Head and Rafer can't be put on the floor together, especially facing nimble guys like Billups and Hamilton. He should sit TMac when he got his 3rd foul, and played him a couple of minutes here and there in the 3rd quarter. No matter how hard the game was in the 3rd, he should still have got Yao those precious 3-4 minutes rest. Once you break that routine, you can't have him back in form in the fourth, especially the refs swallowed the whistles in the 4th. Hayes is sorely missed, and lacking of penetrating in the 3rd and 4th is just killing Rockets.
Great teams with iron minds can afford to play unchanged schemas, but this Rockets team is far from great, and the rotation is far from set. As long as Howard is getting heavy minutes, Yao will be punished by covering his a$$. Who would have thought?!!!! A missing Sura or a missing Hayes could make it so difficult. Both Yao and TMac need to get louder, be vocal leaders, not just leading by examples. They need to spank some behinds, and demand output from those lazy a$$es and the stubborn JVG. If he continues to play starters such heavy minutes that early in the season, if he can't light some fire from the team and instill some energy and confidence and poise into those buttheads, his days are numbered.
I apologize to everyone that I defended JVG so hard in the past. He's worn off my patience. Well, not entirely, but if I was Les or CD, I would put him on short leash. WTF!