Rockets try to show who the real King is

The Rockets take on the Sacramento Kings tonight at Arco arena at 9PM CST in Sacramento. Rick Adelman gets another chance to put it to the team that let him go for no good reason. The last time in California the Rockets were beaten and they had no excuse to lose to that Kings team just like they have no excuse to lose to the Kings team that comes out on the floor tonight.

Sacramento Kings: 33-40 (22-14 at home) 5-5 in their last 10

Houston Rockets: 49-24 (21-14 on the road) 6-4 in their last 10

What's my prediction? Win number 50 on the season and win 1 of 9 in a row to end the season.

And starting tomorrow I should be back with a vengeance. I got sick over the weekend (and not from watching the Horns play Sunday, but that didn't help). Also look for me over at WarningTrackPower blogging about the Astros.

Rockets/Kings - where I say nice things about Rafer

As of 7:29 pm last night, I was formulating a rant where the singular purpose was to tell Rafer Alston to simply shut the F up.

In the last two weeks, Rafer decided for some reason trash talk Chris Paul... got into semi-fisticuffs with Sasha Vujacic... been mind-f--ked by Rajon Rondo... and then torn up by CP3 in the revenge game in New Orleans. The lesson? Do not mess with CP3. Oh, and actually not be a mediocre player in the NBA when you decide to do your best Gary Payton impersonation.

Then the Rockets/Kings game started last night. And my whole world seemed to change. The Rockets did everything they could to lose the game. (1) They gave the Kings a standing invitation to form a layup line; (2) T-Mac's body language was begging the Kings to bully him with his bum ankle; and (3) no one could make a jumpshot. Not T-Mac... or Battier... or Head... or Scola...

and then Rafer came to the rescue. Rafer??!?!?

I have a ready made tag for "Luis Landry to the rescue" - but not "Rafer to the rescue" -- something just seems wrong there!

In the end, the Rockets won 108-100 and won game 1 of what is hopefully a 8+ game winning streak. Yet I was convinced they were trying to lose. Rafer wouldn't let them.

I can't believe I just typed that. Skip led the way with 28 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. He even made 7-8 of his free throws. Now that is how you endear yourself to me! Make your free throws! Rafer even made a consistent amount of those "tearput" shots of his. And not one time did I say "oh, no!" when he released it. I'm not even kidding.


I may have to re-evaluate things. Two weeks ago - during the Streak - I still considered "point guard" to be our potential weak spot in the playoffs. The way Rafer is playing in March is changing all of that. He's actually looking like a legitimate NBA point guard these days.

I'm about 80% sure now that someone slipped me some long-lasting opium while I was in Vegas. Rafer Alston = good? Well, at least I can avoid the wrath of his mom today.

Oh, and Ricky got his 800th career victory. Congrats, Mr. Adelman. Next up? Minnesota on Wednesday. No way we can lose that game, right???

Rockets vs. Kings

I decided that since my focus was really on the NCAA tournament (Hook'em Horns, and yes I'll be there Friday) over the weekend, I will ignore the Suns and their 70% shooting first half from Saturday night. It was a game I figured we'd lose. As Dave said, Golden State/Phoenix road back to backs should be outlawed. Tonight the Rockets take on the Sacramento Kings at 7:30PM CST at the Toyota Center.

Sacramento Kings: 31-38 (10-26 on the road) 4-6 in their last 10

Houston Rockets: 47-23 (26-10 at home) 7-3 in their last 10

The last time we saw the Kings was before the All Star break when we won by 20... oh, wait, we didn't win by 20? We only won by 2? And Steve Novak had to hit a game winning shot? Oh well, we should have won by 20 and a win was a win going into the break. The 8th win in a streak that ran to 22 eventually. A streak that is now over. The Rockets have dropped to "5th" place in the West from our once lofty first place spot. I put "5th" in quotes because the dirty Utah Jazz are stealing a spot because they are in the underachieving Northwest division. They are 1.5 games off the 4th spot pace, but in the 4th spot regardless. Even with the 1-3 run the Rockets are only 1 game out of first place.

The Kings will most likely be without Beno Udrih, Brad Miller and most importantly, Ron "Crazy Pills" Artest. Artest has historically lit the Rockets on fire, so I'll take that when I can get it. That guy loves destroying the Rockets for some reason. Maybe he feels like he's an even more underachieving Tracy McGrady, I don't know. Either way, I won't miss him scoring 30 on us.

This game will be win number 2 of our 12-2 stretch to end the season.

Go Rockets!!!

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Did I just see that right?

The Rockets just beat the Kings on a last few seconds 3 pointer by Steve Novak. Sounds like a close game right? Nope, they led by 17 in the 4th at one point and were outscored 26-10 in the quarter. What happened? Carl Landry nor Luis Scola played in the 4th, that's what happened. Early in the game the two were going crazy getting rebounds and steals and every loose ball, the Rockets built a 19 point lead on their backs. Then inexplicably Adelman decided to go with Steve Novak for the majority of the 4th. That meant there was no one to rebound but Yao. No one with any energy left to go after loose balls.

The lead change happened slowly; Adelman had the entire 4th quarter to make a change, but never did. He let the same guys that blew the lead stay in. Tracy McGrady was playing like a complete and utter wuss. He only played defense okay, the rest of his game was terrible. He was torched by Crazy Pills in the fourth and the only reason I can assume he was guarding him is that for some reason even though we had huge leads, we never really let Shane Battier get any rest and he had to have been exhausted. Shane shut Artest down to the tune of 0 points in the 3d and it seemed he only scored when someone else guarded him. But Tracy was the one trying to play D on him at the end.

I had this column all planned out too. I thought I'd be talking about one of the best games of the season. A game that we led by 15 after 1. A game we were playing like a complete team, running and passing, hitting open layups and dunks. I thought eventually we'd slow it down and pound it with Yao to save legs. Instead we took out our energy guys and never let Yao, Tracy, Rafer or Shane rest. All of them should have seen extended bench stints, only Yao played less than 41 minutes of that crew. There is absolutely no excuse for Carl Landry to only play 13 minutes. He had SIX offensive rebounds and 1 defense one and he had 2 steals to go with those rebounds. Yes he shot 1-6, but he's not in the game to shoot, he's in the game to actually catch passes and help run the offense, and to get the rebound when Tracy launches a stupid shot.

And yes, I know Novak hit the game winner. But if he and Chuck didn't play in the fourth I truly believe we would have won by 12.

We won though, so I guess in the end that's what is important. I'm worried though, this kind of ending can still have detrimental effects on the team, especially with the break coming up. Let's hope the Rockets realize how lucky they were and come out next week and pound the shit out of LeBron and the Cavs.

That's win 8 in a row of 10. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that we almost lost to a so so team, every team blows an occasional lead, I just thought we had turned the corner in that aspect.

Alright, I'm going to sleep, I thought this would be cathartic, but it wasn't as much as I would like it to be.

Rockets vs. Kings

Not a lot of time today for a preview, however, the Rockets host the Sacramento Kings tonight at 7:30PM CST.

Sacramento Kings: 23-27 (7-17 on the road), 5-5 in their last 10

Houston Rockets: 31-20 (15-9 at home), 9-1 in their last 10

The Kings 7 road wins came against Philly by 8 and was their first on December 28th, New Jersey by 5, Milwaukee by 13, New York by 10, Detroit by 7, Indiana by 6, and Seattle by 2. After starting the season 0-9, they have been 7-7 on the road. Only one of those wins was significant, and they have actually beaten Detroit in both games. I'm chalking that up to a matchup issue, or much like the Rockets against Philly, a sheer fluke.

They have lost 3 of their last 4 with the losses being to Seattle, Golden State and Memphis. Somehow they beat Utah in that stretch.

I really have no idea what to think of this team. Last night they lost by 13 at Memphis and have to fly into Houston today to play the Rockets. 6 Grizzlies scored in double figures as they shot 50% as a team for the game. I obviously didn't watch it so I don't know if Memphis just got hot or if the Kings simply played no defense.

My prediction? Win 8 of 10 in a row. 10 in a row. 10 in a row. 10 in a row...

SactownRoyalty has a Kings perpective. Proving once again, there are some great NBA blogs out there. We are trying to catchup! Maybe by the end of the season we will figure out how to be completely worthwhile and not just partially so.

I do have to tell the guys over there that as far as this:

One trade that I'd have to think would make Geoff Petrie do back flips: Artest for Brooks, the expiring contract of Steve Francis ($2.4 million) and rookie forward Luis Scola ($2.9 million and signed through 2010).

There is not a chance in hell that we would trade Brooks and Scola right now.