4 games, 5 nights, 8 players. Rockets lose to Clippers when they run out of steam late 4th quarter. Lakers next. Joy.
There. That was it. I'm too disgustipated to add anything more. Dave's piece here pretty much says it all. - Xiane
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When is the last time a Houston Rockets team went through the regular season mostly healthy? 1994? And that's only because Vernon Maxwell spent his "unhealthy" time up in the stands in Portland chasing after rogue fans. Even the 1995 team had health issues with Hakeem missing a good chunk of the season and Clyde having to carry the team.
I ask only because during the OKC game, Bill and Matt mentioned that the Durants had their starting 5 together and active for every game except one. The whole season. Compare that to the Rockets and, well... it wrinkles my brain.
The injury history (and general bad luck) associated with Yao Ming is well documented. But the Rockets made a big trade to acquire some front-court players taller than 6'6" (sorry Chuck). Only for all of those players to get injured... forcing us to keep playing the shortest center that ever started an NBA game. Jared Jeffries... OUT (achilles). Jordan Hill... OUT (ankle). Hilton Armstrong... OUT (Brian Cook disease). Kevin Martin... OUT (shoulder). All at the same time. The odds of that are not quite as bad as the odds of filling out a perfect NCAA bracket, but they are still rather on the unlikely side.
And yet this seems to be a recurring theme with the Rockets.
Every year.
Now, since we can't exactly pick up the entire team and move them to Phoenix where there are magical doctors just waiting to take perpetually injured players and breathe life into them (Nash, Grant Hill, the FatAss... even Amare being the only microfracture success story) - what do the Rockets do?
I rip on everyone who suggests that the Rockets try to sign Chris Bosh. Or LeBron. Or DWade.
But I'm starting to get the feeling that even LeBron would become a walking catastrophe waiting to happen were he to wear the good guys' jersey here in Houston.
So, uh, yeah, this is just me venting frustration because there are no good answers. Unless there is a magical wizard that put a curse on the Rockets long ago. With the Rockets mostly out of playoff contention and already shifting into "maybe next year!" mode, I just don't know what to do.
Fortunately, Luis Scola seems to have avoided the injury bug. He's the only one. I hope I didn't just jinx him.