It's time for the Rockets to string together a group of wins and start putting some distance between them and teams like the Lakers and Mavs. They also need a little streak to try and close the gap between them and teams like the Spurs and Jazz. The Rockets have won their last two games and have games against: Memphis 3-9 final 85- 76 Rockets Win 3 straight Minn 5-6 Phoenix 6-6 Cle 8-5 GSW 7-6 Minn 5-6 Charlotte 3-9 Washington 4-8 Before they face the Lakers who have the same 8-4 record as the Rockets. The Rockets have done a good job of taking care of business against teams weaker teams so far as all of their losses have come against quaility opponents. If the Rockets will continue to take care of buisness they could go into the game against L.A. with a 10 game winning streak.
If we can win 7-8 out of 10 we'll be in good shape. Every game during this stretch is winnable, and hopefully chuck hayes coming back combined with v-span's energy will help keep up from losing big leads.
My prediction Memphis 3-9: definitely W. Gay getting a double double and the board flooded with Gay threads Minn 5-6: definitely W. Mike James would kill rafer, and reviving all the Mike James threads. Phoenix 6-6: Probably W. Stoudmire posterize Yao by the only dunk (and the only field goal) he made in the game, and is replayed 1000 times on ESPN, while Yao get his career high in blocks, all from Stoudmire. Cle 8-5: Possibly W. Tracy will show LeBron how to play defense, and Yao and co. will take care of the rest. GSW 7-6: Haven't watched their game this year. Seems they are doing pretty good under Nelson. Still think it's going to be a W. Minn 5-6: W. Same as above. Charlotte 3-9: W. Come on. It's the freaking Charlotte. Oh wait a minute, they beat the Spur who beat the Rockets. Not looking good. Washington 4-8: W. As long as Gilbert does not go crazy, we should be able to take this one. Looks pretty good. All of the games are winnable, but it's the NBA, you'll never know. Hopefully we'll go on a looooong winning streak.
What you're leaving out is the 8 road games out of 9 (or 10 out of 12) that starts in Minnesota on Dec 6th. Granted some of the teams are weak but that's a killer stretch of games. Before then, I'll take two more home wins, a loss at Phoenix and two home wins after that to go 12-5 before we leave town.
why do they talk so highly of the lakers when they have the same record as us? have they beat any challenging teams?
They have Kobe so naturally they will get all the hype, even though I would take our roster (bonzi included) any day over the Laker's roster.
Well there are so many other factors to winning games than looking at it and checking off the teams we can/can't beat. Sometimes the other team plays extremely well, sometimes this team goes cold, sometimes their defense is good, sometimes our isn't, sometimes they shoot well, soemtimes we don't, etc. and then there is injuries, fatigue, road/home game situations to deal with. The Spurs lost to Charlotte and in the same breath the Bobcats beat the Spurs so anything can happen. Every game is winnable, the question is how many are we going to win? 10 game winning streaks are hard to come by, even if you have a relatively easy schedule. One game at a time, and I can't wait for the Cleveland game, it's going to be good hopefully. A 10 game winning streak would be insane, though, since Dallas is caught up with us and is on fire lately, and the Spurs are going on a steady but great pace.
Weak. This is the first time in a long time that I think we should have beat the Spurs. We should have beat the Pistons too. The Jazz game you can attribute to a new team plus a hot j*zz, but still, this team is good enough to be 11-2. I'm still happy though. I love our team this year and Bonzi Wells might still be a BIG part of what this team does. I'm not excited about out potential. I'm enjoying the potential unfold itself each game. I'm excited about the potential of Bonzi being a sixth man. He's a bad amm player from the days of Barkley and Mark Jackson. I love an undersized big man. Keep the faith.
tmac and kobe used to perform at almost the same level, but now that kobe has thrived (individually) after the departure of shaq, coupled with the lingering effects of tmac's back injury (rust and all that), it is clear that right now, kobe is playing at a higher level than mcgrady...sorry guys, it hurt me to say it but it's true
The one game i'm worried is the suns...this is ther first time we can really play small ball...will our new roster and 3 point shooting really do well against the suns?...can we finally force out tempo on a team that only plays small ball??? or will we get dragged into a track meet??...well only time will tell...and yeah...i dont like amare either... think it'll be a good test for the rockets...as for the other teams...i dont have much worry...
Rox may have the a relatively easier schedule in Nov.. The teams they have beaten all have miserable records (even Mavs has a 0-4 record starting the season). So far, they have taken care of their business against those sorry teams. I still have doubt on this team though. I think it has some major flaws to become a true contender. But the season is still long and anything could happen.
