The reason why we almost lost

I think that when Roy adjusts to having Rudy on the court with him, Rudy’s Reggie-esque game will be even better due to all the attention Roy recieves. Now we just need Roy to start throwing those back-door alley-oops to Rudy…

I’m so tired of seeing one guy dribble the ball for 18 seconds and then have to create a shot all on his own. Unless your name is Lebron or Kobe, chances are you’re not going to be hitting that shot most of the time. I’d much rather see a go to PLAY with guys cutting and moving and looking for an easy bucket. SOMETHING besides an iso play that everyone is expecting.

It’s a different story when there is only a few seconds left. You couldn’t ask for more from Roy and Yao on those last possessions.

But Rudy turned the corner and lost the ball.

I think the biggest reason the game became so close was again due to the Blazers offense. Absolutely putrid. Roy was taking bad shots early in the shot clock. LMA was getting manhandled by Chuck Hayes and shooting contested fade aways. Our two biggest stars could not generate any offense. To me, that still is an issue. LMA seems to play well against the Matt Bonner, Luis Scolas of the world, but when you put a physical defender on him, he’s shooting jumpshots. Roy is still in some kind of a funk, I hope he gets out of it.

Credit Outlaw in this game for getting loose rebounds when Przybilla was tied up with Yao. Outlaw was really the x-factor in the game along with great shooting from Rudy.

The main reason we almost lost was simply that Roy didn’t play very well. I agree that the Rudy/Roy backcourt can be effective, but it won’t be until Roy starts playing better. I agree Nate can run some different plays, but mostly Roy just has to get his game going.

We should run more staggered screens for him like Ray Allen or Rip Hamilton. Maybe he’ll teach Martell a thing or two.

I agree the Roy/Fernandez backcourt is not effective yet. It didn’t look good in Utah either. I think that was a big reason why we lost.

… rebounding. Trout was amazing at cleaning up the boards.

Instead of trying to go around Yao. A little risky since we all know Pryz doesn’t have the greatest hands, but Roy served him perfectly while sailing through the air.

With a HUGE Houston fan, someone who knows her team like the back of her hand. And she was disgusted with her teams play, she said the Rockets did not deserve to win the game, and would still feel disgruntled even if the Rockets won. She said Yao was a shadow of himself, and was almost a zombie all night keeping his head down for most possessions, Tracy was Isolating way to much, and Artest wasn’t playing like Artest. I actually had to leave the room after Yao made the tying shot, and she said, “YAO ARE YOU BACK!?!?”.

Thank God we pulled this out… We needed this win, and it’s just the type of win that will spark our team’s hunger. After all was said and done she said that we DESERVED this win, and I agree. We are slowly working out the kinks, and tonight was a major stride for us. Our immediate goal should be to win a road game and build on that.

We almost lost a game we definately should of won, and it was scary, but we held strong/recieved a miracle.

that was very observant of you to notice that. i would have never pieced that together that roy’s isos gave them a “breather.” good thread.

I think Aldridge won the game for us. He got us going early and multiple key blocks on what would have been easy layups. Roy didn’t show up until OT so LA kept us in it. I think Batum did as well as could be expected against TMac. He kept him quiet in the first half but no one can shut him down when he gets going. He can just absolutely dominate the offensive end when he decides to.

simple as that. We went away from LMA and never went back. Blake will make sure that doesn’t happen and that we don’t blow our leads

and that’s why he was sitting – not surprising the way he ran the first half of the quarter. Remember, he’s already played the equivalent of a good portion of the Spanish season this year, and we’ve hardly begun.

On a related note, I’m irritated that there are only about seven months of basketball left. I never want this to end

because we were aggressive, we played hard, and the team believed it was going to win no matter what. You could see it in the body language.

I have kind of a similar but slightly different opinion of why we almost lost the game,
When I saw what Rudy and Sergio were doing out there my first thought was, ‘what are they doing!??!?’ It was obvious that Rudy would fade and be dead tired when the game really mattered,

I just can’t see Nate wanting Sergio to go out there and run Rudy dead.. If Sergio was a threat on offense thats fine to provide a spark off of the bench, but Sergio dishes to people who cut and get themselves open, so if he goes in there and gets everyone running, he’s a liability once he’s left the floor, as opposed to someone Nate can put in and have them give it their all for a few minutes to rest others.. he puts Sergio in to rest someone, and then everyone else needs to rest…

in this case we just needed him to go in there and keep us in the game, and we ended up iso’ing Roy because Rudy was out of gas.

I agree that the early 4th quarter stuff was great, but I think Sergio is going out there to look good in the few minutes he’s getting, not thinking about what we need from him to win games… I do feel bad though because i’m complaining about Sergio going out there and looking good.

But I ask to recall a singular moment in the Utah game.

To tie the game late in the 4th, Roy drove to the basket and passed the ball out perfectly and deliberately to a WIDE open Rudy who caught and rose up for a flawless looking shot for the tie.

And it clanged short.

If that shot had dropped, I think a lot of these comments would be missing. In that pass, I saw a Roy who trusted Rudy and wanted Rudy to shoot.

I still believe that.