,what a nice number Grizzilie posted. They made 15 three pointers tonight. Unbelievable, T-mac experienced a horrible night, others I feel ashamed to mention their names except for YAO. I dont know i hav to wait for how long to see they got a win streak. God bless the sh***y team.
I had high hopes that the Rockets could rebound for this game and win one against a very solid Grizzlies team. But it looks like it's going to take more than McGrady and a few practices to bring the Rockets out of their funk. I saw most of the second half, but it looks like the game was basically lost in the first quarter. I DVRed it, so maybe I'll check it out tomorrow. From the boxscore, the difference in the game was turnovers and three-point shooting. While, on average, we've done an ok job shooting the three relative to our opponents, we've consistently lost the turnover battle. 6 turnovers in the opening quarter compared to 2 for the Grizzlies obviously played a big role in us being down 21 in the first quarter. It does appear that Yao has played well the last three games, which is encouraging. I still think we can win a majority of the remaining games this year, but it may not be enough to get us to .500 by 2006.
at least with tmac on the floor he provides a decoy to allow Yao to score inside.. the problem is, a couple other ppl need to step up - defensively and offensively... Allowing that many wide open 3's is unacceptable.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OUCH! WTF. Man 17-17 was a far shot this season. We are not even half as good as the start of last season. If Vand Gundy does not get us passed the first round, he BETTER be fired this offseason. If Swift, and Anderson do not start showing signs sooner or later, they will be traded.
