Late in the fourth quarter Monday night with the Rockets down 81-68 with 4:22 remaining, they were right on schedule toward losing their 48th game of the season and improving their chances for a higher pick in the NBA draft. But then they had to go on one of their most amazing scoring runs of the season without Yao or T-Mac, outscoring Denver 18-2 the rest of the way and shocking the Nuggets at home 86-83.

Unbelievable. Give big time credit to Keith Bogans, who was involved in three consecutive huge plays down the stretch.

Down 83-78 with 1:29 remaining, Bogans stole a long pass and took it to the hole on a sweet crossover move for a layup to make it 83-80, Denver. On the very next Rockets possession with about 22 seconds remaining, Bogans again drove it to the basket along the right baseline, drew the defense to him, then kicked it out to Juwan Howard who nailed an open jumper to make it 83-82 with 19.3 seconds left in the game.

Then on a play that reminded me of the ending of the UCLA-Gonzaga game a few weeks ago, the Nuggets inbounded the ball to Howard Eisley, who was double-teamed immediately by Bogans and Chuck Hayes. Bogans was able to knock the ball away from Eisley without fouling him, and Hayes was there to pick up the loose ball, dribble two times toward the basket and slam it through for an 84-83 lead with 13.4 seconds remaining! And Houston was able to hold on for the shocking upset!

Although Bogans was the star at the end, he wasn’t during the game. He only made 5-of-15 shots (15 points overall). Rafer Alston was worse: 5-of-17 for 17 points.

The real star of the game overall was Juwan Howard, who scored a season-high 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting and grabbed 7 rebounds. I said a few games ago that as inconsistent as Howard can be at times, I think he can still make solid contributions for the Rockets next season. This game proved it. And I still believe if he had been healthy during that playoff series against the Mavericks last season, the Rockets would have won it because of his ability to hit the outside jumper from the top of the key. He’s almost automatic from there.

Other than the clutch run in the end and Juwan’s performance, the Rockets had no business winning this game. They were outrebounded 51-38 and only made 41% of their shots (31-of-75). Fortunately for the Rockets, Denver shot the exact same numbers: 31-of-75 for 41%. Strange.

On second thought, maybe it was un-fortunately. If the Rockets miss out by a couple of picks on a really good player in the draft that would have filled a big need (like J.J. Redick and his outside shooting), I’ll be looking at this victory as being the culprit.

But seriously, you have to give the Rockets alot of credit for playing with heart when there was nothing to play for, and winning when no one in the world expected them to win.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 11:59 pm and is filed under vs. Denver. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.