# Game Thread: Sunday April 3rd, Phoenix @ Houston



## ChristopherJ

<CENTER>* @







*


*Phoenix Suns (55-17) vs. Houston Rockets(44-29)* 
*Sunday, April 3rd, 5:30pm*


Phoenix Suns

*Probable Starting Lineup:*




































PG: Steve Nash
SG: Quentin Richardson
SF: Joe Johnson
PF: Shawn Marion
C: Amare Stoudemire

*Key Reserves:*





























Jim Jackson
Leandro Barbosa 
Steven Hunter 
Walter McCarty 



Houston Rockets

*Probable Starting Lineup*




































PG: Bob Sura
SG: David Wesley 
SF: Tracy McGrady
PF: Clarence Weatherspoon
C: Yao Ming


*Key Reserves:*






















Dikembe Mutombo
Jon Barry 
Mike James 



*Previous Meetings*:
Phoenix 108 Houston 98 
Friday 11th vs. Houston L 107-127  



*Key Matchup*








*vs. *








*Amare Stoudemire*..........................*Yao Ming*


*26.0*...............PPG...............18.2
*8.60*...............RPG...............8.2
*1.5*...............AST...............0.8
*1.00*................STL..............0.41
1.57................BLK..............*1.87*
*2.46*...............TO...............2.49
*56.1%*..............FG%...............54.8%
70.5%..............FT%..............*77.5%*

Amare has consistently had trouble with Yao's post defense this year. Although he has shot 14-38 against Ming he has been able to get to the line. It will be important for Amare to go at Yao early and often and see if he can't get him in foul troubles. It will also be interesting to see if Richardson can contain Mcgrady. Last time these teams met the Rockets one by 20, with Mcgrady lighting it up for 38 points. The Rockets are an extremely good defensive team so this will be a tough game. If the Suns play good D and limit TO's I think they can take this one.

*Prediction*

Suns 116
Rockets 107




</CENTER>


----------



## tempe85

Rocket fan:

Ming is a better free throw shooter and blocks more shots (being 8 inches taller)... he's such a better talent than Amare! Wah wah wah....



---------

The Suns are going to eat Ming for breakfast with a side dish of T-Mac and then they'll polish it all off with a tall cool glass of Juwan Juice. The utensil of choice of coarse will be Weatherspoon.


----------



## ChristopherJ

tempe85 said:


> Rocket fan:
> 
> Ming is a better free throw shooter and blocks more shots (being 8 inches taller)... he's such a better talent than Amare! Wah wah wah....
> 
> 
> 
> ---------
> 
> The Suns are going to eat Ming for breakfast with a side dish of T-Mac and then they'll polish it all off with a tall cool glass of Juwan Juice. The utensil of choice of coarse will be Weatherspoon.


lol.


----------



## DwyaneWade4MVP

Houston lost against the Hornets, so...

Phoenix 98
-
Houston 83


----------



## Bobot

The Rockets will play hard defence in this game but they will not be able to overcome Suns running game.

*Prediciton*
Suns 112
Rockets 102

Nash 24pts/12ast
Marion 26pts/14reb
Amare 32pts/9reb


----------



## underhill_101

should be a good game to see one of the best D's in the L mathup with the best O. my prediction:

*suns 116*
rockets 107

marion 25/11/4
nash 17pts/13assts


----------



## rafsox04

I think this will be a close game as Houston has the dynamic duo in Tracy McGrady and Yao. However the depth in the starting lineup Phoenix possess may be too much for the Rockets to handle. It will be a close game but Phoenix will come out on top.
Suns 96
Rockets 93

Marion 24/6/2
Nash 15/1/12
McGrady 25/5/4
Yao 21/10/0


----------



## Nashaholic

It will be a good matchup no question and i look forward to seeing amare and ming matchup.

my prediction:
suns 99
rockets 89

the suns are just too hot to handle right now the rockets will be overwhelmed.


----------



## kisstherim

Juwan Howard definitely will not play,and Ming probably won't play,either.


----------



## FirstRocket

You got the Rockets' Starting line-up wrong. Most likely the line-up will be Bob Sura, David Wesley, Tracy McGrady, Clarence Weatherspoon(Juwan Howard is still nursing injury) and Dikembe Mutombo(Yao Ming is questionable, hopefully he will play)


----------



## Nashaholic

Hopefully Yoa with play, otherwise I dont think it will be much of a contest but if he doesnt i dont think the rockets have much of a chance.


----------



## ChristopherJ

FirstRocket said:


> You got the Rockets' Starting line-up wrong. Most likely the line-up will be Bob Sura, David Wesley, Tracy McGrady, Clarence Weatherspoon(Juwan Howard is still nursing injury) and Dikembe Mutombo(Yao Ming is questionable, hopefully he will play)


Ok thanks I'll change it.


----------



## ChristopherJ

Game Preview 

Yao's 50/50 it sounds, so I'll keep him in the lineup.


----------



## ChristopherJ

Rockets are really trying to outmatch the Suns tempo. Will be interesting to see how the Suns handle this.


----------



## underhill_101

nice start offensively for JJ... 7 pts. (3/3 FG)


----------



## ChristopherJ

Jackson another 3 ball. Suns up now up 31-25.


----------



## underhill_101

KidCanada said:


> Jackson another 3 ball. Suns up now up 31-25.


jackson is giving phoenix really quality mins. off the bench :clap:


----------



## ChristopherJ

Damn Suns havn't scored in 6 minutes. Rockets up 34 - 31.....


----------



## ChristopherJ

Suns have a total of 6 points with 3 minutes to go in the quarter. Rockets have completely cut off any dribble penetration from the Suns, plus they have gone cold from the field.


----------



## BaLLiStiX17

KidCanada said:


> Suns have a total of 6 points with 3 minutes to go in the quarter. Rockets have completely cut off any dribble penetration from the Suns, plus they have gone cold from the field.


They got real cold..and the refs arent calling some calls..but they call that charge agaisnt Amre when mike james feet were still moving kinda..I hope they can turn it around in the second half


----------



## ChristopherJ

42-41 Houston at half. Suns had 10 points in the 2nd quarter, which I'm sure is a season a low. Suns got to start hitting shots like they did in the 1st Q if they want to win this one.


----------



## BaLLiStiX17

Alot better shooting for the suns in the beggining of the 3rd quarter..i hope this can continue for the rest of the game..


----------



## BaLLiStiX17

i dont watch suns game that often but..does Marion always play like this..dang hes crazy good


----------



## ChristopherJ

Both teams have been throwing up bricks all night. Suns now up 69-64 with about 10 minutes to go.


----------



## BaLLiStiX17

Well atleast some of there shots are dropping now..i think they should start driving in now and get Yao his 5 foul


----------



## ChristopherJ

BaLLiStiX17 said:


> i dont watch suns game that often but..does Marion always play like this..dang hes crazy good


He's probably the most underrated player in the league.

One stat I heard which is fairly interesting is that Marion is one of 3 players in the league to be top 30 in scoring, rebounding, steals, blocks, and double-doubles. The other two players are Garnett and Dirk.


----------



## BaLLiStiX17

gg suns wins 91-78


----------



## ChristopherJ

Suns win 91-78. The Rockets shooting was plain ugly. They were getting tons of open looks but just couldn't hit them. This game should have been alot closer even if the Rockets shot mediocre. Marion was the only Sun to stand out tonight collecting 23 points with 18 rebounds. Average game at best for the Suns, but a good road win overall.


----------



## BaLLiStiX17

The suns picked up their offence in the second half and the rockets continued to shoot bad thats y the rockets lost


----------



## jibikao

Well, can't blame us that Rox didn't shoot well, right? 

I'll take any W. Go Suns!!! 

Man, our team is so much deep now. We have JimJ, Hunter and Barbosa to produce something while the starters rest or gone cold. lol 

T-MAC was like 6/22. Ouch...


----------



## The_Franchise

Marion is a monster. He is the Rockets' kryptonite.


----------



## ChristopherJ

Box Score 

Rockets shot an outstanding 34% :laugh:


----------



## tempe85

KidCanada said:


> Suns win 91-78. The Rockets shooting was plain ugly. They were getting tons of open looks but just couldn't hit them. This game should have been alot closer even if the Rockets shot mediocre. Marion was the only Sun to stand out tonight collecting 23 points with 18 rebounds. Average game at best for the Suns, but a good road win overall.


We would have won by more if we hadn't shot a putrid 7-18 from the free throw line. I don't think it was Houston's D that affected this either. Bottom line the Suns outrebounded a team with a 7-6 center and a 7-2 backup... they've actually held their own on the boards against the Rockets this year. Amazing... Marion gets 18 boards, 6 more than Yao despite the fact that he's about a foot shorter. But then again.. that's why they call him The Matrix. :biggrin:


----------



## ChristopherJ

tempe85 said:


> We would have won by more if we hadn't shot a putrid 7-18 from the free throw line. I don't think it was Houston's D that affected this either. Bottom line the Suns outrebounded a team with a 7-6 center and a 7-2 backup... they've actually held their own on the boards against the Rockets this year. Amazing... Marion gets 18 boards, 6 more than Yao despite the fact that he's about a foot shorter. But then again.. that's why they call him The Matrix. :biggrin:


Yeah thats what happens when Steve Hunter gets to the free throw line :no:.
And Phoenix always have a bad FG% against the Rockets so I'm not sure if it's a coincidence anymore. They are a great defensive team and they really shutdown Nash's dribble penetration. The Suns defense was good tonight but Houston missed tons of open shots. I think we were lucky they had a bad game the same time as the we did, else this could have easily been a loss.


----------



## tempe85

KidCanada said:


> Yeah thats what happens when Steve Hunter gets to the free throw line :no:.
> And Phoenix always have a bad FG% against the Rockets so I'm not sure if it's a coincidence anymore. They are a great defensive team and they really shutdown Nash's dribble penetration. The Suns defense was good tonight but Houston missed tons of open shots. I think we were lucky they had a bad game the same time as the we did, else this could have easily been a loss.


We're a lot better shooting team than the Rockets and missed quite a few open jumpers too.... And I didn't say FG%... I said FT% (even the greatest defense ever can't contest FT's...) and when you miss 11 that hurts bad. I honestly can't believe we won the game by so much when we couldn't buy a free throw. Yes some of that was due to Hunter but even he hit under his normal percentage (of around 50%).


----------



## rafsox04

The Rockets are a solid team and whenever you go up against a team with the defending scoring champ and a player like Yao. The Suns are a dominating team but when you have to take on a 7-6 center you are going to have trouble. The Rockets have a ton of savvy veterans who lead this team where as the Suns are a youthful squad that have high energy but low experience. The Suns have more talent but you can't say they should be winning by 30 pts every time they play. Every time these teams meet it should be a great battle of talent.


----------



## DwyaneWade4MVP

Very important win! Nice contribution of Jim Jackson off the bench!


----------



## On Thre3

tempe85 said:


> We're a lot better shooting team than the Rockets and missed quite a few open jumpers too.... And I didn't say FG%... I said FT% (even the greatest defense ever can't contest FT's...) and when you miss 11 that hurts bad. I honestly can't believe we won the game by so much when we couldn't buy a free throw. Yes some of that was due to Hunter but even he hit under his normal percentage (of around 50%).


since when did height determine rebounds?? last i heard a 6'9 player and a 6'7 player were 2 and 3rd in the leuage in rebounds. Big reason rockets were outrebounded was because of marion.


----------



## G-Force

Impressive win, and in Houston to boot. It has already been mentioned, and it is only one game, but that free throw shooting was awful. Its good to see that our assists/turnovers ratio was 28/15. Marion continues to amaze me on the glass.

:jawdrop:


----------



## tempe85

On Thre3 said:


> since when did height determine rebounds?? last i heard a 6'9 player and a 6'7 player were 2 and 3rd in the leuage in rebounds. Big reason rockets were outrebounded was because of marion.


I'm almost going to pretend you didn't say that..... height doesn't help with rebounds? What? Hmmmm.... Marion is the smallest player of the top 37 rebounders in the entire league, and not only this he ranks 3rd (going to show he's one of the best Small Forward rebounders of all time).


----------



## On Thre3

tempe85 said:


> I'm almost going to pretend you didn't say that..... height doesn't help with rebounds? What? Hmmmm.... Marion is the smallest player of the top 37 rebounders in the entire league, and not only this he ranks 3rd (going to show he's one of the best Small Forward rebounders of all time).


Certainly height helps with rebounds, and you basiclly are trying to defend your post by using what i said. I too said that marion is a small player thats a great rebound, which comes to show smaller players can often times be better rebounders than taller ones. So your post goes from "so height doesnt help with rebounds? hmm marion is short and he can rebound." im going to pretend you didnt say that.


----------

