Lv06|ROCKETS-2| Officially Closed.

[Clutch]

K. Bentley's Scouting Report - SAN ANTONIO SPURS


STRENGTHS The 'Big 3' - Duncan, Parker and Ginobili must be neutralized in order to win; Dane is quick and suprisingly effective for a 6'6" sub-200 lbs PF;

WEAKNESSES Spurs did not re-sign defensive specialist, Bruce Bowen, electing to start offensive-minded James Jones; drafted 3 rookie PGs (is Parker on the trading block or something?); absolutely no depth at the SF position - wise or demise?

TEAM RATING - STARTING LINEUPS HOU (93) - Center Ming (94), PF May (69), SF Artest (89), SG Webster (72), F McGrady (94); SAS (72) - Center Duncan (91), PF Dane (71), SF Jones (63), SG Ginobili (88), PG Parker (82)

INJURIES Claxton - sore thumb, a few more days for full recovery

GAME RECAP

Nov 7, 2008 SAN ANTONIO, TX (AP) -- "Offense sells tickets, but defense wins Championships," states the old adage.

It's something the reigning world champs will have all season to ponder after they elected to sign undrafted Nigerian rookie PG, Kalunga Cato, and back-up Center, Michael Doleac, during the off-season in lieu of re-signing 37-year-old defensive specialist, Bruce Bowen, who averaged 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block and steal in last year's Finals to help the Spurs regain the NBA trophy.

Thirty-Seven. Bowen's "over-the-hill" age, as he now waits patiently in free agency still un-signed; but also the mind-boggling point-deficit San Antonio was crushed by in a 126-89 massacre in front of their stunned home crowd at SBC Center, the third worst margin of defeat by a newly-crowned champion in NBA history.*

The rout began from the opening minutes when Houston's over-anxious, new starting SG, Martell Webster, picked up 2 back-to-back fouls and was quickly replaced by 2nd-year guard, Garrick Briggs. Nicknamed "the Marksman" back in his days playing for Hofstra U, Briggs got the offensive momentum rolling for Houston with red-hot shooting from anywhere on the court; but what really lit the explosive Rockets' fuse was what the Spurs lacked - defense.

Like a school of hungry piranha the Rockets swarmed the Spurs on the defensive end, forcing them into 16 turnovers to the Rockets 5 with a concerted effort to focus on All-Star, Tim Duncan, and 2nd-year guard, Samuel Cantrell, resulting in their 4 turnovers a piece. Ron Artest also locked-down on San Antonio's new starting SF, James Jones, forcing the 5-year pro into a dismal 2-of-14 shooting night.

With the Spurs in complete panic-mode from the outset, the Rockets' offense kicked into overdrive. At the end of one, they held San Antonio to just 14 points while exploding for 37; San Antonio's implosion continued into the 2nd quarter as Houston expanded its lead to a comfortable 35-point margin by halftime. Unable to shave into the lead by more than 6 points, the shell-shocked, demoralized Spurs were all too ready to have the night over and done with as the Rockets cruised to a blowout in a moot second half that merely served to punctuate Houston's dominance.

"I really don't know what to say. We did nothing - nothing - right tonight," said a visibly disgusted head coach, Greg Popovich. "This wasn't a defeat; this was an embarrassment... to our organization, to our fans, to the league. Defending champions don't have games like this; you just don't."

Rockets' head coach Phil Jackon took his usual, more 'zen' approach, "Well, games like tonight sometimes happen; it was our night. We played strong defense which led to numerous opportunities on the offensive end. Our new guys did a great job off the bench which helped keep our momentum going; just a solid performance all-around and a great win for us."

Newly acquired Nick Collison and Linas Kleiza both had terrific nights in their Rockets debut. Collison's final line was a thing of perfection, shooting 4-of-4 from both the field and the free-throw stripe, collecting a double-double and leading Houston with 10 rebounds while adding 12 points, a steal, block plus no turnovers or fouls.

"Coming into a new city you just want do your absolute best, make a good impression and hopefully help the team win; I think I did that tonight," said Collison after the game.

Kleiza also impressed his new teammates with a solid 14 point, 2 rebound, 1 assist and team-high 2 steals effort in only 12 minutes of play, although he struggled from long-range going 0-4 from beyond the arc. But he showed an uncanny ability to get to free-throw line where he went 3-of-4, "Coach Jackson told me he wanted scoring off the bench from me so when it wasn't falling outside, I decided to keep attacking the basket and was able to draw the fouls."

When the dust finally settled, Houston's utter conquest over San Antonio had been so complete, they had topped the Spurs in every statistical category but free-throw shooting percentage and had six players score in double-digits. The only blemish to mar the Rockets' spectacular night came at the 7:49 mark of the 4th quarter.

Sitting on a comfortable 101-66 lead, Artest broke free of his defender and drove to the basket for what looked to be a clear lane dunk; instead he was hammered mid-air on a blatant frustration foul, sandwiched between James Jones and Manu Ginobili. Artest came down awkwardly holding his lower back, doubled over in severe pain and after some minutes, was escorted to the locker room. He finished the night with 12 points, 5 assists and a rebound and steal a piece.

Angered by the unnecessary hit to their star defensive specialist which mysteriously did not result in any ejections, Tracy McGrady, who had an otherwise quiet night, exploded to the rim to send a message of his own and put a final stamp on the night (see, "Clutch Play of the Day"). McGrady finished a perfect 5-5 from the field and 2-2 from the free-throw stripe on his way to a 14 point, 7 assist and 2 rebound night.

The Rockets now go from the defending NBA champs to facing one of the East's top contenders as they continue their tough road trip against King James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

* don't know if this is accurate or not but it's gotta be up there!

BOXSCORES

PHOTOS

"Who is this Briggs kid, anyway?" Duncan wonders

Ron Artest's smothering defense plagued the Spurs all night

A terrific debut for Houston's newest duo

Yao got silly on anyone able to past the perimeter defenses, even going near horizontal on one diving block!

Artest strong to the rack | Teen heartthrob, Garrick Briggs, celebrates after draining one of his team-high 3 treys

The only black mark on the Rockets night - Artest goes down with injury midway through the 4th and did not return

ACTION HIGHLIGHTS

TMAC attacks the basket
Ron Artest blows by his defender for the slam
Nick Collison crashing the boards on the Kleiza miss on his way to a perfect Rockets debut
McGrady again, showing why he's the reigning Slam Dunk champion
Linas Kleiza in his impressive debut finishes on the break with the basket-and-1
Houston set the tone early, no more so than on this incredible defensive sequence


McGrady gets McNasty on this 'payback' play after Artest is taken down hard



Cal Berkeley's 6'9" 266 lbs sophmore sensation, Jonas Otter drafted sixth-overall by the Magic gathered 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals en route to a 86-75 victory over Milwaukee

___

The "JUMBO MUTOMBO" Contest Results #6

EDIT: edited for a few typo corrections (good catch on the starting lineup Chaser i just re-read again and i'm surprised you didn't catch the "126-39" final score i just now caught! now that would've been a INSANE blowout lol

Last edited by Clutch on Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[TheMC5]

In-fucking-sane, due. INSANE!

Most likely the worst loss ever for a defending champ, I would think. I know Boston's 50-or-60-some point rout of the Knicks last year was one of the largest losses in history.

Collison needs to start over May. I'll bet you May plays better off the bench, too.

Kudos on your thorough domination.

[Chaser7]

Nice win, one small typo though you still have Graham in the starting lineups up top, at first I was confused since I was like maybe this was played before the trade? Anyways, great recap, and you have too many injuries.. maybe turn it down a bit?

Yao, McGrady, 7

[homicide1550]

Wow! That is what I call Defense with a capital D! A superb performance, too bad Ron-Ron got hurt in the 4th.. Hopefully its nothing serious..

I think I’ll join the JUMBO MUTOMBO Contest... Here it goes..

Yao, Collison, 10

[Lamrock]

McGrady, Mutombo, #7. Great win against the Spurms. You shouldn't have kept Artest in though.

[Oli]

Massive win

Yao, T-MAC, 12

[weechees]

What a blowout!

Can Artest still play?

McGrady, Briggs, 9

[kaiser_kobe]

Good luck with King James...hopefully Artest could return ASAP...

Yao, Tmac
8

[Valor]

Nice Win over the dirty spurs(mainly bowen and horry), hope they didnt make Artest have that serious of an injury...(i still cant get over Horry INTENTIONALLY injuring David West in the playoffs this year )

Tmac. Yao, 7

[-PeeBo]

Nice win man You absolutely blow them out


T-mac, Yao

Jumbo nr: 9

[undead_knite]

Lol, look at Ginobili's face... Lifeless as usual...

[OrlMagic]

Nice win

Webster , T-Mac 2

[Lamrock]

lol Why did the Spurs start a 6'6" 200lb guy at PF?

[OrlMagic]

Their SG is as tall as their PF

[Martti.]

Yao, Collison

#4

[Cartar]

Wow, nice win

T-Mac, Briggs
8

[Clutch]

thx for the comments guys & all entries are solid
mc5, May will keep his starting role (for now anyway) as he seems to do better as the 'weakest link' of the power lineup; since nobody pays much attention to him he gets a surprising amount of Off Rebs and easy put backs; but i've noticed if he's in there with Deke, Speedy and the 2nd squad the team starts to get shaky;
chaser, good catch on the typo (drawback of copy/paste + lack of sleep ) my injury setting is only 54 which i may dial back a few points; but i kinda like to think my league is a more brutal/'throwback' era reminiscent to the days of hard fouls, forearms in the back, 'no layup' rules and guys named Oakley, Mahorn, Ewing, Laimbeer, Rodman, Anthony Mason etc put you on the floor if you ventured in the lane;
homi, thx man and good luck in the contest; it's still super early and if you get hot, you'll be in the thick of things at the top in no time;
valor, i SPIT on 'cheapshot Bob' Whorey; he's the ultimate coattail rider; more rings than Jordan? pffft... should've been give only 1/4th a ring for each title; the West hit could've put the dude in a wheelchair and of course there's this one with Nash:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0qe7PGCQvI
were i Raja Bell in that clip i would've took Whorey's head off but i digress... back to my 'virtual' league, Bowen (who i can at least respect) wasn't re-signed; cheapshot Whorey? i'm not really sure... maybe retired in season 1; can't remember playing against him;
lamrock, you're right on all the starters actually; for some reason though i was just into the game like watching a live event and totally spaced on my other roll as 'coach'; as a general rule too i try to let the outcome be what it may but last season i would intervene games that were close in the final 5 mins only controlling timeouts or subs; haven't yet this season
was also curious about their PF starter so had to check back to last year's Championship roster:
you'll see both Bowen AND Finley were not re-signed which is pretty huge; not sure if that was just their choice or if salary cap came into play; in hind sight, i should've expanded the cap before the start of the season but... oh well too late now i think - or is it?

anyone know how to adjust the cap across the board for ALL teams? would create some interesting developments especially with some name Free Agents (Jamison, Finley, Bowen, Andre Miller, Grant Hill) still unsigned

i'd really like to do this in fact. i know practically every team is over the cap; i'm gonna find out what the average is then maybe give a league-wide "emergency bailout" adjustment or something like that (have the taxpayers pick up the bill hahah)

anyway, if any of you know how to adjust the total salary cap, info would be appreciated!

ETA HOU@CLE recap... earliest? late today; latest? Friday - post entries if you got'em

[Clutch]

on SALARY CAP

Okay, so first off... a basic question: IF i adjust the cap during the season (via DBF editing somehow) like i'm thinking about doing, will the CPU recognize this and immediately have teams start a bidding frenzy for the available free agents? would be really cool if so

also, the average of the current Team Cap Room was about -13.10M; i'm thinking about a +14M adjustment would be good enough to really charge the league

here's a list of the current / forecasted Team Cap Rooms after a +14M adjustment:

Atl -8.75/ 5.25
Bos - 21.76/ -7.76
Cha -11.71/ 2.29
Chi -29.59/ -15.59
Cle -2.55/ 11.45
Dal -17.22/ -3.22
Den -32.66/ -18.66
Det - 17.00/ -3.00
GS - 22.01/ -8.01
Hou - 10.35/ 3.65
Ind - 10.96/ 3.04
LAC - 6.00/ 8.00
LAL -17.95/ -3.95
Mem -661k/ 13.34
Mia - 13.26/ 740K
Mil - 7.55/ 6.45
Min - 22.61/ 6.61
NJ - 18.36/ -4.36
NO - 926k/ 13.07
NYK - 44.02/ -30.02
Orl - 2.05/ 11.95
Phil - 549k/ 13.45
Pho - 11.64/ -4.36
Por - 20.41/ -6.41
Sac - 17.68/ -3.68
SAS - 805k/ 13.19
Sea - 5.49/ 8.51
Tor -3.15/ 10.85
Uta - 4.96/ 9.04
Was - 7.38/ 6.62

so a few teams would still be in the red, but not nearly as ridiculous as it is currently; plus it would really help boost some teams as well and bring back some bigger name Free Agents who are just waiting in the wing; i know it's unrealistic as the season's already begun but since it's still early, i'd like to pull this trigger sooner than later if i'm gonna do it at all

thoughts? should i even bother with it or just leave it be?

Antawn's whole career may depend on you...

[homicide1550]

I really dont know much about dbf editing so I am not too sure if it will start a bidding frenzy, but if the CPU will recognize it and sign those big name free agents then I agree that you should adjust the salary cap...

I hate seeing big names staying in the free agent pool and wait until they grow old and retire..

[-PeeBo]

Yeah I think you should to that too

[Cartar]

If it´s same as in 05, it´s quite simple, you need hexeditor tho.
Tutorial for 05 for ex.:
http://forums.nba-live.com/viewtopic.php?t=22656

[Jemesouviens]

a bit late...

Whoa! and nice recap!

McGrady, Yao
#6

[Chaser7]

Hy clutch, I meant to ask this question earlier, but I'm still slightly confused by the game. For instance a couple games back, Yao was the POG, had the highest point total, and highest FG %, how did points work for that, if you had Yao and another random player? Did you get all 15 (or is 10?). Thanks

[Clutch]

thx for the feedback guys, espec. Ratrac who really came through! (that's +100 Jumbo Points for you... just kiddin' man but seriously - thx!)

with Ratrac's lead i was able to figure it out and adjust the cap of an earlier saved game then did some 'test' sims simulating ahead about 2 weeks; i found that teams with open Cap Room did in fact start signing Free Agents (super cool!) although unfortunately anyone 30+ years of age tended to be over-looked which meant the top FAs pretty much stayed unsigned

CURRENT TOP FREE AGENTS

Too bad 'Tawn... may be time to break out the fishing gear... Grant Hill? GIVE IT UP already!

i reloaded the adjusted-cap save and 'test' simmed a few times with different results each time just to check; teams tended to sign guys that could help their teams (ex. Spurs picking up a PF or C) which was great; that said, i will now be going ahead and adjusting my 'official' Dynasty Cap but not by +14M, maybe more like +12M or less and integrate it into the mix 'story-wise' somehow

JMS, never 'too late' for you, of course! hope the 'Virtual Rockets' aren't too big a distraction from your studies

chaser, no worries man; for scoring i just tally points separately per instance, per player; so for that one with Yao you got +5 (PotG) +5 (high scorer) +10 (for FG%) plus an additional +5 for covering all three categories so +25 points total, regardless of your 2nd name pick; if your second player happened to also tie for high scorer or best FG% then an additional +5 or +10 would've been added respectively and separate of what Yao totalled

hmm... the confusing part may be the bonus; if all categories are covered in any combo (it doesn't have to be all the same guy) then the +5 bonus is added; it just so happened to be Yao for that particular night

and by all means i'm only human, so definitely if you catch some calculation error somewhere pls let me know!

anyway, thx again for the feedback guys; CAVs game being recapped in bits and pieces when i've a small block of time here or there lol; should be ready sometime Friday

[Fresh8]

I don't like how you stole Jax from us... but I like this dynasty too.