The trade of Mike James for Rafer Alston continues to show how stupid a move it was for Houston. Read more about what James did in a victory over Indiana Friday night.

On Thursday night, James had 28 points and 9 assists in a victory over Atlanta. Led by James at point guard, the Raptors have won 4 of their last 6 games. James has averaged over 16 points and almost 6 assists per game during that stretch.

I know many Alston defenders will say the jury is still out since he hasn’t played much this season because of an injury, but the fact remains that Alston was struggling terribly before his injury, averaging 7.1 points, 32.3% shooting, and 4.1 assists per game. We should see soon if Alston can prove his worth. There is a chance he might play tonight against the Golden State Warriors.

Juwan Howard misses the second of two consecutive chip shots in the final moments of a tight game in Oklahoma City that could have led to a huge win for the Rockets. Instead, despite 38 points by T-Mac and 26 points by Stromile Swift, the Rockets lost on a last-second shot by the Hornets’ David West to lose a heartbreaker, 92-90.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 12/28/05 – This loss is one of the toughest ones to swallow. I’m not exactly sure why. Every loss sucks, but this one is different.

Maybe it’s because the Rockets had T-Mac for a full game, not just a first half like the night before when he had to leave at halftime to witness the birth of his new baby boy.

Maybe it’s because T-Mac was unstoppable most of the game, scoring a season-high 38 points (11-of-25 shooting, 4-of-6 three-pointers), grabbing 8 rebounds, dishing 7 assists, getting two steals, and having a great performance wasted.

Maybe it was because Stromile Swift had his coming-out party as a Rocket — scoring 26 points and grabbing 13 rebounds – finally giving the Rockets another weapon for their feeble offense.

Maybe it was because if the Hornets’ Rasual Butler (averaging 0.5 three-pointers this season) hadn’t made three 3-pointers (and 15 points) in the fourth quarter alone, the Rockets probably would have won this game.

Or maybe it was because if Juwan Howard had not missed two consecutive point-blank shots with 1:26 remaining when the score was 90-86, they probably would have won this game.

With all the adversity late in the game for the Rockets, they still managed to tie the game at 90-90, making Howard’s missed shots loom even larger. But then the Hornets’ David West hit a jumper at the top of the key to go ahead 92-90 with 1.8 seconds remaining. Stromile had a chance to win it at the buzzer with a tough hook shot in the lane, but his shot was too hard off the glass and the Rockets lost their fourth in a row.

Except for that last shot, Stromile was amazing, hitting 9-of-15 from the floor on a combination of strong moves to the rack and jump shots that showed a lot of touch. Sure, he missed 3 free throws (8-of-11), but since he finished with 26 points, you can’t complain too much.

On the other hand, Juwan Howard, who has been outstanding recently averaging 19.3 points and 53% shooting over the past three games, struggled mightily by only making 3-of-13 and scoring 6 points. That really hurt.

Combine that poor shooting with Luther Head’s 1-of-10 shooting (1-of-7 from three-point land), and it was just too many bricks to overcome.

The game was a back-and-forth affair, with the Hornets jumping out to a 26-17 lead in the first quarter. New Orleans/Oklahoma City (a.k.a. “NOK”) ran the Rockets ragged as they went on a 9-0 run to take a 19-10 lead. They extended the run to 16-6 to lead 26-14, but T-Mac made things a little more respectable by hitting a beautiful 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds remaining to make it 26-17 heading into the second quarter.

The Rockets closed the gap by halftime to 51-47, but the stats weren’t pretty. NOK had a 16-8 advantage in assists, 24-8 advantage for points in the paint, and 17-0 lead in fast break points.

The third quarter is when the Rockets made their move, taking a 71-62 lead with 1:24 remaining in the quarter thanks to 10 points by Swift (4-for-4 from the field) and 9 points for T-Mac. Meanwhile, NOK shot only 6-for-17 from the field. The Hornets closed out the quarter on a 6-1 run to make it 72-68, but since T-Mac had some offensive help with Swift, you had to like the Rockets’ chances.

But T-Mac was double-teamed defensively almost every possession in the fourth quarter, was held to 1-of-4 shooting, and no other Rocket could make them pay. David Wesley was 0-for-3, Howard was 0-for-4, and Luther was 1-for-3. That ineptitude led to an 18-5 run by NOK, thanks to 3 straight treys by Rashual Butler to give them an 86-77 lead with 3:59 remaining.

Still, the Rockets fought back to tie it at 90-90, but David West’s shot with 1.8 seconds remaining capped an unbelievable 10-of-20 shooting quarter for NOK when they needed the points the most. It’s amazing this young team — which is not expected to have the poise of a veteran team like Houston’s — made the shots they needed to win while the Rockets didn’t.

In closing, I have another Mike James update: James scored 28 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and had 9 assists in Toronto’s win over Atlanta Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Rafer Alston missed his 17th straight game because of an injury. Ouch!

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy stares into space for at least 15 seconds after another disheartening loss, this time to Utah 82-74 after Tracy McGrady had to leave the game at halftime to witness the birth of his new baby boy. The Rockets have to be asking themselves if anything else can go wrong this year.

by John

TUESDAY, 12/27/05 – The Rockets cannot catch a break. They had a great chance to break their two-game losing streak Tuesday night. They were playing a struggling Utah Jazz team that settled into Houston around 2:00 AM Tuesday morning after playing in Salt Lake City the night before. The Rockets led 46-41 at halftime, T-Mac came out in the first half very aggressive and scored 21 points, dished 5 assists, grabbed four rebounds, and blocked two shots. It looked like he was going to have a monster game and score 45+ points.

Playing with more energy fueled by T-Mac’s aggressiveness, the Rockets clearly had more confidence and energy, seemingly putting their losing ways behind them. You just felt like the Rockets were going to win this one.

Then typical Houston luck kicked in: T-Mac was told at halftime his fiancee was about to deliver a baby, so he had to leave the game. The Rockets offense fell apart in the second half, and that was it. Game over, man.

At the start of the third quarter, they were outscored on an 11-2 run and missed their first 7 shots. They resorted to rookies Luther Head (2-for-10, 3-of-12 overall) and Stephen Graham (1-of-6 at halftime and overall) jacking up jumpers. No one drove to the hole to create free throw opportunities. Where are you, Mike James?

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A picture is worth a thousand words. Without his partner Yao playing because of his toe injury, T-Mac struggled offensively again, hitting only 4-of-17 shots as the Rockets lost their second straight game, this time to Denver 108-86.

by John

FRIDAY, 12/23/05 – This summary is going to be short because there really isn’t much to say. The Rockets’ shooting was so pathetic in Denver, they only hit 25% of their shots in the first half and 32% overall to have their worst shooting game of the season. Their main offensive weapon – T-Mac – was dreadful for the second straight game, only making 4-of-17 shots, but somehow still scoring 17 points.

Their defense was awful, too. They let the Nuggets score at will from both outside and inside the paint, making 48% of their shots.

This is what Jeff Van Gundy had to say after the game:

“Little put into the game. Not a competitive game. Not a competitive spirit to make it a game. We were beaten before the game started by our attitude and belief.”

He later said the effort seen during the game is “what you would have seen from guys that had played on lottery teams.”

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WEDNESDAY, 12/21/05 – With all the injuries that have piled up for the Rockets — including two more in their game against the Toronto Raptors (Moochie Norris and Stromile Swift) – the Rockets were going to have to play almost perfect basketball to win Wednesday night…even against the 5-20 Toronto Raptors.

They did themselves no favors by turning the ball over 14 times, T-Mac struggling offensively (7 points on 2-for-11 shooting), their defense giving up 49% shooting (43% from three-point land), only shooting 42% themselves, and making only 12-of-17 free throws. With so little room for error and the Rockets not playing up to the challenge, they lost easily to the Raptors 94-81.

Meanwhile, former Rocket Mike James scored 19 points (50% shooting, 5 assists) and haunted the front office who traded him for Rafer Alston before the season started. With that kind of scoring punch — if he hadn’t been traded –maybe the Rockets would have had a chance tonight, and wouldn’t have lost 8 games this season without T-Mac in the lineup.

To make matters worse, Swift was kicked in the groin by Toronto forward Chris Bosh, forcing Stromile to miss the rest of the game. Replays clearly showed that Bosh didn’t go to great lengths to keep his foot from going upwards as it approached Swift’s groin. I think on plays like that, the refs should be more courageous and call a foul. This was no accident, folks. It didn’t help the Rockets to not have Swift out of the lineup given all of their injuries to their big men (Dikembe Mutombo and Yao). Fortunately Juwan Howard had one of his best games of the season (8-for-14, 21 points), but it wasn’t enough.

The Rockets looked their best in the second quarter when they shot 12-of-20 (60%) and scored 27 points. With the absence of so many players, the Rockets role-playing guards stepped up and showed some heart, like Luther Head (4-of-5 for 9 points), Moochie Norris (4-of-6 for 8 points), and David Wesley (4 points), including a spectacular steal that carried Wesley into the announcers’ table and assist to Head for a layup. The only problem was that the Raptors scored 27 points themselves in the second quarter, giving them a 48-43 lead at halftime.

The second half is when the Raptors pulled away while the Rockets only shot 14-of-41 from the field, with T-Mac going 0-for-5. After making a vow a day earlier that he was going to step up and take on more of the load like he did in Orlando and score lots of points, it’s strange to see him not come through. I guess he’s human after all.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

Man, oh man. How many injuries can the Rockets take? Yao is out for several weeks after getting toe surgery on Monday. Click here for the updated story from Tuesday.

Here’s an article providing more information about Yao’s injured toe, which will put him out of service for 7-10 days.

Tracy McGrady scores on a last-second play to lift the Rockets to a huge 76-74 upset of the Lakers in Los Angeles Sunday night. The Rockets played without Yao, who was sent back to Houston to have his injured big toe examined.

by John

SUNDAY, 12/18/05 – The Rockets pulled off one of their most improbable wins of the season — and maybe decade — Sunday night in Los Angeles. Playing without Derek Anderson, Jon Barry, Rafer Alston, and Yao Ming, the Rockets managed to come back from the dead in the third quarter and hold on down the stretch to win dramatically, 76-74. More on what went down later.

The Rockets sent Yao back to Houston before their game on Sunday because of the problems he has been having with his big toe that he injured before the season started. [Now you know why there is no Yao photo above this story.] It looks like he will be out more than one game, with NBA TV reporting Sunday night it could be 7-10 days before he returns. We’ll see after the doctors check out his toe.

Yao’s absence put the burden on everyone, especially backup center Dikembe Mutombo, to step up and pick up the slack. If you would have said that T-Mac would only score 20 points, that Mutombo would have to leave the game in the crucial part of the fourth quarter because of an injury of his own, that they would only score 12 points in the first quarter and 11 in the fourth quarter, then you would say there is no way they could defeat a resilient and respectable Laker team.

But somehow they did it and finished their 6-game road trip 5-1, and more importantly, the Rockets are back in the hunt for the playoffs with a 10-13 record. Before this trip, no one thought that would happen. I was hoping they could get 3 wins, and they surprised everyone by getting five.

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Former Rocket Cuttino Mobley playfully greets Yao before their matchup in Los Angeles between the Clippers and the Rockets. Yao played well, scoring 22 points and grabbing 9 rebounds, but the Clippers snapped Houston’s five-game winning streak by winning 89-81. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SATURDAY, 12/17/05 – The Clippers have been getting lots of press lately by surprising everyone and taking the lead in the Pacific division standing early this season. Even with a three-game losing streak, it was going to be tough for the Rockets to beat them on Saturday since two of those Clipper losses were against last year’s NBA Finals teams: Detroit and San Antonio. They also have been without scoring guard Corey Maggette (averaging 21.7 point per game) the past 5 games because of a foot injury. Meanwhile, Houston had just played Wednesday and Thursday, with only one day off before Saturday’s early 12:30pm Pacific start time.

The way Houston started out, they showed no sign of being tired playing in their fifth straight road game. They got off to a decent start in the first quarter, hitting 46% of their shots, led by an amazing scoring barrage by T-Mac, who made 5-of-7 shots to score 12 points. Most of them were jump shots or un-guardable fallaway jumpers. Yao was very consistent, hitting 3-of-6 shots on baseline jumpers or little jump hooks in the lane.

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Yao is double-teamed by the Sonics’ Ray Allen and Vitaly Potapenko Thursday night in Seattle. Yao played another great game, scoring 26 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to help Houston win it’s fifth game in a row, 104-98. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

THURSDAY, 12/15/05 – For the second night in a row, a late game on the West Coast was worth staying up to watch for Rocket fans. Houston came through in a nerve-wracking fourth quarter against Seattle to astonishingly win their 5th straight game (104-98), fourth in a row on their longest road trip of the year, and they now have a rapidly respectable 9-12 record.

It’s strange to say it after having a 4-12 record only a couple of weeks ago, but I think the Rockets are now playing with the same confidence they were last year when they were making their incredible run to the playoffs, and they are doing it without a starting point guard (Rafer Alston) and sharpshooting veteran (Jon Barry). Just a couple of weeks ago they were playing their worst basketball in years. What a difference a McGrady makes!

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