Wonderful start for Yao in this game. He's getting single coverage from Dwight Howard, who's playing behind him instead of fronting. Yao's taking advantage, and he's got 8 points with two free throw attempts coming up. Meanwhile, T-Mac still seems to be hot from 3-point range. He's taken and made two of them early.
Dwight Howard sat early with 2 fouls in the opening minutes. On our end, Scola got two fouls and was replaced by Landry. The Rockets currently lead 21-13. The Rockets don't have a penetrator in this group, though (Alston-Barry-Artest-Landry-Hayes). I'd like to see Brooks subbed in for Alston.
Rockets lead 25-17 after 1. Good, energetic defense for the Rockets. They were able to force a lot of turnovers. The Magic did miss a bunch of open jumpers, though, so we got a little lucky there. Hopefully we can get that third foul on Dwight Howard quickly in the second quarter.
Well, Landry was able to draw that third foul on Howard early in the second. The Rockets have an opportunity to really extend their lead heading into halftime. Landry and Hayes are doing a good job finding the openings in the defense and passing to cutters. I like Landry's aggressiveness. Barry continues to look a step slow, and he still can't get that shot to go down. We can only hope he starts to feel better physically as the season progresses, but for older players you never know.
The Rockets defense really slipped in that second quarter. Too many open perimeter jumpers, and too much penetration into the paint. I think with the emergence of Brooks and Landry in the second unit, we gain some offensive punch off the bench but we lose a bit defensively. And I'll say it: as hard as Artest plays, he isn't as good helping on defense as Shane Battier.
Rockets win. Ron's a warrior. Brooks had a really tough night defensively. Rafer had a good all-around game. McGrady didn't do much of anything other than shoot. Yao played great against Howard. Landry had a very good game, and came up with some nice defensive plays on Rashard Lewis in the fourth.
yao helpin his case s the best center in the nba. those were some fantom ass fouls in the 3rd quarter. this is the first time tmac played in orlando for awhile
solid win last night....Ron Ron had a great all around game on both ends, Yao proved that he's still a notch above Dwight, and Tmac was good at times as well............. yes he is...I also love his leadership on the court.......he, Barry, and Rafer (who was good last night also) are our leaders...... Yeah Landry's been struggling a tad on the defensive end, but last night he was solid
