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Fri 11/20 | 6:30 PM CST |
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Sat 11/21 | 7:30 PM CST |
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Wed 11/25 | 7:30 PM CST |
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San Antonio
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Fri 11/27 | 7:30 PM CST |
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Oklahoma City
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Sun 11/29 | 6:00 PM CST |
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Wed 11/18 | W 97 - 84 |
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Tue 11/17 | L 105 - 111 |
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Sun 11/15 | W 101 - 91 |
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Sacramento
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Fri 11/13 | L 100 - 109 |
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Memphis
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Wed 11/11 | W 104 - 79 |
McGrady & Adelman Respond to Woj's Article
"Adelman said on Friday that when they met, the conversation did not get loud, but that McGrady did not want to wait for next week to make his season debut. McGrady could not have played at the time he put on the uniform on Wednesday because that night's inactive list had already been turned in."
McGrady unsure whether Rockets want him
Tracy McGrady and coach Rick Adelman engaged in an emotional and sometimes loud closed-door confrontation about the star’s uncertain status on Wednesday night, sources told Yahoo! Sports.
GameThread for Houston Rockets at Minnesota Timberwolves, Nov 18, 2009 7:00 PM CST
by UofTOrange on Nov 18, 2009 6:16 PM CST
in Game Thread
72 comments
My internet connection has been infuriating. Hopefully I'll have full access during the blood bath that is this game
72 comments | 0 recs |
Fun with interesting statistics
by Tom Martin on Nov 18, 2009 3:06 PM CST
in Whimsical Posts
12 comments
Thank the lord for Roland Beech and 82games.com. Otherwise, I really don't know what I would do with my free time.
I went treasure hunting for some obscure Rockets statistics and found the following three to be particularly compelling.
1. Hayes/Scola tandem has much higher effective field goal percentage than Landry/Scola
Really? We actually produce better on offense with the Chuckwagon instead of Carl Landry? That's odd. Perhaps it's due to usage, but you'd still think that Luis Landry, accompanied by Brooks, Battier, and Ariza, would have a higher eFG than .364.
2. The second-most used unit is significantly worse than all the others.
Maybe we shouldn't play our worst unit so often. Clearly, our defense struggles when Brooks, Hayes, and Ariza are all off of the floor. Also: collectively, Rockets are better defensively with Dave Andersen on floor than Chuck Hayes. Weird...
3. Shane Battier has the worst plus/minus on the team, as well as the third-worst Def rating (opponents points per possession while on the floor).
Well, Battier does play a good chunk of minutes and guards the opponent's best player. But wow - this is pretty stunning. Then again, +/- is a pretty flawed statistic in many, many ways.
There - your Wednesday fun post is finished.
12 comments | 0 recs |
Game 11 Recap: Fourth quarter defense propels Suns to 111-105 victory over Rockets
by Tom Martin on Nov 17, 2009 10:54 PM CST
in Game Recaps
10 comments
You knew Jarron Collins was going to blow up at some point. Er, perhaps not.
He didn't exactly "blow up" either. Six points in twelve minutes is hardly a combustible stat line. But on three of three shooting, with six rebounds, two blocks, and the dagger in the final minute, Collins' contribution might have made the sliver of a difference down the stretch for the Phoenix Suns. Alvin Gentry knew he wasn't substituting dead air for Channing Frye to end the game. At least not on this night.
Shoving particulars aside, the Rockets couldn't have started any hotter, nor could they have finished any colder. Trevor Ariza and Aaron Brooks hit four out of the five three pointers that Houston knocked down to start the game. The Rockets controlled the first quarter and much of the second quarter before losing their mojo to finish the first half with a three-point lead. That, and Amare Stoudemire realized that beating 6'6 Chuck Hayes one-on-one wasn't as hard as everyone said it was. For a while I thought that Stoudemire might drop another President Grant on us.
You know what else I was thinking? That this game eerily mirrored the first half of the Dallas game... which ended in us getting blown out. Not exactly the script you want to keep following.
10 comments | 0 recs |
GameThread: Suns @ Rockets; 7:30 CST
by Only_A_Lad on Nov 17, 2009 7:32 PM CST
in Game Thread
155 comments
Apparently, there's some sort of sporting event being played tonight in Toyota Center! Let's converse about it, shall we?
155 comments | 0 recs
Tuesday Afternoon Dream Links
by Only_A_Lad on Nov 17, 2009 3:36 PM CST
in Links
15 comments
I don't know about y'all, but I'm really excited about tonight's game. We have two teams that relatively few writers and fans thought would be doing much off to great starts facing one another. The total line for tonight is set at 221.5, and that sounds about right. It's going to be a fun game.
John Hollinger has the Rockets and Suns ranked 6th and 7th, respectively (thanks to Rockets4Life for making a fanshot about this). "What?" I hear you all saying. Well, that's true - ESPN's resident stat-dude has the plucky scrappy resilient talented Rockets ranked slightly ahead of the 9-2 Suns. Most of that has to do with scoring margin and opponents' winning percentage. And, indeed, if you look at B-Ref's Simple Rating System (here's a description of the stat), the Rockets are 7th in the league, while the Suns are 14th. And Tas at TBJ has taken the Rockets in their "book-off" tonight. Yes, the plucky little Rockets have come a long way from Barkley's "worst in the league" prediction.
Let's get to some news!
15 comments | 0 recs
Monday Afternoon Dream Links
by Only_A_Lad on Nov 16, 2009 1:42 PM CST
20 comments
The Rockets did good last night: an offensive efficiency of around 1.02, a defensive efficiency of around 0.84. They outrebounded the defending champions by 22 and were +6 on turnover ratio. They boxed out, hustled after every loose ball, and just generally did all the little things that make teams win basketball games. And, oh yeah, they shot well. Go figure. Probably had something to do with Brooks.
I hope to write a more extended post on this subject later, but there seems to be a burgeoning realization among Rockets fans, NBA fans, and analysts that, yeah, this team is actually pretty good. Jason Friedman expresses this pretty well:
Words like "heart," "hustle," and "hard-working" will be tossed Houston's way which, while complimentary (and accurate), often tend to thinly veil the fact that the giver of such bouquets believes the beneficiary is overachieving with a roster of middling talent. Don't be so deceived. These guys can play, as the rest of the league is (hopefully) beginning to learn. What's more: they love to play together.
I also like this line:
"I talked to Carl and Chase and told them we can’t ever have a game like the one we had in Sacramento again," said Lowry.
My sentiments exactly, Kyle.
Kelly Dwyer analyzes the game, and I like what he has to say about Artest and Kobe's games. I think this is something that sometimes goes unmentioned when talking about defense (though it was talked about quite a bit last year in Michael Lewis's Battier article).
Artest, superficially, had a good game. 22 points on 16 shots, but his and Kobe's singular offensive focus made it easy for the Rockets to load up on everyone else. Scorers are meant to be all-around players in this offense, and both Bryant and Artest made it so the teammates' hands were cold, and not ready to contribute.
The ability to isolate the other team's primary offensive player, force him to take shots, and make life difficult for him in general is a key part of team defense. This should be obvious (after all, we always talk about the importance of ball movement), but it often isn't.
Henry Abbot also looks at the Rockets' defense, but he focuses on Ariza and Budinger, who took Shane's place after he went to the bench early with foul trouble:
In place of Battier, Houston coach Rick Adelman played Budinger. Along with some missed wide-open jumpers, Budinger brought the kind of youth that causes problems for veterans like Bryant, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest.
One key play occurred with the Lakers clingking lackadaisically to their early lead, up six in the second quarter. As the crowd was still clapping for a Shannon Brown putback, all ten players jogged the length of the court. In transition, the Lakers were pointing at Budinger, who was a step ahead of Bryant as he headed down the left wing. Everyone realized Bryant had to catch up. But he did not. Budinger turned on the jets, Kyle Lowry got him the ball, and before Andrew Bynum could get in position to meet him at the rim, Budinger had swooped to the hoop for a reverse layup, and youth had been served.
Altogether, this was obviously a great game for Houston, and it's nice to see them bounce back from Friday's loss. I think we also need to start thinking of the Rockets as a real matchup problem for the Lakers: the Rockets give the Lakers a lot of trouble in virtually every category. I'll leave it to better analysts than me to figure out why that is, though.
More links after the jump.
20 comments | 0 recs
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Southwest Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dallas
|
9 | 3 | .750 | 0 | Won 4 |
|
Houston
|
7 | 5 | .583 | 2 | Won 1 |
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New Orleans
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5 | 8 | .384 | 4.5 | Won 2 |
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San Antonio
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4 | 6 | .400 | 4 | Lost 3 |
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Memphis
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3 | 8 | .272 | 5.5 | Won 2 |
(updated 11.20.2009 at 3:27 PM CST)
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