I’m still hurting after that loss against Sacramento on Tuesday night and how mediocre the Rockets have played since the 22-winning streak ended.
But Houston’s win against Portland on the road Thursday night makes me hopeful that the Rockets can get back to the way they were playing during their historic run.
They still had times where they struggled, like when they gave up a 16-point lead in the 2nd quarter and eventually fell behind by two points with 3:50 remaining in the third.
At that point, I thought they were ripe for a collapse. And all of this was happening without last year’s rookie of the year – Brandon Roy – playing for Portland because of an injury. Without Roy in the line-up this season, the Blazers had lost 6-of-7 games.
But give credit to Tracy McGrady for finally finding his shot. He had been 5-of-15 by the time the Rockets fell behind by two points, 63-61. But then he exploded by hitting 5 of his next 6 shots to help Houston go on a 13-0 run to finish the third quarter, giving the Rockets a 74-63 lead headed into the fourth.
The Blazers would cut the deficit down to 7 points a couple of times in the fourth, but the Rockets would respond and finished strong to win 95-86.
McGrady was in more of an attack mode in this game, and it made all the difference. On top of the 35 points he scored on pretty decent 14-of-29 shooting and 4-of-6 from three-point territory, he would dish 6 assists.
Read the rest of this entry »
