I like when the Rockets win games that they were not favored to win. I especially love it when we win games that the referees were blatantly trying to take away from us. And I love that our bench proves how great they can be.

I do not like when Kyle Lowry gets injured. I do not like it one bit. Especially when he was coming back alive.

I like when Luis Scola hits jumpers and attacks the basket on cuts and fast breaks.

I do not like when Luis Scola tries to dribble, pass, or "create."

We could keep doing this, but we've got another game tonight. Goran Dragic returns to Phoenix to take down the team that traded him. It's just like Air Bud, except if the ballhog kid who transferred was a good guy. And the team with the dog lost. Oddly enough, this analogy isn't working.

Let's just get to the matchups before I embarrass myself any more than normal.

One last thing though: five teams in the West have 11 losses. One more has 12, two have 13, and two have 14. The difference between fourth and thirteenth in the West is five games. Yeah, at least 12 teams in the West still have at least marginal playoff hopes. I wish the Rockets were in the East. I wish this a lot.

Extra random facts about the Suns: since the defeat in Houston, they are 3-0 with road wins over Atlanta and Milwaukee. Since the game against the Rockets, Michael Redd has played 20+ minutes in each game. Hakim Warrick did not play in any of those three games, and Shannon Brown didn't see any time in the road wins.

Seems like Gentry has found a lineup he likes. Kinda.

And remember, tip is at 8pm CST.

Continue reading this post »

Maybe one day we'll remember it as The Stomp That Woke Up the Rockets.

Not to put too much into one game against a ridiculously undermanned Nuggets squad, but the question begs to be asked: did Kevin Love stomping on Luis Scola's face wake up our friend from Argentina? And maybe even more importantly, did it snap Kyle Lowry out of his funk?

When the stomp happened, I immediately thought, "Lowry is going to be so pissed when he sees that," but I had no idea how I came to that conclusion. I mean, all the Rockets should be pissed (and they were). All Rockets fans should be pissed (and we were). But why did I single out Lowry?

I thought on it, and woke up remembering that I had read something about the two of them. So I scoured Rockets.com's news archives along with Feigen's articles at the Chronicle until I found what I was looking for, a quote by Lowry after a win last season.

"Me and Luis, we have this kinship with the summer with us both signing the same day," said Lowry, who had eight of his assists on passes to Scola. "We joke that we'll always have something in common, getting our second deals, our big deals, together."

I found this very telling, and it reinforced my beliefs that Scola and Lowry feed off each other a lot. When one isn't playing well, it doesn't bode well for the other. And before you say, "So what they signed on the same day? They could hate each other," I would say that anyone who watches this team sees that they clearly are fond of each other. Add in the fact that both are blue-collar, hard-nosed, high-motor, hyphenated-cliched players and you can conclude that they probably have a lot of respect for each other. And that passes the eye test as well.

So we head back to Minny, where Love stomps on Scola. Then suddenly Scola plays with an intensity that we haven't seen from him in the second half of games this year. Kyle Lowry awakens from his comatose state and decides that he's really good at basketball.

Cut to Monday night, and the Swagger Lowry was back in full force. Though he was spectacular all night, I think you can sum up his performance in one sequence of events.

In the fourth quarter, with 3:22 to play and the Rockets nursing a seven point lead, Lowry was stripped by Al Harrington, who scored a layup on the fast break. Lowry immediately turns to the ref to complain that he got hacked (he was), but play resumes, and the Rockets ran a play out of the Adelman playbook. And so, here is AK doing his best impression of Sebastian Pruiti (who used to run the fabulous NBAPlaybook.com and now writes for Grantland):

The Rockets ran a high off-ball screen by Courtney Lee (2) for Lowry (1), who then takes the handoff from Scola (4) behind the three point line at the X.

Now here's where it gets interesting. With 9 seconds left on the shot clock, Lowry has the option to drive, especially if Lawson goes over the screen. As you can see, if Lowry wants to run by Scola and use him as a screen to drive, he could potentially have a three-on-two situation where he can take it for a layup or dish to Patterson (5) or Bud (3) if the help defense comes. Of course, Lawson went under the screen, and Lowry made him pay.

For the last couple of weeks, that would have been the right call. Lowry was ice-cold from three heading into this game. But it's almost like something happened in Minnesota to wake him up. Bill Simmons likes to talk about the Eff You three pointer, and some of you guys mentioned it in the game thread. Well, Lowry told the Mile High City "Eff You AND Kevin Love!" with that three ball.

Oh, and tonight the Rockets play the Trail Blazers, who are coming off a tough overtime defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder. No shame there, and the Thunder are pretty good, but there was a goaltending call that eventually sent the game into overtime. Yesterday, the league admitted that the block was clean, so the Blazers should have won in regulation. That sucks. The Blazers are still an incredible 11-2 at home, and they lost those two games by a combined 7 points, and one of those you could say they didn't lose. But that's basketball reasons for you.

The Blazers, like the Rockets, Lakers, and Mavs, sit at 14-11 and are just a few wins away from creeping into the top 4 in the West. With how wide open the season has been, every win is important. If the Rockets can get through this road trip at 3-3 rather than 2-4, it could make a huge difference down the line.

Tip is at 9pm CST.

And before the matchups, major thanks to Patrick for covering the Nuggets preview. When he writes the preview, the Rockets are 1-0, BD is 2-0, and TCWHRO is 1-0. I'm 10-11. If this keeps up I may have to give up the previews altogether for the good of the Rockets.

Matchups after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The last time the Rockets and the Nuggets faced off, Carmelo Anthony was the Nuggets' star, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, Wilson Chandler, and Raymond Felton were with the Knicks, and the Rockets were wondering what to do with Aaron Brooks.

Since then, Gallinari, Mozgov, Chandler, and Felton went to the Nuggets, the Nuggets traded Felton to Portland, and Chandler signed in China. Aaron Brooks ended up in Phoenix, bringing us to a match-up of teams that we have never seen before.

A few days ago, our friend and regular previewer ak2themax noted that this stretch of games had a certain "reunion tour" feel to it. First the Rockets got to play former star power forward/center/small forward/three point specialist Jared Jeffries and the Knicks at home, and then they enjoyed a pair of games against ex-coach Rick Adelman.

Tonight, the Rockets get to face another former star tweener big man, DeMarre Carroll. He of 11 minutes played as a Rocket is enjoying much more time on the floor with the Nuggets, racking up a staggering 16 minutes in Denver's first 24 games. At this rate, he'll be a 40 minute a night player by the time he's 70. By the way, he's shooting 100% from the floor, a remarkable 6-6. Future star?

(Note: Carroll was waived on Saturday, let's hope he joins a team that appreciates him for who he is).

On top of the bittersweet reunion with Carroll, the Rockets meet a man who was almost theirs, Nene. The immensely strong and quick big man was supposed to fall into our lap after we got Pau Gasol for a package headlined by Kevin Martin and Luis Scola.

I'll leave it at that for now; we Rockets fans don't like to make a big deal over the league management's perceived marginalization of the team.

With all that said, the Rockets desperately need a win tonight to kick start some momentum on a tough road trip. Playing six games in a row on the road is a tough task for any team, and it's even tougher for a Western Conference squad. Jump for the match-ups and prediction!

Continue reading this post »

Uber-short preview for tonight's game. Mainly because we've played the T-Wolves twice in the last couple of weeks. We know they have Adelman, and Love, and Rubio. I think that's it. Or at least ESPN would have me believe that's their entire team. But we know better.

They also have Michael Beasley.

So in a game of five against three the Rockets should take this one easily. Though I do hear Kahn is going to sign some people off the street in order to fill out a roster. Apparently there are a few European 7-footers who live in Minneapolis. Crazy.

The Rockets couldn't have drawn last night's game up any better. Plenty of rest for the starters, a comfortable win, Lowry looked good, Scola started to feel it, the bench played exceptionally well, and no one got injured. Yeah, it was sloppy, and you can't do that against a team like Minny, but as Xiane pointed out Phoenix conceded the game by the middle of the third quarter.

Remember, the prediction game has a bonus today. In addition to guess the score, you can guess if Kevin Love will outrebound Scola, Dalembert, and Hill tonight.

I say the Wolves win 109-97 and the Rockets trio outrebound the beast.

Rockets vs Timberwolves coverage

Make sure to check out the excellent T-Wolves blog Canis Hoopus. As always, play nice.

The Rockets have played 12 home games this season. They have 12 wins.

The Rockets have played 10 road games this season. They have 10 losses.

Sense a pattern?

Home court is always important, but this year more than normal. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: getting home games early in the season is really important, and probably better than getting a ton of them late in the season.

Also, the Jazz have played 14 games at home and only 6 (SIX!!!) on the road. And they are only a game ahead of the Rockets. Only Oklahoma City and Denver have winning records on the road in the West, and it's no coincidence that those are the two best teams in the West, along with the Clippers, who are squaring off with the Nuggets as I write this.

So it's imperative that the Rockets figure out a way to play well on the road. Right now, it looks like OKC, Denver, and maybe the Clips will have above-.500 records on the road. The scramble for the other teams will be to get to around .500. I firmly believe that at the end of the year we'll know who the best teams in the West are based on their final road records.

Oh, and the Rockets start a six-game road trip after tonight's game. So no time like the present to get started on some road ass-whooping.

Man, no one wants to write a preview apparently. Anyway, as several of you noted, Robert Horry holds the record for most threes in a game for the Rockets with 9. In 1996 we play the Cleveland Cavaliers and he went 9-12 from behind the line, and 9-12 from the field in total. He finished with 27 points. At the time, he was tied for second for the NBA record for most threes in a single game. With the Rockets up by plenty of points late in the game, Sam Cassell brought the ball down the court to take the rest of the time off the clock. Not wanting to rub the result in, he dribbled across the timeline and held the ball.

Horry wanted that record though.

He set up on the right wing and yelled for the ball, and when the bench yelled at Sam to pass the ball, he did. Horry threw up what could have been his tenth three of the night. He drained it. However, it had left his hands a split second too late, and nine was his final tally. A couple of months later, Dennis Scott of the Orlando Magic hit 11 threes in a game, taking him into first and vaulting over Brian Shaw's record of 10 from 1993. Since then, Donyell Marshall and Kobe Bryant have hit 12 three pointers in a single game.

So tonight's "trivia" will have a definite winner. Here goes: who will lead the Rockets in +/- tonight, and what will the number be. The number is the tiebreaker, since 10 people could pick the right person. If two people pick the same number or are equally far away, I'll give one of you Saturday's preview and one of you Monday's. Cool?

Matchups after the jump:

Continue reading this post »

Seriously? The Spurs again! It's like they play in our division or something.

Once again, there's no point in writing a full preview for a Spurs game. We know their offense. They know our offense. They have Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. They are sans Manu Ginobili.

We have Kyle Lowry, whom I'm starting to get worried about. We also have a defense that couldn't stop a nose bleed against Minny. At home.

That about cover things?

Actually, speaking about Lowry, should the Rockets rest him tonight in San Antonio like the Spurs did with Duncan when they came to town. I know Duncan is older and the back-to-backs are tougher for big guys, but Lowry just looks frustrated and a little tired. Maybe a break would be good for him? Just spit-balling here.

Also, it's time for a trivia game to determine who wins the amazing contest of being able to write a preview for Monday's game against Denver. I want to make this semi-hard, so it's a three part question, and only two of which can be found online. I won't say who the winner is until they get all three parts right.

1. Who holds the record for most three pointers in a game in Rockets history?

2. How many did this player hit?

3. He almost hit one more in that game, but it didn't count. Who passed him the ball a split-second too late?

Oh, and make sure to check out the enemy blog of the day, the incredible Pounding The Rock.

Oh, and tip-off is at 7:30pm, not 7pm.

And I haven't done a Calvin and Hobbes strip for a while, so this should make up for that, though you may have to actually go to youtube to see it. Sorry.

Community-Calvin & Hobbes (via minze103)

The Reunion Tour continues! First it was Jared Jeffries, now it's Rick Adelman.

I didn't do the previous T-Wolves preview (tip of the hat again to Chuck), so I didn't get to talk about the man we affectionately called Coach Sleepy.

I made it no secret that I liked Adelman. I wasn't happy when we let Jeff Van Gundy walk, but when Adelman was hired I was ecstatic. I understood the cyclical nature of coaching changes, and going from the micromanaging JVG to the freeballing RA made sense. But my love of Adelman started long before then.

Growing up, he was the Blazers coach, and I really didn't care about him at all. Then came two forgettable years with e Warriors. Then he went to Sacramento and he turned the Kings into one of the most entertaining teams ever. For a solid two-year period, Mike Bibby was my favorite NBA player, and the Kings were my second favorite team. Bibby, Doug Christie, Hedo Turkoglu, Chris Webber, and Vlade Divac was one of the best starting lineups I'd ever watched. And Peja and Bobby Jackson came off the bench to be very effective as well.

But here's what impressed me even more as the years went by: outside of Turkoglu, none of those players who still had gas left in the tank ever duplicated the success they had on those Kings teams. In Houston we praised Adelman's ability to do more with less, but in Portland and Sacramento, Adelman did more with a lot. And it's a shame the NBA stole a title from the guy. Watching Adelman was like watching a vengeance story where the main character didn't know it was his story. In a perfect world, Phil Jackson would come out of retirement, coach the Knicks or some such team, and Adelman would somehow will his plucky T-Wolves to title over the Knicks in the Finals. Adelman would then metaphorically tea bag Jackson and David Stern afterwards by saying something during the awards ceremony like, "I'm glad I was able to be the one to bribe the refs this time around." The media would go into chaos, Stern's head would explode, and I would every piece of merchandise that had Adelman attached to it. Books, towels, Fatheads. Everything.

And just for Only_A_Lad, Adelman is Paul Atreides, and he's just been picked up by the Fremen. He just needs the Water of Life, and Maud'Dib can rule the galaxy. Nerdgasm over.

And here is my absolute favorite Adelman memory from his time in Houston. That one line during the huddle is exactly what I want my coach saying, and when I heard it I knew we would win. True story.

I'm having trouble with the editor here, so just go to the 8:41 mark to hear what I'm talking about.

Houston Rockets vs LA Lakers Playoffs 2009 Rockets Highlights 05.04.09 Round 2 Game 1 (via coffeetime)

K-Mart will play tonight, but I left C-Lee in the starting spot because I felt lazy.

Matchups after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The Rockets put away a bad team! It only took two quarters to get their act together. The Knicks are struggling, but are still a decidedly better team than the Wizards. So too is my intramural basketball team. Just kidding, we're better than the Knicks, too.

Time to get serious. The Rockets have two more games on this homestead. Tonight it's the Knicks, and then it's the Timberwolves on Monday. Then the Rockets play 9 games in 15 days, with all but two coming on the road. It's vitally important that the team establish some momentum heading into this stretch, and wins over the Knicks and T-Wolves at home will certainly bolster the confidence of a team that hasn't generally played well on the road yet this season. Then again, no one has. It's almost like playing on your home court is an...advantage? Nah, couldn't be.

The Knicks are 7-12 and without Carmelo Anthony. Normally this would be great news, but if the Knicks run their offense through Amare it could spell trouble for the Rockets. Can Dalembert guard him? Can anyone? We'll see.

I've posted Rockets-Knicks Finals NBA on NBC intros before, so this is one from when the Knicks were in the Finals in 1999. And they had a guy named Houston, so it's relevant.

NBA Finals 1999 Intro Game 4 (via spurs2k6)

Matchups after the jump.

Continue reading this post »