Every season for the last several, I say the same thing about my beloved Rockets:

"They have the talent.  They have the coaching.  They have the system.  But until they develop a killer-instinct and become FINISHERS, they're not going to win jack."

Well, killer-instinct is here, and his name is Ron Artest. 

Artest was ALL OVER the place tonight.  Inside, outside, defense, hustling for every last loose ball - he was everywhere... and the best thing about this game was, going into a tough & tight fourth quarter, Artest imposed his will on the Mavs and it infected the entire Rockets team. 

Sometime near the middle of the 4th, Yao Ming and (I think) Josh Howard got tangled up for a ball, and Yao uncharacteristically gave him a pretty stiff shoulder bump... which of course, I loved... but the second that another Mav player stepped to Yao - guess who came right to his aid at the quick-step?  RonRon.  He separated Yao from the Mavs and put himself in the way as if to say "nobody messes with Yao, unless they're gonna mess with me first." 

Of course, Ron's reputation earned him a technical foul for that show of support - but if you watched it in real-time OR on the replay - there was not the slightest bit of a reason to T Artest up.

This was far from a perfect game by our boys.  The defense isn't anywhere near where it needs to be.  They gave up too many lay-ups.  They got beat on the break too much.  They took a lot of ill-advised long jump shots... but when you play a good offensive team like the Mavs, coming away from their home floor on opening night with a 112-102 victory is pretty damned great with me.

Ron Artest is hardcore, man.  He's got more nasty in him than the Rockets have had combined in the last five seasons... let's just hope it continues to be the GOOD kind of nasty.

Chris, HoustonDiehards.com