This will be a quickie, because (I confess) this was a pretty boring game after the first half (and that's being fairly generous). But it is, I suppose, a wonderful respite from the gigantic piece of shit that fate has once again lain upon our season.
The Rockets dominated this game, with one great big exception: the bench largely sucked, prompting the starters' reentry into the game early and often. That wasn't too big of a deal, though. The score doesn't really do the Rockets justice on this one. Real domination is only really shown when Luis Scola takes a ridiculous shot, misses horribly, grabs the rebound against three Grizzlies, and then scores easily. And then he does that another three or five times.
Three Up:
Kyle Lowry - +37 on the night, 17 points on 9 shots, one spectacular block, and almost 20 assists. A wonderful showing against the man who started ahead of him just two seasons ago: Conley's 7 points and 3 assists seems somewhat worse, doesn't it? Yes, I'm sure the Grizzlies' management will use this as a real opportunity to reevaluate their decision-making skills.
Kevin Martin -34 points and little else, but who cares? It would be really awesome if he'd do this sort of thing more often (and against better teams), but beggars really can't be choosers, and I'd argue that we are very much beggars at this point.
Shane Battier - Now, granted, I wasn't watching too closely for a few weeks back in November, but this was a rare really great performance from Shane this season. I'm sure that has a lot to do with being put on Gay, who (despite what some would have you believe) pretty much isn't that good, but 5-for-8 from behind the arc is nothing to complain about.
One Down:
The Bench - ugh. Even Jordan Hill sucked.