"shot, shot, shot"

Here's a quote from a Blazers Edge interview with Brandon Roy following that ridiculous Portland-Houston game. (found on TrueHoop)

Blazersedge: When Barry was on you, were you thinking "shot, shot, shot"?

Nah, I was thinking "be aggressive" every time. Make a play. I was able to make some. Miss some. Normally it's about playing 48 minutes.

Tonight it was 53 minutes.

And I was finally able to make some plays.

I've really laid the Chuck on thick lately, but I can't resist:

This is from Jason Friedman's article and interview with Sam Hinkie, Houston Rockets Vice President of Basketball Operations

"Chuck Hayes, to me, falls into that category as a 6’ 5’’ big who doesn’t block many shots or play above the rim, but uses his lateral quickness in a way to be a tremendous help defender. He’s already an excellent individual one-on-one defender, but he’s also proven to be a tremendous help defender for his teammates in that, when you get beat on pick-and-rolls – and everyone does – and when you get beat off the dribble by these great players in our game with tremendous speed – and everyone does – to have a guy who can physically get there to defend or take a charge is huge."

One more note on the Mavericks game. The big 3 that Artest knocks down at the top of the key to close out the game (3 minutes left in the game, puts the lead over 10) - the execution of the stagger screen was flawless. And guess who had to make the critical second pick? Chuck Hayes. Josh Howard went under the first screen thinking he could cut back to close out on Artest's shot, but then Chuck finds the right position to send Howard deeper inside so that Artest had, as Fratello would say, "plenty of space." Watch it on ClutchFans at like 7:30 in the clip.

Mavs game

That game was so much fun to watch. Artest is doing exactly what he needs to do for us to win: knocking down 3s, playing D on J-Ho and Dirk, taking it in and making his free throws.

Aaron definitely outplayed Jason Kidd when he was on the floor. He guarded Jason Terry fairly well, too. The PG position can finally be considered adequate if not strong. Barry and Aaron and Rafer, one of them can get the job done if the others aren't feeling it.

It's not a perfect comparison, but if you look at the Texans' running back position (Slaton the rookie is quick but inexperienced, Green is less explosive, but you want him in there to give the rookie some rest and to do what veterans do) this is just how I see Aaron and Rafer working out their minutes together. Both of them benefiting from the rest, and the team benefiting from the diversity of talents.

As for Luther, if he was 2 inches taller he'd play the back-up shooting guard for us. But he isn't, so I will regretably have to agree with these nutjobs.

Oh yea. Yao was perfect.

Boxscore Highlights:

Ron Artest: Free Throws 6-6
Chuck Hayes: Minutes - 25:18
Tracy McGrady: Minutes - 29:56
Fast Break Pts: Hou - 11 Dal - 37
+/- Hayes: +21, Barry: +21, Brooks: +22

Adelman via Jason Friedman's AWESOME POST GAME ARTICLE WITH SO MANY QUOTES IT WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD EXPLODE:

"You can’t say enough about the second group. Aaron gave us a huge lift and Brent (Barry) and Chuck Hayes was terrific defensively in the second half. Just showed we can be pretty good if we just stay with it. We’ve got a lot of guys that can help.”

"Ron was terrific the whole game," said Adelman. "Took some big shots, defended well. It was a great team win... And all along I was hoping to play Chuck. I didn’t even worry about Chuck getting three fouls in the first half. I had to put him in. He’s got to do the best job, he’s got to stay solid. He does so many things for us when he’s on the court.”

From Jason Friedman:

"And 1's: Last year, free throw shooting was a constant thorn in the Rockets' side. And while it's only been two games, Houston is showing signs of marked improvement from the charity stripe this season. One night after hitting 21-of-25 (84%) against Memphis, the Rockets knocked down 29-of-31 (93.5%) versus Dallas."