Enough of these Langhi sux, Rice can't shoot, Steve making excuses.... whatever.... let's look forward! Rockets @ Spurs Let's take a look at the line-ups. PG: Steve vs Tony Parker Tony has been a really big surprise to me, I thought it would take him alot longer then it has for him to come out of the gates. He's proved me wrong but I still think with his inexperience he is going to have a bad game now and then, could it be vs. the Rockets? Steve on the other hand seems to be on some sort of a bad shooting spell along with most of the shooters on the squad. If Steve is to win this match-up, he is going to have to play hard minutes and lead this team. He must take more jumpers in order to get the Rockets offence to start rolling. Rockets have the edge by a whisker. SG: Cuttino vs Steve Smith/Antonio Daniels Steve has been starting the 2 but then they take Bruce Bowen out of the line-up early and change him to the 3 and play Antonio at the 2. While Steve is at the 2 Cuttino has the edge for sure with his quickness and the way he's been playing D. When Antonio is playing the 2 Cuttino should have the edge as well but Antonio usually has his shots falling against the Rockets. Still we should win this match-up unless Cat plays like he did against Denver. Rockets have the edge SF: Glenn vs Bruce Bowen/Steve Smith Bruce is a good defender and gets in your face alot which wont be good for Glenn unless he leaves to double team someone. I don't see Glenn winning that match-up but Glenn is due for a "rainy day". On the other hand I really like the Glenn vs Steve match-up. Both shooters, both alittle slow, both not known for their defence. I think Glenn can win that match-up. Edge is even PF: Kenny/Kelvin vs Tim Duncan The reason I put Kenny/Kelvin is because Kelvin is going to be most likely guarding Tim but Tim will be guarding Kenny. Kelvin playing defence on Tim is going to be tough. As much as I support Kelvin (which I have all along) he has been foul prone and done some silly mistakes, but you can see he knows he did the wrong thing. For Kelvin to have success he must gain position before trying to block a shot. Kenny on the other hand has been on a scoring spree of late and I don't see him stopping, but I also don't see him winning this match-up. Spurs have edge C: Kenny/Kelvin vs David Robinson Kenny can guard this guy but he will most likely be the double team guy like we have done in the past to try prevent Tim from getting it going. David kills us with open jumpers we give him so I would like to see Cuttino come off of Antonio Daniels to help stop Tim. All Kenny must do is prevent David from getting open looks and we can handle whatever else he gets. David will double team off Kelvin for sure and allow him to get the ball. However, I would like to see Kelvin take a few 15 footers because if he makes 2-3 open jumpers it is going to make David respect that. Kelvin has a better jump shot then ya'll think. Spurs have edge by a whisker Spurs home court: Spurs have edge Overall this is going to be a tough game for the Rockets. If they get their offense going then they can win this for sure but haven't proven to me or anyone else that they can do this yet. Predictions: Rockets with offense going: 103-96 (W) Rockets as they are now: 102-89 (L) What do ya'll think?
Before the Spurs started playing Parker, I penciled this as a win. Now, the Spurs have a stable point and a good 3 point shot from that position. The interesting thing about this team is the fact that you don't know what you're going to get on any given night. Are we going to get a team that throws the ball away three times in a row? Are we going to get a team whose 3 point shooters kill the sagging defense? Are we going to get 70% shooting from the Centers or 25% shooting from the Centers? Is Kenny going to cancel out the production of the opposing PF, or is he going to get killed there? There are times when Walt's on the floor at the four that we look pretty good, but is he going to hit that 18' shot? Are the rookies any good? Luckily for us, the newfound dedication to defense is only going to prolong this query. The Rockets are going to win games when they shouldn't, just like the Sixers. When the Rockets win games like they should, they'll be able to compete with the Bucks and Spurs of the league on a nightly basis.
I just hope Rudy remembers how well Griffin played vs the Spurs in preseason and gives him the minutes.
You're asking alot if you expect Rudy to have that good of a memory. He didn't remember how well Griffin guarded Garnet during the TWolves game. That's why we had Willis & Moochie on KG & Brandon at the games end (with Griffin on the bench). In Rudy terms, preseason is prehistoric.
I predict G-Money will explode. Franchise will be unconscious. Cat will dominate. Willis will BANG. Cato will BOARD. Griffin will BLOCK. And Mooch will be breakin' ANKLES!
If Francis only has an "edge by a whisker" over the Tony Parkers of this league we are in big trouble.
Francis will be 3-10 from the floor and 9-10 from the line for 15 points. Mobley will carry the team with a 7-20 shooting performance, and 22 points. Rice will shoot 3-9, for 7 points. Thomas will be solid, shooting 5-10 from the floor for 12 points, and 7 boards. Cato and Willis will combine for 15 points and 20 boards. Moochie will be 1-7 from the floor, with 2 assists and 6 turnovers. Parker will drill uncontested jumper after uncontested jumper for 18 points. Smith will have an off-night, but will still nail a few dagger threes for 12 points. Bowen will be a nonfactor with zero. Duncan will get 30 points and 17 boards. Robinson will have 10 points and 8 boards. The Spurs bench will have 35 points. Final score: Rockets: 90 Spurs: 105 Shooting percentage: Rockets: 35.6 percent Spurs: 56.7 percent This would be following the formula of this season so far. Go out and prove me wrong, Rockets.
I guess that says something about our chances in this game...Porter has always killed us it seems. The best we can hope for is Francis getting a bug up his ass to show this rookie who the man is. Otherwise, when was the last time the Rockets won in San Antonio? At least 3 years.
I am camparing that by the way Stevie has been leading the Rockets of late. Tony has been ripping it up and Steve has been fairly quiet, not to mention unpredictable. I don't want to over-rate this position because to me it is what wins/loses the game. Steve is is the heart of this teams offense and he must get himself on the board early to get everyone else going.
You have to be kidding me! I don't care how well Parker has been playing, the guy isn't in Francis league. I'm guessing that after that debacle in Denver, that Francis and Mobes are going to come back with something to prove. I predict that if Parker outplays Francis that the Rockets are going to be a .500 team or a lottery team and are definitely not a playoff team. If Francis can't outplay Parker then the Rockets as a franchise is screwed.
he had a bad night. you think he plays like that every night? Since your a true Rockets fan, Im sure you know just how good stevie franchise is. He wont have 2 bad games in a row.
We will get killed. The one time our ISO works, Duncan will be around to swat our s#it. Tony Parker will have a field day runnning on our slow defense. I don't think we matchup too well against SA. Mobley will need to outplay Smith.
I'm going to predict we come out with a lot of fire and win. For some reason after all this negativity(I think I turned into ZRB after that Denver game), I'm still honestly optimistic about our team. Rockets win.
I'm not sure - we matched up reasonably well with them last year and in the pre-season (from memory) - but I think if we don't shoot well then we're in BIG trouble! I'd like to see Francis post up on Parker, he's got a massive size advantage over the little Frenchie - but I guess a lot depends on how well Mobley goes against Bowen and whether we can stop Duncan down low!
Has Francis EVER posted up? I can't picture him posting up anyone. Sadly, Mobley has blocked more shots than any Rocket I can think of lately.
Oh yeah, Francis had an off night and got outplayed by Avery Johnson, a good veteran player with a championship ring. How could that happen? And I find it amusing that after one bad game people are talking about how bad our backcourt is, and about how Mobley keeps getting blocked and can't score, about how bad Francis is, and how Tony Parker and Steve Smith are going to destroy our backcourt. After one loss. I mean it boggles my mind that people are talking about how bad Tony freaking PARKER is going to destroy our defense and outplay Francis. One loss and our backcourt is horrible. Crazy.
I think it would be a better idea if Willis guarded Duncan and Cato guarded Robinson. Robinson has slowed down "reasonably" (let's say) so I think Cato would hold his own if he hit a few early shots. Willis has experience and hustle(sp?) so I thikn he caould limit Duncan to 22 points 9 rebounds? Truth is, we have to be very efficient at every position. Francis, Mobley and Rice have to play well. My guess: Francis 24pts, 6 assists, 10 rebounds Mobley 32 pts, 5 assists, 2 rebounds Rice 8 points, 5 assists, 6 rebounds if we limit Duncan and Robinson to a MAXIMUM of 40 points 19 boards, I think we'll do alright.
Pay attention, there may be a quiz. In the last game (Denver loss), Walt led the team with 2. In the Philly win, KT led in blocks with 3. You may want to hit the "refresh" button on your optimism.
