<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"><div align="center"> VS </div> <font color=""DeepSkyBlue""> Denver</font> (31-27) at <font color=""Red"">Houston</font> (25-33) 8:30 pm EST HOUSTON (Ticker) - Coming off one of their most impressive wins of the season, the Denver Nuggets hope to ride that momentum to another victory against the Houston Rockets when the teams square off Friday. Denver has won five of its last seven games following Wednesday's impressive 98-87 triumph over Detroit. Kenyon Martin collected 28 points and 12 rebounds and Marcus Camby added 12 and 20 as the Nuggets dominated the league's best team on the boards, 59-35. Carmelo Anthony chipped in 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Denver, which is looking to improve to 3-0 against Houston this season. The Nuggets rolled to a 108-86 victory in the first meeting on December 23 behind Anthony's 25 points and pulled out a 92-90 win on January 8 as Anthony nailed the game-winning jumper with one second remaining. Houston is coming off Wednesday's 106-101 loss to Philadelphia despite 25 points from Tracy McGrady and 22 and 13 rebounds from fellow All-Star Yao Ming. Rafer Alston contributed 15 points and eight assists for the Rockets, who have dropped two straight since a stretch of 10 wins in 12 games. <font color=""Red"">Houston Rockets</font> Record: 25 - 33 (.431) Standings: Fifth, Southwest At Home: 10 - 18 At Road: 15 - 15 Streak: L 2 Season PPG: 90.7 Opp PPG: 92.0 FG%: .428 Opp FG%: .430 RPG: 41.9 Opp RPG: 41.1 <font color=""DeepSkyBlue""> Denver Nuggets</font> Record: 31 - 27 (.534) Standings: First, Northwest At Home: 19 - 12 At Road: 12 - 15 Streak: W 1 Season PPG: 100.4 Opp PPG: 100.0 FG%: .456 Opp FG%: .452 RPG: 41.3 Opp RPG: 42.9 NBA.com</div> Sorry, didn't have time to write an analysis for each player.
Great individual matchups in this game at the SF and C positions. Like with Phoenix and Philadelphia, transition D will be key. And we need be alert in stopping those lob passes.
yea this will be a great match up with the centers and sf's.. I think rockets will win this by atleast 7-11 points.. Score Rockets 108- Nuggs 99
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting MrJ:</div><div class="quote_post">Let's go Rockets! I have a stake in this game. Score: Houston 100, Nuggets: 90</div> All you have to show for your last time betting on a game is that nice sig of yours.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Swish15:</div><div class="quote_post">All you have to show for your last time betting on a game is that nice sig of yours. </div> Thanks to me. Rockets up 76-70 in the fourth quarter. Yao and McGrady are having great games again, and Swift has actually scored 14 points off the bench. Wesley and Alston are still struggling to make shots.
YES a nice win! Swift did great in return, Yao didn't get another dbldbl though (but T-Mac did) Yao got a great block on Andre Miller but later Boykins shot over him Why can't Rafer and Wesley shoot? I mean, come on, 2-10 for Rafer and 1-7 for Wes is just crappy...and they don't have those excuses like T-mac.
A great win by the Rockets. I have regain some of my optimism about making the playoffs this year. Mcgrady,Yao, and Swift all had great games today. The biggest question mark reagrding the Rockets is still the shooting of the guards. They really must pick it up, especially Wesley. I only watched the last part of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, and I was actually impressed with what I saw from Swift. He did a nice job of cutting to the basket when Yao was doubled. Also, his offensive rebounding and blocks were a major plus. Hopefully, he'll be more consistent and play this way for the rest of the season. While I'm on the subject of Swift let me mention something about him and free throws. This is something I brought up a few weeks ago. I saw two free-throw situations involving him, one where he is the shooter, and the other where he is one of the rebounders. Both times he made no attempt to carry on the ridiculous traditon of high-fiving after free-throws, whether they go in or miss. When he took his FT, he was high-fived, but it was only because someone else initiated the action. If you looked carefully, you'll see that swift was standing perfectly straight as someone approached him to slap his hand. He didn't even lean forward. When someone else was the FT shooter, Swift again stood there as everyone else showed some love toward the shooter. As you can probably tell, I am obsessed with how Swift acts during these FT's. It's one of my favorite things to pay attention to when watching the Rockets.
Yes baby!.. we finally got a win.. I like when rockets win and everybody contributes... I liked the balanced scoring excpet for alston/wesley... This was a good game.. i hope mcgrady got his rhythm back.. and good game by yao.. nice defense
Yao has continued to do well, and had a great showing against Camby TMac finally got his shot going L.Head's developement at PG is showing some benefits. He played well, made a couple shots, and limited his bad mistakes. I said when Bogans got here, he will be great if he doesn't fall in love with the 3 pt. line. He rebounds and can finish real well in close, but he has to stop shooting 3's. I think he has potential with a midrange game. How bout Hayes and K.Martin fighting hard on the block. Hayes held his own. He got a block on KMart and it led to an alley on the other end. Chuck is still impressive and improving. The biggest surprise was how good Stro's activity was. We all know when he shows hustle he looks good. Its just the consistency of his effort that kills him. Houston still looking for a shooter. But this is how the team was suppose to work. When the team is a little off, Yao and TMac have the ability to still fish out a win with little support, but when the support is there, they could be a big force. Neither point is undoubtedly true, so far though this season
You know how everyone calls people stupid or dumb in nba but its probably a lot harder then we picker they probably have around 25-35 plays and all the workouts and games is really physically and mentally draining so i don't know if we can really critisize players like t-mac and stromile for wearing down or never beeing able to concentrate. O and i also still believe stro is our pf of the future and i believe our future front court will be unstoppable.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">If you looked carefully, you'll see that swift was standing perfectly straight as someone approached him to slap his hand. He didn't even lean forward. When someone else was the FT shooter, Swift again stood there as everyone else showed some love toward the shooter. As you can probably tell, I am obsessed with how Swift acts during these FT's. It's one of my favorite things to pay attention to when watching the Rockets. </div> I don't don't watch too many Rockets game because of I live in PA, but doesn't Swift stand in the spot closer to the basket when the other guy is taking the free throw? Thus isn't that a bit far for the high five? I don't know, from the Sixers games I watch, not many of the low post guys usually high five because of how far they are from the shooter. Still, this gives me more reason to hate Swift. And dude, you just spent an entire paragraph about how he doesn't high five people during free throws. Have you been called obsessed before? <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">You know how everyone calls people stupid or dumb in nba but its probably a lot harder then we picker they probably have around 25-35 plays and all the workouts and games is really physically and mentally draining so i don't know if we can really critisize players like t-mac and stromile for wearing down or never beeing able to concentrate. O and i also still believe stro is our pf of the future and i believe our future front court will be unstoppable.</div> Stromile Swift is an athletic freak, hasn't been injured that much (much of his benches are due to coaches decisions), and is pretty physically fit. If you don't knock on him for not remembering plays, then there's like a billion other reasons why he sucks. It doesn't take a genius or the greatest player to hustle and box out everynight. In fact, one of our worst players does it, and does it consistently- Ryan Bowen. Take it to the next level and you've got Chuck Hayes. The man is basically as tall as McGrady yet he is able to play the powerforward position better than any we have on the roster. Does he break down? Hayes gives it his all every single night and hustles every single night. You can't say the same about Swift. Here's my problems with Stromile Swift: doesn't box out, doesn't hustle, doesn't remember plays (if almost every single player in the NBA can do it, why can't he?), has horrible shot selection, thinks about dunking everytime he gets the ball, fumbles the ball a lot, and isn't consistent at all. I think I have a better chance of winning the lottery than predicting if he'll explode in a game (which he can if he wanted to).
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AznxBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">I don't don't watch too many Rockets game because of I live in PA, but doesn't Swift stand in the spot closer to the basket when the other guy is taking the free throw? Thus isn't that a bit far for the high five? I don't know, from the Sixers games I watch, not many of the low post guys usually high five because of how far they are from the shooter. Still, this gives me more reason to hate Swift. And dude, you just spent an entire paragraph about how he doesn't high five people during free throws. Have you been called obsessed before?</div> I am definitely obsessed with my watching Swift and his actions. It's very entertaining for me, almost as much as watching the rest of the game. In additon to observing his inaction during free throws, I like to make list of the handful of bonehead plays he usually has each game. I am only basing my observation on a handful of games where I have seen Swift involved in FT situations. There may be other players who disregard the hand-slapping tradition, but I would not know becasue I have only paid attention to Swift. And distance should not be an excuse for whether players high-five because many times, guards come up and at least give an ass-slap to the shooter. Swift is actually a player I like, and I hope that in the future he can develop into the PF the Rockets need.
