defense is the key to this game,but somehow i get the feeling that we are not gonna do well on defense,probably a loss for ROX we always get blow out by Suns
rockets will win. aston will play great d on nash and yao will step up along with tmac. bonzi will come out of his shooting slump and scola has another big night on the boards. unfortunately francis doesn't get play. this is my predication.
Hopefully we win if Francis plays. But Yao will once again be shut down by the fronting, double teaming...Yao please...Step it up. you been dissapointing me the last week..
Yao stats : 6 points, 3 rebounds, 5 turnovers because of the suns' d. COME ON YAO, please step it up..
We will probably loose. I expect Yao to play better then he did the last time vs the Suns. But Nash will just own Alston, James, Head and whoever else we throw at him
I pray to god we dont try to play there game again. the game in houston last week we tried to play a run and gun like them. . sure we scored a 105, but they endedup scoring 115 on our homecourt.. THIS WILL GET UGLY if we play like that again. With tracy just starting get he's groove going in the last two games(avge 36 points) i like our chances better if we play our game. Keys Yao needs to attack the double teams. there is no excuse for not attacking diaw and a amare double team. yao needs to stop kicking out those entery passes he gets. attack the double team. Tracy needs to shoot the rock 30 times. hes the only real option who is capebal of getting us the win. he is avge a staggaring 33 points on the road. thats on 50% plus shooting. gundy called tracy the best road player for a valid reason. We need to continuesly rotate Alston, francis and james on nash. we need to tire him out.i like to see francis in there to attack nash on offense. get nash into foul trouble. guys like francis and brooks can draw fouls. We need bonzi and james to breakout there funks. the suns have a explosively offensive bench. we need to counter there scoring. I'm optimistic we can win. i gotta feeling that yao will turn it around. yao is far too good of a player to keep playing like this.
you should shut ur mouth before i call the golden state warriors over to phoenix so they could put another whooping on you guys. rockets will win
Beat me to it We got to play better defense, don't allow fast break, prevent outlet pass to open man for layup, and attack basket instead of jumpers. Oh, Scola play extremely well in last time 20 something pts, had some beautiful flop too. How about giving him some extra minutes? Tmac has to play inspiring ball, Yao must be solid with tight D on Amare and guarding the paint. Although Nash prob. will march in there for double double cuz Rafer will get burn. Rest of the team: please don't make stupid mistake like turn ball over!!
I like the idea of continual rotation on Nash, Nash is only avergaing 33 minutes a game, but when the Suns are either losing or its a close game all the way Nash has to play 37-40 minutes. Now if its a close game and you have Alston, Francsis, James and Maybe Brooks all rotating on him giving 100% energy all game, theres no way Nash will be as effective in the 4th as he will just be to tired. I think also have to get more physical with Nash keeping body on body as much as possible with out getting fouls. The key to the suns is Nash so it is imperative we drain his energy as much as possible with rotations and Physical play. I also like the idea of Francis and Brooks being guarded by Nash, they both like to drive and Brooks is really fast and I don't think Nash can keep up with him. I'd also like to see Yao being used as a decoy to open up other players, it is obvious the rockets have no solution to fronting so just make Yao a decoy and utilise tmac and others. I think another important thing is Chuck Hayes must not start against agressive offensive teams like the Suns because the rockets need all the offense they can get and Chuck provides little to none in this department, So I would like to see Scola start or perhaps go with a smaller lineup of Yao, Battier,Tmac,Francis,Alston
Oh, by the way the last game of last reg. season vs. PHX was AMAZING!!! THAT'S THE WAY WE NEED TO PLAY TO BEAT THEM. Man, those who said Tmac lost a step...need to see it again.
This is the real test of how good the Rocket will be. If we beat Phoenix, it will show us the real contender for the championship.. It's tough to beat Phoenix high motion move.. They score even before the shoot clock begin.. But what is impossible? even celtic's beat by the only king James. So come on rocket! Show you are the best! It's Time!
Yep. we need to attack nash. he is that team. without him, there like a bunch of atheletic headless chickens.lol francis and brooks attacking him off the dribble feels like a good plan to me. I agree scola needs to play more. he had a brillant game the last time we played them. he had 20 points. he thrives against these kind of teams.
his usage rating is only 24 so not really. he only plays 33 minutes a game and the dropoff is not that bad when he sits if at all. the games nash missed, they lost close games b/c they miss his shooting moreso than his passing. to beat this team, play him straight up. let him score all he wants.
If the Rockets even have the slightest chance to win a game, I'll predict a win for them. Obviously I'm going w/ the Rockets for this one. Fortunately we had two games in a row over mediocre opponents to turn around our losing streak. But now is the test to see if we can really get back on track. Even if we lose, if we play them tough and keep it close it would be a good sign. A win would be an even better one though. Don't ask me why, but I think Scola and Francis will have really good games.
