Monday Morning Rockets/NBA Links

There's really only one team in pro sports that I hate more than the Jazz: the POS Tennessee Titans (and the fact that they're 1-6 to start the season dulls that resentment somewhat). The Jazz are the Dracula to the Rockets' Van Helsing; the Moriarty to our Holmes; the Borg to our Federation. They're pure evil, and it's really that simple. But let's ignore all that for a minute and get to some news.

Allen Iverson is expected to make his season debut in Sacramento tonight. The Grizzlies have been playing surprisingly well to start the season, and I'd worry about the introduction of yet another high-usage, low-efficiency scorer into the lineup.

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Rajon Rondo and the Celtics benefited from the extended extension deadline yesterday, agreeing on a 5 year, $55 million deal. Given Rondo's production over the last two seasons, he's worth it.

Speaking of Rondo, he and Chris Paul apparently hate one another. That really shouldn't be surprising: Rondo's a malcontent on his own team, and CP3 routinely leads the NBA in technicals.

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The city of Las Vegas is about to sign a deal to study the feasibility of building a 20,000 seat, $145 million stadium. The mayor of the city is courting both the NBA and NHL for a team. I doubt either league is likely to expand, and there are plenty of teams looking for a new home

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Our friend Ron Ron is not doing well to start the season in LA. Of course, Artest feels that shooting 25% from the field is "playing great." I suppose there's very little else to say about that, but I feel like gloating.

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JJ Redick is going to release a rap album. Watch out for Shane's impending country album, as well as Deke's spoken-word musings.

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Lastly, something actually about the Rockets. Les Alexander gives a few thoughts on the season, but more interesting are Adelman's comments on the defense:

The Rockets have customarily taken the unusual step of not using their best perimeter defender, Shane Battier, on the Blazers' best perimeter scorer, Brandon Roy.

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Coach Rick Adelman said the idea was to free Battier to help defensively, particularly with the Blazers running Roy through so many screens. He also wanted to gauge how Ariza did in the matchup.

Roy scored 42 points that night. Whoops. Still, defensive evaluations are more complex than that, and the fact that nobody but Aldridge and Roy were able to get going for the Blazers might be a good indicator.

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Okay, one last thing: Just as a reminder, please remember that we can't let you post links to illegal streams around here. Sorry, that's not the Dream Shake's rules, they're SBN's. I know it's tough to watch Rockets games outside of the Houston area (particularly if you live outside of the USA and not in China). Perhaps ClutchFans is a better place to find/provide such info. And remember also that, until tomorrow, nba.com is giving out NBA League Pass Broadband for free, so you should be able to see the Utah game.