Rockets 93 - Clippers 75

by Steve Perrin on Apr 17, 2008 10:39 AM PDT in News

Glad that's over with.

The Clippers lost their 59th game of the season in the finale. Appropriately, pretty much no one played particularly well. Maggette had 22 points, but only 4 after halftime, and he turned the ball over 4 times. Elton Brand had 18/12 and 3 blocks, but shot only 5 for 14. And sadly, Al Thornton followed up three straight 20 point performances with one of his worst games of the season - 2 points on 1 for 8 shooting. Not really ending on a high note.

I know the Rockets handled the Clippers easily twice in the last 10 days (which isn't saying much of course), but I just get the impression that these guys are first round fodder. Tracy McGrady is shooting under 40% in March and April, which happens to correspond to when Yao has been out. And seriously, where are they going to go for points in the playoffs if McGrady isn't hitting shots? I know they continued to win (a lot) after Yao went down. But it seems possible that adrenaline pushed them through to 22 straight. Since the streak ended, they're a mediocre if respectable 9-7. But that record looks a lot less respectable when you look at their 9 victims - 2 wins over the Clippers, 2 over Seattle, 1 over Minnesota, 1 over Sacramento. They actually played 4 of their final 7 games against the Clippers and the Sonics. Are you kidding? Their record against teams with winning records since the streak ended? That would be 2 and 6, with 5 losses coming by 17 or more points. It looks like another first round exit for TMac.

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A Sense of Relief

Yes, now that it's over with, it can't get any worse.

Welcome to the offseason, everyone. Good luck to us all.

I managed to watch the better part of this game, without getting too high-speed-DVR happy. And I was thinking less about the weakness of the Rockets than I was about who was on the floor for the Clips and how the game was managed. Some of that has to do with the Rockets, I suppose, as a comparison.

Obviously, we got to see Scola build his confidence going against Josh Powell in some sort of inverse proportion to Shane Battier crushing AT's spirit, all with Maggette (and Fazekas and BKnight) watching from the bench. I don't know about you, but I would have liked to see Fazekas against Mutombo and let Brand take on Scola. By the time Brand moved over, Scola already had 10 points and was having a big game, Brand was struggling a bit on offense and the Rockets were up by 15. Somehow Powell turned into the starter (except when Tim Thomas has shown up) for this final stretch run, even when the matchups don't seem to fit. Scola is a very good player, and by the time Fazekas was guarding him he was throwing in hook shots on his way to a career high. Not that Fazekas is much of a defender, but it just seems nuts to watch Powell get torched, then bring Fazeke in to play against Chuck Hayes and Landry--guys that Powell matches up perfectly against. Note to MD: you can play Fazekas at center, pretend he's kind of like Kaman, and then Brand can play his natural position.

All of these minor irritations are behind us now. Like how it didn't take much for MD to have Maggs come off the bench, a combination of coming back from the tweaked hamstring and wanting Mobley out there to slow down McGrady. But all it did was fire up Battier to make Thornton absolutely miserable.

And exactly what did Smush do to work his way into being a starter to the extent that Dickau is getting thrown a few end of the season garbage time minutes? I suppose MD just got sick of having 6 ft PGs in the NBA--except that Houston is playing Bobby Jackson and Aaron Brooks.

The clips with the fierce bright light aimed straight at Dunleavy as he talked about exit interviews and watching film for the draft on the plane home was pretty amusing, the hot light and classic MD grill and blue eyes having just a hint of war criminal or reactionary regime mystique. But maybe I've been reading too much South African lit.

by citizen zhiv on Apr 17, 2008 12:22 PM PDT reply actions