..sharing the ball again! Last two/three games our assists are down and the ball seems to be going through TMac too much. That is the thing that worries me..
that's what happens when no one hits their shots. all the jumpers that had been falling, and in turn opening up easy buckets in the paint, are now missing and the offense then stagnates and depends on 1 on 1 play, plus landry hasn't been there to dunk 5 times a game off of assists from tracy! a healthy landry coming back should help matters, but getting back to some consistent outside shooting will make the biggest difference.
really because outside of mutombo all the other starters got up at least 11 shots apiece and the bench got up a lot of shots as well. nothing was going in so tracy dominated the ball a little bit more, you cant hvae 20+ assists in a game if no one is making their shots. i thought the movement could have been better but it wasnt as bad as it seemed. the second quarter was bad with all the bricks
Agree! I have the same worry. Recent games, there are only 3/4 players had double digits point. The important reason of winning is defensive.
We took 19 threes in the first half and 10 in the second half. Made only five for the whole game. It is safe to say we rely heavily on the three point shot. A little too much if you ask me because a team that lives and dies by the three will not get far in the playoffs.
Our defense has been really great, but if the offense continues this way we are going to struggle facing the top teams next week. We need to start playing as team more and it would really help to get Landry back. Any info on him BTW??
it only works if everyone produces when they're called upon, but just be gracious that we have someone the ball can go though to win the game for us (evidently Mike Harris Friday) and Tracy McGrady.
no carl landry. landry does a lot for tmac and the other guards. without him, you play more hayes/deke than ever, it's going to be tough offensively when those are the guys in the post. plus, alston shot 6-18 and 6-19 the past 2 games (so it's not like tmac is taking all the shots). we had 5 players in double figures last night despite scoring just 89 pts. we're still spreading it around. it just doesn't look good when you don't score a lot.
Rafer has got to play better for us to have a chance going into next week. 6-19 2 pt shooting and 2-10 3 pt shooting is not going to get it done.
I have to agree. Last two games Tmac has only averaged 4 assists. The problem is not only Tmac dominating the ball too much, but Rafer takes forever to decide whether or not to give it up to Tmac. They were doing high Pn'R's with each other to get Tmac the ball but they ended up wasting 10 seconds or more each time
Right. If Rafer cannot make jumper to save his life (I hope he can and he will find his rythm again) than he needs to drive to the basket. He was doing it great during the 3rd quater. He can be a good finisher, he is quick so just gotta continue to attack. Rockets gotta continue to attack.
With Landry out that forces Deke and Chuck to play more minutes. Landry opens up the floor for the offense and that's why we're struggling right now.
Props to those who see the ball movement even though the ball isnt going in the basket. Booos to folks who just look at assist numbers or double figure scorers for analysis. Its really not that tough to see folks. Of those 29 threes, 25 or 26 of them were good shots within the offense. One was a bad Head three. One was early on during the brick streak T-Mac seemed to be saying: "Let me give it a shot", and one by Rafer particularly stick out in my head. If we even get close to our average from 3 land we score 100.
The thing I also meant to point out is that there was not enough off-the-ball movement last two/three games. Jacking up threes seems too much of an old rockets team from previous years which had to work too much for a bucket and couldn't buy any easy interior one.. It seems to me that it wasn't like that a few games ago.
you get those same shots WITH yao ming. they're WIDE open 3s. if you don't take them, the defenses will not respect the role players. we just have to make them. i thought the last 4-5 minutes of that drought, we executed offensively very well. we just simply missed open shots. battier missed a fast-break layup (c'mon, it was a bad stretch for us). but again, without landry, you don't get some of the easy baskets he provides. having to play hayes 30-35 minutes a game will hurt (see last yr even if you have ball movement). when we swing it to hayes, he's not going to look to score but instead pass it out to the 3pt shooter -> so they shoot 3s. you pass it to landry, he will look to score and not pass out. simple logic.
The problem is all the false praise that has been given to Rafer! His head has swelled so much he thinks he is Michael Jordan part two! He has gone back to being to being the Rafer we all know so well-a scrub!! Rafer's problem is that he shoots a very low percentage and he is always looking to do one of three things in this order:- a) Get his own shot off b) Pass off to T Mac to be the Shooter/Playmaker c) Set his team mate up to score. Till the Coach grabs him and threatens to...... he will not play under control and play the true team game. It needs to be hypnotized/forced in to becoming a playmaker Point Guard.
