DISQUS

AirChina23 · 2 years ago

Costly misses at the line by Bonzi and Yao made the outcome. But I don't expect that to happen again. I agree, Rick should play Francis. If not anything else, he will give us a veteran leader presence.

ben · 2 years ago

Well now Tmac is out for at least 1 week with strain elbow. actually I would like to say this... see how rockets fare better without TMac ..... but looking at rocket's coming games....Spurs, suns, Mavs...... noooo.....maybe Tmac injury is good for him.. because he may come back looking like a saviour to this team , I hope I was wrong because I would really like to see this team proof it to T-Mac that they can do better without him and let them show T-mac that that a selfless play like what Yao, Duncan and Garnet do that can bring home championship not selfish play like T-Mac and other worse Kobe. To tell you honestly they should bring back Steve Franchis because i personally feel that Yao and T-Mac is the best 1-2 punch in the league but with least chemistry, I see better chemistry between Yao and Steve although Steve sometimes can be a ball-hogger, but c'mon Ade give this poor guy a chance to prove himself.... I want steve.. or rather ....we want steve.

JW · 2 years ago

I've said many times, and don't mind say it again. Alston can't shoot 3s. He has a bad form to release the ball. I would rather have Yao shoot a 3. Can someone put up an "0"fer name tag to his locker? Oh, don't forget to send a replica to Rick. Man I can watch this any more.

Ben, NY · 2 years ago

first, i need to say that jvg is a pretty classy person just the way he complimented adelman and rockets and didn't hide from talking about what happened last year. i think he contributed to the development of YM.

then about the game. rockets start to look like the same rockets as last year. yao needs to step us more, be assertive, show others he can carry the team w/o tm. maybe he was tired and missed the fts, but it was crunch time, gotta made those.

about the next few games, let's make a realistic prediction for the next three game vs spurs, suns and mavs. i think they will take one out of three. not to be pessimistic, but be real. hope i'm wrong, but we will see.

so what's the answer to your trivia question. i have been thinking but still no clue yet.

I think what I'm going to do is create a separate post with the trivia question so it doesn't get lost in a big, long post about the game. I'll do that later today, or tomorrow, after people have had a chance to read my post after the Laker game. -- Thanks, John

KZ · 2 years ago

First of all, give the Lakers credits for defending Yao well and forcing him to make low-percentage shots. Yao even got blocked by Kobe and another Lakers big man in this game.

Second, Alston should get some professional help and practice more on his 3s. His 3 point shooting was so ugly, it looked like he was just masturbating. However, in my opinion, Alston is still a better point guard for the Rockets until Stevie Franchise can learn to be a ball-handler instead of a ball-hogger.

More importantly, how about trading both T-Mac and Stevie Franchise for Kobe? I know T-Mac said that the Rockets were not going to trade him for Kobe. And T-Mac is a great player and I love him. But "it's time" to let him go for the obvious reason that he is more prone to injuries. And I am sure Kobe would love to play with Yao for a championship.

John Yao · 2 years ago

Now I know whay JVG had Yao run up and trap the ball handler all these years, it helped the man guarding the dribbler from getting penetration. Just look at this year's defense under RA. Yao stays in the low post (which is good and results in more block and initimidation), but exposes the ball defender to one on one. It looks like most Rocket guards and forwards are not good at one on one defense....thus the reason the team defense has not been as dominating as the past few years when it counted. Its definitely a tough choice on how to use Yao in defense. Do you have him trap and tire out more but result in stingier defense or do you have him stay in the low post and intinidate/block shots but risk picking up fouls b/c the ball defender gets beat?

I think you keep him down low. He's been doing that this season and not picking up as many fouls as last year. As JVG said last night during the telecast, Yao has learned how to jump straight up without getting as many fouls called on him this season, and he's there to intimidate if he doesn't block a shot. That makes penetrators think twice coming into the lane again. If he were out high like last year, all it takes is a bounce pass to find a cutter moving to the basket behind Yao to score easily.

By staying down low, you also get the other benefit of him being more rested, resulting in more points. The Rockets may give up more points than last season, but I think the offense makes up for it when the other guys are hitting their shots. We know Yao is going to get his. The game is more fun to watch, too. -- John

calyp · 2 years ago

it isnt fair or "insightful" for you to only point at rafer and not at mike james. rafer at least tries to get the team involved. mike is a one-man team wrecker with his selfish shooting and BAD shooting. pls get him off your pedestal. the rox should never have gotten both francis and james. francis would have been enough. we just need to give francis several games to get used to the game and the new system

Mike James has proved himself over several seasons with phenomenal numbers (i.e., Houston 3 years ago, 2 years ago with Toronto). Everyone around the league recognizes his value, and without him, the Rox would have lost their first couple of games. No doubt about it. He's going through a slump right now, so he has earned the right to get some patience (similar with Battier, Scola -- best player in Europe last year), so you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Meanwhile, Alston could never shoot, and never will.

Regarding Francis and James and you saying, "Francis would have been enough," you forget that the Rockets acquired James first. That's a big detail. But I have always said they need to play Francis. I say start James, play Francis at backup, and if Francis plays better than James over time, start Francis. But Alston goes to the bench and plays third string.

cardfather · 2 years ago

Yes!!! Pluck Alston off the court and bring back Francis! What about Head? He has proven he's pretty good. He played extremely well last season with limited playing time. Anybody but Alston .....PLEASE!!!!!