Portland (10-8) at Houston (12-7) 8:30 pm EST <u>Portland Trail Blazers </u> Record: 10 - 8 ( .556) Standings: Third, Pacific At Home: 10 - 2 On Road: 0 - 6 PPG: 89.3 Opp PPG: 90.9 FG%: .440 Opp FG%: .458 RPG: 43.1 Opp RPG: 39.2 <u>Houston Rockets </u> Record: 12 - 7 ( .632) Standings: Third, Midwest At Home: 7 - 1 On Road: 5 - 6 PPG: 88.0 Opp PPG: 84.4 FG%: .427 Opp FG%: .390 RPG: 42.7 Opp RPG: 39.3 Probable Starters vs. Jim Jackson/Rasheed Wallace vs. Kelvin Cato/Zach Randolph vs. Yao Ming/Dale Davis vs. Steve Francis/Damon Stoudamire vs. Cuttino Mobley/Wesley Person TrailBlazers Outlook - Trail_Blazer76 With the recent loss of Bonzi Wells, the Blazers must rely less on outside shooting, and more on owning the post. Rasheed Wallace and Zach Randolph will need to team up on Yao early in the game (offensively). Hopefully this will tire him out and get him into early foul trouble. Furthermore, with Yao out of the picture the Rockets will rely on the outside shot and Franchise's penetration. In the first instance we will easily outrebound their missed shots. In the second Sheed, Randolph, and Davis will be there to clog up the lane, and contest Stevie's paint shots. Concerning our guards, Mouse and Mcinnis, they will basically be a defensive non-factor. Stoudamire will simply need to encourge Rasheed to play the post. Francis and Mobley are going to get their points. Rather than stopping them, Mouse and Mcinnis will need to respond offensively, playing a Dallas-style game of outscoring one's opponent. Rockets Outlook - dexter Our offensive gameplan is simple. Get the Yao Ming on the low block. The Rockets are as a team finally starting to realize that when you get Yao Ming active downlow, you win games. The Blazers will try to go after Yao Ming tonight on defense in hopes of getting him in foul trouble. It will key for him to stay out of it. The Rockets must also do a good job tonight of shooting the ball. Yao Ming will get doubled almost every time down the court so our perimeter players must step up and make open shots. The defensive match-ups tonight will be very crutial. The Blazers start in essence three big men(Wallace, Davis, Randolph). Wallace will be classified as the small forward so Jim Jackson will have the job of guarding him up. Jackson needs to keep Wallace on the outside and not let him go to work down low. The key person we have to stop tonight is Zach Randolph who is having a stellar year averaging 20 and 10 a game. Since they are starting three big men, the Rockets as a team must do a fantastic job of defensive rebounding. With the size advantage against us we need to limit them to one shot and only one shot. Game Prediction - Trail_Blazer76 Blazers get their first road win tonight. Final Score: 102-97 Game Prediction - dexter Rockets extend their home record to 8-1. Final Score: 92-87 Here is the link to the thread in the other forum: http://www.justbball.com/forums/showthread...5258#post135258
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting drm2dnk:</div><div class="quote_post">wow dexter's predictions is always close</div>Thanks a lot for the compliment. On to the game, what can I say...the TrailBlazers gave the Rockets a run for their money last night. Zach Randolph as predicted had a monsterous game, scoring 31 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Yao Ming made a hook shot that tied that game at 91 with a little over one minute to go. Steve Francis then made a jumper with 20 seconds remaining to put the Rockets up by 2 (93-91). Yao Ming gave the Blazers some life when he missed both of his free throws with 9 second left in the game. The Blazers pushed the ball up the court, Damon Stoudamire missed a three pointer and Zach Randolph missed on the follow shot as time expired. Key Players Zach Randolph - 31 points, 11 boards, 2 blocks Damon Stoudamire - 19 points Rasheed Wallace - 12 points Jeff Mcinnis - 12 points, 7 assists Cuttino Mobley - 24 points Steve Francis - 15 points, 5 assists, game winner Jim Jackson - 12 points, 4 boards, 4 assists Yao Ming - 16 points, 8 boards Overall Player of the Game = Zach Randolph (TrailBlazers) Here is a picture of the game winning shot Steve Francis made.
