Blackjack! (The good, the bad and the ugly)

That's 21 in a row. TWENTY-ONE!

In a row!

It was another trap game we survived. Barely. It was rather clear that everyone was looking ahead to Sunday. Or scoreboard watching. Or calculating "what ifs" for the standings. And that's okay - it's natural. I'm quite happy with winning 21 freakin' games in a row.

The Rockets are now in FIRST PLACE in the Western Conference. And in first place in the impossibly difficult Southwest Division (must still hold off San Antonio, New Orleans AND Dallas. Yikes.)

Also - do not attempt to dunk on Dikembe. It's a bad, bad idea.

That's the good.

The bad? Uh... am I allowed to say anything bad about Rafer? [yes, yes I am.]

You took another 19 shots? Where at least six or seven of those were wayyyyy too early in the shot clock or purely forced. Things to remember, Rafer: (a) you have teammates. Pass them the ball; and (b) you make about 50% of your layups. T-Mac, Scola and well, most everyone else makes a higher percentage. Pass them the ball.

There is no excuse for ever going 2-10 from the three point line. Ever.

That leaves us with... the ugly. And there's no good way to say this, but, why the hell was Tracy McGrady playing all of the 48 minutes?!?!? We shouldn't need him to play the full 48 just to beat Charlotte.

We need him for the next five games. Which, oh, by the way - FU NBA schedule maker! We have to play the Lakers on Sunday and then Boston, New Orleans, Phoenix AND Golden State... all in 7 days. Now T-Mac is going to be dragging ass because of pure exhaustion. This scares me. The only consolation at the moment? Well, for one - we have a 21 game winning streak. And the Lakers, Celtics, Hornets, Suns and Warriors DO NOT. Ha ha. But also - Pau Gasol, Chris Paul AND Ray Allen all got banged up last night. I'll take that.

I just need a healthy and rested T-Mac.

Who has won NINE in a row without Yao.




Go Rockets - make it 22 on Sunday!

Word of the day: "hyperbole"

I've been inundated with e-mails the last day or so claiming that I'm being overly harsh to Rafer Alston. Which surprises me because I actually said something nice about him on Wednesday. All kidding aside, yes, I know I'm harsh on him. Yet it's nothing new. The tone of this blog has always been to critique and criticize if/when appropriate - and often when it isn't. Rafer has always been our whipping boy. Ever since post #1.

Every single time we've tried to be nice to Rafer or give him credit for not being mediocre - he goes and shoots 3-18. Or has 7 turnovers. Or participates in the Philly Debacle. So I can't trust the guy. Consequently, I make over-the-top posts comparing him to Towelie, or Warren Harding, or I say that he would be beat by a chick-with-a-dick (which, by the way, got me directly linked by NBA.com).


The word we are looking for is "hyperbole".

hy·per·bo·le /haɪˈpɜrbəli/ [hahy-pur-buh-lee]

–noun
1. obvious and intentional exaggeration.
2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”

Has Rafer played better lately? Yes.
Has Rafer improved on his November/December performances? Very much yes.
Is Rafer the starting point guard for a team on a 20 freakin' game winning streak?!?! Oh, hell yes!!!

Is Rafer an All-Star? No.
Is Rafer a career 40% shooter? No.
Is Rafer going to ever catch a break from the writers of this blog? Probably not.

Do I have to be nice to Rafer? Uh, no. Sorry. Not going to happen. Not even if we win 37. In a row. Which would be a record or something.

Maybe the Boston Globe was right after all (19-0!)

Last night, the Houston Rockets did what the New England Patriots could not - get that ever elusive 19th win (in a row). Suck on that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick! We are #1 - but you aren't! That's NINETEEN (19) WINS IN A ROW!

Fortunately for T-Mac and the Rockets, Elisha Manning is not on the regular season schedule. Though he has been showing up for a lot of basketball games lately - I think I even saw him at the Duke/UNC game!



Then again, not even Eli is a match for Luis Landry. (Come back Carl Landry - we need you. Bad! It was pretty clear we had a hole in our post offense last night!!)

What is there to say about last night's game? The Rockets could not shoot straight. They could not pass the ball. And they could not make free throws. So, they said "to hell with this, if we can't score, neither can New Jersey!" They then proceeded to shut down Jefferson. And made Vince Carter quit before the 3rd Q. VC quitting isn't exactly a surprise though - that had to be part of the gameplan.

Dikembe would not allow the Nets to score. At all.


I hesitate to write much more, because the game was really, really ugly on the offensive end. The Rockets recovered to shoot 46%, and the Nets limped to a 30% shooting game. No one player scored 20 points (T-Mac had 19 and then sat out the 4th Q). The Rockets free throw shooting was atrocious (though Tracy did go 6-7). 13-26. And we missed both of the FTs following technical fouls. Not quite a repeat of the Detroit game, but that is ugly. We cannot beat the other elite teams if we continue to shoot 50% from the FT line. It's unacceptable. Hopefully it's a byproduct of boredom from being up 20+ points every game.

Yeah, that's 10 wins in a row in double figures - tying a mark most recently matched by the Nets a handful of years ago. Impressive, indeed.

The 19 wins in a row ties the mark most recently matched by the 2000 Shaq and Kobe squad - on the way to their first of three rings (and the first of many locker room fights). Speaking of which, today is Kobe Bryant Blog Day over at Hardwood Paroxysm. Since Kobe is my current favorite player to have absolutely no connection to the Houston Rockets, I kinda sorta have to contribute. That should be posted shortly.

A 19 game winning streak (and counting) and day to write about Kobe. Awesome.

Go Rockets!

Hey, that's *my* joke!!

She stole my line!! Sort of...

Besides, the real "legal" age is 17 here. Yes, 17. 18 is voting age, as we've covered here earlier.

Rockets to make it 19 in a row tonight against New Jersey. 7:30pm CST!

The streak is maturing before our eyes!

18!!!

The streak is now of voting age!

(Uncle Sam wants you... to get on the bandwagon)

CP3 tried everything he could do. And I mean the 37 points and 11 assists kind of everything, but the Rockets continue to win. And win by double-figures. Again.

T-Mac had 41. First player to score 40+ in the Toyota Center since Carlos Boozer in the playoffs last year. I guess T-Mac doesn't hate the home rims so much anymore.

Rafer continues to figuratively give me the middle finger every time he takes the court now. A very, very impressive 20 points, just enough to cancel out the only All Star on the court last night. Rafer was apparently trash talking Chris Paul the whole game, too. Ballsy. For example:

"I don't like them. They don't like me," Alston said. "They keep telling me to stop talking. I'm great at talking trash."

Paul, considered an MVP candidate, was pretty good at it, too. "I wish I could be half as good as him one of these days in the NBA," Paul said, "since he thinks he's so great."

For a while I thought it was the Duke/Carolina game I was watching - with all the long-distance shooting and complete lack of free throws. Rafer, Novak, T-Mac, Battier, Luther Head... everyone was making threes. It was crazy. And I loved every minute of it.

Bring on New Jersey... as the streak marches onward to 21 (and it better hit 21 - our next three games are against sub-.500 Eastern teams).

The Road to history

After tonight the Rockets will be in some unique company. 16 straight wins would tie them for the 6th longest streak in NBA history with:

16 in a row
64-65 Boston Celtics - Won the Championship
70-71 Milwaukee Bucks -Won the Championship
90-91 LA Lakers - Western Conference Finals Loss to the next team
90-91 Portland Trail Blazers - Lost in the Championship
99-2000 LA Lakers - Won the Championship

Beating Dallas who I'm hoping will be without the services of one German named Dirk Nowitzki would get us to 17 in a row. Looking at the list, you don't want to end your streak at 17. It would tie us with:

17 in a row
46-47 Washington Capitols - Lost in Semifinals.
59-60 Boston Celtics - Won the Championship - Don't F with a long winning streak Boston Team
95-96 San Antonio Spurs - Lost to the Jazz in the Semi-Finals
06-07 Phoenix Suns - Got hosed by the Spurs and one Mr. Big Shot Rob
06-07 Dallas Mavericks - Lost to Golden State in Round 1, HAHA

Here's where the sweet spot is, 18 games in a row guarantees you a good run. We'd need to beat Dallas on the road AND then New Orleans at home, tall task indeed.

18 in a row
69-70 NY Knicks - Willis Reed and Walt Frazier didn't F around, Won the Championship
81-82 Boston Celtics - Won 63 games but lost in the East Finals to Philly and Dr. J
95-96 Chicago Bulls - Greatest season in NBA history, Won the Championship, also had a 13 game streak that season

Added to our Dallas and New Orleans needed wins, the Rockets would need to then beat the New Jersey Nets at home, a much easier task than the first two.

19 in a row
99-2000 LA Lakers - Won the Championship 67-15 on the season

At Atlanta would bring the next needed victory to get to 20 in a row, we would destroy them if it came to this.

20 in a row
70-71 Milwaukee Bucks - Won the Championship with Kareem and the Big O, that's just unfair

I find it odd that streaks went up to 20 and then the Lakers blew it away going to 33. Even I'm not drunk enough on the Kool-Aid to say this is going to happen, but... you never know... I mean, there are enough games left in the season to get to 38...

33 in a row
71-72 LA Lakers - Won the Championship, and did I say the Bucks were unfair? This team had Gail Goodrich, The Logo, Wilt the Stilt, Pat Riley and Elgin Baylor

A double digit photo essay!

Rockets win ten in a row. 10! TEN!

Lee even called that shit shortly after New Year's Day. Impressive. Of course, when I told him I was going to do a bookend photo essay once we hit the magical ten, he claimed that was his idea, too. I called bullshit.

Anyway, after the Rockets dropped a big dime on the rest of the NBA, I present you a Photo Gallery of a Ten Game Winning Streak!
(Mary Lou Retton... hell yeah! And she's a Houstonian, too!)

I had to be careful researching this. Google Images finds some, uh, interesting things!

Vs. sucked, but Ten was great!

The NBA schedule maker sets 'em up... the Rockets knock 'em down.The 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not call Yao "soft".

and how could we ever forget the most important #10 in Houston Rockets history?

Sam I Am!
10 wins in a row. 34-20 on the season... moving ever closer to the top of the Western Conference. Go Rockets!

How many in a row is that?

For those that are more visually inclined... the Rockets have won this many games in a row:

ya see - even Robert Horry remembers where he came from and is rooting for us!

just 30 more in a row... and I can make the necessary Clerks joke!

37!?!?! In a row?!?

... oh hell yes!