Game 69 Preview: Charlotte Bobcats vs. Houston Rockets
by ak2themax on Mar 16, 2011 9:00 AM CDT
in Game Previews
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PrintThe Rockets beat the Suns, and depending on who you ask, this is either great or terrible. Everyone wants the team to win, but there seems to be a movement towards letting the season go and allowing the bench players to get more playing time. With the injury to Terrence Williams I expect some of that talk to die down, but as long as Hasheem "Human Victory Cigar" Thabeet is still around the uprising will continue.
I would like to see the Rockets continue to make a push, but I can understand the other side of the coin. We need to see what we have in Thabeet and Williams, especially with the lockout looming next season. We may not get to see them and they won't be able to play in the D-League (which I believe also will be locked out. So, how do we know how good they are? We don't, and that has people upset.
Anyway, the Bobcats are in town, and beat us 99-89 last time we played them. Trust me, it was worst than the score indicates. The Rockets made the Bobcats look like a All-Defensive team, and shots weren't falling at all. With the loss of Gerald Wallace, the Rockets hope that those issues start to resolve themselves, though Charlotte is still in the top half of the league in points allowed. On the other hand, they are second only to Milwaukee in fewest points scored per game.
The Bobcats are ninth in the East and pushing Indiana for the final spot in the playoffs. They are 28-38 and in ninth place. The Rockets are 34-34 and currently in 11th. The Rockets would also be in the hunt for the sixth spot in the East if they were over there. Excuse me while I go pop open a vein.
Game starts at 7:30 CST.
Other notable games tonight:
Denver at Atlanta, Phoenix at New Orleans (can both teams lose?), Minnesota at Utah
Matchups...
PG: Kyle Lowry vs. D.J. Augustin:
I like D.J. Augustin, and that's coming from a Tech fan who hated when we had to play against him in college. But the hatred was bred from respect, and Augustin is more than capable at the point guard position despite being undersized.
Lowry should try to take advantage, as drives to the hoop should be easier to accomplish tonight.
Advantage: Rockets
SG: Kevin Martin vs. Gerald Henderson:
Henderson has come into his own since he was inserted into the starting lineup. One Gerald got traded, but another has become the beacon of hope for the franchise. He's showing promise and scoring 14 points per game since the trade deadline, as well as chipping in at other areas of the game.
Please play Courtney Lee Rick! Henderson can kill Martin, and if it gets bad Lee will be able to come in and do damage as well. K-Mart still has the advantage if his game is on, but please don't underestimate Henderson's athletic ability.
Advantage: Rockets
SF: Chase Budinger vs. Stephen Jackson:
I think "Captain Jack" is the stupidest nickname in all of basketball. However, his actual ability far outstrips that of our small forward.
Advantage: Bobcats
PF: Patrick Patterson vs. Boris Diaw:
I'm just going to assume Patterson gets the start. If Scola can play, he'll go. If not, I think the last game proved that Jordan Hill can play with the backups and play well. He's really impressed me recently, at least on offense. And Patterson has been impressive all season.
You know about Diaw: great team player, efficient (mostly), well-rounded, and does a bit of everything to help make his team successful. He's the kind of guy I would expect Morey to chase after if he was a bit younger.
Advantage: Bobcats
C: Chuck Hayes vs. Kwame Brown:
I just love this video:
kwame brown lottery (via basketbawful)
I mean, that's hilarious. Crowd reactions are the best.
Advantage: Rockets
---
Bench:
Bobcats: Tyrus Thomas, Dante Cunningham, Shaun Livingston, D.J. White, Eduardo Najera
Rockets: Goran Dragic, Courtney Lee, Brad Miller, Patrick Patterson, Jordan Hill
Advantage: Rockets
Injuries:
Bobcats: Jackson probable, Joel Przybilla out
Rockets: Yao out, Scola questionable, Terrence Williams out
Prediction: Rockets blow them out, win by 14
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Rockets are NOT getting any help...
Portland won again last night. I don’t think we have a shot anymore. I was hopeful about 10 days ago, but Portland, Memphis & NOLA keep winning against teams they should be losing to. Meanwhile the Rockets barely squeak by against the Suns without Nash. A win is a win, but at this point, the Rockets look like a lottery team while the aforementioned teams look like teams poised to make first round upsets out of the top tier Western Conference teams.
Still hoping for a miracle finish and chance to play the Spurs who haven’t looked that great lately. Go Rockets!
We look like a lottery team in the West
or the number 6 seed in the East.
by Bobbythegreat on Mar 16, 2011 11:24 AM CDT up reply actions
Chicago's Record?
What would Chicago’s record be if they were in the Southwest Division and not that piss poor Central Division? Only one in the division with a winning record and the Rockets are poised to finish above .500 and be last in the division. It’s painful…I guess they have played well without Noah and Boozer for large chunks of the season though…
we've never been competing with portland anyway
check out what i wrote here: http://www.thedreamshake.com/2011/3/8/2037144/rockets-playoff-thoughts
“My conclusion is that if the Rockets are to qualify to the playoffs, the Hornets will have to struggle and we’ll have to beat the Suns twice in the next week. Two wins there would put the Suns at just one fewer loss than the Rockets and they have a tougher record, facing 8 elite teams down the stretch of the season.”
the hornets have a toughish end to the season (i haven’t updated my spreadsheet since last week, though). the blazers are too hot right now for us to stop them. unfortunately the hornets also got a lot of early wins, so they’re almost out of reach for us.
basically phx, mem, noh, hou are competing for 2 spots. i don’t think utah will make it through, even though they have an easier schedule.
Last 10 days...
The reason I firmly believed we were competing with Portland was because between Memphis, Portland, NOLA and Houston, Portland had the toughest schedule based on opponent’s winning % (especially when using opponet’s win/loss record according to whether they would be playing at home or on the road).
Portland in the last 10 days has won @Miami, @Orlando and against Dallas (sidenote: Dallas has lost to memphis, NOLA, & Portland this month: Worthless). Had Portland lost those games, Portland would be 3 games ahead of us, tied for the 8th seed, and would have the most difficult schedule ahead of them. Portland also has four back-to-back games left on their schedule compared to two for the other three teams including the Rockets. Taking all these items as well as the following items based on other teams into consideration is why I believed Portland might be the easiest to catch.
Memphis (.509) has the easiest schedule and has been playing great, so I figure unless they collapse, they will be very difficult to catch even though they are currently the 8th seed. their schedule gets easier (.501) when factoring in whether they play on the road or at home.
NOLA (.559) has a more difficult schedule than the Rockets (.512), but less so than Portland (.566). NOLA has the fewest remaining games amongst the four teams and will have more rest and now has a healthy Chris Paul.
the problem with just using opponent game-winning percentage
is that you are basically ignoring the team’s winning percentage as well as their “heat”. the blazers, for example, have a 0.567 winning record, which, when compared to their average opponent record, suggests that they will win more than they lose.
the blazers also have other things going for them:
(a) the return of brandon roy
(b) the fact that they are 22-10 at home and have more home games remaining than away
© they have the confidence of beating several teams
so you can’t just look at numbers and use that to conclude what is going to happen. comparatively, NOLA and Utah have struggled over the past month. in fact, utah has one of the easiest schedules but their struggles make it a simple conclusion that they would not make it to the playoffs.
You didn't mention
that Stephen Jackson is making a homecoming! Let’s hope he doesn’t go all Deandre Jordan on us.
Go Rox.
I'm a household name... at my house.
Not saying much,
since it’s coming from you.
"Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too
close kissin his!"- Sir Charles to Kenny Smith.
by bone31crusher on Mar 16, 2011 2:44 PM CDT up reply actions
Keep playing to win
With the teams just ahead of us playing as well as they are the chance of making the playoffs is slim. I still think we need to keep trying veto win every game. I keep hearing everybody wanting more playing time for T-Will and Thabeet they are overlooking ALL of the young players getting real minutes to develop that they have earned. Patterson, Bud, Lee, Groton are all young. Combine these with Kevin, Scola, Lowry and Hayes we have a solid nucleus of 8 players. If we can add a real starting center to this group we will have a solid team. I believe Hill can produce at the 4 but not the 5. I am really hoping with some good offseason work Thabeet can help backup at Center. T-Will has lots of talent but has to decide he wants to be a part of the team. Most of this is attitude. If we keep playing hard it increases the chances of a starting center WANTING to come here
my favorite
Wherever there is Kwame there is an increase in suicides. That is a fact.
You hate to have to choose between death and Kwame.
Truth…
The BANHAMMER delivers the real justice
That's just turrible
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence
Bill, Bull and Clyde will be taking their talents to South Texas
"The Rockets would also be in the hunt for the sixth spot in the East if they were over there. Excuse me while I go pop open a vein."
hahahahahahahahahaha- wonderful and well put
No Layups
"see how good he is"?
I dont understand this line of reasoning. I have seen three scenarios unfold in the NBA:
1) Players look like studs and they are (durant, lebron, blake)
2) Players look like studs and they are not (darko, stephon marbury, eddie curry)
3)Players look bad and they are (david anderson, yi jianlian)
If Thabeet is good, somebody in Memphis or Houston would have caught on DURING PRACTICE. Seeing as Memphis would rather play that Iranian goofball behind gasol instead of thabeet, I’m gonna take a shot in the dark here and say Thabeet is probably terrible.
by RealFansReadRed94 on Mar 16, 2011 2:01 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
I guess I can evaluate how good you are.
Because on TDS I have seen one post of yours so I can evaluate. I’m not known or unknown for my talent evaluation, but no one here has a thoroughly developed opinion or exposure to you either, so I’ll go ahead and make that call that since you’re not a posting superstar, you kill children and enjoy German fetish porn.
See, I can make accusations based loosely in fact too! Let’s face it, Memphis is the same team that chose Conley over Lowry and look at that trade off. Big men take time to develop and too much of a stink was made over the D-League, it’s a good farm system for a reason. He will take time and he was drafted at a bit of a reach but if you’re saying that Adelman isn’t seeing anything in practice you ignore how stubborn Adelman is. If you argue that Memphis went with Haddadi over Thabeet for much more than body size (Thabeet needs to put some Thameat on the bones) then you’re not really evaluating the issue properly.
TDS's resident dickhead.
I love civilized discussion
Posting on the dreamshake is something you can practice at and in time I hope to be as awesome as a poster as you BD.
With basketball at the level of the NBA, I just dont see that much room for developing players. I mean can someone here list some concrete examples of underdeveloped big men, who turned into real contributors after enough time?
INSPIRE ME. I want thabeet to turn into a beast but I’m still hurting over yao, calvin cato, stromile swift, mo taylor, etc… i cant have my dreams crushed again.
i miss hakeem
by RealFansReadRed94 on Mar 16, 2011 3:35 PM CDT up reply actions
Jermaine O'Neal
Buried on Portland bench,traded to Indiana and blossomed into All-Star.
DeAndre Jordan and Javale McGee were extremely raw when drafted(and still are to a degree),but they’ve become legitimate players,to point Clips are finally seriously thinking of trading Kaman.
by Tisbee on Mar 16, 2011 7:17 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Thank you for shouldering the load on that one.
You get a rec for helpin’ me out.
TDS's resident dickhead.
i think the bigger point (which he failed to make)
was that thabeet is going to be an average role player at best. if he had superstar or above average talent, it would have been spotted by now.
that’s not to say that he’s washed out, since he’s only like 23 years old. he’s still got the potential to contribute at some level once he figures out how to maximize his game style compared to his abilities.
wo wo wo
I think the biggest question about this post is, who DOESN’T enjoy german fetish porn?
As cartman’s mom is a staple of any good shizer video, i’d be loathe to disparage it.
Its a big deal when the cover of crack-whore monthly shows up in ur vid.
by ShookednShanghaied11 on Mar 16, 2011 6:07 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
project with hope
If he was going to be a star we would have seen some glimer of it already. That being said, at 7’3’’ and as mobile as he is, I believe he will be worth the time to try to develop him for a backup role.
You didn't put Thabeet on the bench...
How dare you.
"Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too
close kissin his!"- Sir Charles to Kenny Smith.
He humored me for a few games.
Apparently I need to break one of the windows in his house this time.
TDS's resident dickhead.
Maybe something more drastic will get his attention.
"Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too
close kissin his!"- Sir Charles to Kenny Smith.
by bone31crusher on Mar 16, 2011 4:43 PM CDT up reply actions
Haha
my apartment has already been robbed, but you can try to break a window. No, it was more superstitious than anything else. He was up for PHX and SA, and we lost. I took him off for PHX last game, and we won. Case closed!
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
If I don't talk about my penis or some other stupid subject
our game threads get less than 500 responses and we lose, you need me.
TDS's resident dickhead.
Don't lie
you do that no matter what happens. And we win and lost with equal regularity.
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
that video was great
If brown can end up starting for a team, even if its the bobcats, that gives me hope that thabeet can develop into a solid back-up in a few years.
Its a shame twill is out for the week, his invaluable contributions as cheer-leader would have been crucial in this one. At least we still have our 7’3 power-dancer at our disposal.
Is it just me or is anyone else glad that, after turning down our offer for dallas, gortat is now backing up robin lopez.
At first it was great to hear how disappointed he was that the magic had matched the mavs offer so he could continue to play behind howard and then he gets moved so he could back up one of the worst starting 5s in the league and stay as a bakup.
I wonder is he was wishing he had taken our offer as he’d be starting for almost 2yrs now on a team which is a player like him away from clinching a 6 or 7 seed.
Looks like bad things happen to players who choose dallas over houston. Nice move marcin.
by ShookednShanghaied11 on Mar 16, 2011 3:16 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
the thing with thabeet is
That at best he will develop into a decent shot-blocking, rebounding big and that is exactly what we need.
We are never gunna ask him for a sky-hook or dream shale or realy any offense. All we need from him is what he can already do. Be it now (not gunna happen) or in the future.
If he can run the floor well enough to block on one end, set screens on the other and rebound on both then his aquisition will be deemed a success by me.
by ShookednShanghaied11 on Mar 16, 2011 6:13 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
Kwame vid was great
How have I not seen that before?
If you're a fan of basketball, watch a movie called Sonicsgate. It's free, just google it.
It's the Sports Dome
it comes on at weird hours. Some of their stuff is flat out hilarious, but it’s balanced out by the rest of the show which is trash.
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
Scola out tonight again
Says Ten Before Tip on nba.com
If you're a fan of basketball, watch a movie called Sonicsgate. It's free, just google it.
If Brad "the Drab" Miller shoots another three
Send him to the D-League Rick. Don’t think just do it.
Trade him for Darko
Then MAYBE thabeet could play and show us how terrible he is. Joy!
by AllenOU on Mar 16, 2011 7:13 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
I would actually be down for that
cause darko doesnt toally suck anymore somehow.
The thing about thabeet is
He will make a play here and there, and in college he did so at the end of games, and he was impressive. Big east POY I believe.
But by NBA standards, his defensive awareness is terrible, and it doesn’t seem like he has it in him to put in the proper amount of work. If he did, I’d imagine he would be playing
by AllenOU on Mar 16, 2011 7:12 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
He was co-POY in the Big East
in 2009 with DeJuan Blair. One was drafted 2 overall, and the other was drafted in the second round.
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
OTOH
One was drafted by MeMphis,the other by San Antonio.
May illustrate why teams want to hire SA execs and coaches and not Memphis’.
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