Man, T-Mac got free throws with 10 seconds. He could have made it a one possession game, but he missed one. If Celtics hit these two free throws, game over.
This was supposed to be our statement game. Damn it. Yao didn't show up tonight. Oh well everybody has their off nights.
Celtics win by 4. They were impressive. Yao and Artest combined for 7-30 shooting .. ouch. The Rockets fixed their rebounding problems in the second half, but ended up giving up 53% shooting to the Celtics. They can forget about beating the best defensive team in the league if they're going to allow that kind of shooting.
The turning point of this game was when Ray Allen made the and-one play. Rockets were down by 1, it was 87-86. He pushed it to 90-86 and it all went down from there. T-Mac had 3 freethrows to make and he only came out with 2 with us down by 4. Oh well, good game. Yao sucked balls tonight. Missing a POINT BLANK dunk?!? He is 7'6'' and he missed a wide open dunk are you kidding me? Boston played well and it's obvious they are used to playing with each other and have a great chemistry together. Rockets just need more time with their big three. Btw, Allen took a shit on McGrady. Mcgrady has lazy defense.
BTW, this is the first NBA game Yao has lost since last January. He had a personal 19-0 winning streak. That was a brutal second half for him. Great defense by Kendrick Perkins. So the Celtics end our 22-0 streak, and they end Yao's 19-0 streak.
On the bright side, even with Yao struggling and Artest throwing up 10 three's, we still only lost by 4. This is with a big game from Allen. Granted, Scola won't be as hot as tonight, but next game if Yao and Artest can at least hit 40% of their shots, we can win. Rafer sucks. I understand he's a serviceable point guard, but he's a liability on offense. Maybe this is just another slow start and he'll pick it up as the season goes on. Now, I didn't watch the game, so what I say right now will be moot. I'll have it downloaded in two days, I guess (the joys of living in Canada!).
I hate them. We NEED to win the next match up against the Celts. I must say though, Brooks was impressive.
Well, T-Mac is usually a lazy defender, but I don't think that was really the problem here. McGrady doesn't have the lateral quickness to stay with Allen, and he's not good chasing players around picks. Last year, Adelman would have put T-Mac on Peirce and Battier on Allen. T-Mac switched to Peirce late in the 4th, but it was too late. Artest should have been on Ray Allen from the opening tip. Yeah, you'd like to match Peirce's physical game with Artest's defense (and he did a fine job on Paul), but we can't afford to let Ray Allen light us up either.
Yeah true. For the times that Artest was out, McGrady was on the bench. I'm still waiting to see Battier come back. Think about it. We rest McGrady on bench, we have lockdown defense on both Allen and Pierce. But Yao needs to have a good game. Perkins owned him in the paint with defense and offensive rebounding
Yao seriously needs to have a consistent aggresiveness from game to game. He can't let Perkins get into his head. Btw, who is all up for trading Rafer away. I hear Conley is on the block. I just don't think Rafer is himself anymore, he can't hit a shot, doesn't contribute much on either end.
Well he usually gets off to slow starts, and Morey seems to believe that he is adequate. He's not bad, just not someone who you can count on to deliver every night. However, when he hits the open jumpers and gets the ball into the post, he's an asset. Give him some time, he'll get close to 40% from the field eventually.
I know this game is from last week, but I was screaming the same damn thing at my television set...........I really think Adleman cost us the game by going back to Alston and Yao in the 4th...................
