Game Day: Houston Rockets vs. Charlotte Hornets

Game Day: Houston Rockets versus Hornets

The Details

Venue: Toyota Center, Houston

Game Time: 8:00 PM EST – 7:00 PM CT

TV: ROOT and Fox Sports Southeast

Radio: 790 AM and WFNZ 610 AM

Recent History:

• Apr 13:  CHA 90 – 100 HOU
• Jan 1 CHA 83-102 HOU
• Mar 24 HOU 100-89 CHA
• Oct 31 CHA 83-96 HOU

Walking Wounded:

Hornets:

• Al Jefferson continues to serve his suspension for violating the League drug policy (marijuana), out til December 26
• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – shoulder, out til April 5

Rockets:

• Jason Terry, personal – game time decision
• Ty Lawson is out to serve a 2 game suspension for his D.U.I.
• Sam Dekker had bad surgery is out 3 months

Projected Starters:

Hornets: Kemba Walker,  Nicolas Batum, Marvin Williams,  P.J. Hairston,   Cody Zeller,

Rockets: Patrick Beverley, James Harden, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard  Clint Capela

Key Reserves:

Hornets: Jeremy Lin, Frank Kaminsky, , Spencer Hawes

Rockets: Donatas Motiejunas, Marcus Thornton, Corey Brewer,  Jason Terry, K.J. McDaniels

Keys to Winning:

• Rebound: With Jefferson still out the Rockets should look to rebound and control the pace of the game.

Pace:

Both teams like to push the pace of the game and whichever team controls the tempo will also likely take control of the game.

• DON’T Turn Over The Ball: This is the key for the Rockets to winning. If they control the ball, they stop the Hornets from getting easy transition buckets.

• Stop the drives and protect the line:The two areas of the game the Hornets can dominate is both Jeremy Lin and Kemba Walker are capable of driving the paint to score or set up their outside shooters. If they can shut them down they’ll have a much easier chance of winning. 

The Pick:

The odds makers have made the Rockets as 3.o point favorites with an over/under of 207.5 points.

Even with Jefferson out the Hornets still present a real test for the Rockets. The Hornets play well on both ends of the floor and subsequently can use their defense to stay or get back into games and their offense to propel them ahead.

Prediction:

Although the Rockets had an incredible match versus the Clippers Saturday and played well on both ends of the floor for possible their best outing all season. Despite that fact, I still need to see signs they can put together solid efforts like that in back to back settings. Further, every time the odds makers make them favorites they end up losing.  Though Charlotte hasn’t spent much time on the road I’m more confident in their ability to post a winning effort than I am the Rockets will.

Though I think it could be a close game I think the Hornets might shock in this one.

For more exciting news and stories on the Charlotte Hornets FanSided site: Swarm and Sting

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