<div align="center"> VS</div> When: Friday, Dec. 23rd 8:00 PM(CT) Where: Pepsi Cola Center Denver, Colorado Local TV: FSN SW <div align="center"> Houston Rockets D.WesleyG/T.McGrady:SG/R.Bowen:SF/J.HowardF/S.Swift:C Denver Nuggets A.MillerG/D.Johnson:SG/C.Anthony:SF/K.MartinF/M.Camby:C </div> The Rockets continues its injury woes as they might lose Moochie Norris due to the quadricep strain he had suffered during the last game against the Raptors leaving 8 healthy players to fight for survival of the team. Though the Nuggets have their share of injuries they're just minimal compared to what the Rockets have. Expect the Nuggets' frontcourt to pound the Rockets' frontcourt as they will enjoy the absence of intimidating Rockets' giants in the name of Yao and Mutombo unless Swift goes on to his occasional defensive game. We know Swift alone cannot stop the Nuggets mobile big men so Howard and Bowen must do their share defensively. Another thing that will worry the Rockets is the penetration play of Andre Miller. Everytime he faces the Rockets he usually had a good offensive game. Same goes also for Anthony whose in his best shape nowadays with his enhanced mobility and athleticism. The Rockets should tighten up the paint and take the lessons they learned from the Raptors game in which they were outscored inside the paint. It remains to be seen if TMac can go back to his usual dominating self. It's a big burden to carry a team if you only have three players(Wesley,Head,Howard) you can rely on to score. Count Moochie if he's playing tonight. Swift depends on pick and rolls, putbacks, alley hoops and open jumpshots to score. He does'nt even have the post moves you can rely on a big man. Besides it will be hard for him to score against defensive dynamo Camby whose having a career year and pesky K.Mart. As usual Bowen will have a field day shooting open jumpers he rarely makes. It's a pity Baxter and Graham did'nt earned enough playing time to gain confidence as well as the coach's trust. Expect TMac to be surrounded by 2 to 3 opposing players that will try to disrupt his effectiveness and will tire him out. Both teams have very good coaches. George Karl and Jeff Van Gundy had led their team to fantastic finishes last season. Right now they still have things in common, having a hard time leading their teams to a winning record. <div align="center"></div> The Nuggets should have an easy time tonight especially the frontcourt unless TMac is possessed and become unstoppable. Going against the Nuggets' interior defense with physical players like Camby and Martin might take toll on TMac so he should be careful to avoid injury. Another injury to him would probably be a doom for the Rockets' season. In order for the Rockets to win everyone must play with inspiration and pride. TMac has done a great job getting his teammates involved. The same should be done by the rest like giving TMac some screen so he might have room to operate effectively and give him some good looks to the basket. Those things were'nt done by his teammates in the Raptors game.
I will totally leap for joy if we win this game, seeing how we had almost a blowout at our own homecourt the other day with Raptors. Sigh... supposedly Rafer Alston and Jon Barry should be back by now at least? And Swift only played 12 minutes according to the box score. What do we have at center when Swift is in foul trouble? Baxter? Well some hope I have is that T-Mac usually goes crazy against the Nuggets, and I still remember that awesome 45 point/12 board night that was a victory.
I just found out Swift got kicked in the last game, he was hurting. So there is no gurantee that Swift will play either. If Swift doesn't play, that leaves only Lonny Baxter to hold down the post, which will certainly make the Nuggets laugh at us. I guess the key to the game is making the Nuggets feel cocky and overconfident andthen have McGrady take off, maybe. If they double and triple team McGrady and McGrady is having trouble, then the key I guess, is to kill them on the perimeter with what perimeter players we have left (Head and the inconsistent Wesley). Anyway, if we play lockdown defense, play smart and cut down on fouls and turnovers, we should have a decent chance of beating the struggling Nuggets.
i just think the other playoff team contenders that are close to 8 are goign to beat us this season cause most of them dont have injured players like us, this game is going to be close until the begginng of 4th, the denver goes on fire, but we catch up wth them at the end
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I just found out Swift got kicked in the last game, he was hurting. So there is no gurantee that Swift will play either. If Swift doesn't play, that leaves only Lonny Baxter to hold down the post, which will certainly make the Nuggets laugh at us. </div> Well since Nene is out for the season with that torn ACL or whatever, Kenyon Martin is their main man for the powerforward position. However, he's been injuried several times this season and has basically been questionable for every game. Trust, me, as a fantasy owner of his, this frustrates me. Martin doesn't play too much minutes since they don't want to aggravate this injury and backing him up is either Elson or Kleiza. So if you think about it, their post position isn't much better than ours.
We need both yao and mcgrady to win.. Only 1 person cant carry us.. If we lost to Toronto (one of the worst teams in the NBA)!... we cant beat Denver! A quik question!!! When is yao comin back?
I don't think its the end of the season for the Rockets just yet. We don't even have a center, but Deke will be back soon and then we will have A REAL line up. Swift gets to many fouls and can't rebound like Deke. Alston and Anderson should be back soon after that and then we can start winning some games. Good Luck Rockets .
I think this is the worst shooting game of the rockets so far. TMac,Head Wesley and Swift had a bad night. It's hard when you don't have a defensive threat inside. Everybody looks tired and have a hard time defending. If we continue to play with the same number of players it will take toll on the health of our current starters due to overfatigue. Swift's days might be numbered if he continues to play below expectation. JVG could have given him more minutes but he's foul trouble and turnover prone. He doesn't rebound the ball well also. Baxter is even more deserving to have playing time. I have lots of hope for Swift but it's already running out. How I wish the Rockets would trade Swift and a second round pick for Ron Artest. At least TMac won't be force to carry the team all by himself especially with Yao almost gone for an indefinite amount of time.
Give up why bother just give up this season? We can let Yao rest as long as the season ends and play T-MAC around 20mins/game. Then next season we will have a healthy Yao and magic T-Mac without back spasm and a nice draft pick priority. Why dont we agree? Just forget the playoff this season and plant the seed for our championship next season.
Hmm...I don't think Rockets manager will allow Van Gandy give up the rest season. That will drive the fans mad. However, don't worry about the draft priority problem. I believe this wouldn't be a problem if Rockets keep playing as the way they play now.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> why bother just give up this season? We can let Yao rest as long as the season ends and play T-MAC around 20mins/game. Then next season we will have a healthy Yao and magic T-Mac without back spasm and a nice draft pick priority. Why dont we agree? Just forget the playoff this season and plant the seed for our championship next season.</div> If you do that, players like McGrady and Yao will be pissed off at the front office. You're basically telling them to throw away this season when it hasn't even gone midway yet. Basically, you're telling them to play uninspired, lazy, and frustrated basketball. Yao's probably going to be back in a month or so which means we could have a late push for a playoff spot- kind of what we did last year. Plus, what do you think that would do to the ticket sales? Once people start catching on that the Houston Organization is only playing McGrady for twenty minutes and not play Yao at all, they won't be going to home games anymore. Which means, there's less money in the pockets of the big guys up front. Ain't gonna happen.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dingking:</div><div class="quote_post">why bother just give up this season? We can let Yao rest as long as the season ends and play T-MAC around 20mins/game. Then next season we will have a healthy Yao and magic T-Mac without back spasm and a nice draft pick priority. Why dont we agree? Just forget the playoff this season and plant the seed for our championship next season.</div> If you have a chance to make the Playoffs, why give up? The Rockets have a chance to get to the second round and make some noise this season. Its funny how you see the worst in "fans" when a team has only nine players and loses. At least wait until we have a TRUE player at each position, or 10 players so the minutes would not be a burden to our bench warmers.
TMac is frusterated. Has to feel like his Orlando days right now, and there is nothing that can be done. These next 2-8 weeks hopefully wont break the teams morale. The team like the fans must just feel helpless. TMac's face said it all when he was sitting in the fourth, for those who saw. Baxter should start at center next game, hopefully not pick up four fouls in the first again, because he and J.Howard dont shy from contact on the boards like Stro seems to.
But from their perfprmance and facial expression, I can tell they were doing exactly what I mentioned in my previous post. We just cant make the playoff due to various reasons which we can not change it radically at this time. I might be too pessimistic, but ...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting igotask8board:</div><div class="quote_post">If you have a chance to make the Playoffs, why give up? The Rockets have a chance to get to the second round and make some noise this season. Its funny how you see the worst in "fans" when a team has only nine players and loses. At least wait until we have a TRUE player at each position, or 10 players so the minutes would not be a burden to our bench warmers.</div> When we wait till having our true players in each position, it's gonna be in late Feb. I hope i jinx it that our win percentage would be around 35%-40% at that time. I didn't blame the bad record for our team, but we just have little chance to make the late push to get us a ticket for the postseason.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dingking:</div><div class="quote_post">When we wait till having our true players in each position, it's gonna be in late Feb. I hope i jinx it that our win percentage would be around 35%-40% at that time. I didn't blame the bad record for our team, but we just have little chance to make the late push to get us a ticket for the postseason.</div> Right now, we're what, 10-15? That's 25 games played so far. The NBA season is 82 games long, and the waters are murky regarding playoff positioning until 60 or so games have been played. Essentially, we have 35 more games to get into the picture. If we can be anything close to 30-30 at 60 games, we'll be fighting for one of the last spots. We're not a 6-21 team, and I definitely don't want the team to play like one. Throwing seasons away is just unethical. Why didn't we throw the season away in Yao's rookie season to draft Lebron?
