ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Blazers @ Rockets 11/12/2002

I agree with on posting up Yao but Glen Rice? He'll be guarded by either Bonzi or the Kobe Stopper...so maybe we'll save posting up Rice for another game.

Anyway, Houston should have a good chance of winning tonight since Portland just lost to a tough Dallas team yesterday.

 

WTF? We should beat these guys. We are a better team by far...

 

the absolute biggest mismatch we have going for us will be kenny thomas v scottie pippen or rasheed wallace. there is absolutely no way either of them can handle kt because they are not physical enough. on defense, we'd be best served putting kt on scottie and eddie on sheed. eddie can hold him if he doesn't sag off for blocks...

francis has the 2nd biggest mismatch. stoudamire has not been shooting particularly well, and his defense has always been porous. expect a big game from steve (as usual).

our biggest matchup problems will be:

a) ruben patterson.

cat is waaaaaaay too light in the shorts to hang with ruben off the ball. expect ruben, if he brings his game, to have 10-13 boards and 15 or so points off of put backs.

b) bonzi wells.

hawkins on wells?! same problem as cat on ruben. not strong enought to handle bonzi in the post...and that's where bonzi will be. portland floats sheed around the perimeter while bonzi beats up people in the post. this forces other players like steve, cat, kt, and cato (to a lesser extent) to be the rebounders. it'll be an interesting watch.

c) mo cheeks.

dude can coach. flat out. and he is becoming better and better at game time adjustments. at one point in the dallas game, cheeks had this lineup on the court:

center: zach randolph - 7'0
pforward: arvydas sabonis - 7'+
sforward: rasheed wallace - 6'10
2guard: scottie pippen - 6'7
pguard: jeff mcginnis - 6'4

that is one hell of a big lineup - capable of dominating the boards.


KEY STAT FOR THE GAME: rebounding!!!

if you allow portland to grab bushels of offensive rebounds, they will crush you. randolph is becoming a monster down low, sabonis takes up plenty of space, patterson's a glass gobbler, and bonzi bonzais his way to the boards. fortunately, they are not 100% committed to crashing the boards. if houston can get on the glass, they can outrun the blazers and expose portland's tired legs.

 

Portland scored just 73 points and shot 35% from the floor against Dallas last night. Is it the Mavs' defense or what?

 

actually, the mavs (led by dirk with like 7 steals) did play some excellent defense. more importantly, they hit the boards and got into their offense early. houston MUST do the same things if they want to beat portland.

 

Agreed. The Mavs may turn the last corner if they learn from last night. They started out shooting horribly last night,at least on the shots Portland let them shoot. But instead of trying to shoot their way back into the game,the Mavs concentrated on defense and rebounding. They shut down the Blazers using mostly a zone,limited them mostly to one shot per possession,and even increased their own shot opportunities with offensive boards. Then their offense kicked in as they saw the lead shrink and they exploded.

If they start playing defense and rebounding first,look out. Hopefully this is something the Rockets are learning as well.

 

If the Mavs can really play defense, that will be pretty scary. The Kings and Lakers may get moved over.

Sorry, off topic.

 

One interesting thing. The Mavs are outscoring their opponents this year on average, 107-88. They are 7-0 and not only are they winning, they are blowing people out. Dallas may indeed be the team to beat this year. Ill be tuning into their upcoming matchups at New Jersey, Seattle and San Antonio. I think well know for sure how good they really are depending on what they do against these teams.

 

Shawn Bradley had a huge game with 10 points, 18 rebounds and three blocks last night.


Put ming in the game, and see what he can do against blazers!

 

Randolph is only 6'9" isn't he?

 

Ok, I watched the re-run of the Blazers-Mavs game. Here are some notes:


- If you were watching, you probably saw the little tiff Mo Cheeks and Stoudamire had. Stoudamire was pissed about soemthing, went to Cheeks, and while he was talking, Mo Cheeks just walked away, ignoring him. Stoudamire then sat down with a teammate and started pointing at Cheeks for some reason.

Why is this good news?

Because as we said before, Stoudamire matches up well with Steve. Stoudamire didn't playw ell, and played a lot, and all this means that he's not going to get many minutes against us. I'm confident Steve will rip up either Daniels or Mcinnis.

- I just realized, Blazers are on a back-to-back. Playing the Mavs is probably the most tiring thing in the NBA. That's a good thing.

- Sabonis is back, and playing well. Right now, he's a tiny bit out of shape, but his skills haven't diminished. He's just as good as he was 2 or 3 seaosns ago.

- Rasheed Wallace looks like he'll have a breakout game. He sat out with some foul trouble, didn't play exceptionally well, didn't do too much work, so he won't be as tired as the rest fo the team.

- If Mobley is ever matched up with Qyntel Woods, he will make Woods look like the little boy he really is. The kid is phenominally talented. One day, he'll be as good as McGrady. Right now, his defense is awful, and he makes rookie mistakes.

- Zach Randolph wishes he was 6'9, forget 7'0. Where did anyone get the notion that he was a 7-footer? He's got excellent skills though, and brings energy and rebounding off the bench. His jumpshot is smooth, and he may cause problems, but I think Eddie can handle him.

- Blazers aren't as deep as everyone says. They're not as skilled as people make them sound either. Over the years, they've become average. Rasheed Wallace is the only unstoppable player on their team.



Looking at everything overall, I'm confident this one is ours. As long as we can stay with them for 3, or at least 2, quarters, they're fried.


Rockets 99
Blazers 87

Rockets will destroy them in the 4th, when Eddie won't be in foul trouble (MoT will play some) and Francis will dominate the tired Blazers.

 

The game was sloppy on both sides. The Blazers were up by 10 or 12 in Q2 and the Mavs switched to some kind of gimicky 1-1-3 zone and the Blazers never did manage to solve it.

 

correction: zach is NOT 7'0".


that said, he plays big and is a handful.


Sane, did you just say woods will be as good as mcgrady?!!!

wow, i hope you intentionally overexagerated and didn't actually mean that.

 

Well this all goes perfectly with how Portland's been playing this year, up and down, so by this logic they should defeat the Rox tonight, because of course both Bonzi and Rasheed are fresh and up for the game. But on a different note I will be glad to see Maurice back in action, I hope he looks as sharp as he did in preseason. I just hope that Francis doesn't dominate the ball too much tonight, a team game will ensure that they don't lose by too much to the Blazers.

 

GATER, if it was a 1-1-3 zone, it was likely a match-up zone that focused on taking Stoudamire out of the game. Why would you call a match-up zone a gimmicky defense?

imo, there are basically two types of zones--aggressive and passive zones. The Match-up zones focus on taking away penetration and causing a lot of turnovers with ball pressure, but they require fast athletes to prevent a team of shooters from beating them with ball reversal. The 1-1-3 zones is trying to do a lot of trapping like its half-court press version does, but I wouldn't call it gimmicky, though.

 

I haven't seen this posted here yet. Rockets.com is reporting that Collier will start tonight as Cato will be attending a funeral.

This does not bode well. Here is another excuse for Rudy to use some weird-ass lineup rather than giving Yao some decent minutes. I guess we'll see.

 

hope mo-t is ready because i guess griffin and him may get alot of minutes at the 5. the rockets will be in trouble if collier has to play alot of minutes

 

verse,

Yes, I said McGrady. The kid has every single quality of a first year McGrady. He's going to learn a lot from playing behind Pippen, Patterson, and Bonzi. Those guys are three different players that will only accelerate his growth. Here's another prediction:

Randolph and Woods look incredible at the end of the seaosn, but Portland are out in the first round, and Portland rebuilds around them. I'm not sure if they'll keep Wallace, or get something back for him. If you ask me, Micheal Jordan will make a succesful attempt to land Rasheed Wallace.

But anyways, about our Rockets. Cato is out? That's absolutely horrific news. You think Rudy would use MoT exclusively at the 5, along with increased minutes for Ming and Collier? Will he give monster minutes to anyone at C? Griffin?

Any ideas?

I'd suggest playing Taylor for 15 minutes there, Collier for 15, and Ming for 18. But then again, apparently his ankle is very painful, so maybe it's not a good idea.

It looks like we're going to have to be carried by franchise again. Unless someone will come up huge tonight?

Any guesses/predictions on who will be our 3rd surprise scorer tonight guys?

 

Sane,


yes, he does resemble a 1st year t-mac: young, out of control, athletic and an inconsistent jumper. the problem is that many players fit that description: larry hughes, harold minor, cat mobley, etc.

then there are players that were even more impressive than mcgrady in their first year: jason richardson, vince carter, paul pierce.

the problem is that NONE of those guys can or ever will matchup with the t-mac of TODAY. mcgrady is, imo, hands down the best 2 guard in the league, the singlemost dominant backcourt player in the nba, and the 2nd/3rd most dominant player in the nba (shaq #1, duncan #2 - maybe).

to say that a young, undisciplined yet athletic guard will be better is reaaaaaallly overstating things. mcgrady is a CONSISTENT 30ppg scorer, plays great defense, can post, shoot the 3, shoot the midrange, jump over your center and pass well, too!

woods would be happy to end up being 2/3 the player mcgrady is.

 

You're absolutely right. I also think McGrady is 3rd best player in the league, but tied with Kobe IMO.

About Woods: I just see something in him. He's so smooth, the game comes to him easy. I saw Jason Richardson last year, ad you could tell he was never going to be the ALL ROUND threat McGrady is. But Woods, he can pass, he can rebound, and he has the same or better athletic ability as McGrady. This guys has LONG arms too, meaning he will eventually be a great defensive player if he tries. It's a given that this guy won't be only a scorer, like Mobes or Vince. he's got the all round potential that McGrady has.

Lots fo these guys turn out to be busts, or mediocre, or just not as good as T-Mac. But I just have a feeling about this guy. I don't know. Have you watched him? If you haven't, try to. Maybe you'll see what I mean.