8 replies to this topic

[Red94]

New post: Houston Rockets 96, Detroit Pistons 82

[blakecouey]

Good game with some sloppy play by both teams for sure. Loved seeing the rookies get some time. Was impressed with Jones' blocks, although his shooting was less than adequate. Not enough for Motie(5mins), but it's better than riding the pine.

Very happy with Marcus Morris tonight, /- 21 is huge.

[Stephen]

Couple of quibbles.

Harden had 20 points on 14 shots-that used to be considered efficient.
However,your larger point that the Rockets aren't paying him max money to be Kevin Martin 2.0 is valid.

Replay showed Prince tripped over Lin's feet. Hard to call that a premier boner.(And I'm old enough that I think a boner is something different :) .)

Parsons stats might not have been too impressive,but he set up numerous open looks for his teammates.
And I was really encouraged that he finally took it strong o the rim instead of throwing up that weak s*** he's been doing so far. He's getting past his man and close to basket...cue up Bill Walton,"Throw it down!"...instead of those off-hand flips he's been throwing up.
Course,like the season so far,after a strong drive he tried too hard to dunk it and had it bounce back...sigh,baby steps.

Fitting that after the past few years we finally have decent Center depth-remember all the spilled electrons over the back-up C? Both Smith and Aldrich look like real NBA back-up Cs,and I wouldn't be shocked to see them alternate the rest of the yr,depending on who's playing well-or who's playing poorly.
Meanwhile we've gone from having two quality PGs the past few seasons to barely having one.

Biggest disappointment to me so far has been the lack of off-ball movement in the offense. All too often Parsons,Delfino have sat in the corner while bigs set high screens for Harden/Lin. Can't remember the last time a wing w/out the ball ran off a screen set by a big.

In the "Other than that,how was the play Mrs Lincoln" department,Sampson praised Douglass for bringing up the ball faster than Lin. That's great,but what did he do once he got it into the frontcourt? Very little that was good.
Never confuse activity for accomplishment.

Looks like the mantra for Rocket bigs is Rebound,Rebound,Rebound. If you don't you're going to sit. Esp w/the Defensive Coach now doling out minutes.

Also agree that Morris is really settling into his role. Esp like his aggressiveness w/the ball. Interesting to see if that can translate when he goes back to the SF. If it does,the Rockets are a back-up PG away from having a dangerous second unit.

Jones still has raw rookie written all over him,but he hustles and he offers something none of the other PFs do-help shot-blocking. And that is how he's going to force his way into the rotation.

[Bigtkirk]

Most important stat of the night -- Asik 4-4 on FT's!

[bob schmidt]

Several good things from this game:

Greg Smith had another good appearance, 4 assists (second to Lin) in limited minutes. He is a great opportunist when on the court...

Terrence Jones is definitely a shot blocker, and one of his blocks led to a fast break dunk at the other end. We look so much more imposing with him at the PF than with 2Pat... He has earned some rotation time in my mind.

Getting everyone into the game that was game-active was important to team morale. Even the starters like to see the weakest players get a chance to play a bit. That is valuable fun-time for the team when the reserves can come in to finish up a game... Fun is important to a team.

And, yes, it was nice to see Asik take his time on his free throws... He will surprise everyone before this season is over because he seems open to good coaching. This win over the Pistons was a good win for us, for a lot of reasons...

[rockets best fan]

nothing like looking up and seeing detroit on the schedule when you really need a win glad to see the rooks get some minutes. (IMO) patterson is a good backup PF, not a starter. our starter will come from the rooks. we need to start giving them minutes nightly and get busy finding out who they are.

[Jeby]

I used to hate Marcus Morris because I thought he just another tweener whose game was made for college and not for the pros.
Now I just hate him for making me feel dumb about hating him.

[inpropagation]

Glad they're back to .500 but they might as well be 3-4 already... it's Miami what'reyagonnado..

[ale11]

Loved Greg Smith's hustle, especially that ball he kicked from the floor to prevent an easy basket
Asik perfect from the line! (even just shooting 4 times, perfect percentage for him is great).
Lin with zero turnovers, another notable stat.
Also glad to see D-Mo and T-Jones get some playing time, to get that debut thing off their backs, from now on, they should cool a bit.

I know Detroit is the must beat team at this moment, but we need to get those kind of numbers in this type of games if we hope to get anywhere.