Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well, Piksi called it. Another loss as we fall to 7-20 (a 21 win pace BTW), but not the sort of loss that inspires Pretty Girl themes -- kinda makes you wistful for the good old fashioned blowouts doesn't it? 
Garcia ( C+ ) -- quiet first half and had his hands full with McGrady, who was not great, but who was showing off his new role wiht the Rockets: make everybody else better. Cisco came alive in the third as we legitimately fought to stay in it, including good timing on his only made three of the night, but then disappeared again as the youngest member of our five on the court in the 4th quarter.
Never did much beside the burst of scoring, only had minimal control of TMac, and was on and off sloppy all night as well. Competed for a few possessions against Ron, but that only lasted so long as well.
Hawes ( C- ) -- another struggle for Spencer who entered the game shooting 37% in December, and only lowered that percentage with a 3-13. This time it was a little different in cause, as Spencer simply got swallowed up inside against Yao, and inexplicably kept on trying to take it up from under the backboard where his 7'6" opponent could just smother him up and pin him with his arms. Provided a little help defense, although struggled to stay in front of noted speedster Luis Scola, and gave us some rebounding on yet another night where we got squashed on the glass, but this was yet another learning game courtesy of the NBA's school of hard knocks.
Miller ( B ) -- this didn't look terribly impressive early, in particular during an absolutely brutal first half possession where Brad inexplicably deicded he wanted to post Yao up and go one on one with him inside.
And yet, as he began to pick up steam courtesy of a pair of back to back 3pt continuations in the third quarter and worked on the offensive glass, he ended up becoming our most effective inside player (using the word "inside" here loosely). And along with Hawes our only guys less than embarrassing on the glass. Defensively...well, its never good. Yao never missed and as usual our riim was wide open as we gave up another 100+ point night. But Brad was at least using his body on Yao for the first post, before running out of defensive perserverence on the second or even third as the Rockets patiently worked to get the big guy into position.
Salmons ( A- ) -- had a virtual repeat of his Portland insanity in the first quarter -- just hitting everything from everywhere, and at one point was 8-8 from the field despite being guarded by Battier for a good portion of it. But unlike the Portland game, in this one John had some help from his teammates. Game slowly fell off again, and Artest eventually slowed him considerably more than Battier or Head, but it wasn't the complete collapse of the Portland game. Was nothing else he did on the night of particular note. Not really a creator, a rebounder, nor even much impact on defense where he didn't have much to guard with Cisco primarily on TMac. Unfortunate final image was of him throwing up a forced stupid shot in the final minute of play while we were still clinging onto a tiny bit of hope. Think we were down 8 at the time.
Udrih ( D- ) -- a couple of nice passes aside, a real nothing game again. Yikes. And this time sat out the last quarter because of a potential injury. Well maybe...it could also have been because he flat out sucked tonight, or simply that he was far too young to be part of Natt's little gerontology lovefest that we played with down the stretch. And for once maybe you are rooting for there to actually be a physical problem, because at least then it would be some sort of explanation for the last couple of outings. Again just barely involved out there, which also raises a possibility of a change under the new coach. If he plays tommorow I will have to watch closely to see if we've changed the sets and taken the ball out of his hands or what. Best that can be said tonight is that he didn't get lit up too badly by Aaron Brooks (who must make you hold your breath every time he brings it down the floor if you are a Rockets fan).
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Moore ( D ) -- had himself a fairly remarkable stint. Remarkable in that he played 20 minutes, including the entire crunchtime, and in those 20 minutes came up wiht exactly 2pts (on 2 FTs) and 0rebs. Oh, there was a low block. Mind you that this is the guy who our new coach has deposited ahead of our first round pick in the rotation. I think he played a tad better than the numbers, or lack thereof -- hence the grade. He accomplished very little, but as Mikki himself would note his positioning was solid on defense. Now if he could only have, you know, not gotten himself completely worked over by a man nearly half a foot shorter than himself (Landry), on both defense and the glas, ,Mikki's positioning might even matter. As another poster noted, my speculation that Mikki's reemergence was based on a strict Mikki for Brad and JT for Hawes rotation pattern turned out to not be the case. Not only did Mikki still come in first this time for Hawes leaving Jason to wait until the end of the first period, but down the stetch he not only was in there instead of JT, he was in there instead of Hawes as we reverted to our 33yr old Brad/Mikki suckcourt. But of course that all belongs unuder the coach's grade.
Thompson ( C- ) -- still struggling. Almost goes wihtout saying that he tried to hustle for baords but the rest of it is frequently a mess. Reduced now to the 4th big via the wisdom of our coaching staff (am thinking now maybe we should have just cleared out anything and everything that Theus touched), he's been finding new ways to commit turnovers each game and looks consistently frustrated out there. Did pretty well against Chuck Hayes, but then again Chuck Hayes is 5'11" and sucks. Also dropped in one nice post move, and you continue to wonder why that doesn't come more often.
Jackson ( A- ) -- in another game which provided extra inspiration, Bobby played like it. Came up with a big second quarter back in his old haunt, and then as Kenny Natt desperately cast about looking for guys as old as he is to throw into the game, played well down the stretch too. Three point shot has definitely clicked the last week, and he was on wiht it again tonight. Even got some minutes getting to renew his old golden era clashes gaurding TMac...although of course the dynamic is changed with them having been teammates only a few months ago. Overall shooting was only 5-12, but 19 points in 20 minutes wil get it done and was the biggest threat to the Rockets other than Salmons. As usual per these things, continuing gunning attempts down the stretch as he tried to be the hero all came up short and dropped this half a grade. We get into pressure situations and everybody trieds to go one on one.
Brown ( B- ) -- limited minutes due to age considerations (i.e. he apparently didn't have enough of it). Was in there during some of the sloppiest play by both sides, and scooped up several loose balls.
Greene ( INC ) -- not in until the end of the third, hit a single three before departing a few minutes into the 4th. Nothing else of note.
Garcia ( C+ ) -- quiet first half and had his hands full with McGrady, who was not great, but who was showing off his new role wiht the Rockets: make everybody else better. Cisco came alive in the third as we legitimately fought to stay in it, including good timing on his only made three of the night, but then disappeared again as the youngest member of our five on the court in the 4th quarter.
Never did much beside the burst of scoring, only had minimal control of TMac, and was on and off sloppy all night as well. Competed for a few possessions against Ron, but that only lasted so long as well.Hawes ( C- ) -- another struggle for Spencer who entered the game shooting 37% in December, and only lowered that percentage with a 3-13. This time it was a little different in cause, as Spencer simply got swallowed up inside against Yao, and inexplicably kept on trying to take it up from under the backboard where his 7'6" opponent could just smother him up and pin him with his arms. Provided a little help defense, although struggled to stay in front of noted speedster Luis Scola, and gave us some rebounding on yet another night where we got squashed on the glass, but this was yet another learning game courtesy of the NBA's school of hard knocks.
Miller ( B ) -- this didn't look terribly impressive early, in particular during an absolutely brutal first half possession where Brad inexplicably deicded he wanted to post Yao up and go one on one with him inside.
And yet, as he began to pick up steam courtesy of a pair of back to back 3pt continuations in the third quarter and worked on the offensive glass, he ended up becoming our most effective inside player (using the word "inside" here loosely). And along with Hawes our only guys less than embarrassing on the glass. Defensively...well, its never good. Yao never missed and as usual our riim was wide open as we gave up another 100+ point night. But Brad was at least using his body on Yao for the first post, before running out of defensive perserverence on the second or even third as the Rockets patiently worked to get the big guy into position.Salmons ( A- ) -- had a virtual repeat of his Portland insanity in the first quarter -- just hitting everything from everywhere, and at one point was 8-8 from the field despite being guarded by Battier for a good portion of it. But unlike the Portland game, in this one John had some help from his teammates. Game slowly fell off again, and Artest eventually slowed him considerably more than Battier or Head, but it wasn't the complete collapse of the Portland game. Was nothing else he did on the night of particular note. Not really a creator, a rebounder, nor even much impact on defense where he didn't have much to guard with Cisco primarily on TMac. Unfortunate final image was of him throwing up a forced stupid shot in the final minute of play while we were still clinging onto a tiny bit of hope. Think we were down 8 at the time.
Udrih ( D- ) -- a couple of nice passes aside, a real nothing game again. Yikes. And this time sat out the last quarter because of a potential injury. Well maybe...it could also have been because he flat out sucked tonight, or simply that he was far too young to be part of Natt's little gerontology lovefest that we played with down the stretch. And for once maybe you are rooting for there to actually be a physical problem, because at least then it would be some sort of explanation for the last couple of outings. Again just barely involved out there, which also raises a possibility of a change under the new coach. If he plays tommorow I will have to watch closely to see if we've changed the sets and taken the ball out of his hands or what. Best that can be said tonight is that he didn't get lit up too badly by Aaron Brooks (who must make you hold your breath every time he brings it down the floor if you are a Rockets fan).
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Moore ( D ) -- had himself a fairly remarkable stint. Remarkable in that he played 20 minutes, including the entire crunchtime, and in those 20 minutes came up wiht exactly 2pts (on 2 FTs) and 0rebs. Oh, there was a low block. Mind you that this is the guy who our new coach has deposited ahead of our first round pick in the rotation. I think he played a tad better than the numbers, or lack thereof -- hence the grade. He accomplished very little, but as Mikki himself would note his positioning was solid on defense. Now if he could only have, you know, not gotten himself completely worked over by a man nearly half a foot shorter than himself (Landry), on both defense and the glas, ,Mikki's positioning might even matter. As another poster noted, my speculation that Mikki's reemergence was based on a strict Mikki for Brad and JT for Hawes rotation pattern turned out to not be the case. Not only did Mikki still come in first this time for Hawes leaving Jason to wait until the end of the first period, but down the stetch he not only was in there instead of JT, he was in there instead of Hawes as we reverted to our 33yr old Brad/Mikki suckcourt. But of course that all belongs unuder the coach's grade.
Thompson ( C- ) -- still struggling. Almost goes wihtout saying that he tried to hustle for baords but the rest of it is frequently a mess. Reduced now to the 4th big via the wisdom of our coaching staff (am thinking now maybe we should have just cleared out anything and everything that Theus touched), he's been finding new ways to commit turnovers each game and looks consistently frustrated out there. Did pretty well against Chuck Hayes, but then again Chuck Hayes is 5'11" and sucks. Also dropped in one nice post move, and you continue to wonder why that doesn't come more often.
Jackson ( A- ) -- in another game which provided extra inspiration, Bobby played like it. Came up with a big second quarter back in his old haunt, and then as Kenny Natt desperately cast about looking for guys as old as he is to throw into the game, played well down the stretch too. Three point shot has definitely clicked the last week, and he was on wiht it again tonight. Even got some minutes getting to renew his old golden era clashes gaurding TMac...although of course the dynamic is changed with them having been teammates only a few months ago. Overall shooting was only 5-12, but 19 points in 20 minutes wil get it done and was the biggest threat to the Rockets other than Salmons. As usual per these things, continuing gunning attempts down the stretch as he tried to be the hero all came up short and dropped this half a grade. We get into pressure situations and everybody trieds to go one on one.
Brown ( B- ) -- limited minutes due to age considerations (i.e. he apparently didn't have enough of it). Was in there during some of the sloppiest play by both sides, and scooped up several loose balls.
Greene ( INC ) -- not in until the end of the third, hit a single three before departing a few minutes into the 4th. Nothing else of note.
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Not nice to tease the natives. 
