A picture is worth a thousand words. Without his partner Yao playing because of his toe injury, T-Mac struggled offensively again, hitting only 4-of-17 shots as the Rockets lost their second straight game, this time to Denver 108-86.

by John

FRIDAY, 12/23/05 – This summary is going to be short because there really isn’t much to say. The Rockets’ shooting was so pathetic in Denver, they only hit 25% of their shots in the first half and 32% overall to have their worst shooting game of the season. Their main offensive weapon – T-Mac – was dreadful for the second straight game, only making 4-of-17 shots, but somehow still scoring 17 points.

Their defense was awful, too. They let the Nuggets score at will from both outside and inside the paint, making 48% of their shots.

This is what Jeff Van Gundy had to say after the game:

“Little put into the game. Not a competitive game. Not a competitive spirit to make it a game. We were beaten before the game started by our attitude and belief.”

He later said the effort seen during the game is “what you would have seen from guys that had played on lottery teams.”

“It goes beyond adversity,” Van Gundy said. “This is an attitude situation. If there is adversity, so what? Anybody can be great when it’s going good. There is no tough set of circumstances. We were very weak-minded when it came to dealing with our situation tonight.”

When T-Mac was informed about what Van Gundy said, he replied, “If that’s what the coach said, he’s the coach. If he senses right now the attitude stinks on the court, that’s what it is. As a player, you don’t know until you see it on film.”

What’s so strange is that the Rockets should have felt really good about themselves after coming off a fantastic 5-1 road trip. But then Yao has his toe surgery and Dikembe cuts his finger and is out for a couple of games, and it seems the life and confidence got sucked out of them. Whoever still thinks Yao does not make much of a difference in the Rockets’ confidence and on-court performance is sorely mistaken after seeing the Rockets get outplayed for the second straight game after his surgery.

Regardless of whose fault it is, one thing is very clear: Jeff Van Gundy may be good with X’s and O’s, but he and Carroll Dawson have failed in building a roster of role players who can score, and Van Gundy is failing as a motivator of players. Maybe it’s time for him to get tossed from a game, grab an ankle of an opposing center, or publicly question the Commissioner. Try something to get these guys fired up other than criticizing them all the time.

The only good news is that the Rockets don’t play until next Tuesday when they play the struggling Utah Jazz (11-16). Backup center Dikembe Mutombo should be available for that game, which should help the interior defense. Too bad he can’t hit jumpers in the lane with regularity.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2005 at 11:59 pm and is filed under vs. Denver. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.