New Year's Status Report

In my post of 11/30, I detailed the rocky road the Rockets faced in December. It was a busy month, with most of it on the road. They faced several really good teams and had to deal with five back-to-backs. I said that if they just held their own and beat the teams they were supposed to beat, they would go 8-8.

Wow. They won 11 games, dealt with the Tracy McGrady saga and beat Dallas twice. This team is doing everything right - playing hard, team-oriented basketball and focusing on all the right things. The only negative is that they lost to Portland, Denver, Cleveland and Orlando. Those are all teams that they could see in the playoffs, but in their defense, three of those losses were the second games of back-to-backs on the road.

Les Alexander announced yesterday that the team would pick up its option for the fourth year of Rick Adelman's contract. Yet another smart move, Les. Adelman has earned every penny you've paid him and has made me - and thousands of other prognosticators - look foolish for pre-season predictions that the Rockets would miss the playoffs this year. The way they are going (and improving all the time), they could even achieve home court advantage for the first round.

Happy New Year everyone!