[GAME 82!] Houston Rockets at Dallas Mavericks Game Thread

[YoungMoney23]

Hopefully this is the last regular season game we see Artest in a Rockets uniform

[stockmarketgod]

Here is the thing guys... all we hear is stop force feeding Yao... stop throwing him the ball he will turn it over... the defense was there we couldn't get him the ball... they were fronting him... doubling him before the ball got there...

but all I saw was Shot after Shot after Shot...

not turn over on Ron bad pass..

or turn over on Yao... losses the ball...

or turn over on Yao... stolen by etc etc etc...

Shot after Shot after Shot...


but bottom line is this... do we go away from Yao and his 54% shooting... and go with Ron with his 40% shooting or Brooks and his 40% shooting...

awhile back I said...if Yao were to turn the ball over 14 times... MORE ...out of 100 possessions...
and we were to count those as... "field goal shots..." he would still have a better shooting % than Ron or Brooks...

I for one would rather Ron throw it into a fronted Yao... turn over or not... than to watch Ron chuck up another shot 1 on 5

well

at least we get to play Portland... who we have owned this year....

[stockmarketgod]

Perhaps Battier should be the new coach:

“The big fella was rolling and we sort of got away from him, which is probably the dumbest thing we can do, especially when the big fella gets it rolling,” Rockets forward Shane Battier said.

I hope this is a dig at Artest:

“We started to look elsewhere and started to take long, contested jumpers, which fed into their game plan of getting out and running. They had a couple of 3s and got back in the game. After that, it was tough to slow them down.”

Battier is partially right. We didn't go to Yao b/c he was trying to post up against some ferocious fronting defense. Every team in the West knows that when you front Yao you take him out of the game. I think when we didn't take him out of the post and tried to run pick and roll or pick and pop we left little other option for ourselves other than Artest trying to make a long jumper. So I don't think we intentionally went away from Yao....we just couldn't get him the ball.

o come on .... you know full well the Rockets tend to go away from Yao once he puts in a few baskets.... or they open up a big lead... fronting or not.... it has been happening since he got here...

[Dogmont]

Hardcore Blazer fan here...

Gonna be a great series with you guys. Looking forward to Yao teaching some things to Oden, Brooks from Oregon to have a good series, and seeing how well this young Blazer team responds to the challenge. Good luck.... Blazers in 6.

[wilt]

Artest is an idiot. Just wanted to type that, now i feel better.

[albatrosskismet]

I actually like the young folks in Portland Blazers very much. They have got some great talents and potential. Pity that we have to wipe them out lol .

[TMU]

Yeah, in a tie-breaker no two teams from the same division can take two of the Top 3 seeds.

[moofs]

The refereeing changed the outcome of this game. I hate to sound cliche, but as soon as Dallas began their run, the refs added to their momentum by giving them any and every call while swallowing the whistle on our end of the floor. We still had chances to finish it late, but I guess Brandon Bass fronting Yao was too much for us to handle...great.

Anyways, I'm not worried. It sucks that we won't have HCA, but we match up with Portland better than we do with Dallas. Brandon Roy will have his hands full with 2 of (if not THE) the best perimeter defenders in today's game, and Portland is the one WC playoff team other than the Lakers who does not have a clear PG advantage over us. Furthermore, we have a 2-1 regular season series advantage with Portland's one win coming at home on a prayer from Brandon Roy. I see us having trouble with Lamarcus Aldridge and we're going to have to contain their shooters, but ultimately that stuff won't win a series. I see us stealing one of the first 2 in Portland, and hopefully holding our own when the series moves over to Houston.

That (1st paragraph) was basically what I was getting at with my thread (which yes, should have been in here, but I wanted the title ) Cheesed me right off, it did. Like you said, I don't see problems with Portland, but we'll not be allowed to progress very far when the same sort of things are done in later rounds and/or some of our numerous flaws get pointed out. I was trying to be optimistic with the WCF the other day, but... slapped back to reality.

edit: and with tmacformvp07 suspended, someone had to make a post-loss thread ... I still really don't like the blatant pattern there, but like you said, what are we going to do about it? heh.

Artest is an idiot. Just wanted to type that, now i feel better.

[moofs]

“I’m afraid to say too much,” Adelman said. “He played a lot of minutes (35) and touched the ball a lot and shot one free throw.”

Who else was it that... tried to say something about the officiating with the Mavs... and had some.. ah, I just can't remember what happened there...