HOUSTON we have a problem!!!! (also rockets offseasonTHREAD)

[1CenT]

Yao needs a PJ brown.. that'll make Yao great immediately

well what Yao lacks is stamina.. if he is at full stamina.. he plays more aggressive.. like when he plays shaq.. he rebounds better and blocks more shots .. or so it seems like..

if he can gain stamina to play 5 more mins a game in more aggressive mode and gain another 20 pounds (probally will get that by end of next season), he'll be dominate like TD

i mean.. hes avging 18/9/2 .. not that impressive.. but if he played like 35 mins.. he would be getting ~21/11/2.5 which would make him a legit all-star STARTER

[COOLmac©]

the problem with most asians is ........we dont have iron lungs or the metabolism of an african DNA in us......who knows........yao is living now in the states.....maybe he'll be notching his endurance up by next season.........right now we'll just have to live with his 19/9/2 per game output........

EDIT: Houston in their last 7 games have been averaging more than 108 ppg.......if we play with the same intensity like that against the mavs.......then dirk and co. must expect a great playoff

[AlwaysWhat,NeverWhy]

Yao's few minutes per game are not due to stamina problems. It's because of foul trouble...

[COOLmac©]

ehem poeple who doubted the rockets..hello ehem....we just grab game one.ehem.....seems like proving our critics wrong is our order of the day.ehem...tmac scored 34 ehem..and a lot of role players in our team has step up.ehem just like as always in a van gundy team..ehem....i'm glad we came along with our chemistry just in time ehem for the playoff stage.ehem......sorry i have a bad pleghm ehem

[kevC]

Yao's few minutes per game are not due to stamina problems. It's because of foul trouble...

Actually, it's a little of both and a whole lot of JVG just not playing him.

[AlwaysWhat,NeverWhy]

glad we came along with our chemistry just in time

Just you wait for Dirk to explode...

[COOLmac©]

wonder when will that be?
maybe he'll explode in the off season j/k

[Nel]

I think someone should stop being too confident. I'm a rockets fan, i'm happy they won game 1 but this series isn't over...

[COOLmac©]

ok i'll stop being cheeky now.....i'm scared i might pissed the lucky leprechon away and jinx the team

in about 2 hours from now....rockets will go back to the battlefield against captain dirk and the gang......God bless both teams and may the more hungrier one emerge victorious

[COOLmac©]

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!![jumping all over the place]

we won!!!!!!! who's the man? tmac's the man............Yao's the man.....jeff's the man.......the entire team is the man.........wooooohhhhhhh 2-0 against dirky and the gang.......wooooooooooohhhhh

[Indy]

I picked the Mavs to go to the finals at the beginning, but now down 2-0 to the Rockets, I think Houston has a shot at that game. I felt at the beginning of this series that whoever won this series would beat Phoenix and have a shot at the title. With Denver up 1-0, they have a shot of beating the Spurs. If they do that, i would say the Rockets are the favorites out of the west in my book.

Heres why I think the Rockets will beat the Suns:

1.)The play of Tracy McGrady. He is playing so well right now, and like they were talking about on ESPN, he is transforming from a great player, into a great winner.

2.)Yao Ming. The Rockets can slow down the tempo against the Suns with Yao Ming. If they get in to a running game with Phoenix they will get their butts whipped. If they run every other play through Yao, I think he will come through like he did in game 2 and they wil have a very good shot.

3.)Role Players. The Rockets win this category with Bob Sura, Jon Barry, David Wesley, and Scot Padget. All these guys play defense and can put the ball in the basket, the Suns have 3 guys who can dominate (Nash, Stoudamire and Marion) But I don't think Richardson, Jim Jackson, Joe Johnson, Walter McCarty, or Barbosa are good enough role players for the suns. With the exception of Barbosa they all demand the ball too much to play a winning role.

4.)Defense. If the Suns allow the Grizzlies to score 103 in Phoenix, they are going to allow Houston to score even more.

5.) Control The Tempo. This is the most important thing for the Rockets. If they keep the Suns from running up and down the floor and getting easy baskets, they will win. The can do this by using Yao and slowing down the game.

[beau_boy04]

Yao suckass! he's not the player I'd expected him to become. I've seem his stats and I watched plenty of Houston games while I was vacationing in China and he doesn't impressed me at all. If he doesn't put his mark on this playoff, expect the same contribution from him next season.

[NefariousBC]

Yao suckass! he's not the player I'd expected him to become. I've seem his stats and I watched plenty of Houston games while I was vacationing in China and he doesn't impressed me at all. If he doesn't put his mark on this playoff, expect the same contribution from him next season.

Um, you obviously have no idea what ur talking about. It is one thing to have an opinion that Yao sucks, but don't back your argument based on Yao's stats. He has gotten better every year in the NBA and is consistently in the top 5 when it comes to FG percentage. You probably didn't watch Game 2 against the Mavs where Yao was 13/14 from the field and perfect from the freethrow line....13/14 that's like 93% from the floor. And unlike Shaq, Yao actually shoots the ball..doesn;t friggin dunk every time down.

Yao only gets himself into trouble when he doesn't play his size and gets into silly foul trouble. If he's in the game, he is a weapon, always has been, always will be.

[COOLmac©]

good point Indy.....the rockests has post alot of problem for the suns this season....i'm not looking forward to that yet, just because we have to take each playoff game one at a time....we have to get past the mavs first....regarding to the role players....everyone who plays for jeff van gundy has certainly earn the respect from him.....i mean like in the knicks of the late 90's, this coach tends to play through the playoffs and bring the best out from his players.......reagarding Tmac......we all know he has a lot of back problems.....if only he was at full strength then the rockets can be very scary.....

and to Yao....there will always be critics.....but one thing i'll say is if the guy can bring houston to the conference finals then china man Yao will surely prove /shut his critics wrong.....he's been doing it for years now since he entered the league.......remember sir charles when he kiss a donkeys butt for doubting Yao to score more than 20 in his rookie year? Yao never complains, i've never heard him verbally talk about things,Dampier decalring he's better than Yao, well his performance is the one that sucks.......Dallas did a lot to have him in their roster, so dampier should just shut up and play like what dallas ask him to.

[furious1]

Wait if the Rockets win this series they play the Suns next! Wow I forgot about that. That's going to be a nasty series for the Suns. Good luck to them if that happens.

[Nel]

2 more wins then that is the time to talk about the suns. Don't be so confident . Just a reminder.

[Indy]

2 more wins then that is the time to talk about the suns. Don't be so confident . Just a reminder.

We're only speculating

[COOLmac©]

so ow after two games here's my analysis in the situation the fav rockets are in:

but first a newspaper view

Van Gundy is taking AJ to school
By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Shawn Bradley comes to town with the imprint of Tracy McGrady's No. 1 on the back of his head, the victim of the most heinous dunk you'll ever see.

Dirk Nowitzki comes to town wondering if the next thing he'll have to hand over to Ryan Bowen is the set of keys to his favorite car, considering Bowen and friends already have taken everything else — Nowitzki's game, his confidence, his aura of being unstoppable.

Mavericks big men Erick Dampier, Keith Van Horn and Bradley arrive with two fouls apiece. OK, not officially. But the way Yao Ming is working the paint and working them over, it won't take long.

Down 2-0 in their opening-round playoff series with the Rockets, the Mavericks have issues, to say the least. They can't stop McGrady, can't ignite Nowitzki and can't match up with Yao.

But here's their biggest problem. The one looking most sickly and unsure as the Mavs come to town is the one who is supposed to make it all better.

Postseason is different
Mavs coach Avery Johnson, a former Rockets guard and Houston resident, is a beloved fellow. He played with a lot of heart, made a lot of friends, learned the coaching ropes from some of the greats and is hard not to like.

But that doesn't mean we should ignore the fact the biggest matchup problem the Mavericks face is on the bench, not the court.

Johnson is getting outcoached by Jeff Van Gundy. Badly.

Johnson did a fine job for the Mavericks in the regular season, taking over for Don Nelson and making all the right moves as Dallas sprinted to the playoffs with a 17-2 burst (including Nelson's last game) to end the year.

But these are the playoffs.

This is where Van Gundy's experience, his knack for meticulous preparation and, most importantly, the trust he has earned from his team have been huge factors.

Johnson is not a bad coach. In fact, he probably will be a very good one.

But when it comes to winning in the playoffs and building that indefinable bond the Rockets seem to have, X's and O's are only a small part of the equation.

Players have to believe
The secret to great coaching is not coming up with something brilliant to tell your guys. The secret is your guys' believing that it's brilliant.

Van Gundy could well be shoveling a bunch of slop in timeout huddles and at practice. But at this point, the mix is so right, the belief in him so strong that it tastes like victory.

McGrady has acknowledged that never has he had the faith in a coach that he has in Van Gundy. Jon Barry, a 13-year veteran, states flat-out that Van Gundy is the best coach he's ever had. Yao's improvement and confidence is obvious.

And speaking of turning slop into savory delights, could the decision before Game 1 to start Bowen against Nowitzki have worked anywhere else? Could it have worked had these Rockets not had that confidence in one another and in what some call "The JVG Experience?"

Imagine what would have happened back in the Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Mo Taylor and Jim Jackson days. Imagine if Van Gundy told that group exactly how the Rockets could beat the Mavs.

"Ryan, you've got Dirk."

After enjoying a hearty laugh and picking themselves up off the floor, most of the Rockets would have ignored their coach.

But from the opening moments Saturday, there was a sense among these Rockets that, yeah, this is going to work. It did.

That same confidence was clear in the looks on the Rockets' faces as Van Gundy spoke during the final timeout of Monday night's 113-111 win in Game 2. Yes. This is going to work.

The Mavericks, on the other hand, have more questions than answers. They have yet to figure out how to solve Bowen's defense and all the help he is getting whenever Nowitzki makes a move.

Coming into the series, Van Gundy recognized that if there is a weakness in Nowitzki's game, it is his passing. The Rockets challenged Nowitzki to kick the ball to the open man or find the open shooter. He has failed. So, too, have his teammates.

The Mavs also have failed to keep Yao off the low block, which certainly is getting much more difficult than it once was, considering his increased confidence and strength down low.

Dallas also hasn't exploited a weakness in Yao's game by bringing him out of the lane to defend the pick-and-roll. Why? Who knows?

Perhaps Johnson has swallowed his whistle. That's what he accused official Joey Crawford of doing during Game 1, but officiating has had nothing to do with either Mavs defeat.

Two moments Monday night showed just how much the Mavericks and their coach have struggled.

When the Rockets were charging hard late in the fourth quarter, relying heavily on the hot-shooting Barry and Bob Sura, for some inexplicable reason Johnson directed his team to fall into a zone.

It only made getting a wide-open look easier for Sura. Bang. He nailed the first of a pair of crucial 3-pointers.

Then, on the game-winning possession, Van Gundy and McGrady took advantage of the smaller Mavs lineup. In the previous timeout, Van Gundy told his star not to call a timeout if the Mavericks tied the game. Just take the ball off a Yao screen and go to work. The Mavs were caught in disarray.

Johnson had talked about trapping the Rockets' screen-and-roll. He talked about not allowing McGrady to take the potential winning shot. But there was confusion all around on the play. Josh Howard got caught up in the screen. Van Horn was slow to jump out and trap McGrady or even offer a serious challenge on his shot. Ballgame.

Later, Johnson said the Mavericks "forgot" to trap the play.

Forgot? In the playoffs?
AJ's future might be bright, but right now he's getting JVG'd.

after looking at the 2 games at my coaching experience poitn of view...AJ is not doing much, he looks helpless being in the bench......as if he needs to suit up and take the point himself....their trapping defense was like of a minor league not an nba type of trappig.....Jeff pretty much got all the bases covered.....the mavs tried to take the ball out of Tmac's hand everytime he recieve the ball beyond the arc......the solution the rockets just swing to the weak side......after the defense tries to collapsed the rockets return above the 3 for penetration or a shot......but the most forgotten part is YAO.......he makes a living by having his ass single covered almost the entire game..credit that to JEFF VAN....also his element of surprised in using Bowen has taken it's toll in Dirk's scoring prowess.....in a coaching game mind you.......surprising your oponent with traps and series of unknown plays is what makes you win games.......and the rockets did another twist....they have a very well planned counter trapping offense, they revised their motion and high low plays for Yao and they switch from being a man to man defensive team to a semi zone in the block or even a box one defense......all this commotion has made AJ lost all his battle plan in the drain.....and JEff Van still came out looking good......
THIS IS MY HUMBLE OPIION

[COOLmac©]

wow we have a series in our hands now.......things are getting very interesting this coming week......wishing our rockets the very best and may the lucky bounce hit us this time around

[COOLmac©]

man o man.....3 games in a row the dice rolls against us, the 3 leaf glover cannot be found.....the feng shui experts were eating batchoy outside the lucky home......in short the REFS bailed out the mavs again.......looks like JEFF VAN is going to run his mouth again and another hundred thousand dollars fine is on the way.....i never knew bad calls can be reoccuring in this straight games at all........

[Null17]

the 3 leaf glover cannot be found.....the feng shui experts were eating batchoy outside the lucky home

3 leaf? aren't 4 leaf clovers the lucky ones? and the last part, I doubt anyone here has an idea what batchoy is other than me and Mikki (it's a delicacy from my hometown btw)

anyway, the fine was pretty stupid. they fined him just because he doesn't want to be a snitch

[COOLmac©]

oh yeah 4 leaf is the lucky one
anyways i think stern is always harsh...he just can't accept the fact that Jeff has an insider in the nba organization......that's why the heavy fine.

EDIT: yes batchoy is form iloilo isn't it? i'm from bacolod, so i guess we have a visayan heritage going on here......correct me if i'm wrong

[Null17]

EDIT: yes batchoy is form iloilo isn't it? i'm from bacolod, so i guess we have a visayan heritage going on here......correct me if i'm wrong

yup. but I think there's batchoy from Pampanga as well. Tastes different though but that's going off-topic...

[AlwaysWhat,NeverWhy]

Hey C-Mac, has Dirk exploded soon enough for you now?

[Strike Freedom]

Houston's situation is abit similar than the Lakers..

Yao=Shaq
Tmac=Kobe..

the rest of the teams are the supporting cast members..