Because of travel and other commitments over the weekend, I was finally able to watch Saturday night’s game against Dallas. We all know most of the Rockets had a tough time hitting shots, which is par for the course in this season of underachievement. But there are many other problems with this team. The biggest thing that stood out to me during Saturday night’s game was the poor play of Steve Francis, who started in place of the injured 0-fer Alston.

Francis not only missed 7-of-8 shots and turned the ball over 5 times, but it was the way he turned them over. There were a couple of possessions where he either dribbled it out of bounds, or it was easily stolen, like by Dallas’ Devin Harris.

Even Francis had to admit how poorly he played, when he said the following:

“Yeah, it was really tough. For me, it was really embarrassing coming back playing and having five turnovers. The timing for myself wasn’t very good and it kind of snowballs when your point guard turns the ball over. That’s really going to hurt your team.”

Hey, if a player swallows his pride and ego and admits he was awful like Francis did, then you won’t see me piling on. That’s what I call taking responsibility. You’ve got to have hope that since he realizes it was an embarrassing performance, he has a chance to work back from it. That’s the kind of guy you really want to pull for, and shows his increased level of maturity compared to his first go-round with the Rockets.

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On Sunday night, the Rockets’ players participated in their annual season ticket holder event where they had to hob-nob with the people who pay their salaries. Here Yao plays some blackjack.

You can check out more photos by clicking here (courtesy of Raymond). I had a few observations after looking at these photos.

*It was really crowded on the floor of Toyota Center. You can bet the players weren’t too excited about having any wahoo be able to walk up to them and ask them questions about why they aren’t playing better. When you’re playing bad as a team, it must not be fun to talk to anyone (at least it wouldn’t be for me).

*It seemed odd that it was a casino night theme just 9 days before Christmas. It seemed like it would have been a better night to raise money for charity or something. Casinos and Christmas don’t seem to jibe with each other.

*I didn’t see GM Daryl Morey on the floor wheelin’ and dealin’. Hopefully he was on the phones upstairs talking with other teams about potential deals, because so far this season has been a ‘bust,’ or a pair of ‘snake eyes’ (or make up your own gambling metaphor).