Welcome Back Carl!

OK, he's not completely back, but Carl Landry made an appearance at practice yesterday for the first time since March 18, and this time not just to say hello. He actually stretched with the team and participated in a shoot-around. Neither Carl nor the Rockets had a timetable for his return to the active lineup, though. It seems gunshot wounds are not listed in the "how soon will they return" guidebook for trainers. Regardless, it's good to see him back on the court for any reason.

My question of the day is, where are the Landry detractors these days? After ending last season early with an ankle injury, public sentiment seemed almost split down the middle before this season as to whether or not the Rockets should match Memphis' offer sheet and keep him. I saw comments on web sites that said, "He's damaged goods. Don't take the chance!" and "Landry is nothing more than a high-flying kid that will never make it big in the NBA." Personally, I agreed with the Rockets' decision to re-sign him.

This is my opinion for the record. Carl Landry is a bargain that will pay off for many years to come. The only reason Landry is a backup is that he plays behind forwards (Shane Battier and Luis Scola) that should be on the all-star team. Carl Landry would start for 80% of the teams in the league and as Shane ages, Carl's role on the Rockets will become even more important.

Carl Landry is just one more in a long line of good decisions by GM Daryl Morey. I promise that when Morey makes a bad decision that he could have foreseen (he cannot predict injuries - especially gunshot wounds), I'll call him on it. But based on past performance, that may be a while.

Pobrecitos Los Clippers

On Noche Latino at Toyota Center, the woeful Los Angeles Clippers proved to be mere whipping boys for the rock-solid Rockets. Before slacking off in the fourth quarter, Houston beat the Clippers soundly in every aspect of the game. This was to be expected, since the Clippers are without Baron Davis and Marcus Camby, their only two formidable players.

Regardless of the opponent, full credit goes to all of the Rockets' starters. They were hitting on all offensive cylinders tonight and deserved the easy 110-93 win. Well-done!

Practice Time

The Rockets have had three days of practice time to resolve the issues that cost them a win in Utah. Coaches and players all say that it's done a world of good, both to get back on the same page and to rest their tired bodies after a month of training camp and 73 tough games. I have no doubt they needed it.

Fear not that I have been lax in my blogging. I, too, have been practicing. I used the time to develop a new move. I call it crossover alliteration: I'm pushing past basketball's boundaries. Pretty impressive, huh?

Big Bad Loss

The Rockets lost an important game tonight in Utah. Notice that I said "The Rockets lost..." Not any one player, the entire team. A few players were only mediocre, but most were just bad. Poor shooting, turnovers, missed opportunities, sloppy defense... If the Rockets had not hit 10-26 from beyond the arc, it would have been a massacre.

The standouts were Luis Scola, Shane Battier and Aaron Brooks. Scola has been the most consistent Rocket all year. Shane Battier hit 4-7 threes and had 18 total points - an offensive explosion for him. Aaron Brooks was the game's high scorer with 20. Brooks led the team well and was the only starter with a positive +/- stat.

The goats were Ron Artest (5-22), Von Wafer (2-7) and Yao Ming (6-16), though Yao had 13 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.

Oddly enough, Houston outrebounded the Jazz by 10, but it's hard to find positives when the Jazz blocked 12 shots, indicative of the forced shots the Rockets settled for all night. The Rockets did not play as a team and the final score showed it.

Rockets Show Heart in the Heart of Texas

The Rockets won an exciting back-and-forth game in San Antonio today 87-85 by playing tough, smart defense and remaining cool, calm and collected at the end of the game on offense. Twice in the last minute, Yao took the pass at the top of the key after setting a strong pick for Aaron Brooks, then found Luis Scola wide open under the basket for an easy two.

Houston held the usually potent combination of Parker and Duncan to only 39% shooting for the day. Kyle Lowry played a good game and even though Aaron Brooks was held to 2-10 shooting, the Rockets' two-headed point guard harassed Tony Parker into taking enough bad shots to secure the win. Yao Ming was again fronted down low and was only able to take eight shots in the game, hitting six, but he was strong on defense against the Spurs' big men.

Ron Artest was the game's leading scorer with 24 and played under control the entire game. Special kudos also go to Luis Scola for a well-played game. He had 19 points and 17 rebounds in 37 energy-filled minutes.

The most important aspect of this game for the Rockets, though, was the composure they showed in the fourth quarter when they were down by six with only 3 minutes to play. They stuck together, listened to their coach and kept the faith. With that in mind, the game ball goes to Rick Adelman for this one. He called the right plays at the right time and managed to convince the entire team of the soundness of his defensive strategy. Good job, guys!

Advertising

Some of you may have noticed a few hyperlinks in my recent posts. These are links to a reputable company that sells Rockets tickets. In defense of this practice, I will say that the company helps support this site and that I never based any comments or posts on these links. I slipped them in where I was using those words anyway.

If anyone finds these links offensive, the floor is open to discussion.

Beating Up on the Underdogs

The Houston Rockets kicked the Minnesota Timberwolves' proverbial butts tonight. It was never even close. Who would have thought? Minnesota was only 24 games behind the Rockets in the conference standings going into the game. Even with Yao Ming getting off to an uncharacteristic 1-9 start, the rest of the team picked up the offensive slack, turned up the defensive pressure and took the Wolves to school. That's three cliches in one sentence. I'm an overachiever.

Ron Artest was strong on offense with 20 points. Both point guards played with confidence, committing zero turnovers, but only had 3 assists between them. The entire team played lock-down defense in the first half, allowing the T-Wolves only 37 points.

Highly touted Minnesota rookie Kevin Love continued to collect double-doubles with 18 points and 12 rebounds and second-year sub Craig Smith hit for 19, but the rest of the Wolves seemed impotent against the vastly superior Rockets.

James White, the Rockets' D-League pickup, finally got a chance to get on the court for the final 3:42 of the fourth quarter and proceeded to hit two quick shots for 5 points, but committed three turnovers and two fouls in the same stretch. I get the feeling that he will be an offensive force, but every possession will be an adventure.

Hopeful

I hope I get my point across with this one. Got that? I HOPE. Not HOPEFULLY. That is the most misused word in sports interviews. When someone says, "Hopefully, we will win the game," they are actually saying, "We will win the game, and while we are winning, we will be hopeful." It is putting an adverb where a verb should be. What they mean to say is, "I hope we will win the game." Equally correct would be , "I am hopeful that we will win the game." Also correct would be "We are going into the game hopefully." As a test to see if you are using the word correctly, substitute the words "full of hope" for "hopefully" and ask if the sentence makes sense.

I know, the incorrect use of the word is listed in the dictionary as an option, but it is considered non-standard English. A word of advice to all athletes and coaches: Keep it simple. Don't use the word hopefully at all. It is rarely correct and just makes you sound like you never cracked a book in school. Just say "I hope."

I hope you all will get the message. :)

Pulling One Out

Houston almost blew one at Toyota Center tonight in double overtime against a very mediocre Detroit team. They were outhustled, outrebounded and just outplayed most of the night by the undermanned Pistons, who were without Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton and Allen Iverson.

Detroit played Houston even in regulation and through the first overtime by fighting tooth and nail for every rebound and loose ball. They took the Rockets out of their game on both ends of the court. The Rockets point guard tag-team seemed unable to overcome such a swarming defense.

The second overtime proved the Pistons' undoing, however, as the overall talent of the Rockets finally shone through. Credit Aaron Brooks for a 3-point shot at the beginning of the second OT, followed immediately by an outstanding defensive play, getting the Rockets off to a good start in the period. Yao Ming showed his stuff as well, getting out of his sick bed to post 31 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

Get Well Card

I would like to send out my best wishes for a speedy recovery to Carl Landry. Upon returning to Houston after contributing to a resounding victory in New Orleans last night, Carl was involved in what is being termed as a "random act of violence". He was shot in the leg when he got out of his vehicle after it was sideswiped. Fortunately, the wound was described as a surface wound in the left calf and is classified as a minor injury. He also dislocated a finger on his left hand. I have found no news reports that placed any blame whatsoever on Carl for the incident. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As to how it affects the Rockets, team physician Dr. Tom Clanton expects Landry to miss from one to three weeks. A quick look at the Rockets' schedule shows that if the doctor's prognosis is correct, Landry will miss from four to ten games, returning in time for at least the last three games of the regular season and, of course, the playoffs. Landry has been a major contributor to the Rockets this season off the bench and they will miss his scoring, athleticism and enthusiasm.

Get well soon, Carl.

A Defensive Gem

The Rockets scratched, clawed, fought and struggled to a great 95-84 victory in New Orleans tonight. With Yao Ming out with the flu, the rest of the Rockets played a valiant game. They did it with defense and team play. Ron Artest overcame an 0-11 start to post 18 points and - get this - five assists. He shot 23 times, but he seemed to be honestly trying to play within the team framework. Aaron Brooks played against a top-flight point guard for the second consecutive game and again was soundly beaten. Chris Paul scored 29 points with 11 assists and 6 rebounds. Brooks was 14, 2, and 1, respectively. Fortunately, Kyle Lowry came in down the stretch to take control and the team seemed to come together.

Kudos to the entire team tonight. They beat a good playoff team on the road and made it look decisive. It may not have been a milestone in Houston sports, but it was certainly a night to remember.

D-League Follies

I like the NBA Developmental League. I have long believed that the NBA needed a minor league system to develop talent. It gives the lower draft choices and free agents a place to stay active and get some seasoning and coaching while they wait for their chance to contribute to an NBA team. Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry and Steve Novak of the Houston Rockets all spent time with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers last year before finishing the season as important contributors to the Rockets. The Rockets also recently signed James White of the Anaheim Arsenal to a second 10-day contract.

Right now, most of the seventeen D-League teams are affiliated with more than one NBA team. I would like to see the D-League expand so that every NBA team has their own farm team. I think it would be good for the league for several reasons.

1. In addition to the drafted players and free agents mentioned above, there are many young players that are just not college material, but have basketball talent. These players have virtually no chance to make the NBA since the new age limits preclude signing with an NBA team until they've been out of high school for a year. The D-League could not only pay these young players a modest salary for that year, but offer them a venue to get noticed by an NBA team - without the risk of having to play with the bigger faster players of the NBA.

2. If the farm team is located near the NBA affiliate city, it would help expand the fan base both for the home team and for the NBA in general.

3. It would serve as a proving ground not only for potentially good players, but also coaches, referees, administrators and all other positions associated with professional sports.

4. If the parent team could keep the young players under contract while assigning them to the minors, there would be a lot more player development going on. Minor league coaches would be true teachers and far less concerned with baby-sitting massive egos and salaries.

Once upon a time, there was the CBA (Continental Basketball Association). They had a long and storied history, having begun in 1946 as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League. Two years later, they were renamed the Eastern Basketball Association and in 1978 became the CBA. For a couple of decades, the CBA was an unofficial version of what the D-League has become, a place to season young players and a source of replacements for when the first line players of an NBA team went down. In 1999, a grand scheme was concocted by Isaah Thomas and a group of investors to buy all of the CBA teams and run the league as a single corporation. Well, it seems as if the New York Knicks are not the only thing Isaah can screw up. The experiment was a dismal failure and the league declared bankruptcy and ceased operations just two years later. Some of the teams merged with the IBL and purchased the assets of the defunct CBA, including the name and logo. So the CBA again exists with just five teams left, some of them in cities I couldn't even find on a map - and I love geography!

So here's my plan. Let the CBA merge with the D-League to create twenty two teams. Add eight more teams, then assign one D-League team to each NBA team. Voila! A true farm system.

I tried calling Commissioner Stern to explain my idea. Seems he wasn't taking calls.

Tough Loss

The Rockets seem to be revealing their true selves this month. They are a good team, but not yet among the elite of the league. They have consistently beaten the weak sisters of the poor, usually by wide margins, but have lost close games to the Lakers and Spurs in Toyota Center.

This season was to be the one that put the Rockets over the top, with Tracy, Yao, Shane and Ron-Ron as the team leaders. Tracy's absence hurts. Battier and Artest have been slowed by injuries and I suspect will not be at 100% the rest of the year.

They traded away the stable, consistent (if unexciting) veteran point guard to be replaced by a couple of inexperienced waterbugs. Rockets basketball has become an adventure everytime down the court with Brooks. He is anything but stable, consistent or unexciting. The Spurs won in part because Tony Parker beat him like a bastard stepchild. Parker had 28 points and 8 assists. Brooks had 18 points but zero assists. Got that? The Rockets' starting point guard in over 31 minutes had zero assists. Unacceptable.

Again, Ron Artest tried to put the team on his back at the end of the game and could not pull it off. This time, he at least took a good shot, but missed. Artest has many fine qualities, but he is just not the go-to scorer that McGrady is when he's healthy.

My prediction of one month ago still stands, though I will soften it a bit. If the Rockets draw the right match-up in the first round, it's possible they could actually win a series, but they will not get past the second round. They are just not an elite team right now.

East vs. West Disparity

With 15 games left in the regular season, the Rockets are poised to make the playoffs, but which team they will face in the first round is anybody's guess. That's because there are so many good teams in the Western Conference that 3rd place and 8th place are only separated by two games. It's tough out west.

The East, on the other hand, has three of the four best teams in the NBA, but the quality dwindles fast after that. In fact, the fourth place team in the East would not even make the playoffs in the West. Some would say that Cleveland, Boston and Orlando only have gaudy records because they play most of their games in the pitiful Eastern Conference. There may be a grain of truth to that, but having seen all three teams play, they are the real deal.

My scale has always been pretty simple. Win half your games, you're mediocre. 45 wins is a good team. 50 wins is a very good team. 55 wins is excellent. 60 wins is a great team. But this year is different. An abundance of lousy teams in the East has made a few very good teams look great and an overabundance of excellent teams in the West has made some great teams look mediocre.

How Houston fares post-season depends entirely on which team draws the Rockets in the playoffs. IMHO, the Rockets match up well against New Orleans, Portland, Denver and Dallas, but would have a tough time against L.A., San Antonio or Utah. If the playoffs were to start today, they would face Portland, but the Rockets have the toughest remaining schedule of any team in the West and could easily fall a few slots in these last games in the very competitive Western Conference. Not to mention that regardless of who they play in the first round, the Lakers and Spurs will likely still be out there waiting for them.

There is some good news. The Rockets have beaten all three of the best teams in the East, so if they can get to the finals, they've got a fair shot at winning it all. Obviously, I'm really reaching for some good news here.

It's Time to Start Lowry

The Rockets lost a close one tonight to the Los Angeles Lakers 102-96, even though the Lakers were playing without Lamar Odom, who was suspended for the game due to leaving the bench during an altercation on the court in a game against Portland. After a spectacular second quarter in which Houston went ahead by 14, they returned from the break and gave it all back in the third. The last quarter was give and take until the Western Conference leaders rose to the top at the end.

Let’s place blame, shall we? I blame Kobe Bryant for the Rockets’ loss. There are some great players in the NBA right now, but Kobe is the best. By the end of his career, he will go down alongside Michael Jordan as one of the best to ever play the game. On the other side of the ball, the entire Rockets team could not seem to hold onto the ball. They committed 12 more turnovers than the Lakers. Ron Artest had 6 turnovers by himself, yet still decided to make it a challenge match with Bryant in the second half, helping to take the Rockets completely out of their game plan. Aaron Brooks did his share too, at times managing to look like he had never played with this team in his life. As usual, he went back and forth between great and terrible. He made a dramatic 4-point play in the fourth quarter only to commit a bonehead turnover the next time down the court.

Let's give a little negative credit to coach Rick Adelman in this one, too. He left Artest on Bryant when Ron was decisively losing the battle. Battier consistently playes Kobe well and even with five fouls, should have been guarding Bryant down the stretch. Adelman also put Brooks back in the game during crunch time, despite Kyle Lowry showing much better control. The Lakers outscored the Rockets by 11 while Brooks was in the game, but with Lowry at the helm, Houston went up by 6. Should Lowry get his chance to start? I say he's been here long enough to get a handle on the team and the system and deserves a chance to show what he can do. Start Lowry.

On a positive note, Carl Landry had a good game and Scola and Yao each shot 7-9 from the field, though Yao had 4 turnovers and was -18 in the plusminus stat. Much of that was due to the spotty play of the point guards, not getting the ball to him in good position even when he was hitting his shots.

Let's face it. The road to the NBA finals goes through L.A. The Rockets don't know the way there yet.

Lego

Rockets' GM Daryl Morey calls Shane Battier "Lego", because when he's on the court, all the pieces fit. This and many other insightful tidbits about Battier can be found in an article by Michael Lewis of the New York Times. It is called "The No-Stats All-Star" and is one of the most in-depth articles I've ever read about a basketball player. Lewis explains why Battier always seems to be in the right place on the court at the right time and how he goes about preparing for games. I highly recommend it if you have the time.

Physically and athletically, Shane is considered a 'borderline NBA player', but mentally he is head and shoulders above virtually everyone in the league. He has the initiative to learn his opponents tendencies, the willpower to stick to a gameplan, and the intelligence to react during the game based on his knowledge rather than just instinct. His stats, at least the ones in the box score, would not earn him much playing time on many teams. But the Rockets' GM is one that looks past the box score. Morey will not describe many components of the system he uses to analyze teams and players, but he saw things in Shane's game that led him to convince Les Alexander to trade the 8th pick in the 2006 draft to acquire him.

Shane Battier doesn't sell basketball tickets by himself, but he creates winning basketball teams that sell tickets. Shane can't carry a team, but every championship team has a man like him. If the Rockets are to get deep into the playoffs this year, they need him badly.

Mile High Win!

The Rockets beat a very good Denver team tonight by scratching and clawing for all they were worth. With both Yao Ming and Luis Scola fouling out, the rest of the Rockets held on for an exciting 97-95 win in a back-to-back situation for both teams.

They did it with defense tonight, with every player on the team contributing to hold the Nuggets to only 38% shooting. Houston's front line held Nene, the league leader in shooting percentage (60.6% on the season) to only 4-15. The only negative on the night for the Rockets was missing 15 free throws. As a team, they are the third best free throw shooting team in the league, but everyone on the team seemed to miss a few tonight.

Forget the negative. They beat a good team on the road in a back-to-back game at high altitude. All praise to the Rockets this night!

Taking Care of Business

Some games cannot be won, only survived. The Rockets beat the Memphis Grizzlies handily tonight 93-83, never once looking like they were in any trouble whatsoever. The Grizzlies looked as bad as their record and the Rockets just did their job. Houston's front line of Yao Ming and Luis Scola dominated Marc Gasol and Darrell Arthur, combining for 42 points and 31 rebounds.

It's interesting that the Rockets formerly held the rights to both of Memphis' starting forwards. Rudy Gay was a first round pick that was traded to the Grizzlies for Shane Battier almost immediately. Darrell Arthur was a Rocket for about a minute when he was acquired from Portland for the Rockets' first pick, Nicolas Batum. He was instantly forwarded to Memphis for Donte Greene and Joey Dorsey. Greene was later traded to Sacramento with Bobby Jackson for Ron Artest. Complicated? The final analysis: The Rockets gave up Rudy Gay, a late first-round draft pick last summer and Bobby Jackson. They received, Shane Battier, Ron Artest and Joey Dorsey. We love you, Daryl Morey.

Floppers

Floppers are NBA players that make a habit of faking contact to draw a foul. Is it just a part of the game or poor sportsmanship? Let's keep it simple. It's cowardly. It's bad spotsmanship in the worst way and not the kind of lesson that pro basketball should be teaching our children: that it's ok to bend the rules if it benefits your team. Anyone that says otherwise is a weasel that would also say that nothing is a crime if you get away with it. Any coach that encourages or even just condones flopping is doing a disservice to his players, his team and the league in which he coaches.
Dr. James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Mass. in the 1890's to provide physical exercise for students during the cold winter months. He wrote 13 rules. Nowhere in those rules does it say that it is permissable or appropriate for a player to "play act" so as to trick the referees into believing that a foul has taken place when it has not.

Certainly there is a big difference between flopping and "selling" a legitimate call. Shane Battier has a talent for taking a charge and making it look obvious, but it is always a real charge. Karl Malone on the other hand, lived at the foul line because he fell down everytime anyone touched him. I forget who it was that said, "He must have tiny feet."

Now that we have decided that flopping is evil, wicked, mean, bad and nasty, the only question is, how can we go about stopping it? I hear calls for making it a flagrant foul resulting in two free throws and the ball out of bounds. While I sympathize with the severity, it is not appropriate for the offense committed if no one was physically harmed. The correct penalty would be to define it as a technical foul because in reality, flopping is nothing more than showing disrespect to an official, trying to trick him into making a bad call - just as yelling or cursing at him is an attempt to intimidate him into making calls beneficial to one team.

That's it. Flopping is a technical foul. Twice in a game and you're out, just like any other technical. If the league gets behind it and insists the refs call it when they see it, the practice will stop. I'll call David Stern on Monday and get it done.

Suns Set

The Rockets played the Suns tonight and won 116-112. That's the top and bottom lines. But there was so much in between. It was a wide-open, fast-paced game that was fun to watch.

Yao Ming played Shaq to a standstill pointwise, but Yao led the Rockets with six assists with some sparkling passing from the lane and outrebounded O'Neal 11-5. Yao seemed to enjoy playing against a man's man for a change. Not a flop in sight all night.

Aaron Brooks continued to both astound and frustrate. He had 30 points, including a critical running layup with :07 to play to put the Rockets ahead for good. He also had four turnovers and came up short (pun intended) on defense, allowing Steve Nash to post 32 points and 13 assists, but Nash does that to a lot of teams. Kyle Lowry, the other half of the Rockets' point guard tag team, played under control and led the team well. Carl Landry was also a force in the game hitting 6 out of 7 shots. He seems to thrive in the fast-paced style of game the Suns play.

Speaking of fast-paced, am I the only one who loves to watch a high-scoring run-and-gun game? It seems to be completely out of style in the NBA these days and I'm not sure why. There have been several rules changes to encourage opening up the game, but average scores are still down by 15 or 20 points per game. My theory is that players are not as basketball-educated as they used to be. The fast break is a ballet, not a race. A good running game succeeds with control, not speed, and with most players leaving college early, modern athletes are just not trained in the basics as well as they used to be. Remember the days of "Chicken Man"? Whenever the Rockets scored 125 points in a game, a local chicken franchise would give away free chicken and Mike Dunleavy seemed to be the one to hit the shot that put them over the top every time. These days, that would be a useless promotion. NBA teams rarely achieve that level anymore. I long for the days of "Showtime" with Magic and Worthy, the Denver Nuggets under Coach Doug Moe and the Spurs' George Gervin and his finger-rolls.

Salt Flats

The Rockets blew a tire in the second and third quarters against the Jazz tonight. To their credit, they did not give up though, and came back to tie the game in the fourth before falling in the last few minutes.

A number of words come to mind: tough, floor-burns, gritty, determined... Those words apply to both teams, but especially to Deron Williams, the Jazz' fourth year point guard out of Illinois. He had 26 points and 14 rebounds, effectively controlling the game down the stretch. He played like an all-star this night.

Ron Artest led the Rockets with 25 points, but again seemed determined to do it all by himself. That should probably have been expected based on his history of animosity with the Jazz. Check out the video of Ron vs. the Jazz on youtube.

The only Rocket that stood out was Kyle Lowry, who came off the bench to spark a comeback in the fourth quarter. He had 14 points in 21 minutes of relief, but in spite of his aggression, no assists. Still, maybe it's time to give Lowry a shot at starting. Brooks has been mediocre most nights and may be hitting the sophomore wall.

Welcome "Flight"

The Rockets signed James "Flight" White to a 10-day contract today, though he was not in uniform for tonight's game against the Raptors. White is most known for his spectacular dunks, but is anxious to show the NBA that he has become much more than just a dunker.

James played for the University of Florida in his freshman year before transferring to Cincinatti for three years. He was drafted in the second round of the D-League draft last year by the Anaheim Arsenal. He leads the D-League in scoring this season at 26 ppg.

Following Wednesday's game against the Jazz, the Rockets will be at home for four days, so White will have some practice and game time to show what he can do. After that, the schedule gets pretty difficult with some important games against Western Conference opponents. The window is narrow, but it's open. Fly high, James.

Landry is Back

Carl Landry shook off the rust in his second game back after being out for five games with a sprained ankle. He put in a full night's work tonight against the Toronto Raptors, hitting 7-9 for 22 points and was a burst of energy in Toyota Center. Landry had a gaudy +30 in the +/- stat, meaning that the Rockets outscored the Raptors by 30 points while he was in the game.

Credit also Luis Scola (20 pts./16 rebounds), Yao Ming (20p/11r), Ron Artest (13p, 6r, 5a), and Von Wafer (14p in 21 min.).

It was a team win, despite the fact that the starters came out sleepwalking in the first quarter, falling behind by 12 before Landry, Wafer and Lowry came in and provided the spark that got the team going. The good news is that the Rockets kept playing hard until they wore down the Raptors and pulled away handily in the fourth quarter. An easy win it was not, but a win it was.

Next up is the Utah Jazz tomorrow night. That game will be a stern test after a hard game tonight and a long flight tomorrow.

Bad Taste Gone

Sometimes I play computer games. Sometimes I play them on the easiest setting just because some days you just really need a victory. The Rockets had a very bad taste in their mouths from last night's game, so they scheduled Minnesota (the NBA's version of an easy setting) for tonight and came away with an 11 point win to end their brief road trip at 1-1. Tuesday night's opponent, the Toronto Raptors, are only marginally better. Ther Rockets should handle them easily at Toyota Center.

It was good to see Carl Landry back from his ankle injury. He looked a little rusty, especially on defense, but played 26 minutes and scored twelve points. Luis Scola had his 21st double-double of the year and both Artest and Brooks acquitted themselves nicely after last night.

Chicago Meltdown

The Rockets suffered their worst 4th quarter collapse in history last night against the mediocre Chicago Bulls. It was painful to watch the first time, but even moreso to watch the fourth quarter again in an attempt to make sense of it all. Without question it was a team failure, but a couple of players stood out.

Aaron Brooks was taken advantage of defensively by Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose. Brooks also did not run the Rockets offense well in crunch time. Yao Ming was being fronted. Brooks could have lobbed the ball over the head of the defender (a dangerous ploy admittedly) or he could have swung the ball to the weakside while Yao crossed the lane to get into better position. He did neither and chose to drive the lane at inopportune times.

That brings me to the second offender, Ron Artest. In fairness, his first three quarters offensively were a big reason the Rockets were that far ahead in the first place, but in the fourth, he was like a black hole on offense. Passes went it, but never came out. The few times Brooks tried to pass the ball to the weak side, Artest took it over in mid-swing and tried to do it all himself. He made one three-pointer, but missed several others and prevented the team from getting any easy baskets. With only ten seconds left in the game and down by 3, he took the inbound pass and proceeded to dribble into a double team from the backcourt rather than find the open man and ended up getting a desperate, clumsy three-pointer blocked at the buzzer.

Give credit to the Bulls for their part in the collapse. They hit several unlikely baskets, defended well and showed tremendous energy at home. Thank goodness the Rockets have to play again tonight. Maybe a win over the Timberwolves will take the taste of this stinker out of their mouths.