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| hoopfan |
 Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:39 pm |
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Joined: 21 Aug 2004
Posts: 692
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| WiseYao |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:41 pm |
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Joined: 12 Nov 2006
Posts: 924
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Did not look Rockets roster's salary, but occurred to me that Shane Battier might be first on the priority list.
Unless Luther Head can play point guard, his role in Rockets is very limited as shooting guard. Might be better off for him to seek another opportunity.
Kedroc wrote:
I don't think so, he likes Rockets and Rockets like him so... that's not very probable...
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| Ping Ni |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:43 pm |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 10633
Location: Philly
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| T-Mac can really make or break the team. So can Rafer.... |
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| YaoMingFan |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:27 pm |
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Joined: 06 Nov 2006
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Some of my thoughts on tonights contest:
Pros
-Great game by Tmac, who was great down the stretch, after a slow start. 
-Luther Head made a couple of clutch 3's down the stretch that helped elevate the Rox in the 4th quarter. 
-Yao was efficient in limited time and limited opportunities from the field.
Cons
-Rafers shoot was off again.
-*Yao only got 8 attempts I think. Didn't he get only 4 in the previous game? This is a bad sign, as fronting defense pretty much takes Yao out of the game on the offensive end. And even when the Rox try to lob it over to him theres always the help defender there for the immediate double team. I'm thinking more and more teams will adopt this method, until Rox find SOME way to get Yao the ball effectively. 
All in all though, I am still just happy to see the Rox win. |
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| TheRoxRedGlare |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:29 pm |
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Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 3971
Location: Let The Good Times Roll!
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 http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2007/04/keep_it_simple_stupid_attack_r.html
April 08, 2007
Keep It Simple, Stupid -- Attack. Rockets 112, Kings 106.
After opening the game shooting 1-for-6 on jumpshots, Tracy McGrady lowered his head and drove the ball. By the end of the night, he had lowered the boom on the Kings with 40 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds.
Good things happen when you go to the basket.
After playing a passive, dainty first half in which the Kings made 25 trips to the free throw line to just five of their own, the Rockets lowered their heads and forced the ball into the paint. In the second half, the Rockets made 29 trips to the line to just four by the Kings.
Did the NBA send in another team of officials to work the second half? Was commissioner David Stern responding to a batch of whining e-mails coming out of Houston?
No. Good things happen when you go to the basket.
"We didn't need Jeff (Van Gundy) or anybody else to tell us," said McGrady. "We knew we had to stop fouling and we knew we had to attack."
There. A simple prescription for keeping the heat on the Utah Jazz in the race for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The aggressor sets the tone. The aggressor gets the calls. The aggressor usually wins.
McGrady, more than anyone else in Rockets red, sets the tone with the demeanor of his game on any given night. Indeed, the team missed him greatly over the past two games when he suffered with back pain. But for several games before that, T-Mac had gone passive. He'd been shooting jumpers, mostly. Yes, settling.
Even McGrady acknowledges that it's up to him.
"We hadn't play well for the last three games and it was up to me to come out and put my will on this game," he said.
News flash: It is up to him every night. The Rockets feed off him. Not just his point total, but his style of play.
The Rockets took over this game against the Kings because they took over. They made big 3-pointers coming down the stretch and they often got those good looks because they took the ball inside and created opportunities. They hammered the ball toward the hoop, were fouled and got trips to the line that were earned. Hard-earned.
Now the Rockets are just one-half game behind Utah. The race is back on.
It will stay on if they keep it simple, Stupid. And attack.
Posted by Fran Blinebury at April 8, 2007 10:38 PM |
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| TheRoxRedGlare |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:43 pm |
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Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Let The Good Times Roll!
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Sports
Sacramento's Justin Williams was assigned
to Yao Ming on Sunday.
Steve Yeater: AP
April 8, 2007, 11:16PM
Rockets drop Kings, inch closer to Jazz
Game Stats
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — All those times Jeff Van Gundy has said the Rockets had to be willing to hit back,Feisty it sounded good. Tough. Determined. Feisty.
Then Sunday, the Rockets proved him wrong.
He probably meant it figuratively, anyway, likely referring to something about competing, rather than hitting hard. But the Rockets came back to beat the Sacramento Kings, 112-106, on Sunday precisely because they finally stopped hitting — along with grabbing, shoving and slapping.
After a first half in which the Kings lived at the line, heading toward franchise records for free throws, the Rockets finally defended them without giving them free throws. Then when up against the brink at which they have failed to close out games lately, the Rockets began a parade to the free-throw line, making their last 15, including eight in the final minute.
With that, and Tracy McGrady's 40 points, to go with 10 assists and eight rebounds, the Rockets snapped their three-game losing streak and moved to within a half-game of the idle Utah Jazz in their race for homecourt advantage. With McGrady and Yao Ming back from back problems and a 62-point second half in the books, the Rockets' first April win was enough to give them reason to look forward to the postseason.
"It was good taking those games off," McGrady, who missed the Rockets' previous two games with a stiff back, said. "I felt fresh and looking forward to this big dance we're going to in a few weeks. It's that time. It's that time."
Time had seemed to be running out on the Rockets, especially when they seemed wholly incapable of defending the Kings without sending them to the line.
For most of the first half, the Rockets shot well, the Kings shot poorly. Ron Artest, who matched his career-high with 39-points in his previous game against the Rockets, missed all five of his first-half shots and would finish 2-of-14. And none of that mattered.
The Kings needed only to lower their heads, head toward the basket and walk to the free throw line after the whistle.
The Rockets committed 15 personal fouls in the first half, so that while the Kings made just 36.6 percent of their shots, they made 21 of 25 free throws in the first half. Their 41 free throws against the Rockets in their previous meeting was the most against the Rockets this season, and well more than the 30 free throws with which they lead the NBA.
So that even while the Rockets made 21 of 40 (52.5 percent) of their shots in the first half, the Kings still led by as much as 12 points and by 57-50 at halftime.
"It's tough," Rockets forward Chuck Hayes said. "Everybody from Bibby, to Miller to Kevin Martin and Ron Artest, they want contact. All it takes is to brush up against them a little bit and they throw their head back. That's how they got into us in the first half.
"In the second half, we just started moving our feet, getting there early to help and beating them to the spot."
Yao still limited to just eight second-half minutes because of foul trouble. He did not take a shots, with two free throws giving him 18 points after a 6-of-8 first half.
With the game tied 89-89, McGrady went out for a rest and three seconds later, Yao picked up his fifth foul, returning to the bench.
With their leading scorers out, the Rockets finally found something else. Yao had carried the Rockets in the first quarter and McGrady since. But Luther Head, who had 18 points and made all four of his 3s, quickly drilled consecutive 3s, one to narrowly beat the shot clock, and then passed to Rafer Alston for a third 3-pointer and a 98-91 Rockets lead.
The Rockets went ahead, 100-91, on a Shane Battier drive. When McGrady returned to the floor with less than four minutes left, the lead was still at nine.
It was not an entirely tidy finish, with two of McGrady's six turnovers and a botched possession. But this time, after the Rockets have been tormented by losses when they fell apart down the stretch, the Rockets closed it out, by making every free throw they put up.
jonathan.feigen@chron.com |
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| chinatown |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:54 pm |
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Joined: 23 Sep 2003
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Location: WashU Med
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| TheRoxRedGlare |
| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:13 am |
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http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/151713.html
 Houston Rockets guard Tracy McGrady, left, drives to the basket around Sacramento Kings defender Shareef Abdur-Rahim during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, April 8, 2007.
Associated Press/Steve Yeater
Rockets 112, Kings 106
By Greg Beacham - Associated Press
Published 9:44 pm PDT Sunday, April 8, 2007
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Tracy McGrady had 40 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in his return from a back injury, and the Houston Rockets made a late surge to snap a three-game losing streak with a 112-106 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.
Yao Ming scored 18 points, while Luther Head had 18 and broke a fourth-quarter tie with back-to-back 3-pointers that began a decisive 11-2 run. Houston swept its three-game season series with the Kings, including two victories at Arco Arena, despite failing to make a field goal in the final 4:42.
Yao and McGrady missed the Rockets' loss to Portland on Friday with back problems, but both returned impressively as Houston pulled within a half-game of the Utah Jazz for the Western Conference's fourth-best record. Neither of the Rockets' superstars appeared limited by injury, though Yao spent most of the fourth quarter on the bench.
Kevin Martin scored 24 points and Francisco Garcia had 16 for the Kings, who lost for the eighth time in 10 games to practically guarantee the end of their eight-year streak of playoff appearances.
After Head hit his difficult back-to-back 3-pointers to quiet the Kings' home crowd, Rafer Alston added another on the Rockets' next possession to put them ahead 98-91.
McGrady still hasn't recorded a triple-double in three seasons with the Rockets, but he hit two free throws in the final minute to ensure his first 40-point game since Jan. 16.
McGrady and Yao scored 16 points apiece in the first half, but Sacramento took a 12-point lead in the second quarter with at least six points apiece from four reserves.
Kings coach Eric Musselman continued his expanded use of youngsters Ronnie Price, Justin Williams and Garcia - mostly at the expense of Mike Bibby and Brad Miller. Bibby scored just 11 points, and Miller had four.
Houston's Bonzi Wells, who spent last season in Sacramento and was the Kings' best player in their first-round playoff loss to San Antonio, got a mix of cheers and boos when he entered the game in the first quarter. He was injured during the Rockets' first trip to Sacramento in January.
Wells botched his free agency last summer when he turned down a long-term, $38.5 million offer from the Kings. Every NBA opening soon filled, and Wells had to settle for a comparatively tiny deal in Houston, where he has flopped.
During a quiet moment in the first quarter, a financially inaccurate fan shouted "Thirty-two million, Bonzi!" Martin made his 461st free throw of the season late in the fourth quarter, breaking Otis Thorpe's franchise record for the most in one season since the Kings moved to Sacramento in 1985.
Notes: Wells, who went scoreless in four minutes, had been inactive for 18 games before playing in the Rockets' loss to Portland two days earlier. ... Kings F Kenny Thomas missed his third straight game with a broken toe. ... McGrady rolled his right ankle while driving the lane less than 8 minutes into the game. He was down on the court for a long moment, but stayed in the game. |
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| TheRoxRedGlare |
| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:52 am |
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| pryuen |
| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:14 am |
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