Houston Rockets at Charlotte Bobcats 11/11

[CaptainCrunch]

Houston Rockets (5-1) at Charlotte Bobcats (3-2) 11/09
at

Game time: 6 p.m. Bobcats Arena


Probable Starting Lineups:
PG Rafer Alston 6.7 ppg v.s. Raymond Felton 18.5 ppg
v.s.
SG Tracy McGrady 27.5 ppg v.s. Jason Richardson 14.0 ppg
v.s.
SF Shane Battier 9.7 ppg v.s. Gerald Wallace 17.0 ppg
v.s.
PF Chuck Hayes 4.0 ppg v.s. Emeka Okafor 13.8 ppg
v.s.
C Yao Ming 22.3 ppg v.s. Primoz Brezec 1.6 ppg
v.s.

Houston Bench: Bonzi Wells, Mike James, Luther Head, Luis Scola, Steve Francis, Aaron Brooks, and Dikembe Mutombo


Charlotte Bench: Jeff McInnis, Walter Herrmann, Matt Carroll, Jermareo Davidson, Derek Anderson, Jared Dudley, and Ryan Hollins


Indiana Head Coach: Rick Adelman


Charlotte Head Coach: Sam Vincent



Houston last 5 games:
11/01 @UTA 106-95W
11/03 POR 89-90 W
11/05 @Dallas 98-107 L
11/06 SAN 89-81 W
11/09 MIL 104-88 W


Charlotte last 5 games:
11/02 MIL 102-99 W
11/04 @MIA 90-88 W
11/06 PHX 83-115 L
11/07 @PHI 63-94 L
11/09 IND 96-87 W

Houston inactive list: Carl Landry, Steve Novak, and Kirk Synder


Charlotte inactive list: Seam May, Adam Morrison, and Othella Harrington

[CaptainCrunch]

awesome win tonight..can't wait for sunday's game go cats

[Keetch]

Won't make this game...gave my tickets to a friend from Beijing...would be awesome to beat a team as good as the Rockets.

[dvdbumpus]

T-mac vs. J-Rich: If Jason is on his game tonight this will be the game decider....who will be more on fire?

Oh god, Primoz vs. Yao. Please god let Yao be hung over.

[davcbow]

Primoz, Hollins and Harrington better be on top of their game to play Yao Ming. They will eat us alive in the middle if they dont. Maybe coach will play Davidson some to help out in the middle. The rest of the team Im not that worried about except maybe the SG position McGrady -vs- J-Rich. We wont be able to play small ball against Houston....

[Wallace15]

Good Lord, seeing Primoz or Hollins trying to guard Yao is gonna give me nightmares . I've said for the past 2 games that JRich was gonna come out and have a great game and it hasn't happened. He's gotta break out against Houston. For us to have a chance on Sunday, Felts, Crash, JRich, and EO50 are all gonna have to have strong games.

[TheBeagle]

For some reason, I'm not too worried about this game. I don't know if it's because I'm so numb from the dual-personalities this team has showed in its first 5 games or what, but I think we have as good a chance to win this game as we did tonight. We've had good success against the Rockets in years past. I think we'll be okay in the middle if Mek has the same tenacity he did this evening. Adelman really likes to keep Yao at the high post to help facilitate their offense, so maybe we can stick Mek on him and just hope his midrange jumper is off.

Also, I recommend GW on McGrady and JRich on Battier.

At worst our bench is equal to them, but probably a little bit better, and more productive. I think Walter should get some minutes because he has shown an ability to get rebounds despite his malodorous offense.

That said, since this team is still in the midst of finding its identity, I really have no clue what is going to happen; it could be another 30+ loss, or a brilliant win. I will have to say that I think tonight is more along the lines of what Sam wants and the team wants, in terms of total team cohesion; from starters to the bench. Our core is Mek, GW, and Raymond; these are the guys that operate the machine. JRich, being a jumpshooter and, sadly, not much else, he's too inconsistent to count on on a regular basis. If he has a good game we stand a very good chance of winning (Re: Miami), if he doesn't, we have a good chance of winning; it depends on our core's performance. Don't know if he's suffering a sort of separation anxiety from GS, but his game has been disappointing thus far (not to mention FTs). I think we're best suited if GW and Mek are our first options on offense, and with nice ball movement and Raymond's vision, JRich will be a nice complement to the team, but not the focus he was hyped as; and there's nothing wrong with that, because it is still a significant upgrade over last year's model.

The Pacers game really was a revelation, and will go a long way towards developing some chemistry and identity, which will hopefully continue to grow against the Rockets and beyond.

[Dead_Real]

This will be a tough one no doubt McGrady has had a damn good season so far and Yao is Yao he'll get his reguardless but I still give us a chance in this game. Like Bumpus said earlier J-Rich HAS to show up Sunday we'll need all of the offense we can get from our starters and our bench.

[Keetch]

Rockets match-ups are tough. Yao will get his stats; the hope is that Okafor can get his too; leaving Yao huffing at mid-court.

I agree Beagle, Wallace has to guard McGrady or we're in trouble, but the key may be the point guards. If we control the ball and disrupt their ball movement, that may be enough.

I like what you said about JRich, but one further thought. On another team or on another night, JRich MIGHT have found his shot last night and played great if he wasn't sitting on the bench. It's a very brave coach that leaves his GO-TO guy on his butt for the entire (?) 4th quarter. It was a good move though to stay with the hot hands and chemistry-of-the-moment. I figured that 5 would fatigue late in the quarter and if the Pacers responded then JRich would come in and be the dagger. It just didn't happen though and JRich wasn't needed.

[ALong13]

I don't see Hollins or Brezec getting much time in this game, I see a fast tempo team coming out

McInnis, Felton, JRich, Crash, Okafor with Dudley, Carroll, Davidson, and maybe Herrmann coming in throughout the game...