In case you haven't caught on, today is Carl Landry's return to Houston, and, admittedly, it's going to be difficult to watch. He grew from raw but talented to shows glimpses of untapped potential to efficient, deadly scorer in three years and was a fan favorite in every sense of the (two) word(s). I wish him all the best with the Kings, but just not tonight.
-Trevor Ariza most likely won't play again tonight, and at this point I'm guessing we're only sitting him out as a precaution. He's still day-to-day, so, as one would expect, he could be back any game now. Lowry's also still out, and his injury is looking a lot more serious than Trevor's.
-In his last three games with the Rockets, Kevin Martin has scored 93 points on 53 shots, which, if you were wondering, is pretty damn good. He's also opened up the floor for Brooks, who's been dazzling in his own right. Hopefully that can continue.
-Joey Dorsey is back in town. I feel like this qualifies as newsworthy. So's Donte Greene, who may have set the record two summers ago for the quickest anyone has had an entire city's opinion of them change, as we all went from praising him as a potential 20-point scorer in the NBA after he dropped forty in the D-League to utterly expendable once we learned he was included in the Ron Artest trade.
-Also, now that I think of it, we seem to trade with the Kings quite a bit. Clearly Morey must have some sort of liking for messing with the Maloofs.
-A key matchup tonight will be Tyreke Evans vs. Aaron Brooks, as we will see two dynamic young point guards with greatly contrasting styles going head-to-head. Evans prefers to use his size and physicality to dominate, while Brooks creates shots with his quickness and ball-handling. It's going to be interesting to watch, and the winner of the dual's team could very well be the one that comes away from the Toyota Center with a victory.
The Maloofs, seen here hard at work to improve their franchise.
-We're currently four games behind the Blazers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, so any win is going to go a long way. Our schedule over the next week-and-a-half looks more than bearable, and this could be a prime opportunity to make up some ground in the race for the post-season.
-Just to give you a little actual analysis, the Kings take the eighth most shots at the rim in the NBA at 28.3 per game, with Tyreke Evans accounting for a league-leading 8.2 of those, so keeping them out of the paint will be paramount tonight. This could be a little more difficult than advertised with our less than intimidating front-court, but hopefully we can keep Tyreke and Co. from running amok near the basket.
Tonight should, assuming everything goes according to plan, hopefully end in a win for the Rockets. We're clearly a better team than the Kings and are starting to regain some of the confidence we had lost over this last month. It could be a little closer than desired, but expect the Rockets to end up with the win. And, as always, go Rockets (and Carl Landry). But mostly Rockets.
Houston Rockets: 30-29, 96.3 possessions per game (7th), 103.7 points scored per 100 possessions (17th), 104.7 points allowed per 100 possessions (17th)
Sacramento Kings: 20-40, 97.2 possessions per game (6th), 102.8 points scored per 100 possessions (21st), 107.3 points allowed per 100 possessions (24th)
All stats from hoopdata.com
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