<div align="center"> <font color="red">Rockets (2-2)</font> vs <font color=""darkgreen"">Bucks (2-2)</font> Wednesday, November 8, 2006 7:00 Central; FSNSW </div> [div=50%] <div align="center"><font color="red"> <font size="1">(R. Alston, T. McGrady, S. Battier, C. Hayes, M. Yao)</font></font></div> <font size="1">Leading Scorer: Yao Ming - 24.8 PPG Leading Rebounder: Yao Ming - 8.0 RPG Assist Leader: Tracy McGrady - 6.0 APG Steals Leader: Shane Battier - 2.5 SPG</font> [/div] <div align="center"><font color=""darkgreen""> <font size="1">(M. Williams, M. Redd, C.Villanueva, R. Patterson, A. Bogut)</font></font></div> <font size="1">Leading Scorer: Michael Redd - 27.0 PPG Leading Rebounder: Charlie Villanueva - 10.8 RPG Assist Leader: Maurice Williams - 6.0 APG Steals Leader: Ruben Patterson - 1.5 SPG</font> <div align="center"></div> [div=50%] <div align="center"> <font size=""1""><font color="red">Luther Head (6th Man)</font></font></div> <font size=""2""><div align="center">7.5 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.0 APG</div></font> [/div] <div align="center"> <font size=""1""><font color=""darkgreen"">Charlie Bell (6th Man)</font></font> <font size=""2"">6.0 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 2.5 APG</font> </div> <font size="3">Keys to the Game</font><ul> [*]<font color="red">Keep Feeding Yao</font> - Yao Ming is the best offensive weapon the Rockets have. Shooting a spectacular 63% from the field, it is important to give him the ball and let him do his thing in the post. Somehow, the Rockets back court tends to forget the seven footer is in the game and stop giving him the ball in the second half. Yao should at least get 18 shot attempts per game, and the team needs to recognize and actually do this every night, starting tonight. [*]<font color="red">Limit Turnovers</font> - The Rockets had 24 turnovers last night against Memphis. Many of them were caused by petty mistakes such as carrying the ball, traveling, and stepping out of bounds. They need to be careful with the ball, but not too careful, because they still need to work the ball around. [*]<font color="red">Stay Focused</font> - The Rockets tend to get a nice lead early, then blow it away in just a few minutes. They need to stay focused on both offense and defense. They need to watch the three point line tonight. Michael Redd can drain threes all night long, and if he finds any room to get his shot up, he will. He's not shy, so the Rockets better not shy away from him on defense. If Battier is guarding him, we should be fine. [*]<font color=""darkgreen"">Attack Yao:</font> The most effective way to limit Yao Ming is to get him out of the game as soon as possible. Andrew Bogut needs to post him up early and try to get some fouls called on him. Milwaukee needs their big men to set screens so they can free up Maurice Williams. If Williams can attack Yao, create the contact and get some fouls called on him early, they will find defending the Rockets much easier on the defensive end. [*]<font color=""darkgreen"">Contain Tracy McGrady:</font> Ruben Patterson and Michael Redd have to contain/slow down Tracy McGrady. Pester him on defense, double team him when he comes off of screens, and keep him out of the painted area. He isn't shooting the ball well so don't let him drive to the bucket. Instead, give him some space and see if he can knock down his jumper, which has been off lately. In general, just do whatever it takes to stop him from getting into rhythm. [*]<font color=""darkgreen"">Push The Tempo:</font> If the Bucks can get a fast paced game going, they can mess up the Rockets offense. This will hurt Yao especially, causing him to be too tired to stay in. The earlier they can do this, the better. If the Bucks play up-tempo right from the beginning, this will put the Rockets down by a big margin early.[/list] <div align="center"></div> A low scoring affair, Rockets win 82-81. The Rockets are going to be tired from yesterday. Hopefully they can win it on defense, because they don't want to go back under the 500 mark. Tracy McGrady begins to show signs, and ends up on ESPN's Top 10 highlights.
Good preview, man. I'm excited for this game, should be a good test for both teams. And I've got to admit I'm glad Battier is coming to town May the best team win, eh?
Thanks guys. I really appreciate it. Less than halfway in the first and foul trouble is already killing us. Who else saw that block by T-Mac on Ruben Patterson? And he just did it again! EDIT: Can someone tell me how to put the game thread logo next to the thread title?
I think the rockets win this. But their key is to not let the Bucks have hope because they still have cv and Redd. Because the bucks are a team that is easily discouraged, once the Rockets get a 10 point lead its important to put a foot in the bucks neck. If they dont redd or cv could go off and have a spectaculr night and upset Houston.
Nice preview sk8board. As for the "G" icon, PM Hunter to get permission to insert it. Only preview makers can use it. Any thread with that icon shows up on the frontpage. TMac seems to have gotten his shooting touch back, 10-15 so far from the field for 26 points. The Rockets are dominating the Bucks; Hayes is having another solid game, and Alston, despite bad shooting, has 9 assists already.
WOW GREAT game by T-Mac nice shooting stats. Ming stayed good. Wow we still did in a back to back thats impressive.
Impressive win by the Rockets, it took one hell of a 4th quarter for us to even make it a game. Nice win.
<div class="quote_poster">Locke Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Nice preview sk8board. As for the "G" icon, PM Hunter to get permission to insert it. Only preview makers can use it. Any thread with that icon shows up on the frontpage. TMac seems to have gotten his shooting touch back, 10-15 so far from the field for 26 points. The Rockets are dominating the Bucks; Hayes is having another solid game, and Alston, despite bad shooting, has 9 assists already.</div> Thank you. Will do. Man, I can't imagine how good this team is going to be once they develop some chemistry (fixing there turnover problem.) Hmm. An 05-06 post ASG Yao, 04-05 T-Mac, 05-06 playoff Bonzi, and an 04-05 Sura...if that ever happens this season, can you say championship? 2/4 would be nice.
Nice Preview! Good to see TMac back to his dominant self. Yao seems to be tired in the 4th quarter but he has no choice but to shoot because his teammates relied on him too much to score while TMac was on the bench and that lead to a lot missed shots by Yao. JVG should have inserted TMac right away when the lead was still comfortable enough instead he was put back when the Bucks already gain full confidence and momentum. Although the Rockets won I would have liked them to lead by a nice margin so JVG could put Novak and delight his hometown crowd. Chants of "put Novak" was heard but too bad the Rockets have to cram and struggle to win the game. I wondered why he(Novak) wasn't inserted when the rockets have 23 point lead.
<div class="quote_poster">blueracer Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Nice Preview! Good to see TMac back to his dominant self. Yao seems to be tired in the 4th quarter but he has no choice but to shoot because his teammates relied on him too much to score while TMac was on the bench and that lead to a lot missed shots by Yao. JVG should have inserted TMac right away when the lead was still comfortable enough instead he was put back when the Bucks already gain full confidence and momentum. Although the Rockets won I would have liked them to lead by a nice margin so JVG could put Novak and delight his hometown crowd. Chants of "put Novak" was heard but too bad the Rockets have to cram and struggle to win the game. I wondered why he(Novak) wasn't inserted when the rockets have 23 point lead.</div> It was still too early. The only time I would feel safe playing backups would be if we were up by 20 with 5 minutes left in the fourth. Even when we were up by 23, I felt that the Bucks were very capable of staging a comeback( and they almost did). <div class="quote_poster">TmacGarnett Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Can anyone tell me where Bonzi has been past 2 games?</div> I'm guessing he is on the injured list. It seems like JVG is swapping him and Padgett in and out.
Turnovers weren't in the 20's Why do the guards keep passing the ball to Deke expecting him to make a quick move to the rim. Stupid TMac looked good and I hope it starts a trend. Skip had 4 turnovers. Thats getting ugly. After his great game against Dallas he has had 4 5 4 turnovers. The games would look a lot easier for the Rockets if Skip plays well. Deke 13min 10pt 8reb C.Hayes played 30min before fouling out. Thats a positive, with decent numbers. I like that K.Snyder played 12min and didn't take a 3pt shot. L.Head needs more shots. 2-3 from 3pt.
Anyone noticed how uncomfortable the rockets offense was when Head was running point? He doesnt seem to know what to do with the ball.
