Rockets rookies shock Blazers
Saturday, January 26th, 2008
by John
Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Luther Head and other Rocket players cheer on their teammates during the 4th quarter of a big win in Portland. Yao only scored 11 points (but had 10 rebounds) as the Rockets ended the Blazers’ 12-game home winning streak.
With the way the Rockets played during big stretches of their game against Portland Friday night, you thought there would be no way they could beat the Blazers to make them lose for only the four time in 21 games at home this season. In addition, the Rockets are only 3-15 when trailing at halftime, which was the case in this game as they trailed 50-42 at the intermission. Their chances didn’t look good.
But with the help of the guys we have been saying for weeks are “for real,” rookies Carl Landry, Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks came up big in an 89-79 win to give Houston its fourth win in a row (fifth on the road!) and pull within 1 game of the Blazers and Utah to tie for the 8th seed in the Western Conference playoff race. Thank goodness coach Rick Adelman seems to finally realize the value of all 3 of these guys to play them in crunch time, like many of us have been saying all year long.
The Rockets needed all they could get from their reserves since Yao Ming only had two field goals for the entire game (2-of-8 overall), with no FGs in the first half, which had to be a first. But the Big Man made a big-time contribution from the free throw line, hitting 7-of-8 to finish with 11 points, and grabbed 10 boards.
Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Luther Head and other Rocket players cheer on their teammates during the 4th quarter of a big win in Portland. Yao only scored 11 points (but had 10 rebounds) as the Rockets ended the Blazers’ 12-game home winning streak.With the way the Rockets played during big stretches of their game against Portland Friday night, you thought there would be no way they could beat the Blazers to make them lose for only the four time in 21 games at home this season. In addition, the Rockets are only 3-15 when trailing at halftime, which was the case in this game as they trailed 50-42 at the intermission. Their chances didn’t look good.
But with the help of the guys we have been saying for weeks are “for real,” rookies Carl Landry, Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks came up big in an 89-79 win to give Houston its fourth win in a row (fifth on the road!) and pull within 1 game of the Blazers and Utah to tie for the 8th seed in the Western Conference playoff race. Thank goodness coach Rick Adelman seems to finally realize the value of all 3 of these guys to play them in crunch time, like many of us have been saying all year long.
The Rockets needed all they could get from their reserves since Yao Ming only had two field goals for the entire game (2-of-8 overall), with no FGs in the first half, which had to be a first. But the Big Man made a big-time contribution from the free throw line, hitting 7-of-8 to finish with 11 points, and grabbed 10 boards.
