<div align="center"><font color="blue">New York Knicks (14-35)</font> at <font color="red">Houston Rockets (20-30)</font> Monday, February 12th, 2006 Toyota Center, Houston 8:30 ET; MSG and FoxSW at </div> [div=50%] <font size="3">Projected Starters</font> <div align="center"><font color="red"> <font size="1">(Rafer Alston, David Wesley Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Yao Ming) </font></font></div> <font size="1">Leading Scorer: Tracy McGrady - 26.0 PPG Leading Rebounder: Yao Ming - 9.3 RPG Assist Man: Rafer Alston - 6.4 APG The 'X' Factor: Stromile Swift (9.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 0.7 BPG)</font> [/div] <font size="3">Projected Starters</font> <div align="center"><font color="blue"> <font size="1">(Nate Robinson, Stephon Marbury, Jalen Rose, Maurice Taylor, Eddy Curry)</font></font></div> <font size="1">Leading Scorer: Jalen Rose - 20.3 PPG Leading Rebounder: Eddy Curry - 6.4 RPG Assist Man: Stephon Marbury - 6.9 APG The 'X' Factor: Eddy Curry (14.4 PPG, 6.4 RPG, .531 FG%)</font> <font size="3">Keys to the Game</font><ul>[*]<font color="blue">Contain Big Two</font> - As hard as it is, its going to be something the Knicks are going to have to do. Knicks have to put a man in front and back of Yao in order to deny him the ball. Meanwhile, they're going to need to put a hand in front of McGrady's face at all times.[*]<font color="blue">Get Curry into the Game</font> - It seems whenever Knicks get Curry into his flow and rhythm, the Knicks come up big. His percentages certainly show it. Shooting at a very efficient percentage, Curry can definitely put the flow of the game in favor of the Knicks.[*][*]<font color="red">Get Yao hot</font> - Give Yao the ball early and often to establish his shooting touch early going into the game. As the tallest player on the court, no one in the Knicks frontcourt can guard him so the Rockets should be taking full advantage of this.[*]<font color="red">Role Players step it up</font> - Yao and McGrady can't do it alone, so guys like Wesley, Hayes, Head, and Howard are going to have to step it up. Wesley, Head, and Howard can all score off the open looks from McGrady and Yao, so it pretty much means their shots need to be on for tonight.[*][/list] <font size="3">Prediction</font> Rockets pull away in the second half for a double digit win over the Knicks. Yao and McGrady come up big to ensure the win for us. Rockets: W, Knicks: L
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">sixers?</div> Oops, my bad. Thanks for the headsup.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TmacGarnett:</div><div class="quote_post">Tmac is having a horrendous night. Absolutly nasty.</div> Wesley and Yao are having great nights. I guess we just can't have a night when everyone shoots well, huh. Houston looks like it has the game on lock, despite just two players in double digits. 66-53 with 3 minutes left in the third.
I think with yaos dominating form right now jeff van gundy should cut down mcgrady's minutes down to twenty minutes hoping the back can loosen up and his body can rebuild it self to what it once was because come playoff time we can't have him like this. Since right now everyone else is playing well and yao is in a dominant form with keith bogans here now we can afford to leave mcgrady on the bench more and i am right now hoping that van gundy would leave mcgrady on the bench more because that body needs to recover and the way its been shooting lately he needs the rest plus hes been gettin blocked on jump shots of late by kirelinko and richardson from what i have heard. Swift comes in with what looks like an ok performance he needs to step it up more especially with his crappy tardiness
Mcgrady 3-20, that's horrible and yet the Rockets still win because of Yao's 24 pts. The Knicks are awful this season.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting NbaBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">Mcgrady 3-20, that's horrible and yet the Rockets still win because of Yao's 24 pts. <u>The Knicks are awful this season</u>.</div>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting NbaBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">Mcgrady 3-20, that's horrible and yet the Rockets still win because of Yao's 24 pts. The Knicks are awful this season.</div> Maybe you forget but this is a team and when T-Mac wasn't playing so well others woke up and stepped.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting tinyballer:</div><div class="quote_post">I think with yaos dominating form right now jeff van gundy should cut down mcgrady's minutes down to twenty minutes hoping the back can loosen up and his body can rebuild it self to what it once was because come playoff time we can't have him like this. Since right now everyone else is playing well and yao is in a dominant form with keith bogans here now we can afford to leave mcgrady on the bench more and i am right now hoping that van gundy would leave mcgrady on the bench more because that body needs to recover and the way its been shooting lately he needs the rest plus hes been gettin blocked on jump shots of late by kirelinko and richardson from what i have heard. Swift comes in with what looks like an ok performance he needs to step it up more especially with his crappy tardiness</div> longest sentence i have ever seen in my life...
Tmac needs to do the right thing for the team and skip the all star game. He needs to stay at home and rest.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting drake:</div><div class="quote_post">Maybe you forget but this is a team and when T-Mac wasn't playing so well others woke up and stepped.</div> I agree but with Tmac struggling, I expected the Knicks to pull up a win.
Skip should have gotten 10 plus assist again if TMac wasn't throwing up bricks. The looks he is getting from Skip comming off the screen look like they are giving him open shots, he just hasn't been able to knock anything down. He stopped forcing things and made some good passes finally. I just cant wait till TMac and Skip get that down to be an automatic 2pts Yao was forced to play physical with them bruisers NY has. Wish he could play like that no matter his opponent.
