Kleeman's Last Word

Are the Rockets Ready for the Playoffs?

With the Rockets' 86-83 home loss to the Utah Jazz and hopes of catching them mostly squandered in the books, it's time to examine the question that really matters: is this team ready for the playoffs?

SUNDAY'S GAME OFFERS SOME CLUES

I sure hope Scott Wall, and Steve Javie for that matter, are on a beach somewhere during the playoffs. These blind idiots have no business officiating important games. Javie has earned my chagrin in previous contests. Wall made up for lost time in Sunday's game. With less than 2 minutes to go, Wall whistled Shane Battier for a blocking foul that gave Carlos Boozer an 'and 1' opportunity. This play, that allowed Utah to take its first and lasting lead of the 4th quarter, was clearly a charge. Battier had himself planted outside of the circle when he saw Boozer trouncing down the lane. It was a horrible call that fit an evening full of even more horrible calls. I subscribe to the notion that foul calls should never decide the outcomes of games, and more than Wall's ineptness cost the Rockets a must-win, but Sunday was ridiculous.
Of course it's hard to top Javie calling Michael Finley for a foul in the Dallas-San Antonio series when Finley was standing by himself at the top of the key. I wonder if these two refs have some hidden infatuation with Halloween, given all the phantom fouls they call.

But beyond the poor whistling, the embarrasing shooting by both clubs also tells a tale. Sure, Utah had four layups in the final minutes that helped the Rockets 77-70 lead evaporate. Even with that, Utah shot one percentage point less than the Rockets and still won by 3 points. Utah is a come from behind team; they make tough wins a habit.
Utah made 8 more free throws than the Rockets because they shot 12 more overall. A 3 point loss under these circumstances is not the end of the world, nor does it mean that Utah has a better team or an advantage in the playoffs.
If a 7 point lead in a competitive game was safe, the NBA wouldn't be worth the plastic drink coaster you set your beer on when you're watching it.

REFUTING SOME RIDICULOUS ARGUMENTS
1) Yao is not a superstar.
Nobody can stop Yao from dominating the paint, except Yao. Yao misssed a few point-blank shots in the 4th quarter, but what the hell else do you expect the guy to do? 35 points, 16 rebounds (that's 16!!!!) and 4 blocks. How these numbers not disgust you in that MVP sort of way? When you have a 7'6" center who is a great foul shooter, it would be stupid, even foolish not to exploit the size advantage he has over every NBA player. It's the same reason, players often end games hugging Dwyane Wade. If you don't foul the guy, he finishes a layup or dunks the ball. Yao should be regarded no differently.
At times on Sunday, he was the only player keeping us in the game. And it's not like Utah was lighting up the scoreboard either.

2) T-Mac is not competitive and should be traded
McGrady may have leaked a quitters attitude more than a few times with all of his back spasm troubles, but getting rid of him is the dumbest idea I have ever heard of.
No scorer, except maybe Kobe Bryant, can make the kind of shots that T-Mac cha-chings in clutch games. He can't make shots in the clutch?
Hmmm... I seem to remember a 115-111 overtime victory in Sacramento that McGrady had a little something to do with. I also seem to remember a few clutch shots that allowed the Rockets to be the only Texas team to win both regular season games against the Chicago Bulls.
McGrady has won me back with his play this season. Most scorers of his blood don't shoot the lights out with their FG %, but that's not the point.
In both playoff series' that McGrady has surrendered he had nowhere close to the kind of team he has with the Rockets now.

3) Yao and T-Mac will never work.

You may remember a 40-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks two seasons ago. Yep, the one that pained you for weeks after it happened. The one where you almost got beaten up by a Dallas Fan, where Dallasites chanted "Houston sucks" and had a good reason for doing so. T-Mac and Yao scored a combined 66 points in that game. The scoring tandem doesn't seem to be the problem there. The rest of the team, which only scored 12 points, might have been the issue - just maybe.
No other professional sports team has the kind of scoring duo that the Rockets have. And we're talking NFL, MLB, NCAA, NHL and especially the NBA. They may have trouble staying on the court together, but what they provide when they are is worth every game they're not.

4) We should trade "X" player(s) for Kevin Garnett

Every team that is not the Dallas Mavericks has some fan who believes KG will solve all of his/her team's woes. Garnett is a double-double machine. It's virtually a lock that you'll get a 20-10 night every time he plays. While that may be a hell of a guarantee for any team, it doesn't solve anything for the Rockets.
The Rockets aren't lacking in the talent department. They have it in spades. KG coming to the Rockets still doesn't work unless every player decides to show some heart, some championship poise.
If Rafer Alston was really keen on winning a title, that last 3-point attempt would never have missed. Teams that truly want to win titles don't lose important games. They win in whatever way they have to. That's why the Dallas Mavericks are 63-12.

They lost to Phoenix yesterday, in a game that meant relatively nothing toward the playoffs. They have the #1 seed locked up and have won the Southwest division. They could lose their remaining 9 games and still have had the best season in franchise history.
The Spurs will be hungry to tie up the season series when they play the Mavs for the final time this season. The Mavs losing that game will mean relatively nothing, either.

Which superstar(s) are helming the Rockets won't matter unless every player can find some motivational fuel. That, not talent, is the only way these Rockets will ever beat a team like Utah and a coach like Jerry Sloan in the playoffs.

posted by Robert Kleeman @ 10:34 AM