NBA Injuries and Issues for Wednesday

is sheed out tonight or has tmac been cleared to play?

cuz the line on that game is Rockets -2 now.
 
Kook said:
Tmac...sorry!
Click to expand...

gametime decision. they want to know how he feels when he gets on the floor. He had one helluva roll-over with that ankle.

no one knows.

If anyone hears anything, especially locals listening to the radio, please do tell us.
 
here's today's houston chronicle article on the Rockets...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5370989.html

Dec. 12, 2007, 1:42AM
Frustrated Rockets search for answers, production

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
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<!-- rbox ends here --> Yao Ming sat alone on his side of the Wachovia Center visitors' locker room, with his brow gathered low and his voice reduced to a whisper as he called his team "soft."
Tracy McGrady limped slowly toward the team bus, offering a less harsh review but no more solutions other than the need for "other guys" to make plays.
Coach Rick Adelman had said the Rockets need to examine themselves, to get back to playing tough defense and running their offense, but mostly to find the determin-ation that had become so fragile.
A season ago, the Rockets had come to Philadelphia and pounded the 76ers by 50 points, the third-largest road win in NBA history. After the game, they happily milled around the locker room, eating cheese steaks and joking. On Monday, they had fallen behind by 31, then after the game quickly rushed out of town, as if the sooner the charter could go wheels up, the sooner they could leave behind what they had become.
It was not that easy, of course, with the Rockets' progress six weeks into the season limited to their ability to describe their frustration with what has gone wrong.
"This team has to evaluate itself," Adelman said. "We're 11-11. At this point, that's kind of where we should be. We have really been up and down. The only way we're going to turn it around is within ourselves, that's from the coaches to the players. Everybody has to evaluate what they can do better, not looking at other people, 'what can you do better?' And stay together as a group."
The problems have become far more evident than the solutions, especially offensively. When teams surround Yao inside and send help against McGrady outside, the offense has bogged down badly. With the Rockets making just 31.8 percent of their 3-pointers, ranking 28th in the NBA, the team has gone from Yao and McGrady trying to beat the double-teams to waiting for help that has not come.
"It seems like a lot of teams have figured us out now," McGrady said. "Double-team myself. Double-team Yao. They do that; that puts the onus on the other guys to make plays. It's not happening. It's really not happening. I got off to a hot start (Monday), and they started taking the ball out of my hands. We don't know what to do. It's been going like that the past few games. Maybe I need to start (games) not making shots and pass the ball so they could single-cover everybody."

Others must step up

In Monday's 100-88 loss, McGrady made five of seven shots in the first quarter, then took just two more, missing both on drives, before going out early with a sprained ankle. Yao made three of 11 shots for his 12 points, never taking more than 11 shots in the three-game road trip.
"He's got three and four guys around him," Adelman said. "We have to have people step up and make plays and take the pressure off him. He gets frustrated. It's my job to try to figure a way to get him the ball better. When you come down the court to start the game and they got three guys standing around him, there is nothing he can do about it unless people make them pay. If you do that, they got to play him straight-up, and not many people can play him straight-up.
"We have to find people who are going to step up and help out. There's nothing Yao's going to be able to do if they put three and four guys around him if we don't make them pay."
Adelman continues to preach more motion to get the offense going. That has worked on occasion. But when the Rockets struggle, instead of going more to their motion-based offense, they have fallen back on watching McGrady try to create on his own.
"It makes it too hard on Tracy and Yao when everybody is standing around," Adelman said. "Teams lock in on them. And we have not shot the ball well as a team. We have to move players, and we have to move the ball so those guys don't have people locked in when they do get it. I think we can get them the ball in the same spots, but we can do it when moving the ball instead of just isolation.
"It's not the same offense we tried to run in Sacramento because we had different players there. But you look at all the great players, you have to do some things and free them up. We give it to Tracy and say, 'OK, overpower them.' It's too hard on him, especially when the rest of the team isn't shooting well."
The Rockets around Yao and McGrady, however, have become accustomed to deferring offensively.

What's Plan C?

"I just think everybody is just waiting for someone else to do it, whether it is an offensive play or defensive play," Steve Francis said. "You just have to step up and do it. Somebody has to be willing to take the chance. On the offensive end, we're just complacent. Nobody is being aggressive." Said Shane Battier: "We just need to figure out what our strength is when things are not going well, especially when teams take away Tracy and Yao. We're struggling to find that right now.
"We need to stay the course. It does none of us good to start pointing fingers. We need to believe in the plan, work towards that. That's the only way you get through tough times."
Barring the injury-wrecked 2005-06 season, these would qualify as the Rockets' toughest times since the 6-11 start in 2004-05. They turned that season around with key additions. This time, they believe they must save themselves.
"That's what I told them," Adelman said of his message when the Rockets trailed by 31 and is as valid now. " 'You're experiencing a tough time right now. How are we going to respond?' "
jonathan.feigen@chron.com
Click to expand...
 
Rasheed was feeling better before game last night but his shot was off. He wanted to sit out 4th but Dice got in foul trouble. Looking for updates right now but already played Detroit at +2
 
news or interview about Tim Duncan? Parker will play for sure tonight?

and about Wash-Miami there are probably injuries?
 
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