Since there hasn't been a game thread opened, I'll just open this discussion thread on the game between Houston and San Antonio. Basically, its going on right now and its showing on ESPN and Fox SW so tune in and post your comments here. Oh yeah, and magnomonkey if you have done a preview, you can just post the preview over here. Doesn't matter anyways now .
once again we seem to beable to compete without Sura which is gotta be giving us a lot of confidence against the best team in the league.
My bad.. I gotta pull things together now.. This is happening too often.. Since a preview doesn't matter anymore, I'll just throw my 2 cents and a prediction out there. <div align="center"> KEYS TO THE (ALREADY STARTED ) GAME <ul>REBOUND PLEASE! Against the Sonics, second-chance points have killed us, and with Sura out, our rebounding must be found somewhere else. If you don't rebound, you're shooting yourself in the foot. Against the Spurs, we're gonna have to rebound.[/list] <ul>Limit Parker. Again, without Sura, the Rockets have no one to guard Parker, that's fast enough, and can keep up with him. With Wesley already on Manu, someone has to step-up to take the Challenge of guarding Parker. Keep him out of the lane, and away from Yao, Parker is a master at drawing fouls.[/list] <ul>McGrady has to step-up. If the Rockets are going to pull this one out, T-Mac has to be existent. If not, the game is lost. If McGrady can pull out a 27-35 point performance, than the Rockets have an excellent chance at the game.[/list] Game Prediction: After what should've been 9 in a row, the Rockets should be looking for a W in San Antonio. As odd as this seems, I have full confidence that the Rockets will pull this out. </div> Rockets 104 Spurs 98
Mutombo and Yao have done a pretty good job on Duncan in the first half, although one might argue that the refereeing is helping us limit his good shots. What we need to do is get T-Mac involved. He is 2-8 from the floor so far, and we've been pretty much centered around Yao on offense. He's doing a good job though, drawing fouls and going 4-6 in the first. Again, Strickland and Barrett are not doing as good a job as Sura would, but the team seems to be making up for the lack of production at the point guard spot. If we can keep this style of play up in the second half, I'd take Houston by 5.
are you guys tired of seeing all those bad calls being made against the rockets? cause it doesnt happen every once in a whle it happens all the time like the ' foul ' off of yaos foot
What we thought to be a close game with 7 mins. left wherein the Rockets were down by just 1(74-75) became a breakaway for the Spurs who went 24-7 down the stretch and won easily with the final score of 99-81. Parker ate Strickland and Barrett alive and having them bite the dust. The Rockets were actually playing 4 against 5 with Strickland and Barrett not being a threat at all. Opposing teams might not care to guard them at all because they can't shoot the ball either. Barrett did play good games before but recently instead of taking advantage of having more playing time he became a liability. If small players like Mugsy Bogues, Boykins and Stoudamire find ways to score why can't he. He has quickness and good ball handling skills. Although the next 3 games are winnable the Rockets can't be confident cause these are young and fast teams. Their guards could take advantage of our backcourt and Wesley will be less effective. If the Rockets can't pull a trade today it would be better to waive Strickland or Barrett and sign a guard who can compete and defend well. Other options would be to activate Gaines to play either the shooting or point guard spot. I think he's a point guard way back in college days in Louisville. It would'nt be a burden for Gaines or Wesley to play the point because TMac has playmaking abilites. Van Gundy should give Gaines a shot. He could be a Marquis Daniels' type if given the chance. This would at least temporarily solve our backcourt woes for the meantime while Sura is recovering.
I like the idea of Gaines. By the way, when does Ward come back. I didn't really like what he was doing for us early in the season, but it looks like a good time for him to return.
I only caught the 4th quarter of the game. The Rockets looked tired and out of sync, but the Spurs defense can make any team look like that. I thought our defense was pretty bad, as evident by all the free-throws they got. Like in the last game, we had to endure some tough calls but then that's part of the game. I thought we were fortunate with some of the calls we got on our win streak. McGrady needs to be more aggressive in the next game. Without Sura directing the offense, he can't afford to be passive anymore. It worked when we were at full strength and everybody got good looks, but now he needs to just take charge. Also, Gaines should NOT be activated. That would be a worse idea than activating Mo Taylor to play point guard. Gaines is a terrible ball-handler and decision maker, an amazingly bad passer, a sub-par shooter, and an inexperienced defender. Rod Strickland has had two bad games in a row, and I'm starting to doubt how useful he can be. I thought he'd at least be a steady ball-handler for us, but he's been turning over the ball a lot lately. I thought playing Mutombo and Yao side-by-side would be a good idea against Seattle, and I think it would be an even better job against San Antonio. Mutombo proved in previous game that he can do a good job against Duncan, and having two shot-blockers against a very good penetrating team like San Antonio would be very useful. You don't beat the Spurs by trying to outscore them, but rather by trying to out-defend them. That's why we beat them twice this season, and its why the Suns have not been able to beat them at all. With Mutombo and Yao in there at the same time, our rebounding and shotblocking would go way up. I know Van Gundy is weary of playing Mutombo at PF on the offensive end because of his lack of passing skills and inexperience at feeding the post, but its something we should at least try.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dakeem1:</div><div class="quote_post">I like the idea of Gaines. By the way, when does Ward come back. I didn't really like what he was doing for us early in the season, but it looks like a good time for him to return.</div> LOL. Where the hell is Matt Maloney? Someone needs to suit him up. Aren't we still paying that guy?
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LOL. Where the hell is Matt Maloney? Someone needs to suit him up. Aren't we still paying that guy? </div> LOL Maloney! From the game, I've really noticed that McGrady needs to play more aggressively now. I just kept attempting jumpers which didn't do anything to help the team. I understand that during the winning streak, his role was basically to get players involved and jumpstart the offense, but now with Sura gone, McGrady just needs to take control. He needs to get everyone riled up and drive into the paint to cause some havok. Instead he didn't and well, Houston lost. However, I am loving Yao's game right now. I don't think its a matter of his consistency anymore but more whether or not they can keep him in the game. With the limited time that Yao had on the court, he took control on the offensive end and knocked down a bunch of jumpers. Problem is, the point guard position killed us, which lead to a bunch of turnovers- and bam, Tony Parker going on a couple fast breaks.
We basically lost the game in the fourth quarter. Still, there were a few positives to be taken from this game. Yao scored 20 on 9-13 shooting, and his positioning in the low post was very impressive. Mutombo grabbed 8 boards and did a good job guarding Duncan, but we weren't able to stop him from getting 30. Strickland looked like a 70-year old slower than Mark Jackson, and Barrett looked every bit of the rookie he is. Parker basically owned us. Anybody know why Padgett didn't play? While Weatherspoon played 15 minutes? He didn't do a good job too.
