Yes, it was a win. No, I am not happy with it.

Memorandum

To: Members of the Houston Rockets (except you, Mike James)

From: Management
Re: Last night's game against Minnesota

Hey, what the hell happened last night? You let the Minnesota Timberwolves stick around and actually take a lead for a little while in the 4th quarter? Look, we know that Al Jefferson is kinda good. But he's not an all-star (yet). Sebastian Telfair is the poster child for bad point guard play. The idiot Minnesota coach only gave Corey Brewer 8 minutes of run, too! And yet you let Minnesota think they were actually "in" the game with you?!? Even Antoine Walker was playing hard - we haven't seen that in many a year!

Also, Carl Landry, we love ya here, but beating Minnesota is not exactly cause for a big celebration. Calm down rook, and just keep playin' hard like you have been.


Anyway, Rockets, the last time you won by 31 and the game was over in the 2nd quarter. This time you almost made me have to retract an entire "scrimmage" based post from yesterday. Not cool. I was not impressed.

Put it another way: if you play like this on Thursday, the LeBrons will have a field day.

Yao was fouled, dammit! Twice!!

A bit of a disclaimer this morning: I was at yesterday's game. At half-court. 10th row. Phenomenal seats. Only to watch the Rockets blow an 8 point fourth quarter lead. It just about killed me. Or had me ready to be fit with a straitjacket. I would have had a post-game review up yesterday, but I just couldn't do it. I wanted to, but...

Normally I am a rather rational and logical person. Except when it comes to the Rockets. My emotional balance runs parallel to their season - when they play good, solid team basketball, I'm a pretty content and reasonable person. When they start playing not to lose while also getting screwed over by the referees... I tend to become unstable and highly irrational.

Yesterday afternoon, I was so agitated after the Rockets game that I couldn't even properly enjoy the Cowboys choking against Elisha and the Giants!

Oh, and YAO WAS FOULED you sons of bitches! Fouled, I say! Twice!!

Look, I love Chris Paul's game. Maybe not as much as Lee, but I recognize greatness. And when matched up against Rafer, Chris Paul looks even better than normal. It was not fair. Then Ricky got smart and put Aaron Brooks into the game. The midget actually held his own and managed to stay in front of Paul... then Ricky put Rafer back in. (Oh, Brooks, while you played great, please stop taking so many 3s - it's not your shot. You were 1-5 this game. You should never shoot more then 2-3 of those a game. Ever.)

Rafer... 4-13 from the floor. Again. At what point does he realize that he's not making shots and should just stop? He missed 2 layups. He missed open 3s. He missed that "tearput" thing he calls a shot. Oh, and he failed to get back on D to stop Paul. Ugh.

Meanwhile, Yao had another beast of a game. 30 points, 16 rebounds. The 6 turnovers are bullshit because 3 of them were when he was hacked to pieces but the refs must have been busy watching the end of the Colts game. What the hell? Peyton lost and little brother Elisha won? I wonder how the post-game family conversation went. Oh.... of course.

Anyway, back to the Rockets game. This game is precisely why we probably should not trade T-Mac. If he were able to play the 4th Q, we probably do not blow the lead. We played soft and tight and stopped running, moving and passing the ball around. Predictably, the Chris Pauls came back and took the lead. (Though the play Byron Scott drew up at the end to get Paul the layup was very well done... I was impressed.)

Nevertheless, I can't change the result. The five game winning streak is over. Playing like a bunch of five-assed monkeys at the end of the game did not allow the number to be "6".

(oh, and on an unrelated note... Corey Brewer is a bad-ass, Lee. But, yes, he's skinnier than me, and that is not a good thing.)

Let's not start sucking each others........

Hey, Rafer, awesome f'n game man. Really. Color me momentarily impressed.

Here's the thing though -- don't let it get to your head. You still suck.

One 20 point game a 2 point victory does not an all-star make. Or even a mediocre point guard. Hell, Tony Delk once scored 53 points in a game. Tony Delk. And he kinda sucked, too.

Things to work on:

(a) Try not giving the ball back to the other team when the score is tied and you have the ball. Yes, you scored the game winning layup. But you also gave the Magic 4+ seconds to attempt to tie the game AND they even almost got a chance at a tip-in following a miss. (Remember the famous clip of Isiah -- "score is tied... either we win the game or we go to overtime") Never give the other team a chance.

(b) When you do decide to give the Magic 4+ seconds to try to tie the game, try to stay in front of the man with the ball frantically driving to the basket for a layup. You were like an air traffic controller guiding him to the rim.

(c) There's a guy named Yao who is still on your team. He's 7'5". Pass him the damn ball.

Other than that, congrats guys... 16-17 and on the way to my predicted 4 game winning streak.

Now *that* is how you run a balanced offense!

Rockets show the heart of a, um, uhhh, not quite champion, but a team good enough to play together and beat a talented Toronto Raptors squad. It's the kind of balanced offense we have been craving with this roster for some time now!

Yao, Bonzi and Rafer (?!?) led the offensive attack. No one player had to take 20 shots. And, even more impressive, there were five (5!!!) Rockets that had at least 8 rebounds. Yao finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks... a stat line that seems redundant because he does it every single night. He just needs the help. Last night - he got it.

And the Rockets have put together a nice 2-0 run without T-Mac. A win against the Warriors on Monday night would be an excellent way to ring in the New Year.

Granted, it wasn't perfect last night, and at times it was not pretty (39% shooting won't get it done usually). But we made free throws and we made open 3-point shots. It's been the formula for Rocket victories since 1993. Feed the big man and make open shots. Pop the champagne. Simple.

Ahhhh, the good ol' days!

Stop mis-interpreting Yao!!

Yao said the Rockets are soft. I'm quite sure his use of the term "soft" was not directed to the team's shooting technique. Especially on free throws. Having a "soft touch" is a good thing when referring to the art of shooting a basketball.

The Rockets, however, did everything they could to prove to Yao (and others like me) that they are by no means "soft" - and if that required the Rockets to brick 16 free throws... so be it. 6 for 22? Are you freakin' kidding me? 1 for 15 to start? It was so bad Bonzi was hoping for an out of bounds play instead of a shooting foul. Rafer resorted to hugging referees and begging for help.


That shooting display would embarrass Chris Dudley. Yes, he of the career 45% FT mark, and the worst shooting technique ever seen on an NBA court. And after last night, he can claim to be twice as good as the Rockets.

T-Mac, ever the leader and never one to make excuses (*sarcasm*):

"It's mental. It's definitely mental," McGrady said. "It's just you and the basket. The fans definitely don't make it easy on you. Every time you miss a free throw, 'aarrghh.' That's the worst thing you can do to a player. He's thinking about it every time he goes up there."

"Bad night at the free-throw line, but we won the game." Yeah, you won... but it better not be providing you false hope.

I'm telling you... McGrady is taking steps to be the next Nick Anderson! Blaming the fans? Hella-weak, dude. Even some of the journalists are (finally) starting to pick up on this. From the Chronicle today:

"That's what makes McGrady so exasperating at times. There are times when he can do that sort of thing almost at will [the end of 1st half dunk]. The trouble is, that will tends to have a second-half expiration date."

I yelled at the TV at least 3-4 times in the fourth quarter last night. McGrady was killing the Pistons in the first quarter by taking the ball strong to the basket. The end of half emphatic dunk was the highlight of the game.

Video Highlights

Then, during crunch time - Tracy became jump shot happy again. Taking 3s instead of driving to the basket and putting pressure on the Pistons' defense. Bailing them out constantly. Next thing you know, a 10 point lead is a 2 point lead.


Hey, guys, hate to break it to ya... but that's exactly what Yao meant when he said you were "soft" - taking the quick shots early in the shot clock that Detroit is hoping you shoot to save them the effort of playing defense. Even Rasheed picked up on this:

"We are going to see those chumps again," Pistons center Rasheed Wallace said. "We are going to bust their (tails) the next time we see them."

Rasheed will get his chance... re-match is Sunday December 23rd - in Detroit.

Toughen up, Rockets - it does not get any easier from here.

Yao is Angry

... and this is a good thing.

Rockets fall back to .500 and mediocrity after a 100-88 loss to the Sixers. Wait a second, we lost to freakin' Philadelphia. They have an aging Andre Miller (still better than Rafer) and Andre Iguodola - and that's it. They just fired their GM last week because he spent 10 years killing the franchise. And we just lost to them?

Yao post game: "When you are soft yourself, everything will feel tough," he said. "It's not because they are so tough. It's because of how soft we are."

It's hard to argue with that. The Rockets lack an enforcer of any sort. Chuck does the dirty work, but isn't exactly Dennis Rodman crazy. Bonzi *is* crazy, but he's too out of shape to start (or finish) a fight. McGrady's back could lock up at any moment. Dikembe just makes people laugh. Rafer sucks at everything, so I don't expect him to be any good at sparking some anger in the team. And Battier is the whitest man alive.

From the game recap:

Until the fourth quarter, when Adelman benched his starters, the most emotion the Rockets demonstrated came with a brief shouting match between Shane Battier and Mike James.

It's not exactly going to rise to the level of Kobe and the FatAss throwing down on the Court, and Mike James was probably just telling Battier to wipe that stupid look off his face - kinda like Butters getting grounded for looking funny in his school pictures.

One more game like this, and Yao should begin running amok and killing everyone in alphabetical order... beginning with you, Mr. Alston.