All Star reserves were announced before the game. Kyle Lowry didn't make it, but he deserves a spot. Our illustrious commentators speculated that he would want to come out and play great against one of the guards who took his spot: Steve Nash. And that kind of happened at the start of the game -- Lowry shot well enough, after all, but the Rockets' starters largely sputtered and died on offense as the game wore on.

Steve Nash is an all-star, and he deserves it. Anyone watching this game can see the massive difference between the Nash Suns and the Sebastien Telfair Suns. Yes, his defense is bad, but he's still one of the most efficient players in the NBA and a brilliant passer at the age of 38.

So I guess Lowry vs. Nash could be the all-important "storyline" coming into this game, but it was instead a story of another sort: that of the Master vs. the Student: Nash against Goran Dragic. And, like Vader slaying Obi-Won (wait, that's predictable) like Sauron betraying the Elves, the student was the victor tonight.

Dragic pulled off an excellent game, 11 points (on 9 shots, which is kind of meh) with 11 assists (very good), 2 steals, and just 2 turnovers. Altogether very solid. The 11 assists are the key -- he kept finding the open man (usually a wide-open Patterson) and kept the ball moving for the second unit. Yes, there is a reason they are the Dragon Army (NOTE: McHale's Navy is stupid. It's what Basketbawful calls the Rockets. C'mon) and not Patterson's Bears or something. Dragon is absolutely Nash's student -- you can see it in the clever passes, after all -- and his ferociousness on the break, combined with his smart decisions (like a mid-air touch pass to Budinger at the rim) is proof of his lineage.

Goran Dragic played very well, but Nash put together something a little better. 14 points on perfect shooting and 13 assists (with 4 turnovers) is a great game, though one that will perhaps go unnoticed because of the loss. The difference, of course, was that the guys around Nash (Marcin Gortat excepted) just aren't as good as the guys around Dragic.

Dragic may have been the bench leader, but the bench as a whole was just wonderful. All were great. But the best performer (after Dragic) was certainly Patrick Patterson. Patterson played like the Rockets' power forward of the future, knocking down everything he was given, rebounding well, and just rarely making a mistake. We talked about this in the OALABII post -- Patterson plays very intelligent basketball. The game-icing rebound (I like thinking of it that way) was a clever little tip from Patterson (against Gortat) towards Lowry. Oh, and he scored 14 points (on 8 shots, half of which must have been wide-open jumpers he found). So, you know, P-Squared was great.

Dragic-Patterson reminds me of the '09 bench one-two of Lowry-Landry. That was pretty cool back in the day, too.

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Tonight makes two consecutive road wins in places that are traditionally pits of despair for the Rockets (despite being lovely cities). We can be grateful for any sort of win we might grab in either Denver or Portland, despite Denver being mostly injured and Portland being out of sorts because they lost to OKC.

When the Rockets came out to start the game tonight they were assuredly not out of sorts. The first team moved the ball well, and Scola was stroking shots, not missing anything in the first half. The first quarter was up and down, with Portland (seemingly for the first time in years) pushing the pace of the game. The Rockets shot well, Portland shot well, and between them both teams put up 58 points in the first, with the Rockets leading by 2, 30-28.

In the second quarter McHale went to the bench, and the bench proved too much for Portland. The second team was just amazing, moving the ball well, playing great D, hustling constantly. The Rockets shot the lights out in the half at 60%, but I contend that it isn't that hard for an NBA team to do that, given open shots and easy shots. The Rockets worked the ball so well that there were lots of open and easy shots, especially when you have shooters like Budinger and Lee. We saw the best version of Jordan Hill thus far in the first half. He rebounded like a maniac, played good D on LaMarcus Aldridge and even notched 3 assists.

The Rockets lead by 14 at the half. They shot exactly one free throw, a Patterson +1. The refs seemed determined to make up the OKC loss to Portland in the half, with what was an entirely bizarre series of calls. To put it in perspective, Samuel Dalembert was whistled for two fewer fouls than the entire Blazer team at the half. Be that as it may, hot shooting and solid D cover a multitude of whistles.

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Maybe it was that Samuel Dalembert still isn't in ideal shape and wasn't particularly effective in the first quarter. Maybe it was just that Jeff Adrien reacted to his first real playing opportunity appropriately and forced Kevin McHale to play him. Whatever it was, Jeff Adrien played the most minutes of his Rockets career, going for over 16 minutes with 9 rebounds (9 more than Dalembert, leading the Rockets in the category tonight), setting a career high. His 'tude (as I'm told the kids call it) was visible all game.

You could see it as soon as he came into the game, in fact. The Jeff Adrien we're used to seeing is just a guy who fouls a lot int he final minutes of blowouts while being bizarrely muscled and short (you know, for an NBA forward; not for a normal person). That wasn't the Jeff Adrien we saw tonight. Jeff Adrien destroyed the boards in his limited minutes and even played some quality defense. He was absolutely fearsome, securing rebounds in the gigantic vice he calls a set of arms and swinging his elbows about, daring anyone to challenge his control.

Or, maybe the game took on Adrien's qualities, and so he just didn't seem out of place. The Adrien we knew fouled a lot, and so it makes a weird sort of sense that his first real outing was a whistle-fest, with some 103 fouls called. It was those fouls that could have decided the game. The Nuggets had a big advantage in free throw attempts this game (especially considering their "lead" in turnovers), but they utterly failed to convert from the line, shooting a Shaq-esque 57.6%. Had the Nuggets hit all of their free throws, they'd have won 104-99. Of course, had the Rockets hit all of their shots, the game would have been tied.

That was pretty much where the symmetry ended. The Rockets won this on a spectacular 10-for-19 performance from three point territory. That was almost entirely the doing of Kyle Lowry (5-of-6) and Chase Budinger (4-of-7) -- only Goran Dragic hit another three all night. The Nuggets, however, shot a miserable 3-of-22 from three, and so despite the layup drill they ran for most of the first half, they couldn't overtake the Rockets' shooting.

This was one of the better nights to take on the Nuggets, certainly. Nene was out, as were Afflalo and Mazgov. But, as Xiane was quick to point out in the thread, it's tough to really care too much about other teams' injury problems, you know, what with those of the Rockets over the last six years or so. And the Nuggets still came into the game with their two best players this year (Ty Lawson and Danilo Gallinari), so it's not like this team was utterly and completely crippled. But the Nuggets did suffer a devastating loss when Gallinari went down with some sort of foot fracture. That sucks. It really does.

Nevertheless, the Rockets stole one tonight in a game few would have thought they'd win (this morning, at least). On the road in Denver against one of the West's best teams, this was a great win. The Denver announcers are punks, however.

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Sorry for the late recap; between Saturday night and Sunday morning obligations, it was hard to find time to both watch the game and recap it.

The Rockets fell to the Timberwolves last night in Minnesota, making runs in the 3rd and 4th quarter to cut Minnesota's lead, but never making it all the way back. Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio put in their typical 25 and 18 and 13 and 11, respectively, and the Rockets simply couldn't match that production.

Kevin Martin had one of those nights that made you wonder why he's probably the Rockets' leading candidate to play in the All-Star game, and that may have been the difference. If Martin had been a bit more aggressive and hit a few more shots, perhaps the Rockets could've found a way to finish this game off and beat the pesky Timberwolves.

Read on for the good, the bad, and the ugly:

The Good

• Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola turned in a pair of tremendous offensive performances, with Lowry going for 24 and 11 and Scola 24 and 8. They both seemed fired up after the Kevin Love stomping incident, but they managed to channel that anger onto the game.
• Patrick Patterson seems to be hitting his stride again, and he played his 4th solid game in a row, scoring a season high of 14 points.

The Bad

• Kevin Martin. The team's leading scorer was absolutely frigid the entire game, and lacked confidence in the second half. As nice as the five assists are, a 1-10 night is awful, especially for a premier scorer like Martin.
• Samuel Dalembert disappointed despite getting extra rest on Friday night. He was ineffective the entire night, being pulled after just 20 minutes of playing time, and finishing with four points and a rebound. As well as he's played this season, this mini-slump that he's in right now has to be worrying.

The Ugly

You know this part was coming. I lost a great deal of respect for Kevin Love last night. There's no excuse for what he did, and his quotes after the game did little to defend himself.

Here's what Love had to say:

He was kind of right there. I just have size-19 feet. I had nowhere to go. It just happened to be his face, just like in Houston it happened to be my groin.

He would later say that it was just a "heat of the moment play."

If he didn't mean to hit Scola's face, why even mention the incident where Scola threw the ball off his groin? Why would he defend himself by claiming that it was just in the heat of the moment? To me, Love's claims have no validity. If you watch the replay, you see Love look down as he plants his foot and scrapes it across Scola's face. There's no excuse for that.

Here's the clip if you haven't seen it yet:

Kevin Love steps on Luis Scola's face (via RocketsRed)

Let's hope the Rockets can get past this tough loss and focus on the next few games, because the stretch in front of them looks pretty brutal. They have a date in Denver with the deep and intimidating Nuggets on Monday night.

I took notes for this game, and I'll share some of them with you. As this got out of hand my notes probably got worse, sorry.

First Quarter.

Both teams come out looking sloppy. Misses from both teams at 2 feet, though the Rockets had two to the Suns' one. A dunk would be indicated for Dalembert, Scola or Gortat 2 feet from the rim. Are we seeing less dunking this year? It seems like we are, though I have no proof. Tired legs?

The persistent sloppiness overcomes McHale and he calls time out with 5:40 in the first after PHX rattles off 8 unanswered and takes a small lead.

Luis Scola is really pressing right now. Does he need a night off like Tim Duncan?

Not a lot of fouls being called tonight thus far. These aren't two rugby sides, but they are surely getting pretty handsy with each other.

Chandler Parsons blocks Grant Hill on a baseline move after Hill beats him off the dribble. Parsons is so tall and "long" that even after he's been taken off the dribble he can still make a play. Just another really useful second round pick. I love that the Rockets simply don't concede anything when picking in the 2nd round. They're still going for prospects who can start in the NBA rather than someone who is definitely ready to be the #12 guy.

At this point only Parsons and Kevin Martin are playing any effective offense. Wait! Scola finally scores at 3:20 left in the 1^st. Perhaps this will start something?

Sebastien Telfair, still in the NBA. Why? Aren't there players who can you know, play basketball, in the D League?

Suns shooting very poorly, which is a great boon to the Rockets, as they've missed some truly wide open looks. I'd be concerned about "blowing the big lead" if those start falling. With these dimming Suns though, I'm not all that scared. This isn't 3 years ago.

Telfair gets praise from Clyde, and actually makes a shot to confirm The Glide's mistaken impression that he's good. First Michael Beasley, now Sebastian Telfair, which overhyped disappointment will be praised next?

Marcin Gortat is too much for Jordan Hill it appears. Not a shocker, as Gortat is both large and surprisingly fluid. Hey, you know what would be good? Another big powerful center. Do we have one? Why, yes, yes we do. His name is Greg Smith and his 40/min stats are:

21.7pp40/11.4RB40/1.8bp40/2.3ap40 with a .678FG%.

Smith's 6'10" and goes about 250lbs. Bring him up from Rio Grande before someone signs him away. Apparently he's got enormous hands. You know what that means? Big gloves.

JUMP for those other three quarters and commentary so insightful you'll gasp with delight.

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The game started off with what I thought was a pretty funny series of turnovers and missed shots from each squad. That pretty much kept happening throughout the night, but the Rockets fought for every rebound and loose ball and took a 20-point lead on the strength of insane shooting and great defensive play. Nevertheless, a -9 turnover differential and a 31-to-13 difference in free throws eventually took its toll. At some point in the second quarter, Tim Duncan realized that the refs would call every touch foul on him in the lane, and the Spurs began to give him the ball at every opportunity. And once Dalembert got into foul trouble, Duncan exploited his matchup against Hill to its fullest, establishing great post position and selling every miss as a mugging.

The story of the game, I suppose, is that the Rockets gave up a massive lead in the second half, but they would never have had a massive lead were it not for Kevin Martin's excellent play. Martin had 29 points on 21 shots, 4 assists, and (impressively) 9 rebounds on his birthday. Martin's offense is best when he has good screens set for him, and his teammates did a great job giving him the space to work his game.

Martin's shooting cooled in the second half, but Lowry (whose early game was mostly distinguished by not committing very many mistakes, turning the ball over only once in the first half) turned it on in the second, finally getting his first points early in the third quarter (on what I think was his third shot of the night). He finished the game with 15 points on 12 shots (a number perhaps inflated when he attempted to bring the Rockets back in the final minutes of the game) with 7 assists (most of which came in the first half, when the Rockets were seemingly knocking down everything). Certainly not his best night, but he played well and fought hard in the second half (he also, fun fact, led the Rockets' starters in OALABII2.0 at 0.24; why, yes, this will now be a part of all of my recaps from here on out). Courtney Lee seemed to ape Martin throughout the game, shooting very well and playing good defense on his man.

While the Rockets' starting backcourt played well all night (including some good defense, I thought, on all their counterparts save for Parker, who kept getting bailed out), the starting frontcourt did not. Dalembert put in solid rebounding numbers but kept getting into foul trouble when guarding Duncan. Scola kept turning the ball over and missing his shots, didn't rebound well at all, and pretty much ran away with the "goat of the night" award with a OALABII2.0 of 0.52. Parsons hustled for every loose ball he could find, but he was basically a non-factor on offense. Defenses have seemed to figure out how to keep him out of the paint lately, and he needs to adjust if he's going to stay a quality starter in the league.

As the game wore on, the difference in foul calls just became too much, and frankly the last five minutes of the game featured some of the worst calls we've seen yet. Blatant blocking fouls were called charges, near-murders around the rim were no-calls. Not a good night from the officials in the least.

Ultimately, the Rockets' poor defense collapsed against one of the league's elite offenses in their building as they got all the calls they could reasonably hope for (this did not stop Timmy or Pops from complaining, however). Close games hurt the worst. These sorts of losses suck, but they happen.

After the jump, accolades and stuff, I guess.

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Normally, a 3-point (on .22 true shooting), 3 rebound, 4 assist performance from Lowry would result in a loss. A month ago, such a loss would have been utterly certain, I think, particularly with no Martin on the second night of a back-to-back (funny how routine that is now).

But tonight the bench came through big time, just like last night, and the Rockets walked to victory in the second half. Jordan Hill (14 points on a wonderful .88 true shooting, 11 rebounds, only two turnovers) gave an excellent performance, perhaps spurred on by playing against his old team, though perhaps it was Amare's defense, as well. Most importantly, his jump shots and hook shots, which normally are all but guaranteed misses, were absolutely on target tonight, and he fought for rebounds well against a much larger (though not tougher) Knicks front-court when Samuel Dalembert got into early foul trouble.

Chase Budinger continued his great shooting (19 points on 12 shots), though he didn't rebound as well as Friday night (he did have a nice dunk in traffic early in the game, though I guess you don't get any extra points for that). Dragic didn't miss a shot until late in the fourth, when he went up against Amare and Co. on the fast break and failed. The Dragon's outstanding shooting (16 points on 8 shots) and well-run halfcourt offense allowed Kevin McHale to rest Lowry for almost all of the second half.

The starters did not fair as well. They held their own for the most part, but this wasn't their best game. Scola started off very well, but he cooled down the stretch, and the overall result was something of a poor shooting performance and something of a wash on the boards (not helped by 4 turnovers). Luis used his post moves well against Amare and Chandler, but neither seemed to really be fooled, and while in the first half Scola nonetheless converted while playing amongst the Knicks' towers, in the second half he didn't have it going quite as much. Dalembert got into early foul trouble, didn't shoot well, but more than balanced it out with a great game on the boards. Parsons played good enough defense, but did little else, and obviously lacked confidence in his offense after the first half. Like I said, this wasn't a bad game for these guys, but nor was it their best.

The Knicks chose to shoot 26 threes in the game, which would have been a better strategy if they had made more than five of them. The Rockets, instead, attacked the basket and made only one less three, and despite some bad calls in the first quarter were rewarded with a 22-to-12 free throw advantage. By the end of the third quarter, Tyson Chandler was upset enough with the difference to shout at a ref after not getting a foul call in the closing seconds of the quarter (receiving a technical for his efforts). I think the Rockets got a lot more calls down the stretch, though that was as much the result of a difference in strategy as it was home cooking.

Overall, a great game for the Rockets that resulted in a win to push them a little further into the playoff picture and the Knicks' pick a little higher, as well as an opportunity to rest Lowry and the rest of the starters.

Offense across the league is down quite a bit this year. The average team's points per 100 possessions was 107.3 -- this year it's 102.4, which would have tied the Wizards last year for the league's third-worst offense in 2011. So when the Rockets started the game hitting maybe one in every four of their field goal attempts, things were ugly, but perhaps that was to be expected.

Maybe you should look at this game as evidence for the theory that the reduced offense is a result primarily of the tiring schedule (the main alternative explanation being that it's primarily about reduced/absent practice time): Martin was out, and Bud was in. The Rockets were replacing Martin's minutes with Lee, and Lee's minutes with a more mediocre (though still valuable) shooter, and so it wouldn't be a surprise if the Rockets' backcourt put up a significantly worse offensive effort.

Instead, Budinger came off the bench and scored a season-high 21 points (on only 14 shots, good for about 70% true shooting). Maybe that was because he had last played over a week ago (on January 19th against NOLA) and thus was simply rested and ready to play. Maybe it was just because he had "heart" and all that stuff. Maybe it was because the Wizards are ranked 23rd in defense. Whatever it was, Chase Budinger put in his best game of the year. Besides scoring all those points, he also grabbed 8 rebounds and only turned the ball over once.

The turning point in the game, when the Rockets' offense seemed to come back midway through the first half, seemed to be a reverse layup from Budinger off of an Adelman-style backcut. Before that, the Rockets seemed to blow every layup they tried. After that, they seemed to convert or get fouled every time. That gradually opened up the game, as Lowry drove to the basket and dished it out to the open man. Here, Budinger contributed even more, hitting four three-pointers. Only Dragic had another one for the Rockets.

That may have been the turning point, but the Wizards stayed in the game throughout the first half. It wasn't until after halftime, when the Rockets put together a 21-0 run against the Wizards, that the Rockets finally managed to actually put the Wizards away.

A 17-to-24 turnover difference certainly helped, but a lot of that also came from quality bench play (Budinger, Dragic, Patterson), and it also had to do with excellent play from Luis Scola. Luis brilliantly exploited the Wizards' bigs' foul trouble, as well as a huge matchup advantage against the comparatively whispy Jan Vesely. Luis has had a lot of games this year in which he has shot and rebounded poorly, but this was certainly not one of them -- 19 points on .640 TS, along with 8 rebounds. He was really the only starter who shot well, but it was enough to bring the Rockets back and ahead in the second quarter and to put them away in the second half. Luis attacked the basket from his amazing array of post moves (I think I only saw him take a jump shot maybe three or four times tonight), which was perhaps the best thing the Rockets could rely upon tonight.

By the middle of the final quarter, the Rockets had leaped out to a 30-point lead, led by Scola's great play and Budinger's shooting, and we got a glimpse of Terrence Williams, Jonny Flynn, and (amazingly) Hasheem Thabeet. That's when you know you're certain to win the game. Human victory cigars. That was definitely a highlight, but the highlight of the game had to go to Jordan Hill's fast-break crossover on Roger Mason, Jr. That was kind of crazy and definitely a nice way to show up some of the Wizards' highlight plays.

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