<div align="center"><font color="red">Rockets (11-18)</font> at <font color="maroon">Cavaliers (19-10)</font> Thursday, January 5th, 2006 Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland 7:00 CT; TNT </font> <font size="1">[imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/juwan_howard.jpg[/imgl]<font color="red">Juwan Howard</font> PPG: 8.9, RPG: 6.4, BPG: 0.11 Howard has stepped up magnificently since Yao Ming went down with an injury. In the seven games without Yao, Howard averaged 16.4 PPG and 8.3 RPG. He stepped up as a second scoring option, and against Washgton, scored 24 points while going 10-14 from the floor. If Howard steps up to the plate and delivers again, the Rockets will benefit greatly. </font> <font size="3">Keys to the Game</font> <font color="red">Three-Point Shooting</font> - A big part of the <font color="red"><font size="-2">Was messing around with the layout when I deleted the Keys to the Game and the Game Notes. Too busy to do it again, but basically the Rockets will need to hit their outside shots, defend seamlessly and get Swift going again. The Cavs need to penetrate and draw fouls on the Houston big men, hit their threes to open up the lanes and contain TMac. And I predicted a Rockets win. Sorry about the stupid edit. - Locke</font></font>
Great Preview...This is gonna be a very close game. I've seen Cav games and if a team shuts down Lebron, they will shut down Cav offense. ESPN has said the same and watching the game will show you that if you control Lebron and don't let him go wild like hes prone to do, Rockets will win.
Nice preview Locke. Another nice win to come? Keys to the game look good. IF the Rockets can get some 3 point shooting and Stro going, that is a definite win imo. Defense on the guards and Lebron will also be important, but the Rockets wont have a problem with that. They aren't great penetrating guards, and like to shoot and pass more. I hope their is a showdown in the 4th quarter between Tracy and LeBron.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting igotask8board:</div><div class="quote_post"> I hope their is a showdown in the 4th quarter between Tracy and LeBron.</div> That would be cool, but I think I'd prefer it if Tracy's on the bench in the 4th quarter because we're leading by 30 points.
Me too, if it was a showdown Tracy would ultimately win because he has a better shooting game than Lebron, but we need this win and we can't let Lebron prove us wrong.
Great preview. I'd like to see the collision between T-MAC and Lebron James. Should be an interesting game.
Great game. We shot the ball relatively well. Alston and Howard had a big game while Swift did things well that won't show up on the stat sheet.
Well, the much-hyped matchup lived up to expectations. It was all TMac in the first two quarters, then Lebron in the third and much of the fourth, but it was TMac who got the last laugh at the end. Jon Barry played today but he still looked to be bothered by his leg, having a huge ice bag wrapped around it on the bench. Mutombo rebounded well and played some good defense on Ilgauskas, although the Cavs were getting away with a lot of pushes in the back. Juwan Howard sunk 3 successive 20 foot jumpers from the top of the key to seal the game in the last two minutes. Also, Rafer Alston played a nice game with 18 and 6, and he took it to the hoop very often and was able to hit his outside shots when needed. TMac needs to make his free throws.
Swift and Howard just doesn't seem to be able to play together without one player not scoring. Swift i believe has reli become what we need and will play an even bigger role when yao comes back because thats when he can get the garbage boards and reli block shots help out and be the teams third option because he would be open all the time. GREAT GAME!!! mcgrady is now proving to the nba he can lead a team by himself and still win his team and him is reli showing that defence can win ball games.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Swift and Howard just doesn't seem to be able to play together without one player not scoring. Swift i believe has reli become what we need and will play an even bigger role when yao comes back because thats when he can get the garbage boards and reli block shots help out and be the teams third option because he would be open all the time.</div> Okay well I'm not really understanding this logic here. Howard is playing great, although he's inconsistent, he's not nearly as inconsistent as Swift. Howard is open all the time so why are you getting on him for taking Swift's minutes? Plus, he's actually making mid range shots while Swift is confined to points in the post, which is harder for players to pass to since he isn't the best at establishing. Although I must say Swift is a better rebounder and shot blocker, he can have good games in those areas without scoring. Scoring doesn't mean you have a good game or not, keep that in mind. Just yesterday they both had pretty good games. Anyway, good game for the Rockets. McGrady was huge for us and basically carried us for the first two quarters. Trip is right, he needs to make those free throws. However, I really did like the ball movement of the Rockets tonight. They found the open man a lot which meant higher percentages. Rafer Alston has actually helped this team more than I thought he would because he's actually playing with more agressiveness now- driving into lanes, getting to the open man, covering players on defense, and making better judgements (at least for this game).
Hmm....Rockets win! I am so suprised they can win since Cav just beat a good team(Forget which one) last night. I will DL this game using BT later. I didn't know Alston's comeback can make such a huge difference. I can't imagine how good Rockets would be after Yao and Sura's comeback. Wish Rockets can keep playing in the same intensity like these two games!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AznxBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">Okay well I'm not really understanding this logic here. Howard is playing great, although he's inconsistent, he's not nearly as inconsistent as Swift. Howard is open all the time so why are you getting on him for taking Swift's minutes? Plus, he's actually making mid range shots while Swift is confined to points in the post, which is harder for players to pass to since he isn't the best at establishing. Although I must say Swift is a better rebounder and shot blocker, he can have good games in those areas without scoring. Scoring doesn't mean you have a good game or not, keep that in mind. Just yesterday they both had pretty good games. Anyway, good game for the Rockets. McGrady was huge for us and basically carried us for the first two quarters. Trip is right, he needs to make those free throws. However, I really did like the ball movement of the Rockets tonight. They found the open man a lot which meant higher percentages. Rafer Alston has actually helped this team more than I thought he would because he's actually playing with more agressiveness now- driving into lanes, getting to the open man, covering players on defense, and making better judgements (at least for this game).</div> No no no thats not what i ment. i ment that we just can't seem to have a game wher both of them can put up 17pts together like one is alwayz good like 20pts and the other one like 6-8 i was jus wonderin why the cannot seem to have a game where both play like on the same level like one seems to put up better stats than others besides stromile gettin good minutes so i not gettin on howard for the more minutes. i was jus wonderin why it alwayz seems to be one good and one bad
I'm so pleased to see Howard making a couple of mid-range jumpers. This is a very powerful weapon which we need to keep up. When Yao gets back and takes over the low post, we definitely need Howard shooting from the high post accurately which would partially frees up Yao from doubleteamming. Just keep up.
Nice win. I'm kind of surprised teams aren't double McGrady as aggressively as Toronto and Utah did. It appears that the Rockets are running some different plays to get him good looks closer to the basket, though. LeBron James was awesome through the first 3 quarters, but we did a good job forcing other guys to beat us in the fourth quarter. Mutombo was great, and Howard looks to be in a great rhythm the past few weeks. I really like how Alston has played since he's come back as well, and Head might be out of his slump. Another key, of course, was the Cavs were just cold from 3-point land while we were able to hit some key shots. Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good. It looks like Yao is now only 2-3 weeks away from returning, which is earlier than I expected. We just might be able to turn this season around after all.
T-Mac exposed LeBron James lack of defensive awareness on the court tonight. The Cavs really missed Larry Hughes tonight and were forced to play LeBron on T-Mac. I was surprised the Cavs didn't start Ira Newble on T-Mac, to prevent him from finding a rhythm. The Rockets interior defense won the game for Houston. The Cavs could not get anything going on the inside like they normally do, and settled for perimeter shots. They shot 16 three pointes in the 1st half, and 13 more in the 2nd half, and only got to the charity stripe 18 times. Shooting 11 more 3 pointers than free throws is the formula for a loss in the NBA. If Rafer Alston can play efficiently for the Rockets all season, they'll be a lock to make the playoffs. He had 6 assists and ZERO turnovers, 4 stls, and was 6 for 6 from the FT line. The last few games the Rockets have really lacked a second option on offense, and Rafer filled that void tonight. Now the Rockets need to figure out how to win at home. They are only 3-9 at the Toyota Center this year, and playing .500 on the road.
No one could really stop LeBron in the 1st and 3rd quarter though. I mean letting him go 13 out of 19 in field goal attempts (68.4%) was pretty disappointing, especially the 2 consecutive treys near the end of the 3rd quarter. Yes, I thought the Rockets were kinda lucky, because I thought the Cavs took some pretty good look 3s, they just couldn't knock them down. Going small with Damon Jones and Eric Snow really let our backcourt take a height advantage that we've rarely seen.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">Nice win. I'm kind of surprised teams aren't double McGrady as aggressively as Toronto and Utah did.</div>Agreed. Toronto was able to beat us with aggressive double-teaming and closing off possible avenues for TMac to drive to the lane, forcing him to pass it off. Last night, Donyell Marshall and Drew Gooden were slow on coming out all night, and I thought Ilgauskas was the only one who did it effectively, but he was limited because Howard sets a lot more picks than Mutombo. It'll be interesting to see if Sam Mitchell will once again employ their double-teaming again.
big game by SKIP. When he handles the ball in the O doubling TMac is more difficult, and that will be the key. His scoring is a huge plus. I said it before that Skip is the only one that can truly run the O and allow TMac to get the ball where he wants it. Though Stro only got 20min his activity stayed at his new found high level. J.Howard hit his open j's and everyone did their little bit in support of the great TMAC. Deke clogged the middle and the Cavs three pointers were luckily off. Those were the other big reasons for winning.
