http://www.rockets-buzz.com/?p=1600 Check out the link. It is a good read. My Favorite part : "Andrei Kirilenko gets uglier and uglier every year." LOL
> 4. This team lives and dies by the three. Absolutely. We saw this during the Portland home game and the Golden State game, as well. As long as Ariza and Brooks are hitting threes, we are OK. If they go cold from the outside for long spells, we have trouble keeping pace with the other team.
In '08-'09, 21% of our FG attempts were three pointers, and threes provided 28.6% of our points from FG attempts. In '09-'10, threes now make up 25.8% of our FG attempts, and threes give us 34.3% of our points from FGs. What this means is our shot selection is favoring three pointers more this season, and we're getting more of our offense from the three (duh). If you add in free throws, in '08-'09, threes made up only 23.1% of the points the Rox scored, versus 28.1% for this season. Points resulting from two-point FGs are down from providing 57.9% of our points to 53.8% of our points this season. This means we're relying less on two-point shooting (no Yao, more Brooks) this season. Now the juicy but slightly scary part. So the stats above indicate we rely more on the three point shot this season. In '08-'09, the Rox shot 37.5% from beyond the arc, versus an incredible 44.8% for this season. It's debatable whether the Rox can continue to shoot this well. If we can, then we're a definite playoff team. If not, then we're not near as strong of a team. On the defensive side, the Rox are getting 10.3 steals per game this season versus 6.7 steals/game last year. This effectively gives us 3.6 more possessions per game over last year, which allows us to take more shots. Indeed, we are shooting 82.5 shots from the floor per game versus 79.6 last year.
With the Rockets 17-point victory over the Western Conference rival Utah Jazz on the road, it seems fitting to make 17 observations about the win, which was the most complete game of the early season so far for Houston… 1. At one point late in the 2nd quarter, Ariza caught the ball in the corner about 15 feet from the basket, squared up and hit a tough jumper right in the defender’s face. Jogging back down court he was wearing the “Angry T-Mac Face.” Has Tracy been teaching this to the young guys or is this intensity coming naturally? Either way, it’s a good sign to see this young team getting fired up. 2. Defensively, they got lazy at times running back in transition, allowing for some really easy baskets in the paint. 3. David Andersen made Okur look like Dwight Howard in the post at times. Andersen was definitely a low point in an otherwise very good night. Defensively, he’s definitely the weak spot in the frontcourt whenever he’s in the game, and he isn’t doing enough offensively to earn himself playing time, going 1-7 from the floor tonight. It’s bothersome when Hayes is more effective offensively than he is, when Andersen is supposed to be the offensive center on this team. 4. This team lives and dies by the three. Example #1: A stretch from 4:09 left in the first quarter to 9:15 left in the second, Houston went 0-5 from beyond the arc. They started that stretch leading 22-15 and when it was over, were down 28-32. Example #2: Up 82-80, Houston makes 4-4 from three in less than four minutes and stretches their lead to 102-84. In the one loss this season, Houston was 5-18 for a miserable 28 percent. In their three victories, they’re now 26-54 for 48 percent. Normally, a team becoming dependant on jump shots would bother you, but with so many solid shooters on this team (Brooks, Ariza, Battier, Budinger), and many of their threes being open shots in transition, it’s a solid formula that will win them a lot of games this season. 5. Andrei Kirilenko gets uglier and uglier every year. His comb over tonight was good for a laugh every time he was on camera. He, Boozer and Okur definitely combine for the ugliest frontcourt in professional basketball of this generation. 6. Eight of the nine players who got significant playing time were in double digits in this game: Brooks (19), Budinger (17), Ariza (15), Scola (14), Battier (13), Hayes (12), Landry (10) and Lowry (10). Nobody took more than 15 shots and none of those players took less than five. Of those players, only Landry (2-7) made less than half of his shots. For a team that wasn’t supposed to score many points this season, in their three victories they’ve averaged nearly 111 points per game. Last year, this team averaged 98 per game. 7. Though their games weren’t flashy Battier and Hayes played great defense in this game. Houston was +36 with Battier on the court and +20 with Hayes. 8. Before tonight Houston was dead last in rebounding at 35.3 per game. Utah was sixth in the league at 43.5. They outrebounded the Jazz 46-38. Scola was a huge part of that, totaling 15 rebounds in his 33 minutes of play. In his four games this season, he’s averaging 15.8 rebounds per 48 minutes, which is sixth best among power forwards. In the two games Scola has gotten into foul trouble (both against Portland), they have lost the rebounding battle. Scola also had two blocks in the game. 9. Not only did Houston dominate on the boards, but 15 out of their 46 rebounds were offensive, which led to a ton of second chance points. For a team that has no player taller than 6-10, they were just scrappier tonight against a much taller, better rebounding team. 10. Budinger was a beast off the bench tonight, scoring 17 points on 7-11 shooting, with five rebounds, two assists and a steal in only 22 minutes. In four games, he’s averaging almost 28 points per 48 minutes and shooting .500 from the floor and .400 from beyond the arc. More importantly, he’s been the scoring spark off the bench that this team was worried it wouldn’t have after Von Wafer left. He’s going to be an excellent sixth man on this team, and if he keeps playing like this he’ll start seeing starter caliber minutes. 11. Despite the lack of size and the fact that Houston has become an up-tempo team this season, their team defense has still been pretty good, and tonight is a great example of that. They had 9 steals, forced 19 turnovers and allowed only 96 points to a team in Utah that put up 114 and 111 in their first two games. Houston’s fast pace made it difficult for Utah to get into their half court offense and made them play an up-tempo game which many of Utah’s players struggle with. Also, Houston’s perimeter defenders have been exceptional at getting steals and creating fast break opportunities in transition. They’re second in the league at getting 10.7 steals per game and sixth in turnover differential. 12. Houston had great ball movement tonight. They had 29 assists to Utah’s nine. Brooks was a big part of that, and even if he still tried to do too much at times (a behind-the-back pass to Scola that went straight out of bounds), he ended up with nine assists and only three turnovers. 13. Ariza and Brooks averaged 38.3 and 39.3 minutes a game, respectively, coming into tonight’s matchup. Tonight, they played 34 and 29 minutes, as the team wasn’t as reliant upon them for offense. This trend will continue as Lowry and Budinger improve throughout the season. 14. Joey Crawford’s crew still calls way too many fouls (though fewer tonight than usual). They called a combined 53 fouls. Deron Williams and Paul Millsap fouled out. Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry both had five fouls apiece. If Yao had played, he would have had three fouls in the first five minutes. Why does this man still have a job? Because the replacement officials are somehow worse than he is. 15. At times in this game, Brooks simply outplayed Deron Williams. One crossover in en route to a lay up was particularly impressive. He’s starting to look like the leader of this team more and more, which is shocking to see from a 24-year-old who wasn’t a starter one season ago. 16. Houston won in Utah for the first time in two years. No matter how talented Houston teams have been in the past, the Jazz have always gotten under the Rockets’ skin. The Jazz are far more talented this season, but it was obvious in the fourth quarter that Houston was the better team. That’s the second consecutive time they’ve beaten a team with superior talent. 17. With the Lakers, Thunder and Mavericks coming up, things don’t get any easier for Houston, but considering their 3-1 start to their tough schedule, winning a couple of those games isn’t out of the question. Houston would love to prove that last season’s playoff series was no fluke against L.A on Wednesday and that they made the right decision signing Ariza instead of Artest. So far, Artest has averaged 8.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists on .321 shooting and .231 from beyond the arc. Ariza has 21.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.8 steals on .475 shooting and .520 from threes. You can do the math…
I didn't watch the game. How is Chuck actually scoring? Was Battier Guarding DWill? Did Hayes shut down Boozer as usual. Its great not to see Yao having to run out after Boozer or Okur!
Good long read. I'm astonished as to how good our defense has stayed with our offense changing so drastically and all, well the role players, their roles, and the additions to be morse specific. I think this team is surprising many people now, especially Charles Barkley. I hope he eats his words with that donut we're gonna shove down his face when we are a few games away from making the playoffs. Again this year is going to be exciting might I say. Go Rockets!!!
The Point of this thread was to post your observations of last nights game. Ha- I mean what is this amateur hour?
We always live and die by the three, starting from Yao's second year. Or better to say that we also heavily relied on threes during Dream's time.
Good catch... Well, If that's the case... We were just about perfect. Aaron Brooks was a pimp, and Scola was a complete thug. No further observation needed...
Ya i agree but its not as bad as when we had JVG. His offense was completely and entirely all 3s. Adelman has a backup plan when the shots arent falling.
