<div class="quote_poster">ownage Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">A majority of the times that we go on droughts is when Yao doesnt get the ball. I think in this particular sequence you're talking about, Yao coughed up the ball once and made a bad pass once to a cutting player. Anyways usually in these scoring dorughts, Tmac, Alston, Luther (anyone know why he wasnt playing?) and other 3pts shooters JACK... very unefficient for our offense. I say if we cant get something going, drop it inside to Yao. Its pratically automatic and if not, at least its a way higher percent shot than jacking up threes. As for the game. It was a great game. Yes we lost a lead, but this game shows why TEAMS are better than individuals: KOBE : 53pts Yao: 39pts / T-mac: 30pts ----> 69pts total. Theres no "I" in team! Great team effort by the Rockets.</div> But there's a ME.
^^^lol <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">majority of the times that we go on droughts is when Yao doesnt get the ball. I think in this particular sequence you're talking about, Yao coughed up the ball once and made a bad pass once to a cutting player. Anyways usually in these scoring dorughts, Tmac, Alston, Luther (anyone know why he wasnt playing?) and other 3pts shooters JACK... very unefficient for our offense. I say if we cant get something going, drop it inside to Yao. Its pratically automatic and if not, at least its a way higher percent shot than jacking up threes. As for the game. It was a great game. Yes we lost a lead, but this game shows why TEAMS are better than individuals: KOBE : 53pts Yao: 39pts / T-mac: 30pts ----> 69pts total. Theres no "I" in team! Great team effort by the Rockets. </div> yes we forget about Yao way too often... <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">And I think it is time to start talking about Battier performarce because IMHO he's not playing that good as he usually did since Yao returned.</div> Battier played good last night, when he was guarding Kobe he really slowed him down...
Most of Kobe's baskets when Battier was defending him came off of screens. One on one, I thought Battier actually held him to a very low percentage.
I thought the game was pretty exciting. Most Rocket fans would just be glad we won. But I'm a little dissappointed in a few things. We still do a terrible job of putting teams away. Theres NO WAY in hell Kobe should've got his OWN rebound from a free throw and hit that 3pointer. That's just bad execution on our part. Also, Tmac must be a little too comfortable in being a facilitator. 5 years ago he would've been offended if somebody just dropped 50 on him. He didn't really accept the challenge from Kobe like I hope he would. We've debated in other forums who's better out of Kobe & MJ. But Kobe's the most talented shooting guard in NBA history. You can throw out stats or whatever, but MJ in his prime couldn't handle Kobe Kobe= The G.O.A.T.
<div class="quote_poster">foo82 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">YESSS a win. Even though Juwan played horribly today, he completely made it up with that offensive rebound and pass to Yao. Boy that was big. Big freethrow shooting night by the whole team. We won by free throws and rebounds.</div> Offensivley Juwan played poor. But defensivley he played as well as you can on Odom. Oh, and obcourse his game saving offensive rebound
<div class="quote_poster">Rock4life Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I thought the game was pretty exciting. Most Rocket fans would just be glad we won. But I'm a little dissappointed in a few things. We still do a terrible job of putting teams away. Theres NO WAY in hell Kobe should've got his OWN rebound from a free throw and hit that 3pointer. That's just bad execution on our part. Also, Tmac must be a little too comfortable in being a facilitator. 5 years ago he would've been offended if somebody just dropped 50 on him. He didn't really accept the challenge from Kobe like I hope he would.</div> Anytime you don't get a rebound on a missed free throw, that's bad. But that was a situation where the ball took a crazy bounce and Kobe was able to race it down. Battier went into the lane to help block out Kwame (he was the free throw shooter, not Kobe), which was the correct the decision. It was mostly McGrady's responsibility to keep Kobe away from the long rebound, but really in that situation it's just a free for all and neither team has the advantage positionally. I thought we played that possession pretty well. It was a very good decision to foul Kwame right away in that situation, and it was a very stupid decision on the Lakers' part to inbound the ball to him. The Lakers lucked out and got away with the blunder. McGrady had an off shooting night, but I thought he played very well in all other respects. It would have been stupid on his part to make it a personal one-one-one match when he has Yao Ming continually getting great position around the basket. I have a feeling McGrady is going to explode against the Jazz on the Sunday.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">thought the game was pretty exciting. Most Rocket fans would just be glad we won. But I'm a little dissappointed in a few things. We still do a terrible job of putting teams away. Theres NO WAY in hell Kobe should've got his OWN rebound from a free throw and hit that 3pointer. That's just bad execution on our part. Also, Tmac must be a little too comfortable in being a facilitator. 5 years ago he would've been offended if somebody just dropped 50 on him. He didn't really accept the challenge from Kobe like I hope he would. We've debated in other forums who's better out of Kobe & MJ. But Kobe's the most talented shooting guard in NBA history. You can throw out stats or whatever, but MJ in his prime couldn't handle Kobe Kobe= The G.O.A.T.</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">McGrady had an off shooting night, but I thought he played very well in all other respects. It would have been stupid on his part to make it a personal one-one-one match when he has Yao Ming continually getting great position around the basket. I have a feeling McGrady is going to explode against the Jazz on the Sunday. </div> word...I don't want to see T-Mac going at Kobe point for point, because we have the games most dominant big man down low....at one point in time when Tmac was younger and didn't have Yao he could do that...hell he actually did do it when they used to matchup.
The key to the Rockets winning last night was shutting down Luke Walton. I posted in the Laker Forum, but I'll post it here, too, because JVG deserves credit for making the defensive adjustment on Luke. In the first two games, Luke broke down Houston's defense by taking advantage of a smaller defender guarding him (Alston & Head). JVG made a matchup adjustment by defending Luke with Chuck Hayes, Battier, and TMac. This took away from Luke's contributions as a passing forward, because the double teams weren't needed by Houston. TMac and Hayes were both able to stay in front of Luke any time he drove to the basket, and Luke couldn't bump them to clear space on his post moves.
<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The key to the Rockets winning last night was shutting down Luke Walton. I posted in the Laker Forum, but I'll post it here, too, because JVG deserves credit for making the defensive adjustment on Luke. In the first two games, Luke broke down Houston's defense by taking advantage of a smaller defender guarding him (Alston & Head). JVG made a matchup adjustment by defending Luke with Chuck Hayes, Battier, and TMac. This took away from Luke's contributions as a passing forward, because the double teams weren't needed by Houston. TMac and Hayes were both able to stay in front of Luke any time he drove to the basket, and Luke couldn't bump them to clear space on his post moves.</div> Not sure if that's a defensive adjustment, though. We just had the personnel in this game to handle that matchup better (we weren't starting a 6'3 SG).
^^^lol Luther being out last night must have been a blessing in disguise...JVG does that same thing against Dallas (leaving Head on Stackhouse) and they burn us each and every time...I have a feeling that if Luther was healthy last night that Luke might have played well.
<div class="quote_poster">durvasa Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Not sure if that's a defensive adjustment, though. We just had the personnel in this game to handle that matchup better (we weren't starting a 6'3 SG).</div> Who wasn't available last time? I don't recall Hayes being injured the previous two meetings.
<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Who wasn't available last time? I don't recall Hayes being injured the previous two meetings.</div> McGrady and Snyder were both injured in the first two meetings, and I thought that's when Walton played his best against us.
<div class="quote_poster">durvasa Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Anytime you don't get a rebound on a missed free throw, that's bad. But that was a situation where the ball took a crazy bounce and Kobe was able to race it down. Battier went into the lane to help block out Kwame (he was the free throw shooter, not Kobe), which was the correct the decision. It was mostly McGrady's responsibility to keep Kobe away from the long rebound, but really in that situation it's just a free for all and neither team has the advantage positionally. I thought we played that possession pretty well. It was a very good decision to foul Kwame right away in that situation, and it was a very stupid decision on the Lakers' part to inbound the ball to him. The Lakers lucked out and got away with the blunder. McGrady had an off shooting night, but I thought he played very well in all other respects. It would have been stupid on his part to make it a personal one-one-one match when he has Yao Ming continually getting great position around the basket. I have a feeling McGrady is going to explode against the Jazz on the Sunday.</div> He played pretty good. But I think he was a little passive in the 4th quarter. In the playoffs, I'd like to Tmac to be a little more aggressive. He didn't impose his will on this game as much as Kobe did.
I disagree....scoring wise no, but throughout the game Tmac did a better job of getting his other players involved....we don't need Tmac to be the dynamic scorer that he once was...that's not when this team is at it's best...
