Altough this year Houston is pretty even with any team in the NBA so as the whole Western Conference one team that I expected to be tough for Houston is Phoenix. Look at the tonight's game Suns brutally destroyed Rockets in the paint and with no Yao Ming that's a joke, it seems everytime Houston meets Suns it ends with a loss, not just this year, remember up tempo last year was brutal for Rockets. I'm not praising Suns and telling they're a worse team then they were but they have a option when they can go quick, up tempo ala Suns with Marion and when the game is close or when opposite team has a good big man they can go with a Shaq lineup. With no Yao Ming in the playoffs, Rockets chances vs. Suns are little so as are against San Antonio Spurs. Btw, I think they're going to meet Utah against, and two painful eliminations are alredy enough!
I disagree completely. I am still unconvinced of this trade for Shaq, and I think the Suns will probably be done in round one, and they are actually one of the more favorable matchups for the Rockets. Tonight, the Suns just wouldn't miss ANYthing in the first half, and the Rockets were caught horribly off as this was the fourth game in five nights, and with a lot of travelling in between. They clearly had very little energy on defense, but they still managed to make a game out of it. I mean the Suns may be good on offense, but 75% in the first half? Against THIS team??? That was the very definition of an aberration.
I really belive we can beat Suns. Really. You saw in the 2nd half. We played agressive defense perimeter and Suns kinda lost themselfes. You can't alow other team to shoot 75% in half. It is unbelivable. It was just so big mistake on our part. In 2nd half we came ready to the court but is is not easy to win losing 17 at halftime. Shaq would be our problem, but the biggest one would be amare. Without Yao nobody here can stop him, he's having fun playing against Scola.
our defense was very very poor in the 1st and 2nd half. when we usually double team someone, we have a third player coming down the middle protecting the lane. this was very poor. every time our we double team shaq, all amare had to do is just make a cut.
Well, in the second half, we played then pretty well and in the first half, I think we were bad due to the back2back games. To know if we can match the Suns, we ll have to play another game vs them and there we could see how we match them.
When it comes to playoff time it's going to be this kind of high scoring up-tempo game. Defense is the key at playoffs and we're way better defensive team than the Suns. Amare may cause some serious problems but i'm really high on Chuck Hayes to stop him.
4th game in 5 nights with quite a bit of traveling IS an excuse for me. I'm not sure why but it seems like 4 out of 5 times we get Phoenix it is on the back end of traveling and a lot of games for the Rockets. Either way I credit the shooting and all of the fouls as an aberration but it is getting really, really old to see our guys play such great defense but never get the benefit of the doubt with the officials. Scola I can somewhat understand as this is his first year in but Battier and ESPECIALLY Chuck deserve some fair officiating. You can count on Chuck to whistled for at least 2 fouls a game where very cleanly strips the ball from the opponent down low. I hate to be a whiner but if this is how the officiating will be in the playoffs then it's going to be tough regardless of who we play. I hope these guys just continue playing hard and maybe inspire Tmac to go guard someone every once in a while.
Amare is becoming a much different player than he was just a year or two ago. I think you're being a little unrealistic to put that load all on Hayes. I just don't see a tougher match-up for us that the Suns. Yes, they may not be favored to win it all, but that doesn't mean we match-up better against them.
There was one time in the first half wher the Suns didn't miss a FG for I believe close to 10 possessions. THAT'S SICK DEFENSE.
I think people were distracted by how bad we were getting beat to understand that we thoroughly killed the Suns in the second half. In fact, we did a good job on them in the 2nd quarter. The rockets were actually taking it to them in the whole game on offense and playing the best defense I've ever seen them play on them. The difference was that Amare Stoudemire mad tough jumpers all in Scola's grill the entire night, that won't happen all the time. He was hitting it like a SG and when he went to the line he was 20-20. I hope people understand how much he was playing out of his mind and don't start some crazy thread about trading Yao/Tmac for him because he is the second coming Jordan/Olajuwon and saying he actually plays like this every night.
I don't mind facing the Suns in the First Round...Look they will not shoot 76% in a 7 game series..we had just come off a down to the wire win against another run and gun team and it took us some time to adjust to Phx. The 2nd half we played wonderful and buckled down on the defensive end more..i think we can take them in 6 or 7 games
Everytime we play the Suns it's the second game of the back to back. The one time we didn't play the Suns in a back to back, we won. So as long as that little bitter nba schedule maker is not making the playoff schedule and he can't keep trying to get back at the Rockets for Mario Elie breaking his heart with that kiss of death shot, I like our chances.
Some of ya'll sound as bad as the homers on the laker's message board. Amare avg like 38 against duncan a few years ago, and his jump shot has improved since then, I don't think we can expect to stop him. Add shaq to the mix and we just don't have the size inside to guard him. Without Yao this would be a terrible matchup for us.
dude we were playing 4th game in 5 nights; 5th in 7 nights. the suns were amped to get higher in the standings. we were just tired. as u saw in the 2nd half, we adjusted and did better (though we were still slow defensively). i felt when we cut it down to 8, tmac, scola, and alston missed 3 layups in a row on 2 possessions and it killed any momentum. we can hang with this team (though i dont know if we can beat them in a 7 game series)
57% shooting (77% in first half), 95% fts, 43% 3s, outrebounded us, outassisted us -> i call that their A+++++++++++ game my friend. and they barely held us back b/c we were so tired. they needed their A+ game to beat a tired rockets team. our defense won't be that pathetic.
In normal situation, we cannot beat the suns in 7 game series. But, you never know what will happen. Maybe, someone would be injured or suspended.
Nailed it. Suns will NOT shoot this well again in a half. I'd still wouldn't like to play them, since there are more preferable match-ups for us. I'd love to play the Hornets or Mavs. I think we can hang with the Suns. We outplayed them in the second half, but man oh man, did they get to the free throw line. That alone was what killed us.
