The Rockets are climbing the charts on all the power rankings and i couldn't be happier just hope they keep up the winning. We have to win against Miami convicingly so we could rest are starters for the tough back to back against the Mavs and Suns. I have this wierd feeling that it all depends on the Mavs game. If we win it then we will beat the Suns and if we lose then we will lose to the Suns. Just hope we beat the mavs once and for all.
They are only basing these rankings on two things, defense and JVG. Now i'm not saying I blame them, but I think it might be a little to soon. Then again we are 4-1. Go Rockets!!
We need to beat Phoenix that's for sure. I'm pretty sure we can put a real hurtin' on Phoenix simply because they don't have anyone to guard Yao, and Bo Outlaw (who usually plays GREAT against us) is not tehre anymore. Also, Joe Johnson is starting, so I'm hoping Mobley can slice into him. The way Dallas' offense is looking (relatively horrible), the best defense in the league (ahem ahem) along with the 2nd bet C in the league should eat them up. Dirk will burn us, since he's playing C, and he'll force Yao out, but Yao will abuse him on the other end. Bring on Najera, I'm sure that after the next few games, the fronting problem will be solved. I'm pretty confident we'll take 2 out of 3, especially since we have 5 games under our belt now, and our defense still looks magnificent. But even if we take just one of them, that's 5-2, which is a pretty damn good start.
Exactly!! There isnt anything else showing as positives yet but just wait and see. Soon we will have our Team fully assembled and more great things will happen.
Like someone said, if we lose to the Mavs and Suns (or even both) it definitly doesn't dissolve our season. This is a playoff team, and we will have rough games (the loss to Memphis was a bad team outing, but we still only loss by 8). Let's just roll with the punches this year and ride this success out. But you still will have some fair-weathered fans crying after every loss. The way of the world.
Link? Number 4 in the West or in the league? Probably in the conference... I think we need to beat the Heat...but I think we will lose to the Mavericks. Maybe we can use zone or put Cato on Nowitzki..I don't know. There is no way we can beat them. If we do, I'll be delighted. Then everyone will know we are seriously competing...and I think we can beat the Suns...I hope we beat them!
Thas really awesome news. but then again we were top 10 many times towards the end of last season i believe in many rankings...
ROXs is 5th at latimes' rankings www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-nbarank9nov09,1,617797.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-nba-lakers
I think we have a realistic shot at beating the Mavericks, but at the same time I have my doubts about it as well. They just seem like one of those teams that has our number, kind of like how the Kings can't buy a win against the Knicks in MSG. They've lost 14 straight in a row to the terrible Knicks at MSG despite being a legit 50+ win team. Still it's entirely possible that we do beat them. The Heat we should win against, although I think the Heat will put up a hell of a fight given that it's the two Van Gundy brothers going at it. I just got a feeling that the Heat won't go down easily. The Suns will be a tough team to beat. While we have a size advantage over the Suns in our PF and C position, we're small at the 2 and 3 spot. Marion's like 6'7 isn't he? and Joe Johnson is 6'7 I believe as well. Two very long, athletic players there. Then of course there's Marbury who has a slight edge over Francis. The key factor of course will be Yao in the 3rd game. Will he be too worn out to be productive against the Suns Friday? Or will he have the energy to explode against a much smaller, but more agressive Jahidi White who had a hell of a game for the Suns during his debut. Realistically I think we could win all 3 of our games, but not a single one of them will come easy.
I'm very happy with our play, but I wouldn't take these rankings or our record too seriously right now. We've benefited from a pretty light schedule. The only tough game we've had so far was the road game against NJ, and even then, they were missing Martin and Kittles.
