Official Game Thread: Minnesota Timberwolves At Houston Rockets

<font color="green">Minnesota Timberwolves</font>(2-2) @ <font color="red">Houston Rockets</font>(3-2)

Location:Toyota Center, Houston
Time: 7:30PM

Probable Starters

<font color="red"><u>Houston</u>
Center: Yao Ming
Power Forward: Maurice Taylor
Small Forward: Jim Jackson
Shooting Guard: Tracy McGrady
Point Guard: Charlie Ward</font>

<font color="green"><u>Minnesota</u>
Center: Michael Olowokandi
Power Forward: Kevin Garnett
Small Forward: Wally Sczerbiak
Shooting Guard: Latrell Sprewell
Point Guard: Sam Cassell</font>

Keys To The Game For Houston-By SupraJames
- Tracy McGrady. Simply put, the Rockets will not have a chance to win this game without Tracy McGrady on floor. For starters, he'll have to play over 30 minutes. Then, he'll have to have a big game against defensive specialist Trenton Hassell, KG and co.

- Rebound the basketball. The wolves automatically has an obvious advantage in rebounding just for the fact that KG is in their team. Houston will need to be competitive in the rebounding department if they want to even just keep up with the Wolves.

- Yao Ming. With Tmac injured, Yao will have to step up even more than usual and dominate down low. They must take advantage of Olowokandi and the paint.

Game Outlook
The Rockets come into this game with a huge question mark: Will Tracy McGrady play? T-Mac, the Rockets' current leader in points per game, suffered an injury two nights ago against Memphis and has not stated whether he would play in this game. If he doesn't, Jim Jackson would most likely slide over to shooting guard and Bostjan Nachbar will get the start. It will be a huge hit to our offense and Nachbar would have to play very good against Minnesota's defense. The hope here is that T-Mac will play, and if he does, the Rockets might just push their current winning streak to four.

Game Predictions

Trip's Prediction:
Rockets 98
Timberwolves 90

SupraJames' Prediction:
Rockets 95
Timberwolves 90

PS: Sorry for the shorter preview today, neither me nor SupraJames has enough time to write a longer one.

 

McGrady isn't playing, Rockets can still pull this one out. Expect JJ, Mo, and J Howard to pick up the scoring slack. Boki won't have to do much, but I wouldn't be suprised to see 12+ points from him.. Rockets lose in the dying minutes 93-88.

The Rockets, in order to win, need a huge defensive performance from JJ, Ward, and helping defense from Nachbar. No one can contain KG one on one, and today will be no different. Get Yao involved early and often, don't be suprised to see KG on him, Kandi man has nothing on Yao. Clog up the lane, will also contribute to a W for us. Deke and Yao have to get dirty with the likes of Cassell and Spreewell running in and out. Helping defense is also key here. KG is a smart player. He has youth and experience. He has a stronger body than all our PFs. He scores more, he rebounds more, he plays better. Period. If we try containing him, it won't work. He doesn't have bad games anymore, the only thing we can do is NEGATE him. Mo+J Howard, someway, have to outscore KG and Wally. Ty Lue has to make sure Cassell doesn't go for 20+ on us, and JJ needs to contain Spree as best as possible. Even if we do this, Yao has to carry us down the stretch, something he hasn't been able to do. Just my 2 cents.

 

McGrady won't be playing, so this will be a huge hit for us. It will also be an interesting test to see how we could cope with losing one of our superstars. Jackson will have to have a good game to try and cover T-Mac's production, and all we'll need from Nachbar is shooting around the likes of 5-9, and good defense. Jackson will probably be placed on Latrell Sprewell, so Nachbar would have to defend well on the perimeter against Sczerbiak. If Yao has a 30 point game, we'll still be in this one.

 

Our performance tonight(with tmac out) will be as skimpy as the pregame preview. We need a miracle to win this..simple as that. we need to make a gazillion 3's to stay in the game, because inside yao will be hounded

 

Last time T-Mac wasn't playing we were killed in the Orlando game. I just don't think we can win this one unless Yao steps it up. By the way he's playing right now I don't think he will be able to step it up whenever he wants. He has to feel it for him to start going.

My prediction:
(no big game from Yao)
T-Wolves 95
Rockets 83
(Big game from Yao)
T-Wolves 94
Rockets 96

 

The Wolves should pull this game out. Cassell really gets up big to go against his old FSU backcourt mate.And you add on top of that him being back in Houston, and another former FSU teammate Bob Sura over there on the bench, main Sammy should really be looking to show off tonight. This is the type of game he needs to get his season going, and focused. If Flip Suanders lets him lose it could be a big night.

Ming gave the Wolves alot of problems last year but Kandiman's post defense seems slightly stronger then last year. So maybe he will get up for a matchup against Ming. But most likely he'll do his normal, pick up two quick fouls, early in the game. And never have an impact after that...But anyway Iam predicting big games from KG & Cassell, the Rockets dont really have anyone to matchup with either of those guys. And they will carry the Wolves to a W.

 

Rockets did OK in the first half. Once 2nd half rolled around we played hard and trailed only by 2 i think at the end of the 3Q. Now Yao Ming drawing FOULS like crazy and put us to the lead by 3 points right now. 80-77/ 7.13 left in 4th Q


BTW such LOW traffic during a game night...

 

yao ming . You are 7'6 now grab some damn rebounds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

omg this is close... 91-92 minny with 30 seconds to go

 

STOOPID REF CALLED A BS OFFENSIVE FOUL ON JJ!!

There's like 8 FREAKIN seconds LEFT and let the players DECIDE THIS GAME NOT THE REFS. JJ ran into some dood and they called a freakin foul on him. I am just so frustrated with this ref doing. RAWR!
Rocket's lost 96-91

 

JJ checked Trenton Hassell. That IS a foul.

(sorry if I'm trolling. Trip invited Wolves fans to join in the discussion.)

 

Sure it was a foul, BUT NOT ONE YOU CALL WITH 8 SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME.

Hell that one isnt even called in the game most of the time. Oh well what are you gonna do.

Rockets did a good job even having a chance to win with T-mac out.

 

Wow this was an awesome game. All you Rockets Fans, your team probably would have won if Tracy McGrady was healthy. Dang, that game was so close..

 

Good game, not really surprise by the outcome tho.. its was actually a little closer then I expected. I think Cassell getting in foul trouble with the 4 fouls early 2nd half really helped keep the Rockets in the game, cause they really dont have anyone who can defend him. And he was on place to have a really big Cassell like game. But anyway a few clutch buckets by the Wolves let them pull this one out. I still dont like the way they look as a team. I think Hassell needs to be back in the starting lineup. And Wally come off the bench to give the 2nd unit more offense. And Hassell give more perimeter defense to start out games.

 

The Rockets need to do a better job of beating that annoying zone defense which teams use to nullify Yao. Our offense needs a lot of work.

 

I am excited. I love the Rockets game play. Its not about Yao and T-Mac . Its about the team and when you play as a team. You always have a chance to win.

 

The glaring weakness showed itself again, the rockets got outrebounded 41-33. Rockets need to find some inside toughness to defend against the deep western forwards and to rebound.

Does anybody know why Yao played so few minutes?

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Henacy:</div><div class="quote_post">Good game, not really surprise by the outcome tho.. its was actually a little closer then I expected. I think Cassell getting in foul trouble with the 4 fouls early 2nd half really helped keep the Rockets in the game, cause they really dont have anyone who can defend him. And he was on place to have a really big Cassell like game. But anyway a few clutch buckets by the Wolves let them pull this one out. I still dont like the way they look as a team. I think Hassell needs to be back in the starting lineup. And Wally come off the bench to give the 2nd unit more offense. And Hassell give more perimeter defense to start out games.</div>

They also benched KG more then usually. He was averaging 42 minutes a game before yesterday, and Flip doesn't want to overuse him. If the Wolve's didn't care about KG playing so many minutes, they would have put him in the game during the Rockets big comeback, and they wouldn't have ever gotten a lead.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting ZhuangCorp:</div><div class="quote_post">The glaring weakness showed itself again, the rockets got outrebounded 41-33. Rockets need to find some inside toughness to defend against the deep western forwards and to rebound.

Does anybody know why Yao played so few minutes?</div>

He had a poor first half, the Rockets were playing better without him than with him, so JVG waited until maybe 6 or 5 minutes were left in the second quarter to put him back in.

 

does anyone here think that the outcome would have been worse if we had a healthy tmac in the game? I mean, maybe last night role players like morris taylor and jim jackson played harder because mcgrady wasn't there and they knew they needed to come together. If mcgrady was there, would it have been for the better or worse?