The Streak is over!!

Let's recap my Thanksgiving vacation:
Wednesday - Rockets lose a game they dominated for 3+ quarters
Friday - Longhorns lose to aggy, a team that we typically own
Friday - Rockets lose to Miami and are generally beaten up all game

So it wasn't really looking too good, then Saturday came around and almost redeemed it all!

Saturday - Longhorns are 5-0, I guess it's officially basketball season for me. They took the fake UT to school with an absolute pasting. Chris Lofton meet a much more mature DJ Augustin
Saturday - Rockets pulverize from beginning to end, the small boot/circle/rectangle shaped fellas from Mickey D's just couldn't hang
Saturday - After both games were concluded, USA HD was showing Elf in HD and right now as I am writing this, they are showing Happy Gilmore in HD. (Holy shit! That house is like 400 yards away! Is that good?")

Remember just a few days ago when I said there were times in my past life as a Rockets fan that I was excited we were back at .500? This is one of those times. During the losing streak I wanted to yell "Cut that out, you're making me sick!" But my boys just fuckstomped the Melo/Answer led? Nuggets and they don't even have to win money to get the house their grandfather's built WITH HIS BARE HANDS! Now THAT is the team I want to see every night, they played like they were primed to make the big bucks. For the first time all season I didn't hate what I saw from Rafer, he ran the offense well and only shot the ball 5 times and all of the ones I remember he absolutely had to shoot (Wow that was easy, he should should try to do that every time). Sadly, that might be the last time you see me complementing Towelie this season, and really it boils down to a 5 to 1 turnover to assist ratio. Don't let him fool you though, Towelie will "wanna get high" soon enough and screw up. That brings me to Stevie playing his first substantial minutes of the season (Stevie learned how to stay on the court Rafer, uh oh...), and hey, look at that, the Rockets didn't blow a lead while he was in, the Rockets have led big in almost all of the last 6 games and somehow found a way to take defeat out of the jaws of victory. The goddess Nike has not exactly been divining things our way. I offered up Rafer to her and she laughed at me, I think this was her gift to me for my intense begging to take him. She saw the hurt in my eyes. I mean, there were times I wanted to test a rakes durability and then place it in the woods cause it's made of wood and I thought it should be with it's family.

So I was sitting there and thinking about the Nuggets. This is one of those teams that has no chemistry but has some truly great players. They have four all stars and could very well still not be a top 6 seed. Granted they are better in the standing than the Rockets right now, but I attribute that to schedule and to the Rockets needing to learn how to maintain a lead, something they showed a predilection to tonight. Maybe it's just that the Rockets matched up extremely well with them tonight, or that Battier punked Carmelo Anthony repeatedly (The Price is Wrong bitch!) but they did not impress upon me that they even liked each other at all on the court, much less off it. Even Najera who I hate because he's a Sooner but is usually a great team guy doesn't seem right there. (Of course he seems like he owns a few records like taking his skate off and trying to stab someone with it). This lack of chemistry is exactly what I was afraid would happen with the Rockets. The point of all of this is that even in the 6 game losing streak I never got the sense that this was the case with the Rockets. They seem to all get along and know that they can/will put it together sooner or later, and probably sooner.

Something I really can't decide is whether I like Scola coming off the bench or not. On the one hand, Chuck Hayes is truly underappreciated. On the other, Scola looks like a semi-star in the making. They both play good defense, but Chuck has absolutely no offensive game. That said, it might lend itself more to Scola off the bench, especially when Yao comes out.

All in all, the weekend has shaped up a bit better, now I just need the Texans to kick the shit out of the Browns and all faith in the world will be restored. I don't want to have to resort to going to my happy place

I'm trying hard not to believe in jinxes...

but I've never been good at fighting off my superstitions. I'm trying to fight it because otherwise I'd have to kill this blog, since the Rockets are 0-2 and TMac is now fighting nerve damage to his elbow since we started it up. It's an uphill battle for me, hell I just stopped watching the Texas (and I live for the Longhorns) vs. OkieSt game a couple of weekends ago because every time I turned it on something bad happened and every time I came back from turning it off Texas was back in it. Sure enough, Texas pulled it out and no one will ever convince me that they would have if I had been watching. I've been known to blame traffic on my wife because she made the fatal error of saying "Wow, this trip is going really quickly". Is it her fault? Hell yes it's her fault. You know how I know? Because I'm superstitious. And yes, I realize my argument reads a little like



Beavis: [watching a Tom Petty video] Hey Butt-head, how come Tom Petty is famous?
Butt-Head: Because he's on TV, dumbass.
Beavis: Yeah, but like... but how did he get on TV?
Butt-Head: Uh... because he's famous.
Beavis: Yeah, but, I mean, like, how did he get famous?
Butt-Head: He got famous because he's on TV.
Beavis: YEAH, YEAH, BUT HOW DID HE GET ON TV?
Butt-Head: Because he's famous, Beavis! Now shut up before I smack the bejesus out of you!




So, I ask you, are we jinxing them? The early origins of the word seem to mean that you are casting a spell and causing something to happen on purpose, but the definition of jinx as it now stands is decidedly different.


I'm going to have to make a decision? Right? It's not like I'm Bill Worrell and I'm talking about how Yao never misses and then having that turn into a 9-15 showing after that. So I'm saying it's Bill's fault, and not taking the blame right now.


I think Bill was smiling about jinxing him.

I think he did it on purpose just so he didn't have to see Calvin cry again.

And I mean, who wants to see Calvin cry? I mean, I'd like to see him twirl a batton or choose a couple of less ridiculous suits, but is there anyone out there (besides Marc) that doesn't want him back on the broadcast team?

My conclusion to this poorly laid out question is that it's not our fault, and that my pride is going to supersede my superstition.

Plus, if I have to own up to jinxing something/someone then so does Matt over at Da Good, Da Bad, And Demeco