Shane Battier gets a hand in Kobe Bryant’s face Sunday afternoon, something he did repeatedly to hold Kobe to 24 points on 11-of-33 shooting to help the Rockets win their 22nd game in a row and take over the #1 spot in the Western Conference.

It doesn’t get much better than this. The Rockets shut up a lot of critics on national TV Sunday afternoon when they beat the big, bad Lakers 102-94 for their 22nd win in a row.

They were tested in the third quarter by scoring only 12 points to give up a big 15-point halftime lead, but they came up huge in the fourth quarter by scoring 33 points, including 5-of-9 from three-point land in the fourth quarter.

I felt good about the Rockets’ chances going into this game, but for awhile in the third quarter it looked like I was going to be wrong. However, every time you think the Rockets are going to lose, someone steps up, like Rafer Alston (career-high 31 points) and backup point guard Bobby Jackson scored 19 points. This is after fairly poor performances over their past few games. But they scored almost half of the Rockets’ points in the win. Amazing that Tracy McGrady only scored 11 points on 4-of-16 shots and they still won.

The Rockets’ offense was like a runaway freight train in the last half of the fourth quarter that couldn’t be stopped when they went on a 14-2 run to blow open a game where they only led by 2 with 6:07 remaining.

I was able to watch the entire game, but I’m on the West Coast right now and can’t post a complete report. But I’ll do that later tonight when I get settled into my hotel.

In the meantime, I’ll leave things off right now with, “HOW SWEET IT IS! 22 IN A ROW! 1st PLACE IN THE WEST. BRING ON BOSTON!”

Okay, I just spent a few hours on a plane earlier today just going through all my thoughts from last night’s game. Forgive any typos: I’m rushed to get this posted before my next flight takes off. None of these are in any particular order. Just random spewing Larry King style:

* For fans who have been following the Rockets all season, I think we’re too close to understand that this streak is bigger than we fully realize. When ESPN starts Sportscenter off with the Rockets’ streak and Jay Leno mentions it in his monologue, you know this is a much bigger deal than we have even realized…

It’s kind of like “continental drift”…like we’re on this Rocket continent that has been moving slowly along the earth’s crust surrounded by ocean waters toward a climate on the planet that fosters lush vegetation, hitting tectonic plates along the way (Hornets, Mavericks, etc.) to create high-rising mountains on its coasts. Then along come some extra-terrestrials (the mainstream media) who fly overhead, look down from their spaceship and are amazed that this part of the planet can be so fantastic. But to us here in Rocketopia, although we’re extremely grateful for this land of ours and its accomplished leaders – Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming – we realize our land has been great all along its trek, and is what we have come to expect.

* Who would have thought earlier this season that games against sub-.500 Eastern Conference teams in March would be anticipated as much as a playoff game in May?

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I just can’t get over what is going on with the Rockets. It’s hard for me to go to sleep, yet I know the amount of time it would take for me to write everything I’m thinking would not be good for my health, especially since I have to leave for the airport in the morning. So I hope to post more of my thoughts by late Saturday night after a long day of flying to the West Coast.

Because it’s hard for me to get to bed, I have done something unprecedented to commemorate this momentous occasion. As time-consuming as it is to do after a game, I have uploaded some of the national TV coverage from ESPN talking about the Rockets’ winning streak. Please go to the bottom of this post to see those videos (you might have to click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link). I think you’ll really like them.

But for now, I do have a few things to write:

Never in our lifetime could we see again what we have seen these past several weeks.

The Charlotte Bobcats gave everything they had Friday night to keep the Rockets from making history, a quest to become the 2nd-longest winning streak in league history — 21 in a row.

The fact Houston had to scratch and claw to get an 89-80 win makes getting the record that much sweeter. The players and fans had to sweat out every possession, the players had to overcome a 13-point deficit in the second quarter (their largest deficit during the streak), they overcame poor shooting from the field (40.9%) and very bad free throw shooting (57%), and they faced very underrated superstars in Jason Richardson (28 points) and Emeka Okafor (23 points) who wanted to show they can beat the best.

But Tracy McGrady put on an amazing display of determination and stamina, playing all 48 minutes to score 30 points on 12-of-25 shooting, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Without him, the Rockets lose this game. Plain and simple. There were other players who stepped up, who I hope to write about on my next post to give them justice.

But first and foremost, McGrady is playing like Dwyane Wade in the NBA Finals two years ago. It’s such a beautiful thing to witness. A guy who has been much maligned in his career is proving to his critics what he’s made of. I’ve never seen a more determined McGrady in my life. His finest moments have come during this streak.

Rocket fans will never forget this streak, which may come to an end Sunday against the hyped up Lakers, even without Pau Gasol in the lineup because of a sprained ankle from Friday night. Kobe is playing out of his mind, as always. It’s going to be an awesome match-up. A game for the ages.

But a few more thoughts about this historic streak. I am ecstatic the Rockets took care of business and won every game they could have been expected to win before these next 5 games they play against playoff contenders.

I don’t think Rocket fans have felt this good since the Rockets went up 2-0 against Dallas in that playoff series 3 seasons ago. We all know how that turned out. But regardless of what happens this season with the Rockets, they have shown more determination in winning the last 9 games without Yao Ming than I have seen from a Rockets team since 1995.

This game felt like a playoff atmosphere from the beginning. The stands were full and all the fans were into it. If it could only be like that all the time when the Rockets aren’t on big winning streaks.

Okay, below are those videos I recorded from ESPN’s “NBA Fastbreak” show. The first video includes an interview of McGrady after the game in front of Houston’s fans (sounds similar to when they won an NBA championship in ’94 and ’95!) as well as comments from Rick Carlisle, former NBA coach with Indiana and Detroit, who gives massive props to the Rockets (if you just want to read Carlisle’s comments, please see my transcription below the video):

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I’ve been thinking for a few weeks now how gutsy it was when Les Alexander hired Daryl Morey back in April 2006 and everyone questioned the wisdom of that decision. This article compelled me to finally write about it.

Many thought the “Moneyball” approach of using statistics to make personell decisions may work for baseball, but not as much for basketball. Critics said that Morey was too stats oriented, and that he didn’t have enough experience to take over an NBA General Manager role. I really liked the move at the time when I said:

“Personally, I think it’s a great, gutsy move by owner Les Alexander to bring in different perspectives the Rockets (nor many teams) have never had before.”

I knew after meeting Morey shortly after he was hired to be the Assistant GM under Carroll Dawson for one year, that he had more than just a stats background going for him. He seemed to have good judgment and the humility to learn as much as possible under CD about the finer nuances of being a good GM.

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Yao leads again in earnings and influence. Yi Jianlian is #4. Click here for the article.

I normally don’t embed too many YouTube videos on the site since the NBA is known to shut those videos down, thus leaving a gaping hole in this site. But here’s one from the end of the game against Atlanta on Wednesday night.

I love Bill Worrell’s commentary, from the ‘finest hour’ comment to McGrady’s 3-pointer. I guess enjoy it while it’s still up.

Out of all the games we’ve watched since the Rockets’ incredible win streak began, the one in Atlanta on Wednesday night was one of the most impressive in which they overcame so many obstacles, like…

No Yao, sucky shooting (33%), their point guard hitting only 3 shots out of 18, missing athletic throw-down king Carl Landry for the 3rd straight game (huge), Luis Scola‘s early foul trouble, and Tracy McGrady shooting 20% by halftime, just to name a few.

After the game, Shane Battier felt the same:

“This is probably the best win out of the streak. We were down the whole night. We were in foul trouble. Couldn’t hit a shot. Everything was working against us.”

Yet they still pulled out a win when they needed it, incredibly winning their 20th straight game in an 83-75 gutcheck victory where they could care less about winning in double-digits again, and were just ecstatic to keep the streak alive and hit that magical ’20’ mark which gives ties them for the 2nd longest winning streak in NBA history.

With the victory, the Rockets are now the second seed in the West after San Antonio lost to New Orleans Wednesday night. Take a look at the image of beauty below, including that ‘20’ in the streak column. I don’t want it to end. Savor it while it lasts.

This was absolutely one of those games where the “Yao effect” was clearly evident. If Yao had been in this game, it would have been much, much easier to score when other Rockets’ shots kept missing.

Fortunately, McGrady put his team on his back when they REALLY needed it — I think even much more than what they got from him at Saturday’s home game against New Orleans when he scored 41 points in 48 minutes. This time around, no one was doing much damage offensively, and I felt watching this game that he was their last option.

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Thanks to Raymond for this translation of an interview with Yao where he talks about what he’s doing these days, what he thinks of the Rockets’ chances this season, who he thinks they match up well against in the playoffs, and much more.

This Associated Press came out with this article today saying Yao’s injury isn’t rattling Olympic advertisers since the doctors say he’ll be fine by then. One of the marketing experts even had a positive spin on Yao’s injury when he said:

“I think media scrutiny and fan interest regarding Yao’s recovery will keep the Olympic buzz growing strong.”

The other night during the Fox Sports Net broadcast of the Rockets game, they showed a video of many Rocket players imitating Uncle Mutombo, which was hilarious! I saw it live and wished I had recorded it. Thanks to ‘David’ for bringing it up and ‘airchina23’ for finding this video on YouTube.