The Rockets hope to build another winning streak, and keep their spot in the playoffs against Dallas. Date & Time: Sunday, March 6th, 2005 - Game Time: 12:00 PM. Where: Toyota Center, Houston, Texas Broadcast: ABC (National) Probable Starters: <div align="center"><font color="red"> Rockets <font size="1">Mike James, David Wesley, Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Yao Ming</font></font> <font color="green">Mavericks <font size="1">Jason Terry, Michael Finley, Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Bradley </font></font></div> <font color="red"> Bob Sura will make his return from the IR for the Rockets. </font> <font color="green"> Erick Dampier is questionable to play for the Mavericks. </font> Position-By-Position: Point Guard - Mike James/Jason Terry: This should be a more even match-up, compared to the others, both guards are extremely explosive, and could do considerable damage to the opposition. Terry wins this because he has more experience with his team, James still has not gelled with Yao. Advantage: Dallas Shooting Guard - David Wesley/Michael Finley: This isn't as uneven as it should be, Wes can match Finley point for point on any given night, but Finley is a beast, a better athlete, and more explosive. Advantage: Dallas Small Forward - Tracy McGrady/Josh Howard: T-Mac is T-Mac.. Need I say more? Advantage: Houston Power Forward - Juwan Howard/Dirk Nowitzki: The guy had a career night against us, and you know he's vamped up for this game. Advantage: Dallas Center - Yao Ming/Shawn Bradley: If there is a guy whom the refs hate more than Yao, its Bradley. Though many calls go his way, Bradley always gets the odd call against him. And with JVG saying Yao will stay in regardless of foul trouble, Yao will have a good night. Advantage: Houston KEYS TO THE GAME: <ul>Take care of the ball. Even though we haven't had a turn-over problem in a while, the last game against Dallas we had a considerable amount. Especially against Dallas, taking care of the ball is imperative.[/list] <ul>Limit Dirk. The guy plays like a beast, and looks like one too, so the Rockets must cover the boards, and their eyes, to make sure that he doesn't get open or any easy rebounds. Expect doubles being thrown at him from T-Mac, forcing Josh Howard to hit some shots.[/list] <ul>YAO YAO YAO. He must be a factor in this game for us to win, if he can pull out a 30 point game, we will most probably win.[/list] Prediction: The Rockets should be ready for Dallas, and they sure do want to improve that Home Record. Mac and Ming should have good games, as should Dirk and Finley, but the Rockets' experience should be a deciding factor. Rockets: 107 Dallas: 102
Last I heard, they don't expect Sura to come back until next Friday. He's eligible to come off the IL, but that doesn't mean he will. It should be a good game. The Mavs are a great road team, and we're a dissapointing home team. But I think the Rockets should put forth a good effort after a lackluster start out of the break. I expect Yao to have a big game, but the Mavs will win it.
Man, I really hope Houston comes away this one with a win. We direly need this one to give us some momentum going into the tough road games this week. It doesn't help that Sura won't be playing this game, but I really hope Mike James figures something out from the practice that they had together this week. He really needs to involve the players more and change his mentality a bit to pass more. In addition to that, the duo of McGrady and Yao need to come up big as well. Hopefully, Yao will figure out how to avoid fouls and still play tough for this game offensively and defensively. Since last time these two teams played, it was a really high scoring game- maybe Houston can still keep up with Dallas offensively running up and down the court? Prediction- Houston win, 104-101
Yao will most likely be due for a big game, considering the fact that he will stay on even in foul trouble, and that a big game usually comes after a string of big games from him. If McGrady can do good against the Mavs again and James/Howard put up 35 points, we should be fine. If Sura's back, great, but if he isn't, we still have a chance.
sexy preview. i dont know what ot expect from teh rockets anymore its just a surprise but i guess we will see tommorow and good job to all you guys who keep this forum active with all the game previews and very informative too, i hope one day i can contribute but im a newbie
We've got a Texan rivalry on our hands!!! The Rockets usually play well against the Mavs, even though our turnovers seem to rise. I can't imagine Yao playing bad against Shawn Bradley, and although I've just been alerted to JVG's comments on Yao's foul trouble (just read it now in this thread hahaha) I really see Yao having a 30 plus pt night. I expect James to score in the mid teens this game. I doubt he'll be a ball hog because of Yao's minutes, and JVG will probably hound James until he starts passing inside. T-Mac will do his usual performance, but Howard may be a weakness for us. While he has had solid rebounding nights since the start of our win streak, he will be competing with Nowitski for rebounds. Expect Howard to be in foul trouble due to guarding big Dirk.
The last few times we faced these guys were very exciting matches, very unexpected unpredictable matches, the first with T-Mac and Dirk shooting the lights out and the second being one of the best games of the season for the Houston Rockets, with Juwan Howard knocking down shots the whole night! I really hope we can pull with a victory here, we need something to pump up up for the upcoming death schedule lol, If Juwan can give us 10-12 points, Mike with 15 or so and T-Mac and Yao getting 20-30 each then we should come away with a victory here, but for that to happen, we really need everyone to step up!
Dampier will for sure be out now. Finley looks doubtful for the game. Van Horn messed his finger up, might not play. Now Dirk is saying he's not sure if he'll play, something wrong with his leg. The game outlook just got a lot brighter.
We also got blown out by Dallas at home, which isn't really something to be proud of. It puzzles me how we can do pretty good on the road but we have the worst home record out of the top nine teams in the West.
I can't recall if we've ever beaten a really good team this year when they didn't have a significant injury. There's the San Antonio miracle, but beyond that I can't think of any. I think the Mavs lost Josh Howard when we beat them, and the Spurs lost Ginobili the other time we beat them. We also beat Denver once when Carmelo got injured during the game. We beat the Cavs in Cleveland (where they're very good), but of course they lost LeBron for most of that game. And we also took out Luol Deng in Chicago. The Rockets seem to be very good at injuring key players on good squads. Looks like Nowitzki isn't playing today. According to 82games.com, he leads the league in Roland Ratings at +19.0. That means that per 48 minutes, the Mavs are +19 better when Nowitzki is on the floor compared to when he's not. They are -10 per 48 minutes against competition when Nowitzski is off the court (compared to +9 when he's on the court), so the Rockets should be able to win this.
If Dirk isn't playing, I'd fully expect Howard to have an easy job defending Henderson or whoever they play in his place. This definitely makes it much easier for us.
Hmm dunno what to say about this win, the end score was very good (90-69), but when you see that none of the Mavs star players were playing it just makes the victory less special..anyway a win is a win! the first 3 quarters remained kind of close but in the fourth we blew away! Yao, Juwan and T-Mac all had double doubles, T-Mac finished with 32 points, Yao had 14 and only 2 fouls, both Wesley and Juwan had 11 and Mike James finished with 10 points 7 assists and 6 rebounds...Not a bad game for our players...
Yeah..how I wish we won with their superstars playing. The victory just isn't as glorious if its against their role players but a win is a win! Hope Yao scores more in the coming games, his scoring average is dwindling. If we could just beat Seattle or Phoenix in this road trip, I'd be a happy man
Turnover fest for both teams. Both teams were missing crucial players with Dallas missing Nowitski, the center of their offense, and Houston missing Bob Sura. That probably contributed a bit to the lack of communication and turnovers. This wasn't exactly the win that I expected, but well, a win is a win. McGrady and Yao both came away with double doubles while McGrady had a great game. Yao on the other hand was plagued with turnovers and bad shooting, but oh well. He just needs to find his rhythm and shooting touch again. Great rebounding game for Houston as well. There were a lot of offensive rebounds and without it, I really don't know if it would of been a win. Howard, Mutumbo, and all the role players stepped up defensively by rebounding, but Mutumbo really had a stellar game with four blocks. Anyways, I hope this win gives them some energy going into the road trip.
I'm with Dan Le on this. I'm a little dissapointed that it took the injury of 3 Mavs (including there two stars Dirk and Finley) for us to blow them out. It still leaves the question of whether we can maintain our place in the playoffs. But like everyone else, I'll take a win if it is ever presented to me or the team I support lol. That being said, what's up with Yao's minutes? I didn't watch the game, but the box score states that Yao only played 29 mins while only having 2 fouls. I thought JVG was gonna keep him in all game, what happened there? Yao should've played 35 MINIMUM, preferably 40.
Mutombo's great play off the bench made it hard to play Yao for long periods. However, he was still able to get a double-double with the minutes he did get. Mutombo was a monster down low blocking shots and rebounding, and T-Mac's offense took us over the hump. Mike James wasn't hitting his jumpers, but we were still able to turn in a fantastic fourth quarter and end the game with an exclaimation mark. Exactly the type of blowout victory we need to gain confidence heading into a tough road stretch. If we come out 2-2, I'll be glad.
