There are no moral victories

The facts are the facts:

The Rockets lost to the Celtics 97-93 last night.
It counts just as much as if we lost by 40.
The Rockets are now 15-17.
T-Mac is still out of the lineup.
Rafer Alston still sucks.
Yao Ming is still a badass.

But there are many things to be learned from last night's game.

1. Referees hate Yao Ming. There were back-to-back bullshit calls last night. This follows the worst call I've ever seen from Monday night when the Beard ran into Yao while Yao had the ball and was shooting. And they called a foul on Yao because Baron fell down.

2. If we don't give the other team a 20 point head start, we might actually win a game. I turn on the TV and the next thing I know we are down 40-20. Then Aaron Brooks and Scola come into the game and we start playing much, much better. Coincidence?

3. Rafer Alston should not be taking 16 shots. I do not care if he actually made 8 of them... first time he's shot 50% in forever. But he was 1-5 from 3-ball land. Where we actually needed help.

4. Luther Head should not be playing 33 minutes. Look, I realize there were matchup problems with Boston. I get that. I do. But Aaron Brooks was giving Rondo and the Celtics fits with steals and timely passes. Luther Head, on the other hand, still cannot figure out how to pass the ball to a man who is 7'5". Bill Worrell last night with 1:00 left in the 4th Q:

"Luther just cannot make that pass for the life of him... he has such difficulty with the entry pass to Yao."

(When Bill is taking time away from ripping the referees to announce to the world how much you suck at post-entry passes - that's bad!)

5. Boston is really, really good.

With Golden State and Boston out of the way, the Rockets *should* win their next four - with or without T-Mac. (Magic, Knicks, Wizards, Knicks)

19-17???

Free Luis Scola?

Not to steal any ideas or concepts and especially not trademarks from the guys over at FreeDarko (for my vocabulary just is not expansive enough to compete)...

but the Rockets need to free Luis Scola. Now. When the trade with San Antonio was made over the summer, whereby we acquired the rights to Luis, many thought our problems at the power forward position were solved. Chuck Hayes is a very solid role player (translation: he can't shoot or pass, but he knows his role). Luis Scola, however, was expected to be a very skilled offensive player who could also contribute with a respectable amount of defensive rebounds. It made for quite a good day when he was introduced as the newest Rocket.


Hell, they even gave Scola jersey #4 -- i.e. the same number Barkley wore when he was with the Rockets. That could not have been unintentional.

In pre-season, in large part due to the acquisition of Scola, John Hollinger picked the Rockets to possibly win the NBA Championship and also compete for 60 victories on the season. To paraphrase Kenny Mayne - that would be a (Rockets) record. Sadly, with the Rockets languishing at 15-16, we'd have to go 45-6 over the rest of the season to win 60 games. Yeah, that's not happening.

Scola has not been the second coming of Barkley (yet), but his stats are misleading for many reasons. He's averaging only 7.4 ppg to go with 5.1 rebounds and an even 1.0 assists. Though upon closer inspection you'll see he's getting these numbers in only 19.6 minutes of game action. If Scola played 40 minutes, he'd average 15 points and 10 rebounds. We could not ask for more from him as the third option behind Yao and McGrady.

Scola has clearly been more productive offensively than Chuck Hayes. He's not that far behind defensively either (though he does seem prone to stupid fouls and mental errors in team defense at times). Why then does he seem to rot away on the bench in the 4th quarter? Apparently - I am no longer the only one who notices this. From ESPN.com - David Thorpe's Rookie Analysis (where Scola is ranked #5):

Analysis
December 26, 2007
Every time I focus on Scola, he leaves me wondering why he does not get more playing time. He seems to have an antidote for a team currently 22nd in offensive efficiency. He can shoot, post up and create his own shot -- with crafty moves and superb timing on his counter-spin (both off the dribble and on the blocks).

I guess Rick Adelman really, really does not like rookies. Even the non-traditional ones. Hey, Ricky - were you not aware that Luis is an international basketball star? He's kinda good and stuff. He even helped his country win some medals. Things LeBron and D-Wade have had trouble doing. If SportsCenter worthy highlights are what you need to be impressed, Scola can deliver:

He's got mad gorilla-dunking skillz!

When the season started and we opened against the Kobes, I was okay with Luis not starting. I understood he needed to be slowly introduced to the NBA game. And that Chuck might have issues being productive coming off the bench. But we're now almost 30 games into the season, and we're not exactly making a positive playoff push. The worst was on Monday when Scola was killing (and I mean killing) Golden State with rebounds, shooting and hustle plays. Yet when the fourth quarter saw the Rockets choking away an 11 point lead -- Scola was nowhere to be found. Why??!?! Scola has the prettiest looking shot on the Rockets for all players shorter than 7'5" - we need to start taking advantage of this. I mean... have you seen Chuck Hayes try to shoot? It is cringe-worthy.

Free Scola!!!

Awesome, yet completely random statistic

The most recent NBA All-Star ballots have Yao and Tracy McGrady set to be starters again. This is not a surprise, nor is it really news.

*This* is the news and the basis for this short post:

Western Conference Voting

Forwards

Carmelo Anthony, Denver, 767,722; Tim Duncan, San Antonio, 722,059; Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas, 686,853; Carlos Boozer, Utah, 281,299; Josh Howard, Dallas, 251,756; Shawn Marion, Phoenix, 240,752; Shane Battier, Houston, 227,112; Luis Scola, Houston, 222,896; Kevin Durant, Seattle, 191,542; Grant Hill, Phoenix, 152,898.

Read that again.........

Luis Scola has over 30,000 more votes than Kevin freakin' Durant!

giggity, giggity!