Bad defense, no offense outside of Yao-McGrady dooms Rockets
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
by John
This picture of Yao Ming sums up the frustration he had in Sacramento in a Rockets 107-99 loss. Yao fouled out later in the game, got a technical for showing even more frustration, and was escorted to the locker room because of it. This photo is also an appropriate depiction of the frustration he and his teammates must be having by their terrible defense this season, and the inability for anyone to score consistently other than Yao and McGrady. Didn’t they fix all that during the off-season? Click here for more photos from the game.
On Saturday night in Sac-Town, the Rockets got torched again on defense, just like they did against Golden State two nights before, letting the Kings’ superior athletes get to the rim way too many times on their way to a 107-99 victory.
The Rockets got great point production from Yao (29 points) and Tracy McGrady (40 points), but the gaping holes from the other starters on offense at point guard (Rafer Alston – 5 points, 1-of-4 three-pointers), small forward (Shane Battier – 4 points), and Chuck Hayes (2 points) were too much of a handicap to overcome.
Add little production from Bonzi Wells (8 points), Luther Head (4), Mike James (7), Luis Scola (0), and Steve Francis not being able to play because of a sore back, then you’ve got even more problems.
We can’t really say that Yao and McGrady took poor shots that robbed their teammates of scoring opportunities. The two “superstars” made 22-of-45 shots together, which is about 50%. That ain’t bad. I would have preferred for McGrady to not take so many three-pointers. He made 5-of-10 treys, so he gets a pass from me because shooting 50% from three-point land is pretty damn good.
But it’s the 13-for-37 from all the other guys that was the problem. If they had just made 5 more of those shots, or 10 points, to hit 50%, then you’ve got enough points to win this game.
I had said a couple of weeks ago that I would be okay if the Rockets relied less on McGrady to score points, if he would just distribute the ball to get everyone involved in this newfangled offense Rick Adelman is trying to install. If McGrady does that and they still lose, then fine. I won’t be upset because then the players are either going to get used to this system once-and-for-all, or we’re going to ultimately find out which Rockets are not a fit for this system that can help them go deep into the playoffs.
After seeing what we’ve seen over the last two losses, I think that day is soon coming, and I’m not talking about the former case, but the latter.
Of course, everyone in the world sees one glaring problem being Alston, but every game we see Adelman putting him out there to start. It’s like Adelman is the captain of the Titanic letting Alston continue to take this offense down with him.
This picture of Yao Ming sums up the frustration he had in Sacramento in a Rockets 107-99 loss. Yao fouled out later in the game, got a technical for showing even more frustration, and was escorted to the locker room because of it. This photo is also an appropriate depiction of the frustration he and his teammates must be having by their terrible defense this season, and the inability for anyone to score consistently other than Yao and McGrady. Didn’t they fix all that during the off-season? Click here for more photos from the game.On Saturday night in Sac-Town, the Rockets got torched again on defense, just like they did against Golden State two nights before, letting the Kings’ superior athletes get to the rim way too many times on their way to a 107-99 victory.
The Rockets got great point production from Yao (29 points) and Tracy McGrady (40 points), but the gaping holes from the other starters on offense at point guard (Rafer Alston – 5 points, 1-of-4 three-pointers), small forward (Shane Battier – 4 points), and Chuck Hayes (2 points) were too much of a handicap to overcome.
Add little production from Bonzi Wells (8 points), Luther Head (4), Mike James (7), Luis Scola (0), and Steve Francis not being able to play because of a sore back, then you’ve got even more problems.
We can’t really say that Yao and McGrady took poor shots that robbed their teammates of scoring opportunities. The two “superstars” made 22-of-45 shots together, which is about 50%. That ain’t bad. I would have preferred for McGrady to not take so many three-pointers. He made 5-of-10 treys, so he gets a pass from me because shooting 50% from three-point land is pretty damn good.
But it’s the 13-for-37 from all the other guys that was the problem. If they had just made 5 more of those shots, or 10 points, to hit 50%, then you’ve got enough points to win this game.
I had said a couple of weeks ago that I would be okay if the Rockets relied less on McGrady to score points, if he would just distribute the ball to get everyone involved in this newfangled offense Rick Adelman is trying to install. If McGrady does that and they still lose, then fine. I won’t be upset because then the players are either going to get used to this system once-and-for-all, or we’re going to ultimately find out which Rockets are not a fit for this system that can help them go deep into the playoffs.
After seeing what we’ve seen over the last two losses, I think that day is soon coming, and I’m not talking about the former case, but the latter.
Of course, everyone in the world sees one glaring problem being Alston, but every game we see Adelman putting him out there to start. It’s like Adelman is the captain of the Titanic letting Alston continue to take this offense down with him.