<u>Game</u>: Philadelphia 76ers at Houston Rockets <u>Location</u>: Toyota Center <u>Date</u>:Wednesday, December 31th, 2003 <u>Time</u>: 9:00 CST Head Coaches vs. Randy Ayers/ Jeff Van Gundy Starters vs. Glen Robinson/ im Jackson vs. Kenny Thomas/Kelvin Cato vs. Derrick Coleman/Yao Ming vs. Erick Snow/Steve Francis vs. Allen Iverson/Cuttino Mobley Rockets Outlook Offensively Yao Ming must get involved offensively tonight. When he is on the court, he must get the ball. When we don't get him the ball, we lose games. I expect the 76ers to do the same thing to Yao that the Sonics did to him on Monday; push him around. Nate McMillan used 3 different centers and a total of 16 fouls on Yao Ming down low. It would not suprise me if that was the case tonight. Yao also needs to shoot the ball. In the past couple of game he has taken under 8 field goal attempts. I would really like to see him shoot the ball at least 12 times tonight. I also want to see the Rockets take the ball to the rack more. If we attack the basket that leaves us wide open perimeter players who are able to shoot wide open jump shots. Once we get the wide open shots, the only thing we need to do is make them. Rockets bench play tonight will be critical. Eric Piatkowski and Maurcie Taylor have done an excellent job of providing a scoring punch off the bench. We will need them tonight. This game could turn into a shootout. Rockets Outlook Defensively I am unaware whether Allen Iverson will play tonight's game or not, so I am going to assume that he is. Allen Iverson is the Sixers. He is the heart and the soul. Without him, there are few teams in this league they can beat. It will be crucial tonight to stop Iverson. He can explode on any night, we just need to make sure it isn't against us. We did a fantastic job in our last game against this team in containing Iverson. We forced him to shoot 4-19 and he ended up with only 15 points. Derrick Coleman is another area of concern tonight since h has a nice shot from the three-point line. Even though he is listed as the center, I think the job of guarding him will fall to Kelvin Cato. Kenny Thomas is more of an inside player than outside. Look for a defensive switch tonight on these two players. Maurice Taylor will see a lot of minutes tonight in efforts to combat the outside game of Coleman. Glen Robinson is another area of concern. This cat has an inside and outside game and can shoot the rock. Jim Jackson did a good job on Rashard Lewis two night ago. He will need to do a good job tonight on Robinson as well. Rocket's Key's To Victory 1. Yao Ming - He needs to have a good game offensively tonight down low. The Sixers dont have anyone to stop him, so we need to take advantage of that. He also needs to stay out of foul trouble. In the past he has been "foul prone" and it really hurts the Rockets in the late third/early 4th quarter when he is unable to play because of foul trouble. He needs to be on the court tonight. 2. Contain Allen Iverson - As I said earlier, this guy can explode on any give night, it just can't be tonight. We need to force him to shoot off-balance, contested jump shots. If we do that, I think we have a good chance of winning this game. 3. Shoot a good percentage from the field. 43% is the magic number tonight. If we can shoot 43% from the field, and keep the Sixers shooting under 40%, we will have a good chance to win this game. 4. Turnovers - The Rockets are horrible at committing turnovers. We commit 16.6 a night. We do good getting the ball on defense, we just need to protect it on offense. My Prediction The Rockets in the past have had a great success against the Sixers and I see nothing tonight that tells me they won't play good tonight. Rockets 92 Sixers 84
Great preview, some unfair matchups in my opinion. No way can Coleman contain Yao Ming, plus he's shooting has been off lately. I'm curious as to whether Mobley will be able to handle AI. Snow and Francis will be the matchup I'll be eyeing as they're both great on both ends. Hopefully Yao Ming will make things difficult for AI, he might not be able to shoot or get past the big man. I'm for the rockets here, they have the advantage of having better players on certain positions on both the offensive and defensive side of position matchups.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Magic Johnson:</div><div class="quote_post">Great preview, some unfair matchups in my opinion. No way can Coleman contain Yao Ming, plus he's shooting has been off lately. I'm curious as to whether Mobley will be able to handle AI. Snow and Francis will be the matchup I'll be eyeing as they're both great on both ends. Hopefully Yao Ming will make things difficult for AI, he might not be able to shoot or get past the big man. I'm for the rockets here, they have the advantage of having better players on certain positions on both the offensive and defensive side of position matchups.</div> in 2 games last season, 1st game, mobley held AI to 5-19 FG for 11 pts. 2nd game, 4-23 FG and 8 pts.
Great Preview Dex. I say the Rockets will take this one only if they contain Allen Iverson and Yao comes to play. Those are thekey factors to who goes home with the W. If Yao plays big and the rockets conatin iverson well the game should go to them easily. If thye can't do what they're supposed to then they'll just have to play their hearts and fight hard for the W.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TimFlem:</div><div class="quote_post">Great Preview Dex. I say the Rockets will take this one only if they contain Allen Iverson and Yao comes to play. Those are thekey factors to who goes home with the W. If Yao plays big and the rockets conatin iverson well the game should go to them easily. If thye can't do what they're supposed to then they'll just have to play their hearts and fight hard for the W.</div> I totally agree. Yao has had a "non-impressive" yearup into this point. I really want to see him start to dominate like we all know he can. AI is in the category of players that can blow up at any given time and drop 40+ points. It is critical that we keep him from doing that. Thanks for the comemnts guys. I got sick of writing two-sided previews. After all this is the Rockets forum, so for now on it will have the Rockets spin to it.
Yeah If Yao and the rest fo the rockets doesn't show up and Iverson does then the rockets are going to be in trouble
New Update: Allen Iverson will not play tonight. This puts an entire new scope on the game. Instead of focusing on Allen, the Rockets defense can now just contest the perimeter jumpshooters and not allow them to get to the paint.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dexter:</div><div class="quote_post">New Update: Allen Iverson will not play tonight.</div> well that changes everything. All I have to say is that the Rockets better take advantage of this.
No Iverson, that means Glen will have to pick up the slack. The Rockets might be too much for him -Rockets by 8
<u><font size="3">Dexter's Game Recap</font></u> The Rockets needed a victory coming into this game and they got one as they defeated the Sixers last night 80-72. The Sixers gave the Rockets more of a fight then I thought they would considering Allen Iverson was out of the game. The Sixers are now 0-4 on their current 5 game road trip without their leader. Cuttino Mobley, a native of Philadelphia has an amazing night shooting the rock. He hit 6 out of the Rockets 10 pointers in game. Jeff Van Gundy was pleased with how the Rockets shot the deep ball however he felt they shot it a bit to much in transition. There were only two significant runs in the game. The Sixers came out of halftime on a 7-0 run and took a one point lead. (39-38). Houston had the other major run. At the start of the 4th quarter they went on a 12-0 run and from there it was smooth sailing for the Rockets. Coach Ayers blames himself for not killing the Rockets run with a timeout. I thought the Rockets overall did a great job of not letting any one player get "hot" on the Sixers. I think this might have proved to be the difference in the game. Key Players - Sixers Erick Snow - 11 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists Greg Buckner - 13 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists Kenny Thomas - 15 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals Glenn Robinson - 10 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists Derrick Coleman - 3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks Kyle Korver - 11 points, 2 rebounds Samuel Dalembert - 5 points, 7 rebounds Key Players - Rockets Cuttino Mobley - 20 points(6-9 from three), 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals Steve Francis - 15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 turnovers Jim Jackson - 6 points, 9 rebounds Kelvin Cato - 7 points, 6 rebounds Yao Ming - 21 points, 7 rebounds, block Maurice Taylor - 8 points, 8 rebounds, 5 turnovers Eric Piatkowski - 3 points, 3 rebounds Key Stats Total Rebounds - Philadelphia 41, Houston 50 Offensive Rebounds - Philadelphia 10, Houston 16 Field Goals - Philadelphia 26-75 (34.7%), Houston 31-77(40.3%) Points in the Paint - Philadelphia 22, Houston 30 Turnovers - Philadelphia 15, Houston 19 Free Throws - Philadelphia 14-23 (60.9%), Houston 8-13 (61.5%) The next game for the Rockets is Saturday at home against the Utah Jazz. Tip off is at 7:30PM.
