Thoughts on Rockets Game 5 and 6
by Barking Carnival Staff on May 15, 2009 9:07 AM CDT
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PrintI watched the massacre that was game 5 from, ironically, downtown Boston, at a place called the Old Tavern. The highlights of the evening included the sheer horror I experienced from simply observing lathered up Celtics fan after a miracle win, talking to a couple of twenty something Irish bartenders who were fresh off the boat, and the best lobster I've ever eaten at a place called Legal Sea Food. When your meal is able to draw blood, you know you've had an exciting evening.
International boogie man.
But back to the game, the Rockets played possibly the most inept half of offensive basketball I've ever seen out an NBA playoff team. Rick Adelman should be awarded coach of the year based on this game alone. Any team with a scoring beta the size of the Rockets should feel lucky to get to .500 much less make the playoffs. The result was obvious going to be the Rockets get run out of the gym, especially when the other squad had Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, and Pau Gasol. Read that again, the squad opposing the Rockets roll out Bryant, Odom, and Gasol. The Rockets answer with offensive wizard Ron Artest. Think about that for a moment then do like I did and have 6 pints of Guinness and forget about the game.
My gut feeling on game six was to expect more of the same. Interestingly enough, the Rockets have similar issues to those of the 2008-2009 Texas Longhorns. They've got plenty of pieces, shooters, ballhandlers, defensive stoppers, and rebounders, but they don't really have players that a) mesh well together and b) have more than 2 or 3 of the above skills. You put Chucky Hayes in to defend Gasol, and you become even more pedestrian on offense plus Scola's lack of quickness gets exposed by Odom. Go with Scola on Gasol and Pau gets offense whenever he wants so you have to double to him and rotate to Kobe. Not good. Bring in a dynamic scorer like Wafer, and your team now has two black holes on the floor while Aaron Brooks gets the freeze out. There really aren't a lot of combinations that work. No shit, that's what happens when you lose McGrady, Ming, and Mutombo. Enter Carl Landry.
Not the greatest defensive player in the world, but Carl gives the Rockets an element that no other player on the roster gives them. He's an athletic big man that attacks the basket. He makes Gasol and/or Odom do things they aren't comfortable doing, like play defense.
Laker Killer.
The formula for the Game 6 victory was a carbon copy of Game 4. Pick and roll the Lakers to death exposing slow footed guards and big men that think showing on a screen simply means to throw one's arms up in the air and scare the ball handler into giving up the basketball. This has probably worked at some point in Pau Gasol's career as a homely power forward. My kids leave the room when the cameras zoom in to Gasol on the foul line. And that happens way too much if you've been paying attention. Ditto that for all the Lakers.
So Brooks and Scola, the most potent pick and pop combo the Rockets have, dominated the action on offense, while the collective Rocket defense played about as well as you can play against the Lakers collection of all-stars.
In game 7, if the Rockets can get a stalemate on the glass, hold the Lakers to under 40% from deep, and get a fair shake from the zebras, they have a shooter's chance to win. And by a shooter's chance, I mean they'll have to hit as many open looks on Sunday as they did last night. I suspect that Jackson will come up with a way to put the onus on Battier and Artest to hit shots, with the main goal of getting the basketball out of Aaron Brooks' hands. We'll see what happens, but the good news for Rocket fans is that the pressure is squarely on the broad shoulders of Kobe Bryant. I hope he tries to go Jordan on the Rockets, because I know Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant is no Michael Jordan, although Kobe's an assload better than Harold Minor and Roy Marble. That's for sure.
That said, I've lowered my expectations to the point that any outcome to the negative is fine. If H-town gets the win, however, I'll party like a Celtic fan. Now I know how.
Cheers to a Game 7.
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Legal Sea Food, glad someone enjoyed the food there. I’ve been to the one in Crystal City a few times, and never came away all that impressed.
Great write-up, trips.
by flimsy one liners on May 15, 2009 9:20 AM CDT reply actions
crap, I hate when I forget to change my poor attempts at wit…
by uthookem on May 15, 2009 9:20 AM CDT reply actions
Crystal City, Virgina for quarterly meeting with Navy folks in a previous job…good place to hang out, but Legal Sea Food was never a favorite…I don’t think my balls are big enough to eat any seafood in Crystal City, Tx!
by uthookem on May 15, 2009 9:36 AM CDT reply actions
The Lakers frontcourt has no heart — none, zip, zero, zilch
Gasol, Bynum and Odom were worthless. They let a 5-9 guard drive the lane uninhibited. The arrogance of this Lakers team is amazing, and I’m trying to figure out just what they have to be arrogant about.
Chris Mihm talked last year after the playoffs that Kobe and a couple of other players almost got into a fist fight on the flight back with Gasol and others he felt had just laid down and died against Boston.
I don’t see how much has changed, and I now believe that Denver will beat them.
by srr50 on May 15, 2009 9:43 AM CDT reply actions
I’m sure Stern will have crawford keeping the Rockets in the game since nugs/rockets would be great for his ratings and ultimate goal of kobe/lebron; assuming crawford is calling game 7, which there’s no doubt he will be.
granted, they play like they did in game 5, ref’s, jack, etc.. won’t matter.
by crock of shit on May 15, 2009 10:19 AM CDT reply actions
Dude, there are TWO legal seafoods in the Prudential Center. That’a a mall the size of Barton Creek. It’s pretty awesome. I had a conference there once and Ate a lobster at one end with a colleague (on the company card), then my boss called me from the other one and ordered me to join him for Sam Adams and Oysters. It was awesome.
by BatesHorn on May 15, 2009 10:21 AM CDT reply actions
Legal’s is one of those places that became so overrated that it’s now underappreciated.
by BrickHorn on May 15, 2009 10:26 AM CDT reply actions
Vash, no I’m married and my wife is a passionate hispanic woman so cheating would have dire consequences.
But when I got home from Boston we played this little game I like to call “illegal border crossing”.
by Trips Right on May 15, 2009 10:31 AM CDT reply actions
“But when I got home from Boston we played this little game I like to call "illegal border crossing".”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Is that the one where you hide in the bushes all night long and howl like a coyote until your Minute Man performs a cavity search?
by Texoz on May 15, 2009 11:05 AM CDT reply actions
Trips acts out scenes from El Norte while wearing a frayed Timmy Hardaway UTEP jersey.
Great stuff, Trips. I sat at the Alpine Inn bar last night and watched the game. The Rockets were having a blast. Kobe, not so much. Jordan was hard on his teammates but got them to perform. The Lakers just look like they think Kobe is a dick.
by Sailor Ripley on May 15, 2009 1:36 PM CDT reply actions
Trips and his wife have an agreement that he would only be allowed to cheat on her with Toraino Singleton.
by HenryJames on May 15, 2009 1:58 PM CDT reply actions
Does Trips have to wear the frayed Hardaway jersey if he hooks up with T. Thinglethon?
by RRR on May 15, 2009 3:20 PM CDT reply actions
Legal Seafood is fine, but the thing was that you were eating a lobster in New England. Period. Those mofos are FRESH. You could eat one straight out of Mark Wahlberg’s mother’s ass standing in a Southie gutter and it’s going to taste a bazillion times better than a flown-to-Houston lobster.
I hate to be the guy who says “no matter what happens on Sunday, I already consider this series a huge success because they’re taking L.A. to seven.” but I already consider this series a huge success because they’re taking L.A. to seven. Except that if/when L.A. wins and I have to watch Kobe standing around nodding his head with his phony-ass Tough Guy Jaw sticking out, I am going to want to throw a brick through the set, and then the set through a window. Winning this series under these circumstances would have to rank as one of the top greatest upsets in NBA playoff history. So I say, let’s do it. What the fuck.
by Woody Bombay on May 15, 2009 8:37 PM CDT reply actions
Woody- There’s a little shack right before you hit Bar Harbor where they steam the lobster’s in big kettles over maple wood fires. The lobsters have usually been out of the gulf of Maine for a couple of hours at the most and you get a big bowl of mussels as well. Food is served on paper plates on wood picnic tables over looking a little inlet by the bridge to Acadia National Park.
I’ve eaten at some nice places: The Inn at Little Washington and the French Laundry. Dogfood compared to this. If you haven’t added Coastal Maine in the late summer to your bucket list, do it today.
by BatesHorn on May 15, 2009 9:53 PM CDT reply actions
Bates,
My wife is a Yankee (one of the good ones, I swear!) and her family used to vacation on the Maine coast every summer when she was a kid. Many a time she took me to this place:
http://lobstershacktwolights.com/
It sounds similar to what you’re describing, and MAN is it good. I’ve eaten more lobsters and fried clams and lobster rolls there than I can numerate.
The Wife wants to retire to coastal Maine one day, and I’m wondering if the seafood is a fair trade-off for the winter weather. She hasn’t convinced me. Yet.
by Woody Bombay on May 16, 2009 2:41 AM CDT reply actions
i was starting to sense i may well be the only dude who seriously considered this, at the very least at present i recognize i’m not strange :) my goal is to be sure to disconver more about some various posts immediately right after i recieve a tad of coffee in me, it’s very tricky to read without having my coffee, adios for the time being :)
by Food Permits on Aug 15, 2010 12:45 AM CDT reply actions
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