The Dream Shake - a Houston Rockets blog: I'm late, but we still won!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

I'm late, but we still won!

Some hectic days at work the last few have made it difficult to write on breaks there (because I had none) and my kick ass little 1.5 year old made it difficult at home (cause sorry, he's more fun than even this), so I finally am getting around to writing about the Cleveland game.

Dave keeps trying to tell me we can win a lot in the upcoming games, and here's my response:
10 in a row

He keeps at it:
10 in a row

I'm sticking with it is basically my point.

On Thursday the Rockets beat a pretty hot Cleveland team that had won 8 of it's last 10, matching the Rockets last 10. The good guys pretty much played with them the whole game. Even with Lebron scoring 32 they took him out of his game making him try to take over on the offense end and not getting his teammates as involved. If I was a Cleveland fan I would want him to average 1o assists a game so he could get the guys around him into the flow. When he passed it was incredible, a thing of beauty. The Rockets kept taking 9-12 point leads though and King James decided he had to take over. In my mind that's how you beat them, make Lebron feel like he has to beat you one on five. And at least for this game it worked.

Tracy tried to play valiantly, but he had a terrible overall game. If it wasn't for 5 points in a row late in the game to turn a small lead into a big one he would have probably been better sitting out. I applaud him for trying to play because he looked like shit. He was slumped over on the bench and on the court until he decided he had to make something happen. I love the McGrady that gets a hair up his butt and decides it's time to destroy another team. That McGrady used to be a 3 quarter player, now he's a 5 minute player most games. I'm actually okay with that because usually that means he's passing the ball effectively.

Yao had the best game of any Rocket and his game really equaled Lebron's. Maybe not on the stat sheet, but in actual play. Yao was passing out of the double team effectively and taking his shots within the flow of the offense. He was being the incredible team player he always is and took over at times when he felt it was needed. 22 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block and 4-4 from the line. Great game Yao, welcome to February!

I have to say that the second best game from the Rockets came from Bonzi Wells. He played like the guy we thought was coming to the team two years ago. 6-10 for 13 points, 2 dunks, 2 layups, 10 rebounds and most importantly no missed layups. He was 1-5 from the line, but that's really no different than his normal career. Of his 10 rebounds 5 were offensive, and 2 late kept the ball out of Lebron's hands on the other end making it an easy victory towards the end.

Great game guys! Keep up the good work!

And I finally got in touch with Carolyn and we'll be working up a Q&A to go up before the next game that happens on the 19th right after the All Star break. Also known as win 9 in a row.

The standings right now have the Rockets and Golden State at 29-20 and tied for the last spot in the playoffs.
Here are the tiebreakers just for fun:

1. Better record in head-to-head games.
2. Higher winning percentage in conference games.
3. Higher winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division).
4. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference.
5. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in opposite conference.
6. Higher point differential between points scored and points allowed.

So right now the Rockets are 1-1 with GS so we move to number 2. And GS is 16-12 in conference while the Rockets are 16-13, so they have it for now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't be sending out the gloat-a-grams just yet - who knows, maybe the fading 5 will heal in time.

Carolyn