The crowd was just not consistent. When things were going good the place was loud and everyone was standing. But when theres a missed shot the crowed just goes awe and sits down. After that things pick back up either by motivation from the Toyota Center or a good play. And if you watched the game on FSN you're not going to hear any crowd noice. For some reason FSN likes to focus more on commentary. Because when I saw the intros I couldnt hear anything. I was at the game and I couldnt even here myself talk during the intros. Im not sure how loud it was on TNT but if you watch a game on FSN don't expect to hear alot of crowd noise. When T-Mac got to the free throw line the fans started chanting MVP. I dont think that can mess up a his consetration because its called Home Court advantage for a reason. It's meant to cheer him on and Im sure McGrady knows that. When Dampier got on the free throw line the fans start chanting "Dampier Sucks" due to the comments he made. The post game comments McGrady made bad in my opinion. Hes confident, you dont want a player who is unsure about his team. If your an athlete you gotta feel like you can win everygame. If you go into a game think we might lose it can screw your game up. Now if McGrady starts guaranteeing things like he did in Orlando thats when you're too confident.
I'm not too upset with this loss because it's a really tough thing to beat a team like the Mavs 3 games in a row, home court or not. The Rockets fell in love with the 3 and it came back to haunt them a little. Also, (and this is really big) Yao Ming had a terrible 2nd half. He's 7'5" or 6" and he keeps trying to take charges. He needs to be jumping. A lot of times this happens because he's just not fast enough to get there in time, but that's when he needs to just concede the shot. Hey, it's better than fouling out. That's what we got when we elected to get a 7'6" guy. He can't get there quick enough to contest every shot--not without fouling. Also, he's not getting the ball enough because he's not getting the best position offensively. I don't know how to fix that problem, but it is a problem. The Rockets, not being able to get it to Yao as much as they'd like, elected to take too many 3's. I'd like to see McGrady driving and dishing to Yao more in that situation. He needs to get the ball more, one way or another. We were going to lose at least one game sooner or later anyway. Now maybe they'll be more focused on Saturday. They just got brought back down to Earth a little. You also have to realize that Houston was coming back and ran out of time. A good team like Dallas is not going to get swept and basketball games have a lot of ebb and flow. The game ended at just the right time for Dallas. I think we have the better team, but we're not that much better to stop them from having a game or two end at just the right time for them. This is 4 against 5. It's supposed to be a dog fight and a sweep would've been really odd.
I thought we almost had it but at the same time I have a feeling that the Mavs might finish strong in the last quarter. Too bad the two points scored by Yao and a possible 3 point play courtesy of a hacking foul by Nowitzki was voided. This has completely stopped our momentum and brought us back to earth. It's a common problem for the Rockets when facing elite teams as well as the weakest teams(Hornets,Hawks,Bobcats,Knicks) to break down in the last few minutes. Although they manage to win against the Elites it's not decided until the last seconds of the ball game. I hope they come out strong tomorrow. BTW I think Van Horn is not playing tomorrow so Dirk might play the whole game.
