<div align="center"> <font size="1"><font face="Arial"><font color="red">Damon Jones, Dwyane Wade, Eddie Jones, Udonis Haslem, Shaquille O'Neal</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 Miami <ul> [*]Two headed attack. The Heat have two very dominant players in Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, both 20-point scorers and combining the most lethal one-two punch in the league. If both these superstars have huge games, expect the Heat to find it easy to win this game. [*]Haslem takes advantage. Throughout the game, Heat young power forward will have a mixed array of smaller defenders on him. With Houston missing Juwan Howard, Haslem should use his strong rebounding and killer mid range game to break the Rockets apart and create space for Shaq down low. [*]Run the break. The Heat's Dwyane Wade is a great finisher on the break, and Miami likes to get out and run very often. They should take advantage of the turnover-prone Rockets and transform the turnovers into points. [/list] Keys To The Game For Houston <ul> [*]Defense. The Heat are a good offensive team, and the Rockets will have to work to make sure they don't go over 100. Containing O'Neal and Wade would be key as these two can go off for 30 any night. [*]Yao/McGrady come up big. It's a given that the Rockets own one-two punch has to come up big to have any chance of beating Miami. McGrady had a very bad night against Minnesota and should be looking to regain his form tonight. Yao Ming has to step up to the plate against the best center in the league in Shaquille O'Neal. [*]Bench Production. The Rockets' bench players, namely Jon Barry, Mike James, Scott Padgett and Dikembe Mutombo, have to produce off the pine tonight. Padgett, Barry and James would have to score big, while Mutombo needs to be in form tonight to give Yao breathers or if Yao gets into foul trouble against Shaq. [/list] Prediction Rockets-97 Heat-101
Yao Ming has been alot more aggressive lately and it's going to be very interesting to see wether he continues his aggressive play now that he's got Shaq in town.
This will be another tough game for the rockets. Our PFs will have to start producing or the Heat will take advantage of it. Will braggs play today? Roockets should be able to win this one somehow. 106-101
well: Sura=Damon Wade>>Wesley TMac>>>Eddie Haslem>Spoon Shaq=Yao (maybe) Rox need to shut Wade down with tough D, TMac needs his shots back... I see some chances to beat them, if we play as a TEAM. Fingers crossed!!
sorry man but i still think Shaq > Yao and if you see how D wade played lately... its Wade >>>>>>>>>>>> Wesley.. We might have a chance to win, but its gonna be extremely difficult
McGrady and Sura need to attack the basket and Shaq, as he has a propensity for committing stupid fouls. If we can get him in foul trouble, Yao would have an easier job with Mourning and Doleac on him. It would be much better if the Heat don't have Mourning, but they do. If McGrady's shot isn't on again like in Minnesota, he should not try to shoot out of the slump, but rather attack the basket and get foul shot opportunities. Get Miami's big men in foul trouble and we would be at an advantage. Wesley's defense would also have to be great on Wade as his slashing game is very damaging to our hopes of having Yao play big minutes. If he gets quick fouls, he'll be off the court a lot faster. It will have to be a team effort on defense, and we should double-team Shaq often, while the other players have to rotate to prevent open opportunities.
yea i agree with that but mabye Yao can pull Shaq outside, because there he obviously has the advantage, and like u said hopefully create some drives or dish to Yao if Shaq come's over. Im going too the game and will be sitting near courtside yipee
you should make a sign for JBB and get people to come here haha... but i dont know if we can win this game for nothing but if we happen to i think it will have to be the bench scoring and maybe we should try and start padgett instead of weatherspoon maybe try a little bit of small ball see how that works.
My prediction: Yao gets in early foul trouble and plays only between 25 and 30 minutes in the game. He scores 15 points on 7 for 10 from the field, along with 5 boards. Tracy has a good game, going for 30 points. But the Rockets continue to struggle from the perimeter, and get killed by Miami's role players (Damon Jones, Eddie Jones, Keyon Dooling, and Udonis Haslem in particular). Shaq and Dwayne are held to average games, but Miami still wins by 10.
Haslem is a game-time decision, and Christian Laettner has been put on the IL, so the Heat might be a bit weak at power forward. If Haslem doesn't play, we'll likely see Mourning play the four with Wang Zhi Zhi and Doleac off the bench. In that case, we could reply with a twin towers of our own with Yao and Deke. If we get both in the game, penetration will be minized for the Heat.
Yea I think thats right. I heard them talking on TNT about how we will get to see the Oneal Mourning Combo.
wow.... would you look at how spoon is going at it? were nto doign that bad so far we have no turnovers and miami has 7 were dominating on boards too
i dont know what's wrong but we just can't knock down the shots.. the fact we are only 5 points behind is tremendously helped by mutombo's offensive rebound.. i hope wesley and yao will step up in the 2nd half
Yes, We did it, a win is a win. It seems like this time Shaq won the battle between the big men but Rockets won the game.
It was definitely a clumsy finish, but a good win regardless. We played with strong defensive intensity, and did a good job on the boards too. Even though we shot poorly again from the perimeter, we did those two things so we were able to overcome it.
I didnt get to see this game but the result is awesome! We should of won by more, Mike James should of hit at least 1 of those free throws at the end, but it doesn't matter! We ended our losing streak! and we ended Miami's winning streak, we are awesome! T-Mac still shooting poorly, but he's getting some points and has been good in the clutch, i'm a happy rocket fan
What a heart-pounding game. I thought we almost had the game secured with an 8 point lead a minute to go but Damon Jones hit 2 3s the last one a 4 point play. It was again a bad shooting night for the Rockets and we could have lost if not for Mutombo's hassle on the offensive glass. The Rockets were flawless in their FTs going 18 for 18 until crunch time wherein they only made 5 of their last 14 FTs. If James didn't choke on his FTs we could have at least a comfortable lead. Good thing Dwayne Wade missed 3 of his 4 FTs although his last miss gave an opportunity to Shaq for a put back. Another thing why we can't put the Heat down is the two 4 point play that we allowed which is too bad if you're protecting a good lead. BTW in the 2nd quarter Mutombo and Yao played at the same time which is interesting to see but only for a few minutes. Good game by Mutombo,Weatherspoon and TMac who scored points when it matters most.
DAMN! Mutombo&James killed us tonight. I was still on the edge on my couch until the end because something very similar to T-Mac's comeback against the Spurs was happening but we couldn't finish like he did. Props to the Rockets. Wade sucked tonight tho Just not his day... Shaq won the battle against Yao as usual but Shaq didn't have too much impact tonight either. Again, good win for you the Rockets and good luck in playoffs!
