Game 66 Recap: Rockets 107 - Grizzlies 94
by Xiane on Mar 17, 2010 11:45 PM CDT
in Game Recaps
30 comments
As a special Dreamshake service to our loyal readers tonight's recap will be presented in a phony Irish accent in "honor" of St. Patricks Day. Since you can't hear it, you'll just have to imagine it. Or go here and choose "Caitlin" to read the recap to you. (You really should.)
Aaron Brooks certainly felt the luck of the Irish tonight. Anytime you score 31pts on 14 attempts and make 7-7 3pters you should kiss the Blarney stone, or something. Perhaps it's because he's a leprechaun? I have to say that unlike Dave, my one-way relationship with Aaron is pretty much Love/Love.
This was an odd game. The Rockets looked horrible at the start of the game, and progressively got better. They went from being abused in the paint, and looking as though the whole team was in competition to discover new and inventive ways to turn the ball over, to coasting along for an easy win. Memphis is a close match in record, and is assumed to be our equal or better in talent, but once again the Rockets seemed to somehow turn on the jets, from the end of the 2nd quarter until midway through the 4th, and break the will of the Grizzlies yet again.
OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay combined for 18 points on 7-23 shooting, leaving all the heavy lifting to big Zach Randolph, who dropped 30pts to go with 15 rebounds. Randolph is one of the few players that is big enough, and strong enough, to really take advantage of Chuck Hayes. Unlike most players, Zach can actually move Chuck out of his way
Once again the Rockets’ depth was useful, as having the complete team of 2009-2010 available really makes a difference. Jordan Hill is beginning to show us more and more, contributing 9pt and 9 rebounds in 20 minutes. He's incredibly active on the boards, with quick feet and hands, and several times kept plays alive and threw down the ball with the authority we associated with the beloved Carl Landry.
Tree Up
Aaron O’Brooks turns over a 4 leaf clover and makes 7-7 3pters.
Jordan Hill looks like a guy who might have been drafted in the Top 10.
Kevin Martin scores 18pts without anyone seeing him do it. He may be a leprechaun as well.
And a special St. Patricks day shout out to Luis McScola who had an off night and still scored 20pts.
The first quarter – it looked like the Rockets didn’t really want to start the game and waited until the second to begin playing.
Not enough time for the bench – Coach Sleepy sees everything (correctly) as a must win, but we can’t expect Scola, Brooks and Martin to be as fresh for a long long stretch run at 40+ minutes.
Kyle Lowry – it looks like he hurt his ankle again. Uh oh.
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On the subject of Lowry
I heard him saying that it still hurts, but he doesn’t want to miss any games. He said it was one bad play where he cut towards the basket and his foot when the wrong direction. When asked about the Celtics game, he said he should be good-to-go.
That's good to hear - I'll watch his tweets as well.
Significant gravitas shortfall expected in 2010.
I don't want him playing hurt
He looked terrible tonight. Other than giving Brooks a rest, he was hurting us more than he was helping us. Three turnovers in only 12 minutes, and I feel like I saw a couple more which were at least partly his fault. He looked slow on defense, having a hard time both staying in front of his man and fighting through screens.
I like Kyle, but he looked like he was at less than 50% tonight. If we have to sign somebody to a ten-day, so be it.
How badly do you think…
… the Lakers are hoping that Houston isn’t able to come back and get the 8th seed?
Of course (on paper, anyways) LA should probably win a playoff series VS the Rockets, probably in 4 or 5 games. But after what happened last season, I’ll bet the Lakers would rather not see the Rockets in the playoffs again…
I had to stop arguing with drunks, Steeler fans, and all other fools.
It was making my brick wall jealous...
I said before
that I don’t think LA is scared of anyone particularly, but I wouldn’t want to face the only team to go 7 games. Of course, Portland is a bad matchup for LA – LA almost never wins in Portland, so if the Blazers win one in LA, that could get interesting too. The West is so loaded that no series looks to be easy.
LA has looked either bad or bored (depending on who you ask) lately, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Dallas or Denver catch them for the top spot.
Significant gravitas shortfall expected in 2010.
well
That means they still have to win another game to prove me wrong…
and they went on a long losing streak last time Lowry was out. ;-)
that said… I’m glad to be proven wrong here.
Lowry is good to go
I don’t think anyone anticipated the moves DM has done by the trade deadline, which may have propelled our chances of being contenders for next year with Yao on board.
by typhoon.infamous on Mar 18, 2010 12:17 PM CDT up reply actions
hmmm......... what about Shane O'Battier's 5 blocked shots?
that’s pretty good for an old irish dude….
don't bully me, i am from the D(etroit)!!!
Classic Shane O' Bat
Monster defence and clutch 3.
by RocketsAstros on Mar 18, 2010 4:37 AM CDT up reply actions
I loved it
when he just took the ball all the way up the court and fired the 3!
Great players dont win championships.....Great TEAMS win championships
I'm tellin ya
Louis Scola is trying to get payed this summer
Would he be satisfied with...
the MLE? or do you think he deserves more. I think he kinda does but can we give him more?
Amen
And I hope that Scola wants “Houston Dollars”
So, Daryl Morey…“Show Scola the Money!!!!!”
As for the game, I didn’t realize we had a game yesterday night, but looking at the box score, I noticed something kinda alarming. Is Rick overplaying Luis now? Scola’s been logging close to 40 minutes a night. I know I advocated the whole “Play Scola More” movement, but maybe its time to spread the minutes out some to guys like Jordan Hill, David Andersen, and yes, even the Chuckwagon.
B^2
In Daryl Morey, Rick Smith and Ed Wade we (usually) trust.
Morey
said that Lowry and Scola will remain Rockets and that he will also try to get another high quality player via sign and trade. The article quoting him was here on TDS. I hope that’s the case yet I can see some GMs trading for Scola to mildly appease angry fans who rage because LeBron didn’t come to their team.
by RocketsAstros on Mar 18, 2010 9:39 AM CDT up reply actions
Spurs have a tough week coming
and if we can continue winning that last game with them could be huge (not nationally televised huge like the Cavs vs the Nets) but huge.
Kyle Lowry
I love this kid. He has a lot of fight in him. They asked him after the game if he would play friday and with the most serious look on his face he said “Oh I’ll be playin Friday”. I have no doubt he’ll play even if he’s injured the rest of the season. He knows how important this stretch is.
I have a feeling we will lose Lowry next year
He is probably gonna get some really good offers that the Rox won’t match.
unlikely
he’s not the type of player most other teams value. And the teams that would value him highly (ie – the other statistically-inclined teams with needs at PG) probably don’t value him any higher than Houston.
Exactly. Besides, Morey already said we are going to keep both Lowry and Scola. Nothing as 100% certain as things can change, but it sounds like he is about as confident as he can be that we will be both willing and able to bring them back. Morey is a pretty smart dude, so I’m going to trust him on that.
And I don't think Morey would say they're going to resign both of them
unless Les had also said he’s willing to sign both of them.
Admittedly, I remember some New York fans discussing their PG problems in the offseason, and they discussed spending 6 million on Lowry.
I also think 6 million is way too much on Lowry, but it may be possible that they or one of the teams that fails to get Lebron utterly panics and blows their wad. Hopefully won’t happen.
Minnesotan Rockets fan
I also think 6 million is way too much on Lowry
Probably. You get into weird issues with assigning values to NBA players – Morey’s said that this is basically the most important part of being a GM, and it’s undoubtedly the most difficult.
If you say the MLE is an average salary in the NBA (and it, by definition, is, though whether or not it describes the median veteran salary is another matter), and that Lowry is an above-average NBA player (I think he is), then perhaps he is worth $6 million. Since so much of his value is tied up in defense and “intangibles” (they’re not really “intangible” for a few reasons – namely that they ostensibly show up in the wins column and that the Rockets think they can track them – but that’s another issue entirely), that’s pretty difficult to say with any level of certainty. But look at how much better everyone plays while he’s on the court. APM is under fire from a lot of different writers and statisticians out there, but Lowry looks really, really good according those numbers, and there’s good reason for it.
But because his value lies in these areas that aren’t tracked by traditional stats (another aside – a lot of his value is tracked by this: rebounds, good assist/turnover ratio, free throws, etc.), he probably wouldn’t command much on the market. But if some other team throws $6 million at him, and the Rockets think that’s a justifiable salary, then they should probably match, regardless of whether or not most teams would only offer $4 million or something.
but it may be possible that they or one of the teams that fails to get Lebron utterly panics and blows their wad.
Maybe. But, from what I’ve seen, most teams don’t really “panic” if they don’t get the free agent they want. Sure, Detroit decided they wanted to spend all of their money this season, regardless of whether or not Gordon and Villanueva deserved their salaries, but most teams don’t do that sort of thing. If they don’t feel a player is worth a salary, they don’t offer that contract.
They may overvalue players – this might/probably will happen this offseason with several players, as it happened with Turkoglu last summer or Baron Davis the season prior to that – but that’s not really the same thing. I don’t think anyone is going to be overvaluing Kyle Lowry. Teams tend to overvalue scoring numbers, not defense, rebounding, and efficiency.
Can't wait
Even if Morey doesn’t sign another player, the starting 5 are going to be killer:
Brooks, Martin, Scola, Ariza, Yao
Brooks – Speed, 3s, and alot of ankle breaking
Martin – Speed and foul drawing king
Scola – crazy under lay-ups
Ariza – perimeter D and catch and Shoot open 3s
Yao – The GREAT WALL
backup:
Battier – D and clutch 3s with sweat all over the opponents
Lowry – D and drawing fouls
Bud – Dunker and 3s, defense is getting better
Chuckwagon – steals and best low-post D
Hill – LOTS LOTS potential, could be the steal Rox need…seems to already be up there in rotation as well
Anderson – 7’ 3pt shooter
Sign and Trade — who? Who is worth trading? Brooks, Martin, Yao, Hill, Lowry, and Ariza I think are lock. Lowry will come cheap. Scola might garder more money, which Rox might not want to pay, so could package him with Battier for another player.
The way the Rox have been playing, I have to say our bench has the ability to be better than most other benches in the league. Battier, Bud, Hill, Lowry, Chuck
I agree.
This team believes they can win on a nightly basis already. Imagine adding Yao to the mix. Their confidence will soar as well as their tallys in the W column.
"I am from one of the top 15 cities in the world. Buffalo, New York." - TrentEdwardsHoF2018
Would you guys trade Scola now?
Now that we’ve seen that he can produce if he gets enough minutes? Richard Justice said that they might have to give up Lowry, Brooks or Budinger…or maybe 2 out of 3 to get Bosh. Don’t know how true that is.
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