<div align="center"> Houston Rockets: 16-16 Los Angeles Lakers: 16-14 Date: Friday, January 7th Time: 7:30 PM TV: ESPN, FSN Previous Games: Suns @ Rockets 108-98 (LOSS) Lakers @ Mavs 118-104 (LOSS) <font color="red"><font size="1">(Coach Jeff Van Gundy)</font></font> C - <font color="red">Yao Ming</font> (18.5 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 0.8 APG) PF - <font color="red">Juwan Howard</font> (8.1 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.2 APG) SF - <font color="red">Tracy McGrady</font> (24.0 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 5.5 APG) SG - <font color="red">Bob Sura</font> (8.2 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 4.3 APG) PG - <font color="red">David Wesley</font> (13.2 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 4.3 APG) <font size="4">VS</font> <font color="purple"><font size="1">(Coach Rudy Tomjanovich)</font></font> C - <font color="Purple">Chris Mihm</font> (10.8 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 0.5 APG) PF - <font color="Purple">Lamar Odom</font> (14.4 PPG, 10.6 RPG, 2.7 APG) SF - <font color="Purple">Caron Butler</font> (13.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 1.3 APG) SG - <font color="Purple">Kobe Bryant</font> (28.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 6.7 APG) PG - <font color="Purple">Chucky Atkins</font> (11.1 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 3.8 APG) ROCKETS - <font color="red">Dikembe Mutombo</font> Predicted Stats: 10 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks LAKERS - <font color="purple">Tierre Brown</font> Predicted Stats: 11 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists ROCKETS - <font color="red">Yao Ming</font> Predicted Stats: 23 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists LAKERS - <font color="purple">Kobe Bryant</font> Predicted Stats: 32 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists</div> Two big matchups tonight...between Kobe/T-Mac and Yao/Mihm. Last season, many would say that a Yao vs. Mihm matchup would be a joke, but this year opens up a different book. Yao's aggressiveness has been well short of...aggressive...and Mihm plays his best basketball when he's wearing yellow or white. As far as Kobe Bryant goes, he's bigger and tougher...and this showed in the Lakers/Rockets first meeting earlier in the season when he, along with Odom, pulled down 11 boards to Lamar's 13 to help the Lakers pull ahead of the Rockets for the win, 84-79. However, that was without McGrady, who missed the entire game due to injury. Their first meeting is tonight...pitting two probable starters for the West All-Stars...something you won't wanna miss. The key to success for the Lakers this season has been ball movement. If the Lakers can limit the turnovers and get the ball moving, they can easily win this game...especially if the Rockets are forced into the double-team. However, the Rockets' zone defense is what kept them into the game against the Suns the other night, when early in the season, it may have been their downfall. Is this possibly due to David Wesley's arrival in Houston? I don't know about that...but I do know one thing: Atkins is in trouble. Off the bench, Tierre's speed and Dikembe's defense will play factors in this game. Tierre may see alot of minutes, if Atkins' shot isn't falling...and you can bet your money that the former DPOY, Dikembe Mutombo, will be in action against Mihm and Grant. Mutombo did incredibly well against Amare, showing hustle and team leadership, all while putting up some impressive offensive numbers. Shades of 1995? Probably not, but he's still got it in him. The Rockets didn't have trouble keeping up with the Suns the other night, but the Lakers have been close to beating them twice now...one coming down to a last-second buzzer beater by Q-Rich. The Rockets are trying to bounce back from the disappointing 20+ games of the season that put them out of playoff contention, but the Lakers don't want to make three losses in a row. Lakers over the Rockets by six, 89-83.
The Lakers must win this game. We want to shove the Rockets as far down the playoff picture as we can so that our spot is not in jeopardy. Kobe Bryant wants to win this, two losses is ENOUGH. We need to win this, before we fall at 50% again. Sides, Kobe and Tracy always put on a show - but the question is: Who will be first to drop the one on one mentality, and the scoring contest only to do WHATEVER it takes to win the game. If Lamar is hot, then dammit I say let him shoot. If Mihm is making his shots, LET HIM SHOOT. KOBE YOU DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF. How do we know who is on fire when we don't give them a chance to shoot? Distribute the ball well, go for the shots YOU CANNOT MISS. Run a pick and roll, get Chris Mihm wide open... for a dunk or easy lay up. Cut in to the basket when you have nothing else to do. This goes for the guys that just camp at the perimeter. And lastly... play some defense. If you do not let them score, as long as you don't let them make a single basket... then all you need is one point to win. Think of it that way, do whatever you can on defense. Be agressive, after the game you have you'll have your mansion and all the massage, backwork, jacuzzi relaxing you want. We should win this, I see Yao going for at least 25 points as he has a more advantage over Chris than Tracy does over Kobe. Lakers 97 - Rockets 92.
The Lakers must salvage a win tonight. I agree. At least take one of these Texas teams out. If Yao plays soft again, we'll win this one.
anybody saw T-mac and Kobe talking about their donations? kobe didnt talk that much because i think he was afraid that the media would turn everything he would say into something negative.
We needed a blow out win! We are looking good so far! yao is playin soft! I predicted a win if he did!
Haha, this is just a spanking, I just tuned into the game, Houston is just getting plowed. Like Barkley said, they don't actually play that good defense, they just slow down the game and bore their opponents to death. Kinda like the Raptors last season.
The Lakers are actually playing good defense, and even though Kobe missed his first few jumpers he's now shooting very well (6-11) and with much support from his teammates the Lakers are leading by twenty-four at halftime. Very nice. I just don't see us losing this game, and if I could change my prediction then I would be saying that the Lakers will win by at least ten points. Yao is soft and in foul trouble, and Tracy is doing good, even though he missed an alley-oop dunk he seemed to have caught one-handed and switched to two hands at the last seconds. As far as the Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant interview regarding their donations, I think Kobe is doing the best thing he could possibly do by saying as less as he can to the media as possible. I don't know if this had anything to do with that, but notice that right at halftime he just walked straight to the lockers?
Is this the game where Kobe and Tracy are gonna donate their $$/ point? If it is I think there're gonna be lots of calls and free throw shots for these two except if they keep missing their shots. The NBA expects lots of donation $$ from its players so they're gonna get their points... easy. I think Kobe will drop his first 50 pt game of the season, and another facial on Yao, dejavu... the Lakers by 4.
Okay, I guess I spoke too soon, Houston is on fire, Yao is making layups, and Tmac was hitting a lot, this game just got interesting. Hahaha the commentators are such idiots, "I didn't know Brian Cook could shoot three's", and then he says he hasn't taken that many, the guy makes what 1 three a game, that's just embarassing to have people who don't even know what they're talking about.
Yeah we lost a huge lead... we still got a clean victory, at least they never got closer than seven. Great game by both Tracy and Kobe, nice second half by Yao even though he fouled out. We had three Lakers with over twenty points tonight, and all three of them shot over fifty percent... I wish every night was like this. Kobe's dunks were sick. Sweet game overral, and Tracy made some nice clutch three's. Did you guys think that Kobe looked happy tonight? He looked real happy to me for some reason, heh... and Rudy was even happier after the win. 17-14 now, and we just pushed the Rockets even further out of play-off picture. (Not saying they won't make playoffs.)
Kobe's dunk was nice, Tmac was doing a good job guarding Kobe in the game thoguh, this season his defense has actually improved quite a lot. From the other games I've seen him play this season, he's playing the kind of defense he played in Toronto. He wasn't biting on fakes, and was challenging his shots nicely, but Kobe was finding open teammates, and the Rockets couldn't rotate to cover the three. Now you guys understand why you can't whine and complain about your other players not making shots all the time, because it happens on every single team, Jon Barry and David Wesley were a combined 2-14, and they weren't all contested shots, many were open shots. The Lakers played well though, and whenever the Rockets got close Odom seemed to be there to shut them down and send them packing. Yao is gotta be the slowest guy at rotating I've seen in my life I was surprised the Rockets had Tmac on Kobe the whole game while Kobe guarded Sura and Wesley most of the time, but considering Sura is 6'5, and and Wesley is tiny, and with the Lakers have 6'7 Caron Butler to get Tmac, it makes sense. Poor guy, he tries, but he just can't get there lol. Houston shouldn't have come back, but the Lakers seemed to relax after the lead, anyways, good game overall, don't know what was up with Odom and Kobe's free throw shooting. Sura had a nice game though, 20-7-8, I thought Odom would grab more rebounds though, didn't he have like 11 at halftime. Kobe and Tmac both had nice all-round performances, and Tmac with 10 three's, geez, he did make 4, but man...
I am happy with the win....Rudy T. called time outs to stop the momentum The Rockets gained in the 3rd and really we could nothing in the 3rd.....the rockets were on fire and getting calls we just played hit some shots and keep a double digit lead. Another reason is the performances out of Caron and Odom....20 points each including 12 boards for Odom...huge thats how we need him to play for the rest of the year. Also didn't you guys notice they were running the triangle...cough cough Kobe's suggestion...and it worked! These guys performed and executed the triangle there first game using it....I can't wait to see them perfect it. They also played good defense which we havn't seen and it's good because there now developing that and is was extremely good to see. This Laker played real good and we didn't loose our lead...the closest they got was 8 points and we would come down and score again..it was never closer than a 4 possesion game after the 3 quater....why are you guys complaining about the led lost we kept out lead as far as am concerned I am mad when they blow the 20 point lead and loose the game...it is improvement and positive thing guys....haha. Probably one of the best game they have played all season.
^That's all he did was shoot three's and jumpers. He also tried a dunk and an alley-oop but missed both.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">Kobe and Tmac both had nice all-round performances, and Tmac with 10 three's, geez, he did make 4, but man...</div> That's all T-mac did all game, shoot three-pointers and jump shots. Well he did have like one lay up...?
