# Regular Season Game 70 Thread: Houston Rockets @ New Orleans / Oklahoma City Hornets



## Cornholio (Feb 13, 2005)

​*(44-25)/(31-38)*

When/Where:
*Sunday, March 25, 7:00 p.m.*
*New Orleans Arena*​












































*Alston / McGrady / Battier / Hayes / Yao*














































*Paul / Brown / Mason / West / Chandler*



*PREVIEW

Rafer Alston is well aware that his play is heavily scrutinized on sports radio call-in shows and fan message boards.

Does such criticism bother him?

Not really.

"I don't really pay attention to them," Alston said. "I don't worry about that stuff."

He's more concerned with helping lead the Rockets back into the postseason.

Despite receiving little love on radio waves or fan forums, Alston has managed to ignore concerns over his streaky shooting and lead the Rockets to the fifth best record in the Western Conference.

Under his guidance, the Rockets are pushing the Utah Jazz for home court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs and could clinch a playoff spot Sunday night when they visit the Hornets in Oklahoma City. The Rockets (44-25) can book a postseason spot with a win and a Golden State loss.

Alston hasn't received much credit for putting his team in such a position.

Since he is shooting 37.8 percent from the field and has endured his share of off-shooting nights, the Rockets point guard has drawn criticism for his up-and-down shooting.

Alston understands some of the concern. However, he wouldn't mind being acknowledged for the things that he does do to help his team.

"I understand I'm a streaky shooting point guard," Alston said. "But one thing I'm not is a high-turnover guy. I defend the ball and I make plays."

The Rockets have seen enough of Alston to know that he's played a major role in the team's march to the postseason.

While he isn't drilling three-pointers every night, Alston is in charge of organizing the Rockets' offense. He typically receives signals from Jeff Van Gundy on the sideline and orchestrates where guys should be on the floor by pointing them in the right direction.

No game, perhaps, showed Alston's value more than a Feb. 3 performance against the Hornets. That's because the point guard missed most of it.

After being ejected in the first quarter for receiving two technical fouls, the Rockets struggled to get into an offensive flow and ended up being dealt an 87-74 home loss. Houston shot 37 percent and matched a season low with 30 first-half points.

Rockets forward Chuck Hayes said Alston's ability to run the offensive is invaluable.

"He runs our offense and gets us into sets," Hayes said. "Streaky shooter? Everybody in the league is a streaky shooter. There are very few pure shooters in this league. Some nights, a guy is on. Some nights, a guy is off. So people getting on Rafer for being a streaky shooter is nonsense."

Alston, however, rarely gets much love even on the nights when he is canning open jumpers.

"It's interesting to me that when Rafer plays (well), it's overlooked and when Rafer plays bad, he is the main reason we lose," Van Gundy said last week. "That's many people's perspective."

Alston has been on a roll of late. Since leading his team to a home win over the Los Angeles Clippers on March 14, the point guard is averaging 14 points per game on 54.4 percent shooting. He's been just as good beyond the arc, sinking 53.6 percent of his attempts.

With those recent numbers, Alston is now shooting 37.5 percent from three-point range -- his best rate since 2002-03 -- and has already sunk a career-high 162 three-pointers this season.

Still, the point guard wishes his shooting numbers were better considering the work that he put in over the summer.

"I shot about 500 three-pointers per day," Alston said. "My shot was looking great in the summer and that's the disappointing thing about this season. I thought I would come in and shoot a higher percentage. It hasn't worked out. But of late, I've been shooting at high clip. I just want to continue from there and keep moving forward."

He certainly isn't worried about proving people wrong.

"The most important thing is we're winning," Alston said. "People, not just in this organization but around the league, recognize we're winning with the guys that we have. And that's most important statistic of all."*

_*Next Games*_
vs.








vs.








vs.


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## houst-mac (Aug 7, 2004)

Definetily a win, Chuck Hayes makes a new career high with 22 points (16 of them comes from assists by T-Mac). Chandler's get's under 10 rebounds and Yao shoots 37 points on his face. Rafer makes Paul's life difficult by stealing the ball from him 6 times and shooting 6 threes on his face. McGrady has his season-first triple-double with 29/11/15. Luther and Shane combine for 14 treys.


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

If there are 2 teams in the NBA that always give us trouble, its PHX and NO

This game has me worrid somewhat. We simply suck against the Hornets


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

As long as Alston is not sent off we should be fine....................


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## @[email protected] (Jan 19, 2005)

revenge time!


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## Dean the Master (Feb 19, 2006)

Bets on! With Rockets riding with the streak, how dare you not!


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## AZNoob (Jan 21, 2006)

Hey all...what does (pk) mean?


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

Interesting preview article regarding Rafer, I'm actually feeling a little better about him after reading that.


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

I heard both TMAC and Mutombo will not play this game?


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

reminder!

Sun, Mar. 25, 2:30p.m. - @ NO/OKC (R) (Regional game, everybody may NOT get this game)








*channel ABC*


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## Pimped Out (May 4, 2005)

OneBadLT123 said:


> reminder!
> 
> Sun, Mar. 25, 2:30p.m. - @ NO/OKC (R) (Regional game, everybody may NOT get this game)
> 
> ...


what? i thought this was a 7:00 tipoff


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## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

As far as I know the time was moved back to 7 central.That's glg said and it's what yahoo says also.


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## Pimped Out (May 4, 2005)

AZNoob said:


> Hey all...what does (pk) mean?


there is no spread. winner of the game wins the bet

i think this game was originally scheduled to be on national tv but they knocked if off the air for whatever reason. i dont know why they cant just show this game in the texas/oklahoma/louisiana area


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## Cornholio (Feb 13, 2005)

*Re: Regular Season Game 70 Thread: Houston Rockets @ New Orleans / Oklahoma City Horn*



kisstherim said:


> I heard both TMAC and Mutombo will not play this game?





> Rockets guard Tracy McGrady, battling congestion and nausea since Thursday's game against the Pistons, did not practice Saturday. He made an appearance but was sent to the training room.
> 
> "He's here, but he's sick," coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We'll just see (about tonight). It's hard to know right now."
> 
> ...


Link


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

We need this game to keep putting the pressure on the Jazz


PS can anyone find a link for the game been searching furiosuly cant find anything???????????


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## AZNoob (Jan 21, 2006)

^ Ya, seriously...anyone with a link? Idk why, but PPmate doesnt work for me...


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

hroz said:


> We need this game to keep putting the pressure on the Jazz
> 
> 
> PS can anyone find a link for the game been searching furiosuly cant find anything???????????


I guess we can't get the usual mms link for this game cuz they probably can't get the feeds

anyway, saw this on clutchfans:



> just use this league password
> 
> this one guy let some ppl use it
> 
> ...


Mod, plz delete it if this is not appropriate


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## AZNoob (Jan 21, 2006)

kisstherim said:


> Mod, plz delete it if this is not appropriate


Lol, KTR...you have great moral character. And it if IS legal, where do we go to put the info in?


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

AZNoob said:


> Lol, KTR...you have great moral character. And it if IS legal, where do we go to put the info in?


NBA.com->Scoreboard->game info->Watch live

edit: wtf, seems league pass is not gonna show this game?

maybe you guys can try this webpage if you don't like ppmate:
http://live.nubb.com:44362/login

it works for me (only in IE, probably not working in firefox nor opera/ and it seems that for some people, you gotta download sth first before you watch games there, although I have never downloaded anything, it still works.)


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## AZNoob (Jan 21, 2006)

Does it work for you, KTR?


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

looks tmac is gonna play:yay:


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## AZNoob (Jan 21, 2006)

and looks like it works for you...


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

AZNoob said:


> and looks like it works for you...


why this look-

:wink:

yes, that webpage usually works for me


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## AZNoob (Jan 21, 2006)

When I try to log in with that info, it doesn't log in...grr....

What did you do, KTR?


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## I Ball (May 30, 2006)

So is there a link today for the game or no???? if there is can someone post it


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

nice start


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

22-14 Rock...how about the pose from Tmac after that 3!


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

AZNoob said:


> When I try to log in with that info, it doesn't log in...grr....
> 
> What did you do, KTR?


actually the league pass is showing this game and a lot of ppl are watching it using the account I post previously but the thing is I can't find it on NBA.com, geez. I am still trying to figure out how to do it



I Ball said:


> So is there a link today for the game or no???? if there is can someone post it


I am afraid not


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## Pimped Out (May 4, 2005)

i wanna see tmac keep this up and drop 60


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

anybody know the stat for how many 30 pt Rocket quarters this season? 

30-20 Rock


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

Jake is giving a bad performance backing up Yao

37-26 Rock


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

ok, some ******* has changed the password so he can use it only for himself since now.


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

nice dunk by synder...pargo keeping N.O. close


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

48-37 thanks Luther!


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

So far so good...

But I am not happy until that final buzzer...


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

another great half of ball....Rockets are making it real hard on the Hornets, unlike the last meeting. 2nd half should be more of the same


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## Pimped Out (May 4, 2005)

tmac with 15 in the first and 0 in the second. already has a couple in the third. i would like to see him stay aggressive but i dont think that will be an issue in the playoffs so im not too worried


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

finally, the 3rd quarter is over....we take the 4th & end this ****e!


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

something is not right, but I'm glad we don't have to see N.O. in the playoffs


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

down by 6, 10 to go.... Yao's shots aren't falling tonight


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

Chris Paul having one of his better games against us. Hasn't missed since he came back in in the 4th


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## Pimped Out (May 4, 2005)

did the odds change for the vbookie?


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

...and our own Mr. Clutch T-Mac answers. He's not letting us lose.


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## Pimped Out (May 4, 2005)

for a defensive team we are doing a ****ty job getting defensive stops right now


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

We just suck against NO. We ALWAYS suck against them for some reason...

I knew this was going to happen. Oh well I am at peace with that.


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

at times like this I'd rather T-Mac go Kobe in the 4th Q. Seemed like Hornets just wanted it more this game.


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## Cornholio (Feb 13, 2005)

Well, we should bounce back tomorrow against Milwaukee.


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

Yao shooting 1 freethrow tells it all


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## Krimzon (Feb 26, 2007)

*Re: Regular Season Game 70 Thread: Houston Rockets @ New Orleans / Oklahoma City Horn*

I tried to watch the game by the usual link but it wasn't working. I checked here and there was another way to watch the game. I didn't feel like doing it because all the shows on Fox Sunday Lineup were new. 

I checked the scores when it was over. I was expecting a close game, but that did not happen at the end. The Rockets can't seem to beat them. Well it's so bad. We have a good chance to beat the Bucks tomorrow.


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## HayesFan (Feb 16, 2006)

Not to show my Chuck bias or anything... (yeah right lol)

But my boy comes in for Juwan, gets a couple of offensive rebounds, an assist and a defensive stop against West... so that we are only down by 3... 94-97. Then JVG takes him out with 2:19 left (thinking to spread the floor with three point shooters.. ie Battier, Head, Alston, Tmac and Yao - I know exactly what the man was thinking) and then playing the 4 Batt gives up an offensive rebound on the weak side to Tyson Chandler... who puts the bucket up and in. We never made another shot or got another rebound.

Now I typically don't second guess a coach. I honestly don't know who else to take out.. maybe Rafer? cause I know he wants Head in at the end. But we have to have someone who can get us second chance opportunities and play defense in at the end of the game. Typically I would say Yao could do this, but Chandler was having a field day pushing Yao all over the court. So what do you do in that situation?

I was just disappointed that Chuck helped to keep us within striking distance and then was jerked. Maybe I should head to Houston and teach him how to shoot 3's and FT's!!


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## Legend-Like (Mar 25, 2006)

Thats funny, last year we beat them without our 2 superstars and when we do play them we lose.


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

we should be pretty upset with our showing last night & come out on a mission toniht


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

we needed more of that "Chuck wagon" yesterday


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## AllEyezonTX (Nov 16, 2006)

pg 4 3!


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

U know ur in the wrong forum


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