Game 9 Recap: Rockets 82, Bobcats 70: "A Win's a Win"

Kevin Martin and Luis Scola stunk. Kyle Lowry had 6 points. Chandler Parsons was the Rockets' biggest source of offense in the fourth quarter. Jordan Hill led the team in rebounding.

And they won.

Yes, the Rockets managed to pull one out in front of a half-empty Time Warner Cable Arena, proving that you don't have to actually play well to win in the NBA, just play less crappy than the crappy team you're playing. They turned the ball over 22 times and conceded 15 and 10 to Mr. BJ Mullens.

As Bill Worrell noted in the fourth quarter, thank God for Boris Diaw. The power forward/point guard/glutton managed a solid 2-14 line with 3 turnovers and about 12 "watch Kyle Lowry or other player waltz to the basket"s.

After the jump, we'll look deeper into the abomination of a game that was just played before our eyes.

Last night on Twitter, a friend of mine/troll told me eloquently, "i took a shit this evening and i named it the rockets." Perhaps dignifying that comment by retweeting it and discussing it here is a poor choice, but his inflammatory comment was too true tonight.

Instead of the boring "three up, three down" segment that is reasonable and makes sense for an average game, we're going to do a bit I'll call "two up, six down" because of how miserable of a game that was. Without further ado, here's my vindictive rant take on the game in list form.

Two Up

• The young guys. Parsons and Hill had breakout games for the Rockets tonight, with Parsons putting up 20 and 7 with some clutch shots coming in and Hill adding a robust 12, 12, and 5 off the bench. With Parsons, this game gives us great hope that he can keep this up as he could be a valuable prospect long term. Unfortunately with Hill, this game just leaves us wondering why he doesn't always do this. Some are trying to figure out which game he'll have his complete stinker to balance out this wonderful night.
• We won. Yep, that's about it for the pluses in this one. We got a W and a pair of young players played well. Not many more positives to speak of for this game.

Six Down

• B.J. Mullens?!? We know you're having a solid year after pulling a Jimmer this off-season, but he looked absolutely unstoppable out there tonight. To give up 15 and 10 to a guy who couldn't get off the bench for two years in Oklahoma City is rough. Jordan Hill and Samuel Dalembert, y'all know better than that.
• Can the Rockets hold on to the freaking ball? Every time down, it seemed like Luis Scola would travel, or Kevin Martin would step out of bounds, or Kyle Lowry would throw a pass into the stands. 22 turnovers in a game against the 28th ranked defense in the NBA is embarrassing.
• Terrence Williams didn't play. Looks like Parsons snagged his spot. I don't know how much of a "down" this is given how well Parsons is playing, but it would be nice to see a guy like Terrence succeed because of how much talent he has.
• We didn't get to see Bismack Biyombo block a shot. Seriously, that stuff is fun. Like Dikembe blocked shots fun.
• Luis Scola is starting to age in front of our eyes. He's been solid this year in the first halves, but has struggled as games have worn on. Tonight, he just looked tired from start to finish. His shot was short, his almost non-existent lift was even more non-existent, and he picked up five fouls and five turnovers.
• This isn't really on the Rockets, but Bill Worrell still doesn't know that the NBA doesn't have one-and-ones. Seriously, Bill?

As you can probably tell, I didn't have the most fun time watching this game; it was ugly and not particularly pleasing to the eye. Still, despite however many "downs" I want to put in the recap, it's still a win and moves the Rockets one game closer to .500 and respectability. In the first game the Rockets really were favored to win, they took care of business. They just chose to make it as ugly as possible.