How about those Rockets?

[g$$]

Gutty win on road in toughest NBA place to play at Utah (best home record again). Jazz only lost 4 games all year at home I believe, & one was to Rockets previously with Yao playing & Tracy McGrady tossing in 47 early in season.

Rockets tried to blow it...up 7 w/ 1:30 to play & then the fun began. McGrady took a bad shot, Utah hit 2 threes, offensive foul on McGrady, & then McGrady missed badly to set up final possession. Rookie Carl Landry (who played well & lost a tooth/broke nose in 1st half) came up with block of his life on Deron Williams' drive. He even saved the ball to Luis Scola & that ended up being it. FT made it 94-92 Final.

McGrady gets a lot of criticism but scored 7/10 points in Rockets' 10-0 run to eventually win it. He took the ball to the rim & drew some fouls. Utah was in big-time foul trouble & that paid off for Houston. He ended up w/ 27 pts. & 7 assists. Also had a big block & rebound down the stretch. Rockets held Utah to 16 4th quarter pts.

Rafer Alston played well in his return from injury. Scola did his thing but struggled to finish at the rim vs. length. He will get better over time as he adjusts from European style of play (from Argentina I know, but played overseas for years). He hustles his tail off.

Still down 2-1 but it's a series now. Game 5 is back in Houston next week. Game 4 is Sat. night in Utah.

Nice job Rockets, showed a lot of toughness & heart playing without Yao (out until Chinese Olympics) & on road. Nice to see Landry playing like he was before knee injury. I like that guy's game.

[zebrablue2]

rafer alston was the difference. with him in the lineup, the ball is moved around with ease. if he would have played the first two games, we would have won at least one of the two in houston. hope they can even the series on sat. night, it will be a WAR..

[Bull Butter]

Good to have Rafer back, he makes a huge difference because he can actually shoot the ball

[Adidas410s]

Utah wins Game 4
Houston wins Game 5
Utah wins game 6

Utah 4
Houston 2

SERIES OVER

[Reds fan]

There are some reasons for optimism for the Rockets, Alston returning is one but last night the Rockets still missed a lot of shots in the paint- particularly Scola. IF they can turn that aspect of the game around and hit free throws they stand a chance to even the series before returning home.

[BreckTxLonghorn]

Good win for the Rockets. Hopefully the Mavs can get some of that Texas magic at home tonight. We need it after being tremendously outplayed the past game and a half.

[STANG RED]

Wasnt it Houston that came back from 0-2 in two or three series several years back and ended up winning the finals. I think it was the first time that had ever happened. And I think round 1 and maybe even 2 were just 5 game series back then, which made it even more remarkable.
Wish I had gotten to see the game last night. Sounds like it was a good one.

[jlg043]

good game last night, came down to the final seconds, hope we pull of a second one saturday

[eagles_victory]

Originally posted by STANG RED
Wasnt it Houston that came back from 0-2 in two or three series several years back . I remember them having it done to them a couple years back.

[Bull's-eye]

Originally posted by STANG RED
Wasnt it Houston that came back from 0-2 in two or three series several years back and ended up winning the finals. I think it was the first time that had ever happened. And I think round 1 and maybe even 2 were just 5 game series back then, which made it even more remarkable.

They had blown to home games to Phoenix, in which they had leads of about 20 points in each game. The local paper labeled them choke city, but with them coming back to win it all, the phrase clutch city became their new phrase.

[gtownfan]

Originally posted by STANG RED
Wasnt it Houston that came back from 0-2 in two or three series several years back and ended up winning the finals. I think it was the first time that had ever happened. And I think round 1 and maybe even 2 were just 5 game series back then, which made it even more remarkable.
Wish I had gotten to see the game last night. Sounds like it was a good one.

That was loosing the first 2 at home and was in 94 against the Suns. Remember Choke City, which was changed to Clutch City when they won the first championship!

The Lakers did this also in the 60's and the Rockets were on the bad end when the Marvericks did it to them a couple years ago (they showed this last night during the game).

[Bull's-eye]

Originally posted by eagles_victory
I remember them having it done to them a couple years back.

Dallas came back after losing the first two home games and ended up beating the Rockets in 7 games, but Dallas did not win the finals.

[eagles_victory]

Originally posted by Bull's-eye
Dallas came back after losing the first two home games and ended up beating the Rockets in 7 games, but Dallas did not win the finals. when did i ever say dallas won the finals? I didnt mean to quote the part about the NBA finals

[JasperDog94]

Originally posted by g$$
Rookie Carl Landry (who played well & lost a tooth/broke nose in 1st half) came up with block of his life on Deron Williams' drive. I've heard no blood no foul, but come on guys. No foul was called on that play, yet AK47 acted like he was shot in game 2 against Houston and got a controversial foul called on Scola as Bobby Jackson hit a tying 3. (it was waved off) There was another play like that last night were Okur flopped back and drew a foul on either McGrady or Battier. Same ol' Jazz.:rolleyes:

[JasperDog94]

It all comes down to fundamentals folks.

Rockets Free Throw percentages:

Game 1 - 62.1
Game 2 - 61.5
Game 3 - 72.7

:cool:

[navscanmaster]

Originally posted by JasperDog94
I've heard no blood no foul, but come on guys. No foul was called on that play, yet AK47 acted like he was shot in game 2 against Houston and got a controversial foul called on Scola as Bobby Jackson hit a tying 3. (it was waved off) There was another play like that last night were Okur flopped back and drew a foul on either McGrady or Battier. Same ol' Jazz.:rolleyes:

Ahh, yes, the days of Karl "Floppy" Malone. Stockton and Hornachek were my favorites, though. Even when they were killing my Rockets. :mad:

[Bull's-eye]

Not being a homer, but I've seen some very bad calls go against the Rockets. Houston was up by 4 with less the minute to play, when T-Mac was called for an offensive foul. AK47 was all over McGrady and wasn't even allowing him space to advance up court. All this was going on and T-Mac didn't even have the ball. On the last play of the game, AK47 tried another flop. Luckily, the refs didn't fall for it again. Check out the flop from game 2, if you listen toward the end you will hear what really made AK47 fall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hSaX7zNCMY

[g$$]

Originally posted by STANG RED
Wasnt it Houston that came back from 0-2 in two or three series several years back and ended up winning the finals. I think it was the first time that had ever happened. And I think round 1 and maybe even 2 were just 5 game series back then, which made it even more remarkable.
Wish I had gotten to see the game last night. Sounds like it was a good one.

Championship years of 1994 & 1995. That's where "Clutch City" began, after PHX went up 2-0 in '94 & then back came the Rockets. Mario Elie sealed the final game w/ the kiss of death. Heart of a Champion & all that stuff came the next year when we repeated.

Those were good times. Olajuwon was the best player in the NBA during that time period (MJ was trying to hit a curveball, but Dream takes a backseat to no one anyway). Drexler came via trade to help him in 1995.

(lost to Dallas 2 years ago after going up 2-0 too)

[g$$]

Originally posted by JasperDog94
I've heard no blood no foul, but come on guys. No foul was called on that play, yet AK47 acted like he was shot in game 2 against Houston and got a controversial foul called on Scola as Bobby Jackson hit a tying 3. (it was waved off) There was another play like that last night were Okur flopped back and drew a foul on either McGrady or Battier. Same ol' Jazz.:rolleyes:

Just like Stockton & Malone. Two of the hardest working, toughest guys around, yet they would flop & should have been given Academy Awards. These Jazz do it too. (I agree with you, not sure if you thought I was saying something different. Landry blocked it clean all the way).

Series could easily be 2-1 Rockets with a different call or two (AK47 falling off Titanic...). See what happens.

[Bull's-eye]

Thank goodness for the Landry block, replays show Boozer unguarded ready to slam home a miss shot.

[Gobbla2001]

I used to really hate floppers, until we got GINOBILLLLLLIIII... Now I just realize that 99% of flops are actually fouls, the players just want to make sure the refs notice it...

big flop in the game where the three was waved off... but it was a foul... without the flop it wouldn't have been called...

[g$$]

Originally posted by Gobbla2001
I used to really hate floppers, until we got GINOBILLLLLLIIII... Now I just realize that 99% of flops are actually fouls, the players just want to make sure the refs notice it...

big flop in the game where the three was waved off... but it was a foul... without the flop it wouldn't have been called...

I hate floppers on any team. Bill Laimbeer did it too. Now, you mentioned Ginobili. His Argentina teammate Scola does it too - must be their way. And, not all flops are fouls. It is often acting TRYING to sell a call. Scola did extend his arm but at that point in a very physical game, I have a problem with the call. Ticky-tack that did not affect the play. You could call that garbage every possession. Bad call.

[JasperDog94]

Originally posted by Gobbla2001
big flop in the game where the three was waved off... but it was a foul... without the flop it wouldn't have been called... If that was a foul then every single play of every single game is a foul. Scola does what you're taught to do. He was boxing out and touched AK, nothing more.