RealGM

The presence of the Houston Rockets' three stars couldn't keep them from another bitter defeat.
But to keep from matching their longest skid this season, the Rockets must add to the Golden State Warriors' season-long road struggles.
Houston (28-19) will try to avoid its third straight loss on Saturday night as they face the Warriors (15-32), who are coming off a stunning upset win.
Injuries have kept the Rockets' Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest from playing together for all but 24 games this season. Even the 7-foot-6 Yao's return after a two-game absence due to a sore right knee couldn't stop Houston from blowing another late lead.

"I really don't have an answer," McGrady said. "We just got to keep on grinding, keep digging and find an answer for it. We've got to be better, a lot better."
Despite averaging 22.0 points over the past two games, McGrady has struggled to find his shot after coming back from injury, hitting just 37.5 percent (15-for-40) from the floor in that same span. Against the Sixers, he missed his final five shots, including all four attempts in the fourth quarter.
After scoring 24 points in his return on Sunday in a win at Detroit, Artest has also missed 22 of his last 29 shots.
McGrady has missed 16 games this season with knee problems, and Artest has sat out 13 with a nagging ankle injury.
While his teammates have struggled, Luis Scola has continued to shine especially in the last six games. He's averaging 19.2 points on 61.8 percent shooting and has posted consecutive double-doubles.

The Warriors, who have given up a league-worst 111.8 points per game this season, limited the Hornets to 35.9 percent shooting. The 87 points were also the fewest given up by Golden State, which has surrendered 130 or more five times.
One of those times came in its previous trip to Houston, a 131-112 defeat on Dec. 5 as Yao scored 33 and Artest added 28 for the Rockets. Houston also hit a season-high 13 3-pointers in that game.
The Warriors' Corey Maggette led the way against the Hornets, scoring 12 of his team-leading 19 points in the final six minutes. With hamstring problems limiting the prized free-agent acquisition to 28 games this season, Maggette has made the switch from starter to key reserve seamlessly. "This is the best option to help this team win," Maggette said. "We need some fire power off the bench. As a player, you've got to make sacrifices to try to win and try to make something happen to keep everyone happy."
The Rockets have won four straight over Golden State, including the past two meetings at the Toyota Center.

Rockets guard Tracy McGrady, after briefly testing his sprained left ankle at Saturday’s shootaround, was ruled out of tonight’s game against the Golden State Warriors.

He is considered ‘day-to-day’ with the Rockets’ next game Tuesday against the Chicago Bulls.

TMACFORMVP wrote:Yep, no T-Mac. This is so damn frustrating, this never stops. . . I actually get this game on my TV, I don't think I've seen McGrady on my TV since that Wizards game. To the common fan they'd think he's dead, even the informed fans think that these days.

Anyway, Yao's got to dominate, he usually rebounds from a poor game, and I'd expect the same in this game, Warriors are explosive, if we're playing any sort of defense that we were playing before, then we'll lose, no doubt about it. They've got Monta, Jackson, Biedrins and Maggette who is playing extremely well off the bench. The Warriors got their first road win against a .500+ team last night against the Hornets so you know they'll be on a high.

I'm not expecting much, this team just disappoints too much, the mentality we lack is the most frustrating part. I can take in not having the talent or the pieces, but we have that, it's just our mentality that holds us back.

Iggyemu wrote:Warriors are healthy and looked very good last night against the Hornets. Maggette was a monster down the stretch constantly driving to the hoop. Dunno what to expect tonight from this team and isn't that the problem in the first place.

abcdef wrote:Wow Chuck Hayes is just awful. He used to be good on defense. Now all he does is give up bad fouls.

DreamShook34 wrote:

abcdef wrote:Wow Chuck Hayes is just awful. He used to be good on defense. Now all he does is give up bad fouls.

that is not a true statement...