Houston Rockets (9-7) @ Golden State Warriors (7-7)

Start time 7:30 PM PST @ The Oracle Arena

Probable starters for the Golden State Warriors

PG - Baron Davis
SG - Monta Ellis
SF - Matt Barnes
PF - Stephen Jackson
C - Al Harrington

Probable starters for the Houston Rockets

PG - Rafer Alston
SG - Tracy McGrady
SF - Shane Battier
PF - Chuck Hayes
C - Yao Ming

Team leaders this season
PPG - B. Davis (24.4) | T. McGrady (26.6)
RPG - A. Biedrins (9.5) | Y. Ming (10.1)
APG - B. Davis (8.8) | T. McGrady (5.4)
SPG - B. Davis (2.0) | C. Hayes (1.4)
BPG - A. Biedrins (1.5) | Y. Ming (2.1)

The last time these two teams met, Nelson had Harrington front Yao through the entire game. They kept coming at Yao and denied him access to the ball.

The main difference I see now is that McGrady will be playing this time around. I don't know if Nelson will gamble on sending many players at Yao to deny him the ball when you have McGrady running around out there.

key to win the game :

play up tempo
put s-jax to t-mac
create mismatch for baron -alston
most important thing is .500 FG%


W's by 8

Back-to-back, but its a home game? Hmm, it'll be close. Our offense should bounce back, but will the defense show up once again?

tough back to back for both teams. tougher for the rockets

tomorrow we go 8-7 and get to 8th spot....

The Rockets scare me, we don't match up well with them...however their style isn't as gritty as it was with Van Gundy in charge, I think we will pull it out in a close one. W's win by 7....

im gonna be holding my breath for this one. baron and stephen played 40+ minutes. we only had a 8 man rotation. our bench needs to come up big in tomorrows game. i hope they put patrick on yao instead of mbenga. i hope stephen does well against mcgrady also. im benching mcgrady on my fantasy team tomorrow

our shooting cant get any worse than tonight. as long as our shots are falling then we should be good with our defense where it is right now.

warriors by 5 in another good game.

We are the hottest team in the league with 4 straight (tied with the Magic). Hell yeah. We'll blow them out like last time. 9 points on 2 of 4 shooting in 31 minutes from Yao with Al on him. Let's do that again.

I expect more DJ Mbenga this time

Back to back for both teams, as Rockets played today as well. The team is on fire and it all depends on how they come out and play really. The Rockets look back to winning form and they are the usual, give it to Yao inside and shoot outside shots off of him and have McGrady create. If the team's shots are falling, they are swarming on defense and they are running and gunning, they can beat the Rockets but they will have to be as good as they have been during the winning streak. Nelson has to only throw multiple guys at Yao if Yao is on, otherwise no need to. With TMac out there, it is not good to send more than two guys at Yao and even that might get punished.


I'll go out on a limb - Warriors by 8

This is gonna be a fun game. Last year, Al stopped Yao pretty well, so it's gonna be interesting to see if he can give us an encore.

I'm a big believer in the talent on this Houston team. I even consider them a contender for the title, but so far, their record does not reflect this.

Dubs by 2 in a close contest.

I think a big key for the Warriors is for Azu to have a good game. If Azu hits some shots early, then maybe Nelson can limit Baron's minutes in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Baron is playing way too much. I love the way Monta has taken over the last few 4th qtrs. I don't know if we can completley shut the down (like we did Dirk in the playoffs) but Al should be able to disturb Yao and Stack Jack should be able to give TMac fits. I think the Warriors win by 4.

Due to the fact that this game is at home, I expect the Warriors to win. While many expected some big changes to the way the Rockets play under Rick Adelman little has changed. They are still a half court team that runs the offense through Yao and McGrady.

That being said, the Warriors will surely try to make this an uptempo game and make the Rockets run with them. Watching Yao last night in the 4th quarter in Phoenix, he was gassed and could hardly get up and down the floor.

Both teams will be tired after wins last night on the road, but I expect the Warriors to come out in front of the home crowd and give a good showing of how far they have come since the abysmal 0-6 start.

Jackson will match up with McGrady and a combination of players will guard Yao. I am curious as to how Nellie will go about guarding Yao. I would not be shocked to see a zone thrown at them. If the zone is active and aggressive in defending it will work against the Rockets, but if players are just standing around passively for the Warriors it will be a disaster as we saw at the beginning of December 2006 when the Rockets beat the Warriors by about 40.

I think Al's gotta come out early and make Yao guard him on the perimeter...if he starts knocking down some 3's, it's gonna be a long night for yao. and whatever al does, RUN THE FLOOR...run run run.

Sjax needs to contain McGrady, not let him go off for 35+...

Baron's gotta pound Rafer and Mike James in the post...

Buik's gotta start knocking down some shots...

I really think the x-factor here is going to be Bonzi Wells...if we can keep him under tabs, we win by 8.