The Streak is over!!

Let's recap my Thanksgiving vacation:
Wednesday - Rockets lose a game they dominated for 3+ quarters
Friday - Longhorns lose to aggy, a team that we typically own
Friday - Rockets lose to Miami and are generally beaten up all game

So it wasn't really looking too good, then Saturday came around and almost redeemed it all!

Saturday - Longhorns are 5-0, I guess it's officially basketball season for me. They took the fake UT to school with an absolute pasting. Chris Lofton meet a much more mature DJ Augustin
Saturday - Rockets pulverize from beginning to end, the small boot/circle/rectangle shaped fellas from Mickey D's just couldn't hang
Saturday - After both games were concluded, USA HD was showing Elf in HD and right now as I am writing this, they are showing Happy Gilmore in HD. (Holy shit! That house is like 400 yards away! Is that good?")

Remember just a few days ago when I said there were times in my past life as a Rockets fan that I was excited we were back at .500? This is one of those times. During the losing streak I wanted to yell "Cut that out, you're making me sick!" But my boys just fuckstomped the Melo/Answer led? Nuggets and they don't even have to win money to get the house their grandfather's built WITH HIS BARE HANDS! Now THAT is the team I want to see every night, they played like they were primed to make the big bucks. For the first time all season I didn't hate what I saw from Rafer, he ran the offense well and only shot the ball 5 times and all of the ones I remember he absolutely had to shoot (Wow that was easy, he should should try to do that every time). Sadly, that might be the last time you see me complementing Towelie this season, and really it boils down to a 5 to 1 turnover to assist ratio. Don't let him fool you though, Towelie will "wanna get high" soon enough and screw up. That brings me to Stevie playing his first substantial minutes of the season (Stevie learned how to stay on the court Rafer, uh oh...), and hey, look at that, the Rockets didn't blow a lead while he was in, the Rockets have led big in almost all of the last 6 games and somehow found a way to take defeat out of the jaws of victory. The goddess Nike has not exactly been divining things our way. I offered up Rafer to her and she laughed at me, I think this was her gift to me for my intense begging to take him. She saw the hurt in my eyes. I mean, there were times I wanted to test a rakes durability and then place it in the woods cause it's made of wood and I thought it should be with it's family.

So I was sitting there and thinking about the Nuggets. This is one of those teams that has no chemistry but has some truly great players. They have four all stars and could very well still not be a top 6 seed. Granted they are better in the standing than the Rockets right now, but I attribute that to schedule and to the Rockets needing to learn how to maintain a lead, something they showed a predilection to tonight. Maybe it's just that the Rockets matched up extremely well with them tonight, or that Battier punked Carmelo Anthony repeatedly (The Price is Wrong bitch!) but they did not impress upon me that they even liked each other at all on the court, much less off it. Even Najera who I hate because he's a Sooner but is usually a great team guy doesn't seem right there. (Of course he seems like he owns a few records like taking his skate off and trying to stab someone with it). This lack of chemistry is exactly what I was afraid would happen with the Rockets. The point of all of this is that even in the 6 game losing streak I never got the sense that this was the case with the Rockets. They seem to all get along and know that they can/will put it together sooner or later, and probably sooner.

Something I really can't decide is whether I like Scola coming off the bench or not. On the one hand, Chuck Hayes is truly underappreciated. On the other, Scola looks like a semi-star in the making. They both play good defense, but Chuck has absolutely no offensive game. That said, it might lend itself more to Scola off the bench, especially when Yao comes out.

All in all, the weekend has shaped up a bit better, now I just need the Texans to kick the shit out of the Browns and all faith in the world will be restored. I don't want to have to resort to going to my happy place