The Mavericks own us like it's the Wild West or something

Ahh, it’s another installment of Houston vs. Dallas, one of what I feel like is two rivalries for the Rockets. The other is with the Utah Jazz, who I hate. The Mavs I at least have respect for. The Spurs are just a nuisance even though they have been the best team in Texas for quite some time. I’ve never really felt a dislike for them. I know that’s odd since they have owned us for a while. I probably just feel still pretty whole from the ass kicking Hakeem used to put on the Admiral. Last time we played we led most of the way and really blew it, pretty sad game; we’ve had real trouble putting teams away most of the season. Hey, look what happened! We led the first half and then completely blew it again. Tracy gets hurt and who knows if he’ll have swelling in the near future.

The Rockets were a little sloppy early but at least seem to be playing like a team. The Mavs were pretty sloppy as well, keeping the Rockets in the game. Francis with an early three assists, I hoped TMac would realize that Steve just wants to help, but it still appears that he wants nothing to do with helping Francis succeed.

Right after TMac hit the floor with his knee and had to come out:
Worrell - When you’re young you go to the basket all the time, then as it goes on, you start shooting more jump shots.
Drexler- You have to take it to the basket, just pick and choose your spots

Basically I wish Tracy would turn into what Clyde was in his early thirties, a guy that could shoot the jumper and would, but would take it to the basket at will if the defense allowed it.

The McGrady injury didn’t look too bad, though I bet it hurt at the time and will have some swelling, it was basically the equivalent of bumping knees with another player but a little worse because the floor doesn’t move.

Did Dallas try to make their uniforms ugly, because they are terrible? They aren’t hideous like the jammy jerseys of the late 90s but they are really poorly designed.

At one point in the first half when I still had hope left for this game, Chuck Hayes drove to the basket and drew Dirk’s first foul, great play out of the “I suck on offense, so no one will expect this” mold. And Chuck has the ugliest free throw motion of all time, but he got a lane violation out of it which was nice. Chuck is great at what he does, but why do players keep trying to throw him the ball under the basket? What about the 90% of other times it’s been tried didn’t clue them into him being incapable of accepting or even thinking about the pass? Same goes for Mutumbo, even TMac tries to pass to him, that’s just poor planning on the drive.

On another note; Josh Howard is one of the greatest draft steals of all time. I just can’t see how anyone saw him at Wake Forest and didn’t think he could be like that in the pros. His game is perfect for the NBA and always has been. Great energy, getting even better as a shooter and always in the passing lanes, what more can you want from a late first round draft pick?

Yao loves playing against “The best center in the West” Eric Dampier. He uses him like no other. A turnaround dunk AND a turnaround reverse layup back to back at about the 3 minute mark of the first. Dampier sucks. I have to call it out, because I would have the other way, Yao fouled Stackhouse and it didn’t get called once in the first half, which never happens, I appreciated it. The only problem is that they decided on the other end that nothing against Yao except getting hit in the face was a foul, so that was not worth the trade off. Bonzi tells Yao to elbow the hit out of someone when going up. About fucking time someone said that to him. I’m getting really tired of them allowing guys to hammer his arms and not getting called for the foul, it’s freaking ridiculous. He started 4 for 9 and three of those “misses” were because he got hit and no calls. Yao is not happy with the way he’s being refereed. He actually went to talk to them at the half about it and of course they ignored him. Apparently you are allowed to front Yao by pushing him in the chest, the officiating in the NBA is pathetic at best. Dampier was doing that all night with no call, he also extended the hand and arm repeatedly and only got called for it once. I do not care that Yao has an advantage in size and height, how is that his responsibility? You call the game within the rules, you don’t make new rules for different players.

At one point in time the Mavs let Yao dribble with his back to the basket from 15 feet out to 5 before they doubled, that was dumb. Unfortunately the Rockets as usual decided that shooting jumpers 3 seconds into the clock was a better idea than getting him the ball. It’s freaking pathetic how selfish some of the guys on this team are. He started the first half with 14 and 10; I’ll take that, 14th double-double of the season…excellent. The problem is they kept going away from him every time he got into a rhythm. And I’ve asked it before and I’ll ask it again, why do the Rockets pass the ball to Yao’s junk when they do try and get it to him? They realize he’s 7’6 right? Dampier had pissed Yao off, not a good idea dude, now the Rockets have to get him the ball. Three straight trips afterwards, no ball to Yao… This is becoming an epidemic.

I have to call out Dampier one more time, Battier in-bounded a pass off his ass and caught it for the lay-up, seriously, Dampier sucks.

I took a lot more notes in the game, but that game just sucked. After playing like a team in the first half, sucking but playing like a team and hustling, they just blew apart in the second half. We are worse right now than we were last year at this time on offense. I can’t tell if they aren’t listening to Norman Dale or if he’s not yelling loud enough for them to hear.

Rockets lose by double digits, that’s 10 out of the last 11 to the Mavericks; I’m starting to hate them. The problem is that I can’t really hate them; we keep doing it to ourselves.