<div align="center"> <font color="red">Rockets (15-9)</font> vs <font color="black">Blazers (11-14)</font> Thursday, December 20th, 2006, Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon 9:00 Central; Ch. 51, SportsRadio 610 AM </div> [div=50%] <div align="center"><font color="red"> <font size="1">(R. Alston, L. Head, S. Battier, M. Yao, C. Hayes)</font></font> <font size="1">Leading Scorer: Yao Ming - 26.7 PPG Leading Rebounder: Yao Ming - 9.9 RPG Assists Leader: Tracy McGrady - 6.3 APG </font></div> [/div] <div align="center"><font color="black"> <font size="1">(J. Jack, M. Webster, I. Udoka, Z. Randolph*, J. Przybilla)</font></font> <font size="1">Leading Scorer: Zach Randolph - 25.4 PPG Leading Rebounder: Zach Randolf - 10.1 RPG Assists Leader: Jarrett Jack - 6.0 APG *Zach Randolph may not play. </font> </div> [div=50%] <div align="center"> <font size=""1""><font color="red">Bonzi Wells (6th Man)</font></font></div> <font size="1"><div align="center">17.2 MPG, 5.2 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.2 APG</div></font> [/div] <div align="center"> <font size=""1""><font color="black">Juan Dixon (6th Man)</font></font> <font size="1">26.3 MPG, 10.0 PPG, 1.6 RPG, 2.0 APG</font> </div> <font size="3">Keys to the Game:</font><ul> [*]<font color="red">Get Yao Involved Early</font> - The Blazers have a big man that can statistically match ours on a given night, so for the Rockets to play well, we must get Yao involved early. Randolph may not play, which is only a plus, but the Rockets cannot turn their heads to the other offensive weapons the Blazers have. Getting our big fella' the ball will win us this game.[/list] <ul>[*]<font color="red">Tempo</font> - The Blazers have hit a high right now, on a 4 game winning streak, they won't be looking to drop one on their own turf. The Rockets have a terrible habit of playing to their opponents game, but since we have the best big man in the game right now, it'll be up to the starting 5 (guards especially) to dictate tempo down the floor.[/list] <ul>[*]<font color="black">Get Yao in Foul Trouble</font> - Yao is only beatable when he's not on the court, guys like Jack and Webster are going to have to go at him often. Limit his minutes, you limit Yao's points. On top of that, Webster is a good finisher, he can only benefit off of And 1's.[/list] <ul>[*]<font color="black">Play to Your Strengths</font> - Even if Randolph is out, the Blazers have to go with what works for them, especially on this winning streak. They are playing at home, already one of their strengths, they must keep the Rockets on their toes at all times. Nate McMillan will surely be aware of the Rockets inability to finish games, but it's up to his players to exploit that.[/list] <div align="center"></div> If Zach Randolf is out, this game will be easily won. Even if he's not, the Rockets should pull this out with some hard-nosed defense. It's still doubtful that T-Mac plays this week, but giving him a 2 game winning streak as a cushion can only help. Rockets: 106 Blazers: 91 <font size="1">All Pre, and Post-Game discussion should go in here. Thanks</font>
Brandon Roy is set to return tonight. Rockets still win unless Yao does something silly like get into foul trouble. Chalk up another 30/10 night for Yao.
Man, Zach Randolph will probably kill us inside, but Yao will go off tonight, I'm feeling it lol. 50 points!
^ its on Channel 51 My IE isn't working properly and therefore I cant get to my Favorites, sorry. Try searching it on google Rockets are playing some shitty basketball. They are shooting 30%. Rafer is playing good and so is Head. Hayes is monstrous on the boards. Battier looks determined when driving in and he is playing good. Yao Mig is rushing his shot and he can't score. Rockets better get it together before Trailblazers take over. It is tied 20-20 with first quarter.
Is anyone else concerned that Yao still turns the ball over at an alarming rate? Anyways, the Rockets started out slow and are actually down from the Blazers by three points at the moment. Our defense isn't really doing too well of a job shutting down the other players while our guys are having trouble getting baskets.
Man Rockets are sucking. They are down by like 3 I think and Yao got his stuff thrown out of bounds!!!! BAD!! By Travis Outlaw.Yao is finally hitting but someone other than Rafer and Yao needs to step up. Also, I am noticing that whenever Yao gets the ball to post up. It gets too crowded near him including our own players, and either Yao shoots it too quick or he takes too long to shoot. He is having a hard time scoring.
Wow its an 11 point lead now. Yao struggling again. He missed a 3 footer. He could've dunked on Pryzbilla but he hooked it up and missed. It's an 11 point lead. This is getting out of our reach. Rockets better come back or else if they keep on playing this way I see another loss. Another loss that we could've won.
Man, the Blazers are beating the Rockets in pretty much every single category other than three point shooting and free throws (by one). I'm really surprised that Yao isn't attacking Pryzbilla just to get him out of foul trouble so he won't have to deal with him anymore. Everyone's pretty much shooting piss poor. They're better get out of this funk in the second half or they're going to be giving up this game.
Yao coming to life. Nice inbound play Yao for a fade away. I think if Yao continues to play like he is now, we can come away with the win. But then again, the 4th quater is coming up.....and we all know how the Rox do in the 4th....
Damn it we lost. I blame Luther! We were down by 3 points with like 2 minutes and he jacked up a three. Then with 30 seconds he tried to be the hero and took a mid range jumper and missed. I think we should have went to Yao Ming with 30 seconds remaining to tie the game instead of letting Head take a mid range. Also, Rafer played outstanding at the end. He dribbled too much at the end but I think it was because he couldn't get that shot above Dixon. But he made it with 1.7 seconds. Rockets were then down by a point with 0.8 seconds. Randolph made one and missed the second one, Game Over! Rockets lost. Rockets lost the lead early on and played catch-up the rest of the way. Good win by Portland. I think we could've definitely won this game. If we get easy games like this, we must take advantage of them by getting easy wins, there is no question why we would lose to teams like Trailblazers. If Rockets want to be considered as a title contender or a playoff contender then they shouldn't be losing easy games even without Tmac.
Rafer Alston is THA SHIZ! He came through in the clutch with his 3 point shots. Luther Head can't make a mid range jumper to save his life. He should just stick to 3s and cutting to the basket for lay ups. Bonzi looked okay-good. Damn Brandon Roy is looking really good. I see why the Rockets were high on this guy. Battier stunk up the court today. He allowed Roy to get that left handed bank and was playing terrible D. He couldn't score for **** either. If only Jarret Jack never made that hail mary 3 pointer, it would have been a complete different game. I'm proud of the Rockets (mostly Rafer/Yao/Head.) If only T-Mac could come back sooner, oh well, we will need him to be healthy for the playoffs. GO SEATTLE! KICK DALLAS' ASS!
That was stupid play by Rafer and Luther. They kept jacking up airballs and trying to drive when 4 defenders are on them. I can't believe how many times the team missed easy three's and left the blazers wide open and once again i have to complain about the silly turnovers which indicates a level of carelessness.
<div class="quote_poster">drake Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">That was stupid play by Rafer and Luther. They kept jacking up airballs and trying to drive when 4 defenders are on them. I can't believe how many times the team missed easy three's and left the blazers wide open and once again i have to complain about the silly turnovers which indicates a level of carelessness.</div> What game were you watching? Battier was the one missing 3s. Umair, you can't blame Luther. That's the play JVG set (for Luther.) Yao just got off the bench (he was on for like 5 minutes in the 4th.) I think JVG should have got Yao off the bench sooner. It's hard for the Rockets to win games without T-Mac, especially against a team that won 5 straight.
The Rockets stopped feeding Yao the ball late in the fourth quarter. We had a chance to tie it with under a minute left, and we run a pick and roll with Luther? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Dude sucks at finishing in traffic, and he was like 8-36 before this game from midrange. Of course, he misses the midrange jumper. Why the hell would we not give Yao the ball in the post in that situation?
<div class="quote_poster">durvasa Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The Rockets stopped feeding Yao the ball late in the fourth quarter. We had a chance to tie it with under a minute left, and we run a pick and roll with Luther? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Dude sucks at finishing in traffic, and he was like 8-36 before this game from midrange. Of course, he misses the midrange jumper. Why the hell would we not give Yao the ball in the post in that situation?</div> Because JVG took Yao out. He was exhausted after playing all those minutes. It was a wide open shot for Luther, but it was an inch to strong. His jumper/form/release (whatever you want to call it) is to complicated/complex for an easy mid range jumper. It's effective at the 3, but if he wants to shoot like that, then he needs to stay at least 19 feet away from the basket.
Not too bad of a win for the young Blazers. I'm glad that Roy got to come back and while he didn't make a huge impact that basically game winning shot really helped. Good game to your team and good luck on your playoff run.
