Everything we've done this season hinges on tonight's game. You win, and you have the 5th seed, home court over the Jazz, and a confidence-boosting victory. You lose, and you will face either the Suns or the Jazz without homecourt. Getting the first round curse out of the way could be like winning a championship this season. It could propell us to a championship next season. This team has worked so hard. The coach and role players have been great. Losing this will not mean that we're doomed, but winning this almost guarantees an big advantage in the first round and the rest of the season. No game has been bigger than the other since Yao went down, but this one is bigger. If the team plays hard and smart, I will be content regardless of the final score. What I'm trying to say is that I hope this team recognizes this opportunity and act withing their powers to exploit it.
Problem is Phoenix is a huge matchup problem for us without Yao. With Yao, we have the huge advantage. Much better than when they had Marion. I wouldn't rag on the Rockets too much if they lose this.
I remember the very close game at the end of last season against Phoenix. This was kind of like a boost because we hd lost all other game the Suns at that time. However, that boost didn't last that long but at least brought us a close series against the Jass....
If we do lose it will be an indicator that we should not expect anything from our team in the playoffs
well.. expect us to do something in the play offs then.. because..... WE ARE GONNA WIN BABY!! GO ROCKETS!!!!!!!
I believe that if we lose then there is still a pretty decent chance that we end up facing the Lakers in the first round.
I don't see how that follows. If we compete and simply don't have enough to beat the Suns, then all it means is we probably don't want to meet them in the first round. If we get blown out, then that will be an ominous sign of the immediate future. We could lose this game, but it would put a lot of pressure on us to beat Utah and Denver. I predict a close game. If T-Mac is special tonight, then I think we will win. If not, well, then you know the rest. On a side note, if Battier doesn't play tonight, it won't hurt us as much as it usually does. There best perimeter player is Nash, and he wouldn't guard him anyway. In fact, if Luther plays more minutes, it give us more offense in the frontcourt, which we need because Hayes is going to have to play some minutes on Amare. I would let Deke go one-on-one with Shaq when he's in the game and double Amare as soon as he gets the ball in the post. We need Chuck to shadow him all night.
Agreed, this is the most important game of the season for us. It's important enough that Adelman should go ahead and break out the three seconds on the officials as Shaq and Amare walk around down there. If Phoenix receives the 3 second call from the officials, it could take them clear out of their game. We have the advantage of it being at our house. We need Scola out of foul trouble, Landry at full strength, Rafer hitting his shots, and McGrady breaking down his man and getting to the rim.........AND GETTING THE FOUL CALL. Ain't no better way to beat PHX than get Amare on the bench with foul problems. We should go to the rim early and often and seek him out for the contact. This is McGrady's and Scola's job. They have to create the contact and get the foul call. If it happens, we will win. If it doesn't and Phoenix is allowed to root around in the paint all night and get us in foul trouble with no 3 second calls, then we are going to lose. We really should come out in a full zone or a box and one zone on Nash and make it very difficult to complete post entry passes. Then offensively, we've got to spread the floor and isolate Amare. This means we may need to see Deke standing out at the 3 point line to get Shaq out of the paint area. Put Rafer and Shane in the corners, Deke at the 3 point line, and make Amare have to defend the pick and roll, or go with no pick, let McGrady beat his man and get Amare in a 2 on one situation with McGrady at the rim. Shaq is no different than Deke. He wants to lollygag around in the paint defensively. I'd even be tempted to go small with Scola Battier McGrady Head Rafer, play zone defensively, and then spread it out offensively to get Amare in the popcorn machine down low. If we go small, they are going to want to get it inside all the more, if we lay down in the zone, we can really make it difficult to get it over the top. Phoenix was always such a bad matchup for us under Gundy because he would never play zone. I'm thinking Adelman is a little more flexible in this area and will be willing to zone it up as the situation calls for it.
Deja Vu anyone? Win against the Suns, claim the 5th seed, home court advantage against the Jazz in the playoffs? Seem oddly familiar?
we could still get the Spurs, Lakers, Suns, or Jazz... any one of those possibilities is within reach with the last three or four games each team has left... tonight is huge... if the suns win and the lakers lose, that will change everything... GO ROCKETS
obviously hurts losing yao. however i think that we will fair better tonight without shane than if he played. there is no dominant perimeter scorer for him to guard tonight... the rockets will go with a smaller, quicker lineup. starters: deke, scola, tmac, head, rafer with landry, brooks, and even novak seeing plenty of time.
Yeah I agree, big game! sliding to 6th and being in the bracket with Spurs/ Mavs is not fun in my opinion. HCA is only half the story..
Yeah man I hear you. We need to boost the morale up around here too. Clutchfans the last few days has been like that twilight zone movie, you know, the one wheres theres just a few folks left in a town after a nucluear blast. It's kinda eerie. We still have a season to finish and the playoffs.. yeah the playoffs!
Zone might help stop the PnR and inside game some but we may get killed on the offensive boards and we also have to hope they don't shoot well from 3. Hey, I'm ok with giving it a shot though as the alternative is not great either. I'd like mixing it up. I don't think Deke standing at the 3pt line will draw Shaq out as he is not a threat to shoot out there. Shaq will need to be out of the lane to avoid defensive 3 secs, but could roam freely in and out of there and collect all the boards while helping on the drive. Deke needs to be around the lane to catch the passes from the cutters who draw Shaq for the dunk/layup. Drawing fouls on Amare sounds good to me and would drastically improve our chances as you have said. Attack that guy!
Phoenix gets most of their offense through Amare/Nash PNR. If Scola is guarding Amare, I think we can totally shut the PNR down because Scola goes out on pnr and traps the pg and makes him through a tough pass. If Scola can do that tonight on Nash, this can stop half of their offense. Key = Shutting down Amare.
I just hope the fans bring it! Hopefully we can ride the emotions of the Toyota center and they can will us to victory. Come on suits bring out your inner rowdy!!!!!!!
