I think this game was in sometime in February, 2005. For the 2004-'05 season. A peek into what Yao could REALLY become!
I think Hayes can do a nice job guarding Marion. The only concern is Rafer and he is too slow. JVG should play Billy as a starter.
i heard from an inside source which i cannot tell......that bob sura will be playing, bonzi wells will be playing, tracy mcgrady and yao ming both hit records in scoring and steve novak and battier hit 15 3's together........ sorry i was just day dreaming......
Sorru! I realize that this has little to do with the topic but I didn't want to start anothe Yao Ming thread. It's a big surprize how Yao Ming has improved- it goes to show how much when we as fans consider his 25-10 an ok night but nothing special, just his average, nothing to write home about!
JVG IS the one I worry about, will he be fresh will he be exciting will he give Novak and V. Span some decent playing time, especially with it being a B2B, our players are tired and need others to help out so that they can play at their best for fewer mins.
Not really, we provide the exact same matchup problem. If we make phoenix have to play our tempo, we win simple as that. If we get stuck playing their tempo we lose. I believe if this game gets over 200 total points we are likely not going to be on the winning end. If it stays under, hopefully even under 190 total, we will have won this game by keeping phoenix out of their element. Should be a good game either way . Hope Rockets can pull this out!
Looking into Suns losing games: at Lakers: 106-114 Utah: 104-108 at Clippers: 108-114 at Spurs: 106-111(OT) Dallas: 112-119 at Utah: 117-120(OT) All of them were over 200 points games. And for their 13 games played so far, they have never scored below 92 points. Seems like the only way to win is to win the scoring contest. But I agree with you and also think that we should not run the scoring contest with them. We should control the tempo and if we could limit their score under 90, 80 something, we may have a better chance to win the game. We should restrict their fast break runs, which means either a high percentage FG or very aggressive on offensive rebounds. If we could not acheive either one of those, we should limit our mid-range jumpers and 3pt attemps or we consume 18-22 seconds for every offensive play, slow the game as much as we could. This could be very boring but who cares if we eventually won the game. I am yet to be convinced that we could score like Mavs, Spurs and Jazz to defeat this Suns team. But I believe our players are smart, our coach is smart and I hope they play smart in this game. I hate the feeling that a 10-4 team is worried playing against a 7-6 team but that's what I feel now. Even against Mavs or Spurs doesn't seem that threatening.
Frankly, I would expect a loss with a big TOs. We could have chance of 30% if we play Novak tomorrow.
Even to this day, one of my favorite Yao performances came against the Suns two years ago (with a healthy Amare). Amare got 31, but Yao had 27 points, 22 rebounds, 9 of them offensive rebounds, and 5 blocks, in what turned out to be a 20-pt blowout on the Rockets side. He was an absolute monster that night. So for anyone that believes Yao can't play against a fast-paced team like the Suns, check out this ridiculous box score: Yao's monster game However, it should be noted that we had two days of rest before that game.
Read my ENTIRE post next time ... I predicted Rox win 108-99, using a side reference from the game two years ago where we demolished the Suns on their home court. Plus, of late Yao OWNS Amare in head to head matchups.
The Suns lately have reminded me of the Seattle Supersonics of our years past. Although we could have the better team, Seattle knew how to shut us down.
I think this is a game for Bill to play lot of minutes. He can be really good defender and I think that if he plays as good as he can, then the Rockets will have a strong key to win the game.
