A Brisk Businesslike Beating - Rockets smite 76ers 120-98

As Heraclitus said, "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."

Despite the profound wisdom of this eminent pre-Socratic, we can still call it a slash. The almost unendurable blight of suffering a loss earlier in the season to the Philadelphia 76ers has been erased.

That said, those, obviously, weren't the same 76ers, and these, equally obviously, aren't the same Rockets. Those prior and clearly different Rockets lost a winnable, and now, it seems, perhaps costly, game in The City of Brotherly Love early in the season. A game like that in hand would be helpful now, if the Rockets want to move up the standings.

That's the thing about change though, those earlier Rockets perhaps didn't know what a team like San Antonio surely knows: that to give away a single winnable game could prove quite costly later on. Now the young Rockets know. They aren't the same Rockets, and tonight they took care of business.

They have not been defeated by the Eastern Conference in Houston this season.

That's it for me, I hadn't signed up for this one, but thought the slash needed a home.

• James Harden had a triple double in 31 minutes.
• Terrence Jones looks like he can be something special.
• James Anderson notched his second awesome scoring game of the year, against his old team. Find some other motivation, James. Two games isn't enough.
• Dwight Howard didn't miss a shot.
• Jeremy Lin looks like Good Jeremy Lin.
• Is losing 26 NBA games in a row enough to name a new syndrome after your city? Ask Liberty Ballers.