Houston Rockets @ Indiana Pacers
Friday, November 12, 2010
7:00 pm EST
Conseco Fieldhouse
Indianapolis, Indiana
An all-too-familiar sight that will play out again similarly tonight. (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)
The 2010-11 Houston Rockets are struuuuuggggling. And not only have they fallen to 1-6 on the the year after getting smacked around by the lowly Wizards on Wednesday, the team’s best player has fallen to an ankle sprain and will not playing tonight.
Even though Yao Ming has been on a minute-restriction and in still-recuperating form so far this year, I was actually looking forward to watching him and Roy Hibbert go toe-to-toe. Roy tends to play rather well against traditional bigs (see: Duncan, Timmy; Howard, Dwight) and it’s always fun to see a couple of giants clash.
That said, it’s obviously way better for Indy that Yao will be in street clothes this evening. Perhaps better still, the Pacers have actually had the Rockets’ number for a while now, beating Houston four times straight dating back to November 8.
To recap, we have (a) No Yao, (b) a recent history of success Pacers success, (c) a struggling Houston team (with an even worse defense) and (d) an Indy squad likely still riding high after putting together one of the best quarters in NBA history.
I like those odds.
A few other Houston notes:
- They have the 28th “best” defense in the NBA so far. They also have been playing at the 2nd fastest pace. The Pacers have been near the top of the league in shot attempts per game themselves ever since Coach Jim O’Brien showed up so the combination of all this likely means that if the Pacers can get good shots, there should be enough possessions that they will be able to exploit a porous defense — even if they struggle shooting-wise a little bit.
- Kevin Martin has been playing excellent ball, averaging 24.1 ppg on 48% shooting (plus 40% from three and 89.1% from the line). It’s this type of ballin’ that earned him coveted standing among the advanced stat community — and Rockets GM Daryl Morey. Stopping Kevin will be a challenge for all the Pacers wings who get a shot. I’m hoping we get to see what Paul George can do to slow down such a savvy scorer.
- Luis Scola has been scoring, rebounding, getting to the line and even setting up teammates well this season. He’s coming off back-to-back 24-point nights and already had a 36-point game earlier this year. He’s also had two games where he got to the line 17 and 12 times, and two 16-rebound performances. Some one on the Pacers is going to want to make sure these things don’t happen.
- Slim Chin is going to LOOOVE the Aaron Brooks Brad Miller/Darren Collison matchup. UPDATE: Was reminded by the comments that I’m really dumb. Was just so eager to finally remember to link to Slim Chin in relation to Darren that I forgot to think first. Apologies. Brad’s faster anyway.
Pacers vs. Rockets – By the Numbers
| Rockets | @ | Pacers |
|---|---|---|
| 1-6 (14th) | Overall Record (Conf Rank) | 3-3 (6th) |
| 0-4 | Home / Road Records | 2-1 |
| Lost 1 | Current Streak | Won 1 |
| 1-4 | Last 5 Head-to-Head | 4-1 |
| -1.57 (18th) | Avg Scoring Margin | +0.67 (14th) |
| 108.7 (8th) | Offensive Rating | 107.3 (10th) |
| 50.1% (13th) | eFG% | 51.3% (9th) |
| 110.3 (28th) | Defensive Rating | 106.6 (14th) |
| 48.4% (11th) | Opponent's eFG% | 48.6% (12th) |
| 98.8 (2nd) | Pace | 96.5 (8th) |
{ 3 comments }
