Official Game Thread: SA @ Houston, 1/19/2008

[teamny1]

Yao needs to fight harder for position. This is the 3rd opponent in a row who keeps him from getting fga's by denying him the ball. It's getting ridiculous. If Fabricio Oberto and Michael Doleac can keep you from getting the ball its time to man up and do something yourself.

It doesn't matter though, they both suck and the Rockets are a treadmill team.

Agreed, it's time to get rid of Yao. Yao can't even beat double and sometimes triple teams before he gets the ball. He's useless. I don't care he was extremely efficient against one of if not the best defensive team in the league, there's no excuse.

He does need to man up. I only saw about two or three offensive rebounds that he snatched through his "willpower" and "strength" versus everyone on the court and finish strongly. That's not enough. Yeah, he may have had 21 and 14 while being the main force against the defending champs and also facilitated the offense like the leader that he is, but he's still got to grow a pair of balls.

If he had a pair, with arguably the best supporting cast in the league like Rafer (at least top 20 point guard), Hayes (definitely in the top 40 for PF), Battier (probably a top 20 SF), Head (EASILY a top 50 SG) and a hobbled McGrady (most likely top 20 SF), Yao should have lead the charge to defeat the Spurs by at least 20. I mean, with this cast, obviously Yao isn't man enough or good enough to ever average the 30 and 15 that he should with 4 or 5 blocks, with all the attention that the other team gives to the non-Yao players.

I agree, this team sucks, barely beating a healthy Spurs team with a hobbled McGrady and the rest of the awesome supporting cast. Yao definitely deserves much criticism for missing a few free throws at the end.

[dunleavyjr]

LOL @ Oberto. The guy was trying extremely hard in selling flops. I guess the referee didn't buy it.

[dunleavyjr]

I didn't get to see the game (I monitored the box score religiously), but can someone tell me why the hell Yao only took 10 shots from the floor when he hit 7 of them?

And why is everyone praising Battier? What'd he do?

1. Dude, game was on NBATV. Just pay $3.95/month.

2. Yao was too freakin' slow to beat the fronting defense. He seemed slower than his usual slow. Probably too much rest for him. Watching him in the 1st quarter, some Rockets fans was probably throwing things at their tv. 1 freakin' shot attempt.

3. Battier was chasing Ginobili all game long. He fell asleep couple times. But he did score a basket or two at critical timing.

[dunleavyjr]

felt like a playoff game, big win!!
yao chocked

It was, wasn't it? I was surprised to see Yao, who is one of the better freethrow shooters in the league, missing that pair of freethrows.

He probably lost his composure a bit, after he facial dunked on Duncan. He was so excited, llike he swallow a dozen viagra or something. He yelled, screamed like crazy. He even bumped chest with Scola.

[AttackTheRack]

Good win.

Yao: Played great, even if the fronting D gave him trouble. He played solid D on Duncan when he guarded him, made some nice passes, hit a jumper, hit the glass effectively, and that and1 dunk in the 4th was just nasty. The 3 missed FTs at the end were pretty weak, however.

TMAC: Looked decent - not great, but OK. After the layoff, you really wouldn't expect more. Still settled for the long jumper, but again - layoff.

Landry: A stud. That bound over Duncan was MANLY! Will probably take minutes away from Chuck as the season wears on, as he should.

Scola: What can be said? All hustle, all the time.

Everybody else was pretty average out there tonight. The Rox practically gave the game away in the last 3 minutes. If not for offensive rebounds, this is a loss.

[nyk_buc]

Great game.
I can't believe we beat the spurs.
Landry was unbelievable in this game.wa!

why can't u believe we beat the spurs? we match up EXTREMELY well with them. we've split the season series last 2 yrs and we are up 2-1 this yr.

i feel comfortable if we face them in the playoffs. they just don't have that aura of invincibility anymore. they have been AWFUL v. above .500 teams this yr. but they kill the bad teams.

the only team we still struggle with are: dallas, suns, and warriors. but we've shown we can hang with anyone for at least 3.5 quarters. but today is a good step towards showing we can execute down the stretch. if tmac was fully healthy, we would have shut the door down.

[skbucks1985]

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why can't u believe we beat the spurs? we match up EXTREMELY well with them. we've split the season series last 2 yrs and we are up 2-1 this yr.

i feel comfortable if we face them in the playoffs. they just don't have that aura of invincibility anymore. they have been AWFUL v. above .500 teams this yr. but they kill the bad teams.

the only team we still struggle with are: dallas, suns, and warriors. but we've shown we can hang with anyone for at least 3.5 quarters. but today is a good step towards showing we can execute down the stretch. if tmac was fully healthy, we would have shut the door down.

I agree that we match up well with them, but Parker's got that heel injury and once he gets over that you have to think the Spurs will step up. Really, how many times do you expect Skip to play Parker even, or even slight out-play him and that's what happened tonight.

I'm glad our next 2 games are against Seattle so T-Mac can work himself back into game shape and get some of the chemistry right.

Looking ahead, February is definitely our chance to make up ground and really hit our stride. 8 out of 13 at home, and only 5 of which are against winning teams.

[nyk_buc]

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I agree that we match up well with them, but Parker's got that heel injury and once he gets over that you have to think the Spurs will step up. Really, how many times do you expect Skip to play Parker even, or even slight out-play him and that's what happened tonight.

I'm glad our next 2 games are against Seattle so T-Mac can work himself back into game shape and get some of the chemistry right.

Looking ahead, February is definitely our chance to make up ground and really hit our stride. 8 out of 13 at home, and only 5 of which are against winning teams.

parker really hasn't dominated us. every spur-rocket games has been like this (whether everybody's healthy or someone's not healthy). parker may have the heel injury, but tmac could have taken this game over several points in this game if he was truly healthy. when we went up by 5 early in the 4th after that tmac dunk, usually that was his cue to take over.

but in all, their big 3 played really well.

so i wouldn't mind facing them in the playoffs.

but like i said, our schedule is REALLY easy to end the season.

[MaxRider]

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Duncan was standing behind Yao, making it a double team off the ball, and the guards still can't make an entry pass.

at least they didn't force the pass this time
against 76ers everyone can read those passes

[skbucks1985]

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parker really hasn't dominated us. every spur-rocket games has been like this (whether everybody's healthy or someone's not healthy). parker may have the heel injury, but tmac could have taken this game over several points in this game if he was truly healthy. when we went up by 5 early in the 4th after that tmac dunk, usually that was his cue to take over.

but in all, their big 3 played really well.

so i wouldn't mind facing them in the playoffs.

but like i said, our schedule is REALLY easy to end the season.

Parker is still their x-factor, he's the one guy on their team we don't match up with. I agree about T-Mac, but I think your greatly underestimating them. There's also the very real possibility that their merely coasting through the regular season as I don't think Home Court is as important to them as it is to other teams.

Our February schedule is very soft, but our March schedule is pretty difficult. 10-11 out of games against playoff caliber teams and also that hellacious 5 games in 7 days stretch where we play LAL, then Boston and NO back to back and then GS and Phx. back to back.

[Rocketsterps]

We found a way to win at the end, even with Yao choking at the line.

I have no idea why Matt Bonner got the last shot for the Spurs.Yao did well to make himself a factor in this game at both ends on a night when he was fronted/doubled the entire night. Can't excuse him for choking at the end... this is starting to become an ugly trend.

Now we need to sweep the home-and-home with the Sonics.

Kinda like Yao taking a 3 pointer for the last shot of the game for us huh.

[Teckon]

Extracted from Feigen's blog on the game with Spurs:

Battier said this:
"I know the main story will be Tracy coming back, but you're missing the story line for us which was a great team effort, contributions off the bench from Carl Landry, and (Aaron) Brooks hit a few big shots, and Luther (Head) and Rafer (Alston) kept us in early. It was a team win. When we play like a team, we're a much better team and Tracy added to that tonight. He did a nice job coming in and trying to keep the rhythm we established the last couple weeks."

Guess all those worries that Tmac might not fit in with the new offense is a non issue. The team effort demonstrated is great. keep it up Rockets! and have a long long winning streak!

[Baller 24]

I actually liked what they did here, Tmac and Shane Battier off the bench was a pretty good idea. And once Tmac comes back to full form I think that really wasn't a bad idea at all with both of them off the bench.

[King Roosk]

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1. Dude, game was on NBATV. Just pay $3.95/month.

2. Yao was too freakin' slow to beat the fronting defense. He seemed slower than his usual slow. Probably too much rest for him. Watching him in the 1st quarter, some Rockets fans was probably throwing things at their tv. 1 freakin' shot attempt.

3. Battier was chasing Ginobili all game long. He fell asleep couple times. But he did score a basket or two at critical timing.

I attended the UT-Colorado basketball game. By the time I got home it was 4th quarter, and too late to get a link to the game. Therefore, I monitored the box score religiously.

[BaYBaller]

Some thoughts on the game:

1) T-Mac played the playmaker role this game like last year with JVG. The jury is still out whether T-Mac feels in his scoring role that the team can stay consistent on running the offense. This was a JVG game through-and-through.

2) Yao needs to learn how to play the high-post when he is not able to get the ball in the post so he can stay effective while he's on the court. More work has to be done against the fronting defense, too much time is burned off the shot clock looking for Yao in the post.

3) Hard to say what's going to happen with Landry. The games he has been getting burn can be attributed mainly because Hayes picked up early fouls.

4) Adelman surprisingly used a 10-man rotation this game.

[McTracy]

It's a great news that we won and McGrady came back healthly.

We got that confidence, we got finally McGrady and we needed that win.

T-Mac will find his rythm, no doubt. Just good news that we were able to finish the game well.

[nyk_buc]

Some thoughts on the game:

1) T-Mac played the playmaker role this game like last year with JVG. The jury is still out whether T-Mac feels in his scoring role that the team can stay consistent on running the offense. This was a JVG game through-and-through.

2) Yao needs to learn how to play the high-post when he is not able to get the ball in the post so he can stay effective while he's on the court. More work has to be done against the fronting defense, too much time is burned off the shot clock looking for Yao in the post.

3) Hard to say what's going to happen with Landry. The games he has been getting burn can be attributed mainly because Hayes picked up early fouls.

4) Adelman surprisingly used a 10-man rotation this game.

tracy settled for the outside shot basically except for one time so he didn't want to test his knee JUST YET (he didn't do a lot of cuts or penetration). so i think he's still kind of hesitant. but that's the greatness of tracy. if he doesn't score big, he can dominate with passing. that pass to landry and yao were HUGE. but he'll be fine. he moved fine up and down the court. it's just the lateral movement and the cuts that will take time.

exactly, but yao failed in the high post BIG TIME. so that's why u don't see him out there much anymore. he's plaing like he is last yr now which is around 85-90% in the post, which is good for him. he's ineffective out in the high post. we run a lot of high post for scola now.

so when yao gets fronted, we MUST bring either scola or landry in for hayes (who's useless offensively). the pick and roll w/ tmac and scola on the opposite side of the fronting defense on yao will carve them up. i think we need to look into that more.

LANDRY IS A BEAST. hayes needs to play 3-4 minutes to start games (if he remains the starter) and bring in scola EARLY. then the 2nd we can have scola and landry play while yao rests.

[McTracy]

I didn't watch that game but I think Tracy was pretty agressive on the offensive and on the defensive end. He was runnin' fast breaks well. He was pretty agressive. But he just needs several games to find his rythm, that's all.

I think as most op people said - he looked fine, didn't he?

[BaYBaller]

[quote="nyk_buc"][/quote]

Yeah I had no complaints with T-Mac, I especially liked his effort defensively.

And yes Yao has been more or less ineffective in the high post. I was just pointing out that given how teams are defending him, in particular with Hayes on the court, Yao has to eventually learn how to play out of the high post. Given Adelman's track record I know this is going to be revisited sometime in the future.

I also like Landry, but his post defense leaves much to be desired. But it's just like Scola early in the season (he's learned not to foul so much on defense), if he gets enough burn he'll improve. If Landry had Hayes' post defense, Hayes would not get any minutes at all.

[etopn23]

Yay. We win and now people are claiming it was "in spite of" Mcgrady.

King Roosk - www.raptorsnation.net