<div align="center"></div> <div align="center"><font color="blue">Orlando Magic</font> VS <font color="red">Houston Rockets</font></div> When: Monday January 24th, 8:30 PM (EST) Where: Houston,Texas Toyota Center Local TV: FSN <div align="center">Predicted Starters <font color="blue">Magic</font> <font size="1"><font face="Arial"><font color="purple">Steve Francis, Doug Christie, Hedo Turkgolu, Dwight Howard, Kelvin Cato</font></font></font></div> <div align="center"><font color="red">Rockets</font> <font size="1"><font face="Arial"><font color="red">Bob Sura, David Wesley, Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Yao Ming</font></font></font></div> Keys to The Game For Phoenix <ul> [*]Run the break. The Magic are a very good fast breaking team and a lot of their points come from running the floor. [*]Steve Francis comes up big. In a Houston arena where the Magic star toiled for five seasons before being traded for McGrady, Francis should have a big night behind the predicted support the fans will give him. [*]Rebound the ball. The Magic have two very good rebounders when focused in Howard and Cato. Howard is 10th in the league in rebounds per game and Cato can go for 9 rebounds every night. [*]Defense. Last week, the Magic lost to the Rockets because of a lack of defense. That must not be the case again. Doug Christie and Kelvin Cato have to hold Yao and McGrady to below 40 points combined to win. [/list] Keys To The Game For Houston <ul> [*]Defense. The Magic are a good offensive team and the Rockets will have to limit their transition points tonight. [*]Yao/McGrady come up big. The duo of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady will have quality defenders on them in the game, but that doesn't mean they don't have to combine for at least 50 for the Rockets to have a good chance of winning. [*]Support Please? The Rockets have depended on role players to step up for them nightly. Howard and Sura can combine for 20-30 points every night and they have to tonight. A little bench production won't hurt too. Scott Padgett will help a lot if he scores 12 again. [/list] Game Outlook The Rockets beat the Magic four days ago in Orlando, in an arena where McGrady was constantly booed. The Magic should be out for revenge tonight, and Steve Francis would want to make his first return to Houston memorable. The Rockets have to pull away from the Magic early. Don't fall behind by 20 and we should be fine. Prediction Magic-101 Rockets-105
Good preview. I think they might start Christie off the bench and have Hill start but im not sure. The Rockets need to play solid defense throughout the whole game. If the Rockets get ahead of Orlando they need to stay ahead. Rockets cant allow Orlando to get back in it, they gave the Magic chances to take over in last game and they were fortunate that they didnt.If the rockets can have Yao and T-Mac have similar nights like in Orlando they should win this game. Oh yea and some bench points would be nice. Rockets win 106-92
Nice preview. This should be a close game- two teams fighting for a win after a block buster trade with McGrady and Francis. Sort of like a matchup for the ages, except it already happened. However, this time Orlando has more a steak since they've last the last time these two teams met and should be thirsty for revenge here. Some things key to a Houston victory is basically just what they did last time. Pound the inside with Yao since he is almost a definite advantage over Cato, get McGrady and Sura hot in the game to hit some longballs to beat double teams, make sure there's some bench points, and most importantly rebound the ball. Houston does not exactly have the best bench players in the league, so they should try and get some players to step up a bit- kind of what Padgett did against the Knicks. Come up big and go strong. We're going to need another performance like that if we want to stay in the game. Yao should be able to dominate against this team, especially against Cato, but he also needs to be aware of his foul situations. He's averaging close to five fouls a game and players like Francis can easily drive in and draw some fouls on him. It would create a major setback for Houston, so he just needs to be smart and know when to foul. Oh yeah, and they might want to slow the game down since they won't be able to beat Orlando's athleticism running up and down the court. Take smart shots, rebound the ball, and play tough defense. That will be how Houston wins the game. Houston win, 99-96.
We'll need the bench to step up in this game. We just can't rely on our starters to score all the points. The bench has to come out and help take the pressure of Tracy and Yao for us to win the game. If we have another good game like the one in Orlando, I don't see us getting troubled by them. The defense has got to be tight and we have to really defend against Francis and Hill. They would be the main scorers for the Magic but we must not forget about Howard and Turkgolu. Both of them are capable of huge numbers and the defense have to keep an eye on them. Yao's been having some good games lately and I hope it continues on to this game. He's scored 20+ points 2 games in a row now and it would help the team tremendously if he could continue his shooting streak and add at least 10 rebounds for this game. Tracy should get his average numbers easily but he might have some trouble going up against Christie. If those 2 have great games with our role players and our bench stepping up, there's no way we would lose. Rockets to win by 8.
Should be a great game, we won't have to sit through the boos in this game which is always a good thing. I hope the bench steps up (obviously) and T-Mac doesn't try and impress the home crowd by jacking up shots he knows he shouldn't be. I really wish that Yao continues playing well like he has the last 2 games and Wesley, Barry & Howard find their shooting touch and/or continue it. Unlike the other posters I think we will rely on our starters, and bench points is just a bonus, although I would like for the bench to do well. Defence. The Orlando Magic are a great offesive team, one of the best, this will be one of those games where we go to our defence to pick up the win, like the previous game, we really need to hustle and get those second chance points, with Padgett almost guarenteed to get some playing points I think we'll be able to handle that.
If Tracy's not playing we really need both Sura and Juwan to pick up the load. We'll need another big game from Sura with Howard getting some important shots in the game. Otherwise we'll lose for sure. Padgett will hopefully get some playing time so I think he can help us again. We'll need Yao to score more than ever now if TMac'a not playing
so far, we look like we will be fine without TMAC. what is the emergenccy, anyways, weve been in this situation before so we should be just fine. Sura should be able to step up and the ball will be spread around a lot
48-27 Against Orlando at halftime, all this without T-Mac too! Yao only missed 1 shot, nailed a 18 footer, and has 16 pts!
We're up 48 to 27 at the half. Everyone's been playing real well especially Yao who's got 16 points and 6 rebounds in 16 minutes of play. He's missed only one field goal attempt. Our offense has been great but our D is better. The Magic have only scored 27 in the half and their only on 29.7% shooting. We've out rebound and out assisted them 24-19 and 15-5 respectively.
We won 89-78. Barry, Wesley, Sura, Howard and Yao were in double digits with 19, 10, 15, 10 and 22 respectively. A good solid win for us. Yao and Sura got double doubles with Sura again close to a triple double. The first half was real good for us on both defense and offense. We limited them to only 27 points at the half but they came back and made a run against us in the second. Good to see us win even without McGrady and hopefully Yao can keep his good streak going.
Great Game. Everyone stepped up for the game which resulted in the win for us. Houston played a nice defensive game, slowing the game down a bit to counter Orlando's transition game. And it definitely shows by the low scoring- 89-78. Everyone had a good game with Yao having a double double, Sura having a double double and Jon Barry having a great shooting night. However, I was disappointed by the lackluster shooting night of Sura (23.1%) and the bench (Padgett, Strickland, Bowen). Fortunately, everyone else came through for us in this game, limiting turnovers, passing the ball around, hustling, and rebounding the ball. On a side note, Steve Francis got the standing ovation that he deserved, but I was a bit disappointed in Houston for booing him for the rest of the game. Perhaps that's why he had such a slow start and shooting percentage. I don't know, he just doesn't deserve that when he played with so much heart for the city.
yeah I heard a few scattered boos everytime he touched the ball and I really don't see why, Francis was always good to the city of houston......but good win for the rockets, we should be able to take care of new orleans and then sactown rolls in here on friday for a good one....go rockets
This win was great for our team. Yao Ming and Jon Barry were awesome, and that more than made up for the loss of McGrady. If we can play like this every night without our best player, imagine how good we will be. The boos were very unacceptable though; what did Stevie ever do that was wrong in Houston?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting JuLiO-R-:</div><div class="quote_post">TMACS NOT PLAYING! Family Medical Emergency</div> anybody know what happened?
I havnt heard any news about what happend with his family. Hes probablyh gonna keep it private and thats fine with me, its his business. In other news, T-Macs back with the team and will play against New Orleans.
I had no idea that there was a trade between our Cuttino (I will always see him as a Rocket) and Christie. Orlando have really done well for their roster this season. Funilly enough, we've beat them in all games. WE RULE!! HAHA!
