Rockets/Magic preview
The Magic (22-12, 7-7 home), coming off a disappointing home loss to NJ, take on HOU (15-17, 8-11 road). The Rockets are coming off a close loss 97-93 at BOS WED night, as Bonzi Wells came off the bench to lead HOU with 25 pts. HOU will be without former Magic players Tracy McGrady, who has been having knee problems, and Steve Francis, who has a bad quadriceps.
The probable starting lineup for HOU:
G... Rafer Alston (10.3 ppg)
G... Luther Head (6.4 ppg)
F... Shane Battier (8.6 ppg)
F... Chuck Hayes (3.3 ppg, 6.4 rebs)
C... Yao Ming (21.2 ppg, 10.7 rebs)
Top reserves: Bonzi Wells (10.4 ppg, 5.7 rebs); Mike James (7.4 ppg); Luis Scola (7.4 ppg, 5.2 rebs); Aaron Brooks (4.5 ppg)
HOU is averaging 94.8 ppg, while allowing 94.1 ppg. ORL is averaging 103.7 ppg, while allowing 100.1 ppg.
With McGrady missing a lot of action, HOU has lost 6 of their last 9 games. HOU has beaten the Magic 5 straight games in ORL, and 9 of 11 overall; but the Magic did win in HOU in DEC. The Magic are 4 1/2 pt favorites (www.pinnaclesports.com).
The probable starting lineup for HOU:
G... Rafer Alston (10.3 ppg)
G... Luther Head (6.4 ppg)
F... Shane Battier (8.6 ppg)
F... Chuck Hayes (3.3 ppg, 6.4 rebs)
C... Yao Ming (21.2 ppg, 10.7 rebs)
Top reserves: Bonzi Wells (10.4 ppg, 5.7 rebs); Mike James (7.4 ppg); Luis Scola (7.4 ppg, 5.2 rebs); Aaron Brooks (4.5 ppg)
HOU is averaging 94.8 ppg, while allowing 94.1 ppg. ORL is averaging 103.7 ppg, while allowing 100.1 ppg.
With McGrady missing a lot of action, HOU has lost 6 of their last 9 games. HOU has beaten the Magic 5 straight games in ORL, and 9 of 11 overall; but the Magic did win in HOU in DEC. The Magic are 4 1/2 pt favorites (www.pinnaclesports.com).
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 3:37 PM
3 Comments:
At 3:57 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
The Magic sure can't take any team lightly, especially at home with all their struggles.
HOU did give BOS a real good game the other night, even though they were without T-Mac.
Some things to watch for tonight... if Arroyo can continue to run the team well as PG; if KDooling will play after not playing against NJ; and how will the Rockets play without T-Mac.
I do expect the Magic to come back though tonight to break their 5 game home losing streak to the Rockets... Magic by 6.
At 6:59 PM,
Anonymous said…
The Magic will be starting carlos arroyo at the 1 and keyon dooling at the 2. Just received an email with both the lineups.....and like i predicted about 4 or 5 games ago SVG made a lineup change that no one expected well at least not me. Not to mention keyon did not get a single minute of playing time against .
At 7:13 PM,
OVERWADED said…
That’s definitely interesting. Regardless of the outcome, it's obvious that Van Gundy is screaming for help in the backcourt. I'm glad he realizes it, and isn't afraid to tinker with the lineups for the time being.
It sounds like Otis has his work cut out for him; because as of today, it seems like we don't have a single player worthy of being called a starter in the backcourt. The best case is that we add another impact player to put along with one of our guys. The trick will be getting a decent player with what we have to work with.
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