Sacramento Kings at Houston Rockets (28-12) @ (24-19) January 28th at 8:30 pm on TNT at the Toyota Center in Houston Starting Lineup- Position by Position Analysis vs PG- Mike Bibby vs Bob Sura. Mike Bibby brings for Sacramento great court vision and also does a great job of putting points on the board for them as well. Bob Sura is a similar player, but has less athleticism and is generally a slower player. So, if Sacramento brings the run and gun fast break game that they usually bring, Sura might have a hard time chasing Bibby up and down the court. Plus, his game and shooting has been a tad inconsistent as of late, so we're going to be looking for him to explode tonight. However, Bibby is usually a consistent player and almost always brings his A game to the court, thus- Sacramento Advantage. vs SG- Cuttino Mobley vs David Wesley. This will be the first time Mobley plays against Houston since being traded to Orlando with Francis, so it will be interesting how his performance is tonight. Mobley is a great offensive player and runs the break incredibly. He is a fast player and is also a great perimeter shooter. Wesley on the other hand, brings less variety of skills. One of them is to hit three pointers. However, his shot has been off as of late and he has yet to find rhythm with Houston's tempo. We'll see how this all plays out in tonight's game. Sacramento Advantage. vs SF- Peja Stojakovic vs Tracy McGrady. Here is definitely a great matchup between two great players. Stojakovic is a premier three point shooter and great jumper from anywhere. Meanwhile, McGrady brings quickness, one on one skills, and occasional jumpers or three pointers. This all really depends on whether or not McGrady has aggressiveness tonight. If he does, it will be a good game for Houston, if not, well we don't have much options. Both of these guys have great offensive games but it might just all depend on how the game is paced- which depends on Van Gundy's strategy. However, I think McGrady brings more skills to the table against Stojakovic, and can change the pace of the game in any moment. Houston Advantage. vs PF- Not a matchup for the ages. Here is Chris Webber on one end who is an offensive and defensive powerhouse against Juwan Howard who brings about ten points to each game with a decent defensive game. On one end we have the young athletic powerforward, while on the other, theres the old veteran. With the blinding pace that Sacramento plays using their offense, Juwan Howard will obviously be getting tired after running up and down the court a few times. The best way for him to try and beat Chris Webber would be to draw a couple of fouls on him and maybe hit the open jumpers once in a while. Oh yeah, and play tough suffocating defense, if he can. Sacramento Advantage. vs C- Brad Miller vs Yao Ming. Pretty nice matchup. Both of these big men can rebound and bring points to the board, but I think Yao has a more dominant game. He really seems to be improving over the last few games- occasionally hitting eighteen footers, grabbing rebounds, getting double doubles, and being more aggressive. However, Yao needs to be careful to not pick up too many fouls or else the tables will definitely be turning. Brad Miller to probably bring his usual nice defensive game against him, so we'll see how Yao plays against a fellow seven footer. Houston Advantage. Keys to the Game -Overwhelm Houston with their offense. They have better scorers and shooters to get the job done and also have the players needed to control the low post. In short, dominate the game with offense- three pointers, fast breaks, jumpshots, etc. -Defend the role players heavily. Yao and McGrady can't take care of all the points alone so Sacramento needs to make sure there's a hand in everyone's face. Also, guard the perimeter. With the acquisition of Barry and Wesley, Houston isn't such a bad perimeter team anymore. They need to make sure Houston doesn't get any open shots or they will pay. -Rebound the ball. After a few games now, Houston is a great hustling team and is grabbing quite a lot of offensive boards. Sacramento needs to limit these chances of Houston scoring if they want to win the game tonight. -Control the speed of the game. Sacramento's offense can be overwhelming, but as suprising as it sounds, it may be more effective to play halfcourt offense. Early this year, Houston played this team before and were actually somewhat successful using that strategy so it would only make sense to do so again. -Hit them hard in the paint. Getting McGrady to drive in or Yao to push the ball inside would be a good idea. They need to be aggressive to drive in and draw fouls. That would get them to the free throw line for some easy points, which would help them stay in the game. -Role players need to step it up in this game. Yao and McGrady can't win this alone, even if they combine for fifty points. Players like Juwan Howard, Bob Sura, or Mutumbo need to play their A game tonight for Houston to win. Plus, they probably even need some points from our bench to outlast Sacramento since Sacramento doesn't exactly have the best bench. The strategy Houston used against Phoenix would be the right idea. Prediction 99 102
Is Peja playing? He didn't play last night, and I think its doubtful he'll play tonight. The Rockets should win, but it won't be easy. I think Cuttino will have a very good game today, after struggling a bit yesterday against San Antonio. Rockets need to be careful not to get killed by midrange jumpers from Webber and Miller. In particular, I'm worried about Brad Miller being left open for those 18 foot jumpers.
Should be a good game, we've played well against them in the past, I still don't see us winning this match, but you never know. This is a match where T-Mac has to drive it in and not shoot too many jumpshots, and if Yao can play against Brad the way he has in the past we'll have a better chance.
I see a rockets win tonight.......if Yao gets off to a good start I think we should have no problem, since the kings are mainly a jump shooting team
Miller and Webber could give the Rockets frontcourt problems, and expect the Kings to keep feeding those two tonight. Yao, as he has shown in the past few meetings between these two teams, cannot guard Miller. He is not comfortable coming out of the paint to guard Miller in case he shoots, but Miller is also a great passer and will lob to Webb down low if Yao leaves the paint. Then Juwan Howard is helpless. On offense, Yao might go off for 25-35, but rebounding will be key. We can't give a great offensive team like the Kings second and third chances. I wouldn't be surprised to see us switch back to that fast and free-flowing offense that has brought us success this season. Rockets by 6, 112-106.
This will be a tough game for us. Sactown have only lost 12 so far this season and to add to their tally, we gotta dig deep and bring our A game. We need to play good D while keeping the scoring up. Yao and TMac will have to keep us in the game today and Yao has to be aggresive in the paint against Miller. I'm not too keen on Juwan having to defend Webber and I think Webber will be their main option in this game. We'll need another good shooting night for Juwan and co. to help ease the load off Tracy and Yao. I see Yao getting 20, 10 just like his recent games and Tracy will probably explode for another 30, 7, 5 game. If we can keep at it the whole game, I can see us winning this. Rockets to win by 4.
We deserved the loss. I watched the heartbreak. We lost because we gave Webber who has such an ugly game (no flair just little hop shots just like brad miller) and we gave him 30 points!! It could have gone either way but they kinda deserve it because we gave webber his annoying shots whom nobody comes to watch.
Nice game from Cat on his return to Houston. Too bad he was playing for the wrong team. Padgett had alot of points, thats nice to see.
Kings 117 Rockets 111. Can't believe we lost in overtime.Even though we lost, it was still a good game. Good to see Cat score 24 points in Houston but I wished he did it for us not them. Tracy got his 30 point game but he did incredibly to dish out 12 assists while getting 7 rebounds. Even though he got 30, his shooting was very bad. His field goal numbers were 11 from 30 and only 3 out of 12 from the 3 point land. That is some pretty mediocre numbers. He also played 50 minutes altogether. In total we had 6 players in double digits in scoring. Wesley, Howard, Ming, Barry and Padgett got 11, 14, 13, 10, 22 respectively. I was extremely surprised with Padgett. I can't believe he got 22 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in only 28 minutes of play. To add to that, he was 6 for 7 from the 3 point line. That is some amazing numbers. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get us the win. Yao was also one rebound away from a double double. If we keep up this type of scoring while putting on some good D, we should have a good chance of winning against Miami come Sunday. Can't wait to see that game, Yao should be up for it.
13 points from Yao. That's two straight game he's had points in the 10-14 range. I hope that is not the type of "consistency" that we have come to expect from Yao. He needs to step up big on defense and offense if we're going to have a chance against the Heat. I see more positives out of this game than negatives. T-Mac understands that this is now his team and he is doing everything he can to help us win. 30 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds are amazing no matter who has those numbers. Padgett has also shown that he could contribute if given the minutes. Most importantly, we've shown that we could hang with contenders. We've had close games with San Antonio, Sacramento, Dallas and Detroit. We've also beaten Dallas, San Antonio and Sacramento. If we can play like that consistently, we could easily lose just 10 games the rest of the way.
well I watched the game last night and to be honest we kinda deserved to lose....we played no defense the 1st 3 quarters and we turned the ball over way too much..............Van Gundy instructed the team to foul, but McGrady got caught off guard and went to guard bibby and that's when webber hit that 3...........and I knew cat was gonna kill us sooner or later................but great game by scott padgett (see ya later mo taylor)................but question to van gundy?????.............WHY IN THE HELL IS ROD STRICKLAND SEEING MINUTES........I swear rod should be at my local YMCA teaching kids how to dribble through the cones (and I'm serious)........I just really don't see the point in playing him, when we have Barrett who is a much better option..............well I hope we can sneak out of Miami with a W on sunday
Haha, I guess i'm the only one who likes Strickland. Yeah we played a horrible match through the first 3 quarters, at least Mcgrady started shooting well at the end of the second I think it was. A heartbreaking loss, but at least we saw what Padgett can really do, he's a hustling, smart player, I think he's trying to prove himself in the amount of minutes he can play, which is really awesome, I really hope he can keep this up. to quote Buzzer555 "He could be our Donyell Marshall".
The Rockets didn't play particularly well, and I'm kind of surprised we kept it as close as we did. We were fortunate to get some really hot shooting from Padgett and others, which kept us in the game. As I had predicted, outside shooting from Webber and Miller killed us. We should have been prepared for that to start the game, since everyone knows that's how they play (high post basketball). Offensively, we got back into the game shooting 3s, but we started to fall in love with it going into overtime and it killed us. You're not going to win many basketblal games playing against the elite teams playing that way, unless you're Phoenix or Seattle. I thought McGrady particularly was taking too many wild outside shots. His last two shots at the end of regulation weren't very good (a missed 26 footer at the top of the key and a fadeaway three from the corner at the buzzer). The guy is so talented and so adept at taking difficult shots, that he relies on them too much particularly at the end of games. Some positives to take from the game: - McGrady's defense has really impressed me the last month or so. He's average 2 to 3 steals a game the last month, but beyond that he's doing an exceptional job playing man-to-man defense and contesting shots. I think his defense has been underrated this year. - Padgett played great. Of course, he shot lights out, but he also worked hard on defense and got some key rebounds. Some negatives: - Sura didn't do much, and I can see that JVG is playing him less minutes now. Probably a good idea since you want him fresh for the playoffs, but we could have really used his rebounding and hustle defensively down the stretch. - Yao was invisible for most of the game, even though he was mostly getting single coverage. Give some credit to Miller for making it tough for him to get to his spot on the floor and catch the ball. But Yao missed a lot of easy shots that we needed him to make. Yao should get at least 20 points against Sacremento, since their interior defense isn't very good. - McGrady's shot selection at the end of regulation and in overtime was questionable. He was trying to hard to get an open outside jumper, but I think he should have driven into the heart of the defense more since they don't have any shot blockers. When you have a great slasher in McGrady and a huge target waiting inside to catch and finish in Yao, getting to the basket should be the #1 option the vast majority of the time. - Poor perimeter defense on Mike Bibby. He could penetrate seemingly at will, and worked the pick and roll to death throughout the game.
For any one who watched the game, is it true that Chris Webber was caught listening in on what Jeff Van Gundy was saying to the team? If so that's a pretty cheap win for the Kings. I hope it isn't true, because if it is then that's really low. I heard it on another forum, people were saying he reacted strangely when he was near the Rockets bench or something, can anyone confirm if this is true or not?
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">For any one who watched the game, is it true that Chris Webber was caught listening in on what Jeff Van Gundy was saying to the team? If so that's a pretty cheap win for the Kings. I hope it isn't true, because if it is then that's really low. I heard it on another forum, people were saying he reacted strangely when he was near the Rockets bench or something, can anyone confirm if this is true or not?</div> Yes, he did. You could've said that it changed the game, regardless, we're up by 3, fouling is the obvious thing to do anyways. Webber doesn't hit many three's, so to blame the loss entirely on the fact that he was listening is stupid and ignorant. Adelman is no stranger to the game, he probably saw the foul coming. Give props to C Webb for hitting that three. I saw some big steps taken from the game. McGrady's leadership - that was a big thing for me. He really took control of our team, not by scoring points, but by doing other, little, things. Padgett - Wow, who knew the guy could hit so many shots. The guy deserves a spot in the rotation, and even though he did make that turnover, he played more than solid the ENTIRE game. Bad, Bad, things: Sura and Yao - Non existent. What happened to Yao, I will never know. He's gotten a lot more aggressive, but I don't understand why people want him like Shaq. Shaq sits around the paint for 2 seconds, moves out, comes back in, grabs the ball and dunks it. Yao can hit a jumper. Let him do the 15-18 foot jumpers again, he was hitting em consistently.. Now, he doesn't know where or what to do anymore. Just my 2 cents.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting magnomonkey:</div><div class="quote_post">Yes, he did. You could've said that it changed the game, regardless, we're up by 3, fouling is the obvious thing to do anyways. Webber doesn't hit many three's, so to blame the loss entirely on the fact that he was listening is stupid and ignorant. Adelman is no stranger to the game, he probably saw the foul coming. Give props to C Webb for hitting that three. </div> Even if it is the most obvious thing to do, listening in on another teams plays and strategies is wrong, you can't justify that. I'm not blaming the loss on just that, obviously if we played better throughout the whole game we wouldn't have even been in the situation where he would listen, you never know if him listening in did factor into us losing, that is unless you can read minds or turn back time.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting magnomonkey:</div><div class="quote_post"> I don't understand why people want him like Shaq. Shaq sits around the paint for 2 seconds, moves out, comes back in, grabs the ball and dunks it. Yao can hit a jumper. Let him do the 15-18 foot jumpers again, he was hitting em consistently.. Now, he doesn't know where or what to do anymore.</div> I'm guessing people that don't really watch that many matches want him to be like Shaq simply because Shaq is so good and agressive in the paint. The problem is that just isn't Yaos game, sure he can be good inside on somedays, but then the next match he might be horrible and score 8 points or so. I think Yao really needs to get his own game, one where he can go to the post and fire one of his hooks or hit a 15-18 footer like you said when nobody is expecting it. Now that would be a dominate Yao, some what like the only in my PS2
