What will the Roxs have to do to pull an upset in the 1st round.

The main thing they have to do is not turn the ball over. Obviously they would need to do some other things, but less turnovers would greatly increase their chance of pulling an upset.

It's all up to Yao in my opinion. If Yao dominates, they'll have a decent chance. If he struggles and constantly turns the ball over like he does sometimes, they will have a difficult chance.

 

porve

 

1. Pick-N-Roll

2. Strong Team D

3. Limit TOs

4. Rebounds

 

This is Malone the only reason he even went to the fakers is for a chance for a ring, theres no wayy he will miss the playoffs, sorry to break it to u.

 

You're right, but that could play to the Rockets' advantage. If Malone comes out and forces himself to play at less than 100% he could do more hurt than good for the Lakers.

 

since we have to play the Lake Show, I really think that we need to change our starting lineup so to Franchise/Cat/JJ/Spoon/Yao so that we can bring Cato off the bench to guard Shaq when Yao is tired/in foul trouble. Also, Cato cannot guard Malone out on the floor nearly as well as Spoon or Mo.

The key for us beating the Lakers is defense. We have got to play tough D on the perimeter making it more difficult for them to throw the post entry and we have got to REBOUND. As much as I am afraid that these Lakers are the real deal and will probably sweep us atleast we do matchup decently and the series should be competitive...

 

Its simple all they gota do is win 4 games

 

Should we just let cato guard shaq at the beginning of the game? U let Yao get his first foul in the first few mins and then he plays tentative at both end of the floor for whole first half. Why not let yao start to guard shaq in the second quarter and limit his fouls to 2 in the first half. Hopefully he can play agressively for the rest of the game.

 

Upset the Lakers, no problem.

Can you say "Tonya Harding?"

D R

 

From http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=lal

It's probable that his injury is not as bad as is being made out. Also the Lakers are notorious for saying things like "Kobe's shoulder will keep him out for X months", and then he suits up and scores 35 after 4 days of rest.

If Malone doesn't play, we have a great chance of winning. If Malone plays, we have no chance.

-- droxford

 

Now that we'll play the Lakers, the whole strategy has to be changed from dealing with the Kings.

First thing is still the tempo. With the strength in the middle for both teams, neither team particularly like the fast paced game with the Rockets favor a slower tempo than the Lakers. The Lakers do run more this season due to the addition of Payton; so it will be critical for Steve to hold back from going defensive rebounding, stay with Payton even from the backcourt.

Second thing is the positional match ups.

Yes, Shaq vs Yao got all the hype, but the match up between Mobley & Bryant will more likely determine the outcome of this series. Normally, Kobe's style of playing demands a great deal of energy, but since Payton joined the Lakers, he took over majority of the ball handling duty away from Bryant to leave him with more freedom & energy on offense, and sometimes on defense if he choose to. It is very important for Mobley to attack Bryant on offense, to put him on his heel all game long, which will reduce a great deal of his offensive output. We have seen some success of this strategy from the passed few match-ups. The important thing is that Mobley has to keep a level head as when to attack, and when to just run the cuts, set others up. After all, "ATTACK" doesn't mean you have to have the ball & score. You can achieve the same goal by going through multiple screens, slashing across to the court.

The same strategy applies to Yao. I'd like to see Yao take some hard fouls from Shaq by fake his fade-away/jump hook to get him in the air, then jump into him. We have seen from last game that if Yao allow O'Neal to be physical with you on defense, he won't have much a chance on both ends of the floor. O'Neal is too strong, too agile for Yao. The only thing prevent him from be agile is putting him in the foul trouble, and there is no better way to do that than Yao fake him in the air, then jump into him. In the last game against the Lakers, Yao made exactly ONE fake around the baseline, and got O'Neal in the air, hence the foul. So, in summary, Yao needs to scarify his body by taking more straight up, or lean-in shots, mixes them with pump-fakes, reduce fade-ways.

Surprisely, the match up between Francis & Payton has not turn into the disadvantage as many expected. I think that was mainly due to the way Payton has been used in LA's offense, and he is at least ONE step slower now. So I expect Steve to have a good to great series. One thing we Steve needs to watch out is when Fisher comes into the game, he should not try too hard to dribble around the guy, because Fisher draws charges every game with good anticipation & flopperring.

The match up between Fox & Jackson should be a wash. Fox is a very good helping defender, but Jackson’s good shooting record should keep him from doing that too frequently. I know Jackson has been the darling of this BBS. I like him too. But he does step out of his role; try to do more than he is supposed to from time to time. I’d like to see him doing all the usually thing, except trying too hard on offense.

Now comes the match up everyone here is worry about, the Power Forward position. Even at 40 years of age, Malone is still too quick for Cato, too strong for every other forward we have. There is no clear answer for defending the guy because he can hit the outside J, and post up inside, so all we can do is hope that he won’t be able to hit the J consistently, that will greatly limit his and the Lakers effectiveness.

IMHO, we’d have a much better chance to play the Lakers had JVG extended his rotation more during the regular season. We have see the good plays from Padget, Boki, Wilkins in the last couple games, but you cannot trust them too much in the playoff since they haven’t been through enough battles in the regular season. Our style of playing defense demands a lot of energy, and that will be one of the deciding factors in this series, especially in the late stage of the games. The good news is that the Lakers’ bench is not particularly strong, either!

Go Rockets!

 

DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE. Did I mention Defense?

Offense just gets the crowd into it, and... well, most games are away... save the offense for the home crowd... I will go.

 

daoshi, you forgot the match up between

Phil Jackson and Jeff van Gundy

 

It's all Phil hands down! The refs listen when Jackson complains, hence more favorable calls for Shaq & Bryant; the refs listen too when JVG complains, but Yao & Steve go to the line EVEN LESS.

But seriously, from my observation of their history back in the Bulls & the Knicks days, Jackson will not get into a mouth war with JVG. He has never taken JVG seriously in the old days, and I don't think he will do anything differently this time. Of course, if the Rockets are up after three games, then all bets are off!