Dikembe Mutombo goes up for a one-handed jam after a Tracy McGrady dish for his only points of the game against the New Jersey Nets. Mutombo also had 5 blocks to contribute to the Rockets holding the Nets to 30% shooting in a 91-73 victory. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets are winning so many different ways these days. Either through balanced scoring, one guy taking over (like McGrady’s 41 Saturday night), or when the shooting isn’t spectacular, using smothering defense to win without the fireworks.

The Rockets ‘only’ shot 46% from the field Monday night, but their defense was incredible against the New Jersey Nets, who only scored 28 points in the first half on 16% shooting and trailed by 18 points at halftime.

The Nets would cut the deficit to 14 points in the third quarter, but the Rockets turned up the intensity and led by 27 before playing the rest of the game with second- and third- team guys, coasting to a 91-73 victory and winning their 19th in a row. It was also their 10th in a row by double-digits, tying an NBA record.

It’s incredible that the 5 Net starters of Richard Jefferson, Vince Carter, Nenad Krstic, Devin Harris and Josh Boone scored only 41 points for the game. I guess they haven’t been watching much video of Mount Mutombo lately.

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The Suns beat the Spurs on Sunday, which gives San Antonio its second loss in a row.

The Rockets are now only 1 game behind the Spurs. If Houston beats New Jersey Monday night and the Spurs lose to Denver, then they’ll be tied!

I know there’s still a long way left with 20 games remaining, but it’s still kind of cool to watch the standings. The standings below will change later tonight (Sunday) when Sacramento plays the Lakers in LA. They’ll either add a 1/2 game on everybody if they win, or lose a 1/2 game if they get shocked by the Kings.

I still love the beauty of the ’18’ in Houston’s win streak column compared to everyone else’s! Amazing!

Tracy McGrady and Rafer Alston celebrate as the Rockets distance themselves from the New Orleans Hornets Saturday night and ultimately win 106-96. McGrady and Alston combined for 61 points to extend Houston’s winning streak to 18 games in one of the most exciting games of the season. Unbelievable. Click here for more photos from the game.

After each Rockets win during their current winning streak, it has become increasingly difficult to come up with new things to say. You can’t criticize perfection too much. That’s why I decided the other night to make the trip to Houston to attend the Rockets-Hornets game in the flesh since last season’s disappointing Game 7 against Utah.

IF the Rockets were to win Saturday’s game, I wanted to see if there was anything different I could write having been there, especially against a very good New Orleans team.

Well, it was worth the 320-mile round trip drive (at $3.09 cents per gallon, I might add) to watch one of the most exciting regular season games the Rockets have played this season, even during their 18-game winning streak. Rockets 106, Hornets 96.

Absent Carl Landry because of a swollen knee (he should be out only two games, hopefully) the Rockets were now down TWO big men: Yao and Carl.

That meant the other Rockets would have to step up even more, and that coasting to a victory was very improbable. You can only lose so many rotation players before it starts to take its toll. They were going to have to scratch out a win, even with Hornets’ All-Star David West out because of a sprained ankle.

We hadn’t seen it in such a long time because of all the balanced scoring the Rockets have had during the streak, but Houston decided to go back a bit to the “JVG way” of winning games by having one guy put the team on his back. In this case, it would be Tracy McGrady. It was probably the safest bet to get the victory: ride the hot guy, especially if he’s motivated and wants to prove he can be the guy to do it.

Earlier in the day, McGrady learned if the Rockets beat the Hornets that they would move into the third spot in the Western Conference playoff seeding. That was enough for McGrady to do whatever it took to win this game. Coach Rick Adelman knew they would need McGrady to step it up, especially without Landry to keep the Hornets off balance.

McGrady delivered in one of the best performances I’ve seen from him, which is saying a lot given how well he has been playing during the streak. 41 points on 17-of-27 shots. 3-of-8 from three-point land, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. And he played all 48 minutes.

It was interesting to hear at the end of the game when McGrady stepped to the free throw line to hear “MVP! MVP!” chants from the Houston crowd. I don’t think that has happened since he was introduced to Houston fans at his initial press conference after the Orlando trade. We all know the odds of him winning MVP are virtually impossible given how Kobe has been playing this season. But if Houston were to finish ahead of the Lakers in the West, you never know…

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With the Spurs losing Friday night to the Nuggets, Houston is only 2 games back in the standings for the top seed in the Southwest division, currently good for the #2 seed in the West. The Rockets are still 1 game behind New Orleans heading into Saturday night’s showdown with the Hornets (I’ll be there to report on it). Amazing.

Not that it means much, but San Antonio’s loss also puts alot of distance between Houston’s 17-game winning streak and the next longest current win streak in the league (Boston has won 7). Before Saturday’s loss, the Spurs had won 11 in a row.

Kenny Smith is hatin’ on the Rockets in this video that looks like it was recorded sometimes over the past couple of days. He says there is no way they can win a championship without Yao, are a 6th seed in the West “at best,” and he doesn’t even think their chances of winning a playoff series this year is possible, shaking his head emphatically when asked the question.

Sorry, Kenny, but you might end up looking really bad on at least 2 of those predictions. If the Rockets prove you wrong, I hope Charles shows this prediction to the world on your TNT show like you guys show when the Chuckster is wrong.

Tracy McGrady takes it to the rack against Dallas in a game where he relentlessy attacked the rim to score 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting, and also finished with 9 assists and only 1 turnover. McGrady’s 31 led the Rockets to their 17th straight victory in a game on the road against one of their biggest rivals in a convincing 113-98 win.

At the end of my post last night I had predicted the following:

“Without Dirk, I don’t think the Mavericks chances are all that great against the very hot and confident Rockets.”

It was probably one of my more bold predictions in quite some time. After all, we’re still talking about the dreaded Mavericks.

I had no idea I would be so right.

The Rockets rolled over arch rival Dallas by exploding in the third quarter for 35 points on 15-of-25 shooting to open an 87-70 lead heading into the fourth quarter, and coasted again to a 113-98 victory. Both Rafer Alston and Tracy McGrady made 5-of-8 shots in the quarter and scored 13 and 11, respectively.

It was such an awesome display of firepower, I had to hit the record button on my DVR to save a sample of the “clinic” the Rockets have been running during this win streak.

I also loved hearing through the telecast the smattering of Rocket fans among the Dallas crowd roaring from the rafters as the Rockets made play after play. Like the 8 points on fast breaks they ran, the alley-oop from Alston he threw just inside the half-court line to McGrady for the throw-down, and Carl Landry‘s powerful scores around the basket, just to name a few examples.

Hearing those roars was music to my ears since I was at that Game 7 playoff back in 2005 where the Rockets lost by 40-points to lose that series. I wish I could have been there Thursday night to exercise some of my own personal demons. Houston is now a more comfortable 2 ½ games ahead of Dallas in the standings.

McGrady would finish Thursday night with 31 points on 13-of-23 shots, 9 assists and only 1 turnover. He was constantly double-teamed by the Mavericks, and he made them pay by dishing dimes all over the place to teammates for open shots. In essence, he’s finding the open man out of double-teams (like Carl Landry several times) in Yao-like fashion. And when he wasn’t passing the ball, he attacked the basket more than any other game I can remember. I absolutely love it when he does that. He has really matured this season.

Alston finished with 24 points on 10-of-21 (2-of-7 from 3-point land), 4 assists, 2 steals and zero turnovers.

Of course, this was the Rockets’ 17th straight victory, and their 8th consecutive victory with double-digit point differentials.

TNT announcer and NBA legend Reggie Miller had this interesting quote about the constant energy the Rockets showed during the game:

“It’s rare to see so many hard work players on a particular NBA team.”

If they keep playing like this, you’ve got to like their chances, even against the highly-favored LA Lakers or Spurs in the West. I bet you a million bucks the Rockets aren’t afraid of them, but are looking forward to the challenge to show these teams and the rest of the world what they have.

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Raymond has translated another interview of Yao that was conducted just a few hours after Yao’s surgery on Monday.

In case you missed it, here’s an interview from a couple of days ago with Rocket Steve Francis.

Thanks, Raymond!

Houston’s Dikembe Mutombo celebrates during a great play in the Rockets-Pacers game which Houston won 117-99 for their 16th straight victory, breaking a 14-year old franchise record. Dikembe wasn’t needed much in the victory where 5 Rocket players scored in double figures.

The Rockets took care of business Wednesday night like everyone they thought they would, winning a franchise record 16th straight game and their 20th victory in 21 games. I’m going to resist the temptation to use the over-used “Sweet 16” phrase that every media outlet seemed to use and fans who brought signs into Toyota Center. It’s just too easy.

As monumental as the 117-99 victory was against Indiana, I’m not going to spend too much time talking about this particular game because:

* A much bigger game against Dallas is being played Thursday night, so I’ll save my energy for that one (more thoughts about that game at the bottom of this post).

* Wednesday’s victory was against a 24-36 team that has been missing Jermaine O’Neal for 6 weeks and had lost 6 of their last 9 games, all against Eastern Conference teams

With the streak, though, it’s kind of fun to watch what the national media is saying about the Rockets. Below are some screenshots from the home pages of ESPN.com and NBA.com late Wednesday night. I especially like the one with the banner ad with Yao looking over Hakeem and Tracy McGrady. Kind of symbolic, huh?

Wednesday night ESPN Sportscenter devoted a significant amount of time talking about the Rockets and showing highlights from the victory over the Pacers that represent why they are playing so well, like this quote as they showed the Rockets passing the ball around for an easy score:

“This is what they do. They share,” and “Everyone on the Rockets gets involved.” ESPN even pointed out this interesting factoid from the game: 8 different players had an assist in the first half. Thanks for showing the Rockets some love, ESPN.

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Yao had his surgery today, and he’s doing fine. Click here for standard post-surgery info.

Pretty cool how many Chinese have volunteered to help make sure the Games go smoothly.