<div align="center"></div> <div align="center"><font color="green">Boston Celtics</font> VS <font color="red">Houston Rockets</font></div> When: Friday March 18th, 8:30 PM (EST)/ 7:30PM (CT) Where: Houston, Toyota Center Local TV: FSN <div align="center">Predicted Starters <font color="green">Celtics</font> <font size="1"><font face="Arial"><font color="green">Gary Payton, Tony Allen, Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker, Raef Lafrentz</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, Clarence Weatherspoon, Yao Ming</font></font></font></div> Keys to The Game For Boston <ul> [*]Pierce gets it done on both ends. Paul Pierce is a very underrated defender and one of the game's best scorers. Going against the multi-talented superstar Tracy McGrady, he'll have to bring his A-game. Outscoring McGrady will be key, but limiting him to bad shots and turnovers will also greatly affect the outcome. [*]Walker takes advantage. With the Rockets missing starting power forward Juwan Howard, Antoine Walker should take full advantage and maximise his chances. Weatherspoon is too slow to guard him on the dribble, and Padgett is too unskilled to guard him in the post. Walker needs to recognize the mismatches on offense. 30 points would be beneficiary. [*]Run the break. The Celtics are a young team that likes to get out and run. With Tony Allen and Ricky Davis, two lethal finishers on the break, they should run a lot and often. [/list] Keys To The Game For Houston <ul> [*]Defense. The Celtics are a good offensive team, and the Rockets will have to work to make sure they don't go over 100. Containing Pierce and Walker would be key as these two can go off for 30 any night. [*]Yao/McGrady come up big. Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady didn't have to play a lot of minutes in the blowout win against Portland, but they didn't play that well either. This game, going up against a high scoring duo in Walker and Pierce, the MacMing combo would have to outperform their counterparts. [*]Role players keep hot hands. With their leading scorers not fully effective, Houston's role players, namely Bob Sura and David Wesley, stepped up. They scored 21 apiece and they helped Houston roll over the Blazers. Similar performances would be much appreciated. [/list] Prediction Rockets-97 Celtics-90
The Celtics have been on a roll as of late...even so I'm choosing Houston. I don't see how they can beat the Rockets. I'm taking Houston by 9 over the Celtics. My prediction is that McGrady will have a good game and I think Yao Ming will struggle a little bit but I definitely do see Houston coming out victorious in this one.
Boston is on a six-game winning streak, but so are we. Boston is also 11-19 on the road while we're 20-12 at home. Losing Howard might prove to be fatal for us, but I believe we can get it done on the offensive end.
This is going to be a tough game for the Rockets, in my opinion. All five of their starting five can hit the three, and the Rockets really struggle against those kind of teams. In particular, Yao has a tough time getting out and contesting the opposing center's perimeter shot, and you know Raef LaFrentz is going to take full advantage. The McGrady-Pierce matchup should be fun to watch.
We're down by 15 with 4.08 left on the clock. I think that brings our win streak to a crashing halt. But maybe another 2 minute burst from TMac (refer to Spurs game) can do the job!!! you have to stay positive right?
Wow, in the last minute theres been a double ejection. Its a double tech to Sura and Pierce. I'm reading this on NBA COurtside Live so I don't know what hapened. Could someone tell me?
Pierce stripped the ball from Sura with about a minute to go, and all on the way back down the court Sura was kind of staring him down and the two were kind of in eachother's face. I don't know if Pierce was trash talking or what. On his way out, he was kind of taunting the crowd. Boston played really well. I was very impressed with their perimeter defense, in particular. And Blount absolutely killed us. It seems routine for the opposing team's big men to get a season high in points against us. We always leave them wide open for the jumpers.
Reading the boxsore, it seemed as if defense was their main problem. Blount had a surprising 20+ point performance. I guess it was just a bad game for Houston this time.
Well I guess with Jowaqrd out, we are alot weaker in the post. Yao also needs more work on his defense. I'm dissapointed about the loss, but Boston is a good, solid team. I would be in mroe distress if we lost by double figures to the bobcats, lol.
Blount could score 20 every game if he was left open like that all the time. He's one of the most consistent mid-range shooters I've ever seen.
It was a bad shooting night for the Rockets. From poor 3 pt. shooting, missed lay-ups and lots of missed FTs. They were not completely outmatched it's just they let too many open shots for the Celtics. Even the young guns of the Celtics took advantage of the Rockets so-so defense almost increasing their lead to 20 points with Payton,Walker,Pierce, La Frenz and Blount sitting on the bench. We had a run early in the 4th but Mark Blount seems to make everything he throws to the basket. It would be different if TMac,Yao and the rest got hot and if they made at least half of their 3 point attempts as well as those important free throws. The Celtics made a great effort not to let the Rockets outran them. They made good stops and adjustments everytime the Rockets got a run.
Well I can't really feel too bad about losing today... I'll still happy about the 6-game streak before today hehe... but we've got a tough stretch coming up, and I'll be dirty if they drop too many of the next few... It'll be very interesting when Miami and Cleveland come to town
I think we can take Cleveland. TMac and LBJ is an even match up (only because LBJ hasn't got the experience yet) and Ilgauskas isn't playing as well as he didearly in the season. Our guard rotation is probably stronger than theirs too. If we lose, its because of the PF hole. Sorry for the pessimism, but I still don't see us beating Miami.
If I wasn't a Celtics fan, I almost would have felt bad for Houston last night. They just couldn't seem to get thier shots to fall. The C's played decent defense, but the Rockets missed thier share of open shots as well. One of the teams had to cool off and lose one, it was inevitable. I'm just glad it wasn't us. The run you guys almost made at the end of the game says alot about the heart of your team, which I respect. The Rockets never stopped playing.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting hagrid:</div><div class="quote_post">If I wasn't a Celtics fan, I almost would have felt bad for Houston last night. They just couldn't seem to get thier shots to fall. The C's played decent defense, but the Rockets missed thier share of open shots as well. One of the teams had to cool off and lose one, it was inevitable. I'm just glad it wasn't us. The run you guys almost made at the end of the game says alot about the heart of your team, which I respect. The Rockets never stopped playing. </div> Heh, there's also times when we do stop playing after getting a huge lead, but that's a story for another day. The Celtics frontline absolutely killed us this game. I didn't get to see the game but from the box score, even Al Jefferson, a rookie, scored 8 points on us in 7 minutes. I knew he could score, but not that damn well. It doesn't look right now as if playing Spoon/Padgett/Baker at the four is working, so why won't Van Gundy play Mutombo at the four? I know it's been discussed before but this is the point where we actually need to test it out.
Yao Ming got 3 shots in the 1st half. We really needed Yao in this game and I felt that the rockets relied too much on their jumpshots instead of trying to get Yao more shots. Just if you're wondering I found out that Mike Newlin and The Big E Elvin Hayes are going to fill in for Van for the next two games. We're finally going to a players point of view so it should be interesting.
well I saw the game and I'm not really that worried about this loss..........it was just one of those games where no one could hit a shot
