# Regular Season Game 38: Houston Rockets vs. New Orleans Hornets



## Cornholio (Feb 13, 2005)

​*(20-17)/(24-12)*

When/Where:
*Sunday, January 13, 2:30 p.m. ET*























































*Alston / Head / Battier / Hayes / Yao*














































*Paul / Peterson / Stojakovic / West / Chandler*


*Preview

The Rockets have spent much of the past week ascending their way back into the Western Conference playoff picture.

Now, they get an early opportunity to prove they belong there.

The Rockets will host Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets Sunday afternoon in their latest showdown against one of the West's top teams.

Houston has so far struggled against the West's best, but the Rockets have regained their swagger over the past several games by winning seven of nine games without injured star Tracy McGrady.

The Hornets (24-12) arrive in town only a game behind the Dallas Mavericks for the lead in the Southwest Division.

"It's unbelievably important for us," Rockets forward Luis Scola said. "We're not even among the playoffs teams yet. We need to win because it's a team ahead of us in the conference. We need to shorten the distance between us and them."

Despite playing without McGrady and dealing with a recent injury to Bonzi Wells, Houston has moved within a game of eighth-seeded Golden State in the West.

The reason for the surge has been a dramatically improved offense. After struggling to adapt to Rick Adelman's high-motion scheme early in the season, the Rockets are getting better ball movement and are standing around less than they did at the start of the season. The improved flow has created more balanced scoring.

The challenge now is doing that against the Hornets. During their current five-game winning streak, Houston has beaten three teams that were below .500 and one -- Washington -- that was hovering just above the mark.

The Rockets figure they have to play well against teams like New Orleans at home if they're going to be a significant player in the postseason.

"They're on a roll," Rafer Alston said of the Hornets. "Paul is having an All-Star year, (Tyson) Chandler is playing well and you always got to be careful with their shooters -- Peja Stojakovic and (Morris) Peterson. It's a test for us. It's going to be a challenge."

The Hornets certainly haven't been a pushover for the Rockets.

Since Paul entered the league in 2005-06, New Orleans has won six of its past eight meetings with Houston.

Besides having trouble keeping Paul from getting into the lane, the Rockets have struggled to keep the physical Hornets off the boards. Chandler and Co. outrebounded Houston in three of four games last season.

The Hornets are among the league's best defensive teams this season, holding opponents to 93.9 points per game. That's good enough for the fifth best mark in the league.

"We haven't played them this year, but last year, they just had our number," Rockets guard Luther Head said. "They're a pretty good team. They just pick-and-rolled us with Yao Ming on the perimeter to hurt us. But we're different this year. We've got a lot of confidence right now."

The Rockets have used that confidence to narrow the gap between themselves and the West's other top teams.

But with the Hornets in town, the Rockets realize they have to beat some of the conference's top teams now if they're going to be in the playoff picture in April.

"We have to have a mental awareness of where we are," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "We've won five in a row and New Orleans is coming in. ... This is a chance to play a team that's ahead of us in our conference and we have them at home. We have this homestand and we want to build on what we've done. That's what our guys believe we can do."


Hornets Update: The Hornets have shown just how good they can be when they're healthy. With Chris Paul improved from his ankle injury and Peja Stojakovic back in the lineup, New Orleans is off to its best start in franchise history. Paul has been catalyst. He leads the NBA in steals and ranks third in assists.*


_*Next Games*_
vs.








vs.








vs.


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## jdiggidy (Jun 21, 2003)

For the most part we can usually contain everyone but Paul and West. If we can stop one of them and not let Peja have a huge game we should have a shot. I'm calling for a W. I think were playing well right now.


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## Legend-Like (Mar 25, 2006)

Yeah I call win for this too. I think Chuck Hayes or Battier can do a decent part in containing West. Chris Paul's my only concern.


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

Paul & West are the major threats. But we shouldnt expect to give Chandler & Peja an open pass both those can unleash.

Dang Spurs Jazz Suns & Mavs all won. Hate it when we go further behind despite not playing a game. Couldnt atleast one of them lose?


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## jdiggidy (Jun 21, 2003)

Yeah, sucks that we have an opportunity to put a solid run together and then when you turn around maybe we pick up only a game or two.


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

Just looking at those lineup photos, when you compare theirs to ours, it really doesn't look like we have any chance of winning. I mean, apart from Yao, all our guys are virtual nobodies. The Hornets, however, have Paul (having an unbelievably good season), Chandler (career year), West (career year and one of the best power forwards in the game) and Peja (probably better than our second-best player).


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

Historically the Hornets have given us a ton of trouble. So I am not looking forward to this game. 

Their lineup and overall performance this year has been better then ours. But then again, we are starting to click and created a run of our own.


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## gi0rdun (May 31, 2007)

Hakeem said:


> Just looking at those lineup photos, when you compare theirs to ours, it really doesn't look like we have any chance of winning. I mean, apart from Yao, all our guys are virtual nobodies. The Hornets, however, have Paul (having an unbelievably good season), Chandler (career year), West (career year and one of the best power forwards in the game) and Peja (probably better than our second-best player).


I'm looking at the line up photos. Why do NBA Players have such white teeth?


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

Yao standing tall

This is what I meant when I said I want to see Yao lead this team. Hopefully he continues it in the 4thQ.

LOL I love the fact I only joined the game at the start of the 3rd Q. When Yao really started to unleash.


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## Dean the Master (Feb 19, 2006)

giordun said:


> I'm looking at the line up photos. Why do NBA Players have such white teeth?


Photo touch up? 

I missed the starting of the game therefore I couldn't put up the vBookie event. 

We look good here starting the 4th quarter.


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

Damn...

Some bad calls down the stretch.
Bad luck on Yao missing that shot.


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

Damn...

Some bad calls down the stretch.
Bad luck on Yao missing that shot.

Missed the three aswell............


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## Legend-Like (Mar 25, 2006)

Wow, 2 straight no calls on Yao. Thats some bull****


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## Krimzon (Feb 26, 2007)

So close. Good game though. We didn't lose by 10+ points.


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

Some thoughts

Deke > Landry I would give Deke minutes above Landry. He is such a defensive giant.

By all reports Bonzi really added a different dimension when he came into the game he should have got more minutes. He was 2 from 3 and got to the foul line twice. 
Bonzi > Head & Brooks. While TMAC is out Bonzi needs atleast 24mins per game. 14mins doesnt cut it.

Also Yao shouldnt be taking those long shots. The percentage is not good enough. Yao needs to hand it back out and try repost. He also took two 3s this game. For the last play of the game we need to give the ball to the right player.

Scola got outplayed by West maybe Chuck/Shane should have got more minutes on West.


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

hroz said:


> Some thoughts
> 
> Deke > Landry I would give Deke minutes above Landry. He is such a defensive giant.
> 
> ...


agree i don't understand why bonzi didn't play more either and yes Deke should diff. had play over Carl tough lost this game could of went either way but because of the two no calls which turn into turnovers that was the worst part


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

Our team as a whole in the 2nd half really did fail to execute. The offense besides Yao was pretty much non-existant. What little offense we did have, it was for a sort period as later in the 4th quarter we couldn't get anything to go.

Yao really had no help this game what so ever. And our defense coming down to the wire was just atrocious. Letting Bobby Jackson score 9 in a row in the 4th to kill our 10 point lead was inexcusable. 

And the defensive effort at the end for that last play for Paul, was totally terrible. You KNEW it was going to either Paul, or West. Yet they still failed to make any effort on defense. As a result, it cost us the game

And why was Yao shooting the final 3 with under 10 left? Seriously


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

OneBadLT123 said:


> Our team as a whole in the 2nd half really did fail to execute. The offense besides Yao was pretty much non-existant. What little offense we did have, it was for a sort period as later in the 4th quarter we couldn't get anything to go.
> 
> Yao really had no help this game what so ever. And our defense coming down to the wire was just atrocious. Letting Bobby Jackson score 9 in a row in the 4th to kill our 10 point lead was inexcusable.
> 
> ...



agree. this game brought us down to earth we are going no where and this kinds of show that we still have A LONG WAY TO GO and we need more help especially perimiter defense to many times Yao had to help out on the guards or what not coming into the land and Yao has to step in (leaving Tyson open) this really shows that if we want to beat good teams we need another allstar in comes T-Mac to save the day?...


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## shakesbeer00 (Dec 22, 2006)

What about the officials? I once felt so sick of NBA because of the manipulation by those referees. I waited several years to regain the fun of watching NBA. But now this kind of bad feeling comes back to me again. 

Besides, ROCKETS have lost to HORNETS so many times anyways, in an even worse way when TMAC is on the playlist.


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

Chuck rendered useless against the frontline of West and Chandler... Thank god we have the monster named Yao. Yao is amazing, too bad no one else was tonight. Seriously though, can we start Scola already??

Not a discouraging lost, I respect Paul and the Hornies and they were finally at fulls strength tonight.


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## kisstherim (Jul 15, 2004)

Holy ****


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

Aaron Brooks for dunk contest!!!


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## jdiggidy (Jun 21, 2003)

I didn't get to watch the game. Should I start another boycott until we run off another 3 straight games?

On the bright side it was still a good weekend because THE COWBOYS LOST!!!

Just throwing it out there, Arenas to opt out of his contract in the news today. I know it's nothing new but this is the official report today.

I'll go back and find the thread an post it along with my trade TMac thoughts again.


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## hroz (Mar 4, 2006)

Just another thought since Alston really wasnt playing that well why didnt Brooks get more minutes at PG??????????

Especially considering how much the Hornets like to play the pick and roll offense? Brooks seems to get through the pick much easier than Rafer. And considering Alston kept missing his shots I was surprised he got 40+ mins at PG. We did see Aaron get decent minutes but it was mostly at SG.

NOTE: All my opinions come from the second half and the boxscore. I missed the first half. For example I said maybe Chuck should have got more minutes on West but the talk in here is that he got dominated in the 1st half which is why he didnt get many minutes in the second half???
I only saw Scola struggle against West in the second half. I didnt see much of Chuck in the 2nd half. So I was wondering whether he might have been a better option.....


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

Oh and I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but seriously I am getting sick and tired of the referees doing such a pissport job on Yao. 

Those 2 hacks at the end of the 4th were just terrible.


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

Chandler got away with murder all game. It wasn't just those two possessions at the end.

And did anyone notice how we weren't going to Yao nearly as much in the first half, like our other guys were suddenly overconfident because of the winning streak?


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