Joel: our veteran leader

[KingSpeed]

This quote by Travis:

"Joel pulled us together telling us we can do this. We talked with each other. When we got down, no one would go into their individual mood. No one got out of their game. We played together."

 

[Da_O]

Who were you expecting, Michael Ruffin?

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Who were you expecting, Michael Ruffin?

More so him than Steve Blake, at least for tonight.

 

[Da_O]

More so him than Steve Blake, at least for tonight.

I don't get it.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

I don't get it.

Blake was horrible at running the team tonight.

 

[Da_O]

Blake was horrible at running the team tonight.

I disagree, he had 5 assists one turnover and Roy was running the show. What I was trying to infer was, why would Blake be considered our veteran leader over Przybilla?

You wont sucker me into a strawman argument sir.

 

[Da_O]

This is actually a pretty typical game for Blake. But I guess we should make a switch in PG's in the middle of the postseason.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

This is actually a pretty typical game for Blake. But I guess we should make a switch in PG's in the middle of the postseason.

I didn't even look at the box score, I watched the game and assessed that Blake was playing scared and pretty darn bad all night. His defense I agree was pretty good on Brooks but in the offense, Blake was atrocious. Others around me had the same observation.

 

[Da_O]

I didn't even look at the box score, I watched the game and assessed that Blake was playing scared and pretty darn bad all night. His defense I agree was pretty good on Brooks but in the offense, Blake was atrocious. Others around me had the same observation.

Yeah, other biased Blake haters. Like I said, from MY observations and the support of the box score numbers, I thought he looked fine.

I do want an upgrade at the PG position but I know we have to work with what we got. From my perspective this was actually a typical game from Blake. Average but nothing special.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Yeah, other biased Blake haters.

I hardly think my mother and my sister are Blake haters. lol Way to go with the generalizations. Don't point out a straw-man and then make an over generalization. Doesn't work well. He ran the team rather poorly and missed countless opportunities. I hope he shows up the next game because we need him.

 

[Da_O]

I hardly think my mother and my sister are Blake haters. lol Way to go with the generalizations. Don't point out a straw-man and then make an over generalization. Doesn't work well. He ran the team rather poorly and missed countless opportunities. I hope he shows up the next game because we need him.

Oh I thought you were referring to the other thread we were posting in. I apologize for being a hypocritical prick for assuming when you say others, you mean more than just your mother and sister. But now for my next trick, I'm going to make another generalization and assume your sister and mother aren't exactly 'expert' NBA analysts. It's hard to take you serious when you say your mother and sister agreed with you. If they are, in fact, 'experts' then I tip my hat off to ya.

Like I said I disagree he ran the team poorly, it wasn't his to run, it was Roy. Roy handled the ball nearly the whole time. Blake hit most of the shots he needed to hit and was finding some open guys. It really depends on what your expectations of Blake are. He's never going to be the guy that's going to find cutters through the lane and run the fastbreak. Frankly, he's just too slow down the court to run the fastbreak. He's always going to be the guy that's going to his open threes and not turn the ball over. Which is basically what he did tonight, but instead of threes he got some wide open lay-ups.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Oh I thought you were referring to the other thread we were posting in. I apologize for being a hypocritical prick for assuming when you say others, you mean more than just your mother and sister. But now for my next trick, I'm going to make another generalization and assume your sister and mother aren't exactly 'expert' NBA analysts. It's hard to take you serious when you say your mother and sister agreed with you. If they are, in fact, 'experts' then I tip my hat off to ya.

Like I said I disagree he ran the team poorly, it wasn't his to run, it was Roy. Roy handled the ball nearly the whole time. Blake hit most of the shots he needed to hit and was finding some open guys. It really depends on what your expectations of Blake are. He's never going to be the guy that's going to find cutters through the lane and run the fastbreak. Frankly, he's just too slow down the court to run the fastbreak. He's always going to be the guy that's going to his open threes and not turn the ball over. Which is basically what he did tonight, but instead of threes he got some wide open lay-ups.

He's ran the team before, he just didn't do it tonight. It doesn't take a bike expert to tell you if the bike is broken, most people could tell. Blake was consistently scared to do anything besides bring the ball up court and hand it off to Roy. Does anyone here actually expect to continue winning if Roy has to exert so much of his energy and get 40+ points consistently? We need others to contribute.

 

[Da_O]

He's ran the team before, he just didn't do it tonight. It doesn't take a bike expert to tell you if the bike is broken, most people could tell. Blake was consistently scared to do anything besides bring the ball up court and hand it off to Roy. Does anyone here actually expect to continue winning if Roy has to exert so much of his energy and get 40+ points consistently? We need others to contribute.

Umm I do. But seriously, your observations are nothing more than opinion. From what I could see it was basically Blake being Blake. Roy had figured out exactly how Houston wanted to defend him. Giving the ball to Roy wasn't because Blake was scared but by design. Roy had scouted Houston to a near T and David Thorpe even called a 40 point game by Roy before tip-off.

I agree that other guys need to contribute mainly Outlaw. He was just taking some bad shots and had some mental lapses late in the shot clock that turned into violations. We need his outside shooting more so than ever.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Umm I do. But seriously, your observations are nothing more than opinion.

Obviously, I don't think you can state fact for giving your opinion about a player's performance. Again, it's my observation, as it was for many people on this board and I'm no Blake hater. Blake needs to break out of his shell, as does Outlaw and Rudy needs to get more aggressive. I'd like to see the offense go through Greg Oden more, he's so much more useful on offense than the team makes him out to be. If Roy and Aldridge are the only ones who show up offensively, chalk one up in the loss column.

 

[Da_O]

Obviously, I don't think you can state fact for giving your opinion about a player's performance. Again, it's my observation, as it was for many people on this board and I'm no Blake hater. Blake needs to break out of his shell, as does Outlaw and Rudy needs to get more aggressive. I'd like to see the offense go through Greg Oden more, he's so much more useful on offense than the team makes him out to be. If Roy and Aldridge are the only ones who show up offensively, chalk one up in the loss column.

Well what I was trying to spell out for you was that your observation was wrong. It was by design that we gave the ball to Roy that much and had nothing to do with Blake being timid or scared.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Well what I was trying to spell out for you was that your observation was wrong. It was by design that we gave the ball to Roy that much and had nothing to do with Blake being timid or scared.

I disagree completely. I can understand if you're talking about the 4th quarter, but not the whole game buddy. Blake didn't play his game in my opinion. i know he already plays a little timid, but tonight took the cake and it was very unfortunate to see as he stalled the offense everytime he came down the court. He held the ball and caused bad shots to be taken with the shot clock winding down. That was done on more than one occassion tonight. I'm done for the night and hope we can improve our team play for Friday.

 

[LittleAlex]

I disagree completely. I can understand if you're talking about the 4th quarter, but not the whole game buddy. Blake didn't play his game in my opinion. i know he already plays a little timid, but tonight took the cake and it was very unfortunate to see as he stalled the offense everytime he came down the court. He held the ball and caused bad shots to be taken with the shot clock winding down. That was done on more than one occassion tonight. I'm done for the night and hope we can improve our team play for Friday.

I hate having to defend the guy but Blake played the way the team wanted him to play. That is: Play good defense on Brooks, bring the ball up the floor and hand it to Mr. Roy. He did all of those things, plus got a couple of opportunistic baskets and a three pointer. Considering what he was doing on the defensive side of the ball I think he did as well as any other guard on the team would have.

It is obvious to me that the game plan is for Roy to dominate the ball during the post season. I find no fault with this plan. Blake's roll on the team during this series is different then it was during the regular season. That is to be expected.

 

[bintim]

Joel held the team together he was talking a lot and getting their heads in the game. Blake will bust out a big game and then he will be the hero again. We are what we are.

 

[hasoos]

Blake was the only guy who was forcing Brooks to his bad side. He was the only guy who paid attention to scouting. Brooks is one of those fast, scoring PG types that gives us problems. The way you make it Houstons problem, is attacking Brooks. Unfortunately for us, that is not a strong suit of most of our PG games. There is only one, and he is our 3rd stringer and will not get time. Right now, the Rockets are playing our stars straight up and holding our role players in check by staying home. That is why Roy and Aldridge has the bulk of the points. The problem is, that the weak part of many Houstons players game (Brooks and Wafer) is there defense. Rudy should be attacking Wafer all night long, and giving us that 3rd scoring option. Wear him out on the defensive end so is not as effective on the O.