Hey Everybody! It's time to preview our big game on Tuesday. Let's look at what went wrong at Arco, shall we? Meeting at Arco http://www.clutchcity.net/game.cfm?gameID=34 Inside the Queens locker room http://www.nba.com/kings/news/Inside_the_Locker_Roomvshouston.htm With home court in our favor, I think this game will be a great battle. Our strong defensive Rox vs. the offensive minded Queens. But the question is, "can we put up a 90 pts outing?" Sac is averaging over 90+ pts a game. Given our recent defensive efforts, I think we can hold them in the mid to lo 80s. But still, we need to score more to win. With CAT back, I feel more optimistic about our offense. We gotta hope we don't suffer another point draught like last time against Sac. Turnovers is the other biggie. Even though we won against Philly, the disturbing trend I see is one of "turnovers". Too many people stepping out of bounds, not protecting the ball, or making dumb offensive fouls. Anyone have any thoughts on Sacremento's weaknesses and how we match up with them? -peace
Second Link ain't workin' so here's the whole cut and paste jobbie. Enjoy! Inside the Locker Room Kings versus Houston by Devin Blankenship Young Rockets Ice Cold… Monday’s match-up between the Kings and Rockets was anticipated by some as a possible playoff preview for April. And although the season is barely 10 games old, many in the media see the Kings and the up-and-coming Rockets as contenders in the Western Conference. Unfortunately for Houston, a cold-shooting night ended any thought they had of showing the veteran Kings that they had arrived. The Rockets shot only 35.6% from the field for the contest, including 25.0% shooting in the fourth quarter, when Sacramento ran out to a 36-point lead. “I think Sacramento is one of the better teams in the league,” said Rockets Head Coach Rudy Tomjanovich. “(They're) smart, and execute well and shoot the ball very well. It felt like they were playing with hand grenades and we were playing with peashooters. I thought we had better shots then them, but they were making shots with guys all over them. We were standing wide open, and couldn’t make a shot. We just didn’t come out and compete like I think we can.” Christie Breaks Out… Doug Christie had one of his bigger games of the year, scoring a season-high 23 points while helping hold the Rocket’s backcourt of Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley to a combined 30 points. His defense, along with that of Bobby Jackson’s, set the tone for the game. “We came in with our heads in the game and we attacked the basket and played good defense,” said Jackson. “We limited Steve [Francis] and Cuttino [Mobley] from getting to the basket in the second half.” Rockets Boogie Down… Apparently the Rockets like to dance, as evidenced by the scene in their locker room before the game. In atmosphere that felt like more like a high school locker room than an NBA locker room, in terms of the playfulness and looseness, one of the Houston players brought a boom box that blasted the newest Michael Jackson compilation, while several players grooved to the sounds of the King of Pop. Hey, whatever works... Other news & notes... The Rockets suffered numerous scoring droughts, including going eight minutes without a field goal in the second quarter, and going nearly seven minutes in the fourth quarter without hitting a shot…The 36-point victory was the biggest of the year, topping the previous high of 34 which came in the last home game versus Chicago…In their last three games at ARCO, the Rockets have been defeated by 13 or more points each time.
And one more from our friends at the Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/rox/1301666
I think they mean to tell you that Clutch usually posts specific threads for the upcoming games. But I can see how excitement for this game can cause one to jump the gun. I live in Sac and catch some of the sports radio around here (haha...nothing but Kings as you can imagine). Most callers complain about the rebounding. Not specifically a lack of rebounding but a lack of getting the big rebounds in key situations. Looking up the rebounding margin: Kings In wins: +0.6 reb/game In losses: -4.4 reb/game In 4 out of 5 losses, they've been outrebounded (in the exception, they held a one rebound edge). And...they may be without two of their best rebounders off the bench, Pollard and Funderburke. So what does this all mean? Well, we better play good defense, get the Kings to take tough shots and get the rebounds!! Also, hit the offensive boards too. And looking at last game, can't have 21 TOs. So the keys are to have more rebounds and less turnovers...sounds so easy doesn't it
Out last game our defense was pathetic. Our Vlade took Ming out to the School Yard like Hakeem did to David Robinson on David's MVP Night. It wasn't that bad but Vlade was toying with him. We scored 19 points the first 2 quarters and followed up with a feeble 20 points in the 3rd. Which is fine if you are playing grind it out D. Our shooting was what the 49% reflected and neither was the 50% that theirs reflected. CWebb will always get his and we don't have an answer for him. KT isn't too bad of a defender just a little undersized, 6'7" vs 6'10". EG must be in the dog house still not getting a bunch of PT. But if we get 27 Ass. as we did last night vs. 17 to the last game, we should look good. There was a lot of ball rotation vs. the Sixers. I would like to see the turn overs reduced we are still turning the ball over way too much.
The major reason we lost to Kings are the turn overs. 21 of them. Kings outscore Rockets 23 points off these turn overs. Our offense also totally sucked, mostly ISOs, no motion. Christie got so many easy steals because he can clearly anticipate where the ball is going. Ming matched Divac well. Got Divac in 3 fouls earlier in 2nd quarter. The reall problem was that Ming only got 3 shots! Our offense were not going through him at the time. This time, we need to play tough D, protect the ball, and continue the motion offense like agaisnt 76ers. I think we will have an interesting match and will beat Kings in our home court. Kings won't want to meet us in the first round playoffs after this game.
The Kings move the ball around very well which makes things very difficult for us.Better defense and ball movement from us can make things harder for them too.Yao does need more shots but we have get other players involved like we did against the 76'ers. We have to make open shots.SF production is a big problem for us.When Rice goes cold,it will be upto T-Mo to make some shots and defend strongly against Jim Jackson/Gerald Wallace.1 out of 8 from Norris and Morris isn't a good sign.I'm glad Mobley is back but if he and Rice have a off night then KT ,Ming and Francis will have a hard job because the Kings can matchup well with them.
I think the Kings will win this one again just because they're more fundamentally sound than the Rockets. The Kings are playing on fire and i think they will do the same thing to Houston what they did to San Antonio. Of course, Spurs have been playing horrible basketball. So i might be wrong.
DavidS, totally. No way in the world Rox can outscore the Kings. N, the Spurs just got assasinated at home. Tough call, lets say Ks 101-90.
Sheeesh You weren't kidding. San Antonio really did get assassinated by Sac. Unlike our last encounter with the Kings, I think Yao should get at least 10 "touches" for FGAs. If Divac was getting fouls early last game, and Ming had fewer touches, one has to believe that with more touches, Ming should be able to keep Divac honest in foul trouble. The earlier post about the "rebounding" differential is rather interesting. I honestly think Rockets are a better rebounding team than Sac. Esp with Yao peeling off some 6 offensive rebounds per game. Those second chance points will come in very handy. Nix Vlade and Pollard DNP, and here we have a great chance of levelling the playing field with Yao in the middle.
when teams get outrebounded that usually means they missed more shots its misleading. The real key is better defense on wallace, he was 10-11 last time mostly dunks. If we can hit some shots we can win also we are healthier than them this time. Last time it was last game of a 5-game road trip. prediction rockets win 105-97 Yao 20 pts 15 rebs in 25 mins.
Hey all. For the record... I'm new to these boards (as you can see, "Junior Member"). But I love and respect all of Clutch's work with these boards. Didn't mean any confusion. Just eager to see Rox win a biggie this Tues. -peace TheSAGE
