GAME: Houston Rockets(3-3) vs. LA Lakers(3-3) LOCATION: Toyota Center, Houston TIME: Saturday November 13th, 7:30PM PROBABLE STARTERS SF Jim Jackson/Caron Butler PF Maurice Taylor/Lamar Odom C Yao Ming/Chris Mihm PG Charlie Ward/Chucky Atkins SG Tracy McGrady/Kobe Bryant TEAM LEADERS Rockets: Tracy McGrady-20.8 points per game Yao Ming-8.5 rebounds per game Tracy McGrady-5.4 assists per game Lakers: Kobe Bryant-27.7 points per game Lamar Odom-10.2 rebounds per game Kobe Bryant-4.3 assists per game KEYS TO THE GAME <u>Rockets</u> 1: Yao Shows Up-After a rough start to the 04-05 season, Yao seems to have settled into the schedule and seems to be ready to take on the main role in offense. Against Sacramento last week, Yao scored a season-high 33 points. After a good outing against Memphis, Yao again lit the Minnesota Timberwolves for 25 points. The Lakers do not have a player who is capable of containing Yao. Expect the 7-6 center to run all over Chris Mihm and Brian Grant in this game. 2:Role Players Contribute-With Tracy McGrady sitting out in the game last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Rockets' other starters came up big in a losing effort. Maurice Taylor scored a season-high 19 points on 8-14 shooting, and Jim Jackson handed out 7 assists and scored 13 points on 5-10 shooting. Bostjan Nachbar, starting in place of McGrady, scored 11 points and shot 3-4 from three-point range. With McGrady questionable again for tomorrow's game, these players will have to duplicate their performances for the Rockets to be victorious. 3:Bench Contributes-The Rockets' bench stars Juwan Howard and Tyronn Lue. While these guys might be not be superstars and the Houston bench is not the strongest in the league, we have plenty of depth and flexibility at every position. Tyronn Lue handed out 6 assists in 25 minutes off the bench, and although the bench combined for only 18 points against Minnesota, they jumpstarted the Rockets' resurgence last night. The Houston bench will have to produce for the Rockets to beat the Lakers. <u>Lakers</u> 1:Kobe, Kobe and Kobe-It's evident. The Lakers are now Kobe Bryant's team and there is no one who will take it away from him. In every one of the Lakers' six games so far this season, Bryant has led the team in scoring, and he is also the team leader in assists per game. Against Houston, Kobe will have Jim Jackson on him. As one of the Rockets' best defenders, Jackson will give Kobe all he can handle. If Kobe is held to below 18 points by Jackson, this game will be as good as a Laker loss. 2:Get Out On The Break-The Lakers are a great running team. They get a fair amount of fast break points each game, and against the Houston defense that is not good transitionally, the Lakers will have to take advantage. All five of the Lakers can run the floor and they get out on the break often. They should have monster games if they outrun the Rockets defenders off steals and long rebounds. 3:Drain The Outside Shot-The Lakers have transformed into a good perimeter team. Four of their starters shoot 30% or above from the three-point line, and they should hit their threes against Houston. Houston's weak spot on defense is their double-teaming, and when there are double-teams, there would always be a man open on the perimeter waiting for the ball. If the Lakers can get the ball to that open guy, there would be about 10 points for the taking, granted they hit their shots. GAME OUTLOOK The Rockets enter this game still speculating over Tracy McGrady's condition. After suffering an injury against Memphis on Tuesday, McGrady has already missed a game against Minnesota, and remains questionable for Saturday's game. If he returns to the court, the outcome of the game would endure a big change. McGrady always does well against Bryant, and would really be a force for us if he returns. Chances are here that he will return for competition's sake, and if he does, we basically have the game in our pockets. GAME PREDICTION Rockets-93 Lakers-84
Great Preview. One thing I think is a key to the Lakers is the contribution by anyone outside of Kobe. I believe Kobe will have around 30 points in this game but if someone besides him does not produce this game will be down the drain. BTW, maybe you should post when and what time this game is for some people .
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Expect the 7-6 center to run all over Chris Mihm and Brian Grant in this game</div> Um.. about Chris Mihm, isn't he one of those quick small centers that always give Yao a hard time? I haven't been watching Lakers games so please correct me if I'm wrong
To say the truth, I haven't been watching Lakers games too. From what I remember of Mihm, he is a weak defender and rebounder, and his best asset is his size of 7'0", which is still short compared to Yao.
Even if McGrady doesn't play, I think the Rockets should win this game. Rockets are at home and have 1 day's rest, while the Lakers are coming off a loss in Orlando the day before. The important things are establishing Yao down low early and often, containing Kobe without allowing him to get key players in foul trouble, preventing fast breaks, and hitting our perimeter shots.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Rockets are at home and have 1 day's rest, while the Lakers are coming off a loss in Orlando the day before</div> I guess you can look at this both ways, after losing to Orlando, the Lakers can also be more determined beat the Rockets and play harder. I think Tmac shouldn't be playing that much because he needs to heal up, I mean, who wants to make an injury worse and have Orlando all over again? Yao needs to come up big once again with the role players stepping up like they did in the Minnesota game. If that happens, this game will be an easy win for us. Rockets win, 94-89
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting B-Baller:</div><div class="quote_post">I hope Yao drops Kobe on his back if he tries to dunk on him. </div> I hope it's not the other way around..yao's caused enough embarassment to himself by letting guards finger-roll or shoot over him with ease. The biggest embarassment if he get's dunked on inside the circle and falls on his ass.
Lakers will come out motivated to play but I don't see them eventually winning this one, losing by 12. Ouch!
as of now, Yao looks like he's hot tonight with 14 points in the second quarter already and kobe has 7. Still, we are losing by 12, so our role players like Howard, Jackson, and Taylor definitely need to step it up tonight.
with 10 mins lefti n the final quarter, Yao has 29 points.. this is great for him but our team is still losing. The role players need to step it up. JJ and Taylor are the next best scorers and they're both capable of lighting it up. Its good to see Ryan Bowen getting the minutes he'd getting this game. Nachbar also needs to step it up with Tmac injured, but he'so nly registered 14 mins.
Lue's crappy play in the last few minutes cost us the game. Rudy decided not to double Yao, and he did what he was supposed to do on the offensive end. Defensively, he's really weak. Worse than last year, even. I was hoping he'd be quicker this year with the conditioning program he was on in the offseason, but he seems to be moving in slow motion on the defensive end and on the boards. It takes him like 2 seconds to turn around. Not sure what the deal is with that, but he needs to fix it if he doesn't want to be a liability on the defensive end.
Score- Lakers win 84-79 Definitely a close one. Great effort by Yao with 32 points, which shows us that he has some progress in being a consistent player carrying over from night to night. Still, I'm disapointed in his rebounding. How can Kobe Bryant, a guard, be getting more rebounds than Yao, who is a 7' 6" center? Anyways, Taylor and Nachbar didn't step it up this game, and it shows with this close loss. Jim Jackson did an okay job this game but not nearly as great as the one in Minny.
