Game 28: Rockets(16-11) vs. Clippers(12-15)

[clipperfan4life]

Houston Rockets (16-11) vs. Los Angeles Clippers (12-15)

When: 12/22/09 @ 5:30 p.m.
Where: Toyota Center
What: Clippers are currently on the fifth game of their road trip six game road trip. We are in need of a win so that we don't let our record get any uglier. The problem is the next series of games are against teams who have a winning record. This is a good test to help determine where the team wants to be in the end.
Opponent's Brief Analysis: Well look at the Rockets, they don't need a superstar to help them become a successful team. The team is well balanced and have great chemistry right now, they also got McGrady back this time but he's been barely used so far. Clippers will need to stop Brooks and take advantage of the post with Kaman and Camby leading the way. Last time they faced them it was the fourth quarter that decided the game. Make sure it doesn't happen again.

Who:

PG:

Baron Davis


Aaron Brooks


SG:

Eric Gordon


Trevor Ariza


SF:

Al Thornton


Shane Battier


PF:

Marcus Camby


Luis Scola


C:

Chris Kaman


Chuck Hayes


Let's Go Clippers!

[PlinkingPanda]

It seems this team just loves hanging a couple games below .500. Reminds me of just a typical game where they can't push themselves enough just to get over the hump.

The next 4 weeks are against really tough teams, at least most of them, Things get a bit better during the last 2 weeks of January so if we can keep this pace of winning every other game things may look alright once Blake comes back.

[mkwest]

Kaman is beasting.

[TheNewEra]

we better win

[mkwest]

6 assists on 11 shots so far. That's better than we have been lately.

[mkwest]

Rockets ahead 34-33 through the first 12 minutes of basketball. Kaman is off to a great start with 14 points on 6 for 7 shooting and Baron is close behind with 9 points and 3 assists on 2 for 3 shooting. McGrady is supposed to only play about 8 minutes or so, but he leads Houston in scoring with 8. It will be interesting to see if they stick to the game plan or go with the hot hand.

[mkwest]

I'd love for Dunleavy to adopt that mentality.

[TheNewEra]

get rebounds and attack the basket we have to close out on the shooters

[mkwest]

Kaman scores his 20th point. 7 points away from tying his career high.

[TheNewEra]

Like we can't get stops when we get close

[mkwest]

Anderson doesn't know the meaning of the word miss. Put a hand in his face.

[scratch21]

call me crazy but i think Camby is a horrible defender he can block weak side but 1 on 1 hes gets lit up

[TheNewEra]

can't get over the hump

[TheNewEra]

this is getting ugly

[TheNewEra]

well we had some production

[mkwest]

65-54 Houston. Clips down by 11 at the half. When you look at the differential in the bench scoring between the two teams, you see that we are severely at a disadvantage. 40-9 Houston. We had basically no offensive real offensive threats in at one point. Kaman quickly came back 2 minutes after the 2nd quarter began and was able to score a few. The problem later became that Houston started pressuring more, so we had either bad passes from Bassy or Collins, or Kaman wasn't kicking it out to the open man when he should have. Houston has guys that can knock down shots and we've given them open looks. We've given up multiple scoring opportunities and have given them easy looks down low that have resulted in them scoring an easy basket or heading to the line for free-throws. In the 2nd half our man defense needs to improve and we need someone in addition to Kaman to put up some points.

[TheNewEra]

what is the status on blake?

[mkwest]

what is the status on blake?

Not sure yet. As of the beginning of this game, Dunleavy hadn't heard anything.

[mkwest]

Here comes a couple of Chuck Hayes free-throws.

[TheNewEra]

this sucks