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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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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As many of you know, I wasn’t able to watch the Rockets-Mavericks game on Saturday night, but Raymond posted some photos of the game in the forum, like this one:

Click here and here if you’re interested in seeing more photos from the game.

As I anticipated, I didn’t miss much since the Rockets lost again, this time 96-83. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes in this story how bad it was, except for Yao Ming’s 28 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Meanwhile, Tracy McGrady made only 5-of-18 shots for 12 points, while Steve Francis (who started in place of the injured Rafer Alston) was 1-of-8 for three points.

This is really pathetic. From what I’m guessing, rookie Aaron Brooks will be getting some important playing time soon, especially since the Rockets called him up from the D-League.

So I’m glad I didn’t see the game. However, I did record it, and I will try to watch it remotely using my computer and give my supplemental thoughts about the debacle sometime late Sunday, time permitting. Or I may be so disgusted by what I see, I may turn it off and say, “screw it, I’ve seen enough.”

Yao Ming goes up for a shot against the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night. Yao’s numbers were phenomenal: 30 points, 15 rebounds, 6 blocks. But the Rockets blew a big lead and lost another one in the clutch. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets choked another game away, blowing a 17-point lead in the third quarter and a 5-point lead with 1:40 remaining, this time to Dallas on national TV. I knew it was going to happen even when they were up by 17. Now that’s pretty pathetic when you know the Rockets are going to blow a lead that big. I wasn’t happy with what I saw as the lead started disintegrating. This choke job was inevitable. Choke City II, anyone?

I’m furious about this loss because this Rockets team hasn’t changed one bit from last year’s team that blew a nice lead against Utah in Game 7 of last year’s playoffs.

I’m not going to hold back like the Houston Chronicle columnists probably have to do because they are getting paid to write professionally, whereas I’m a blogger that doesn’t get paid one cent to do what I do, so I’m beholden to no one. I’m going to let it fly, so forgive me if it sounds like I’m a kid ranting in a discussion forum, or if I have typos. Like that famous line from a movie, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”

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Yao Ming throws one down over Juwan Howard in the first half of the Rockets-Mavericks game Monday night. Yao finished with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting, and 11 rebounds in a heartbreaking loss to the Mavericks 107-98. Click here to see more photos from the game.

I’ve got a lot of work to do tonight, so I hope this is short. Let me just say I’ve read the articles on the Houston Chronicle site about this game, and I’m going to point out a different perspective for you if you’ve read those. I’m coming at you with a DVR remote in my hand that just played back a lot of replays frame by frame.

I can respect what the writers for the Chronicle have stated about the Rockets folding down the stretch in their game against Dallas, which Houston lost 107-98. I can also respect the players and Rick Adelman saying they didn’t make plays when they should have. All of that is true.

But let me just say this. This game was an entertaining horse race played between two good teams, BUT THE DAMN REFS HAD A HUGE INFLUENCE ON THE OUTCOME OF THIS GAME!

The refs blew at least 4 calls in the fourth quarter against the Rockets, and I’ll give the writers for this game a break since they probably didn’t have access to replay–or the time to review each play–to see just how much the game turned on these calls.

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I had to watch most of the Rockets-Mavs game from an airport sports bar TV Thursday night. Because my flight was late in departing, I got to see most of the game until about the 6:16 mark in the fourth quarter when Dirk Nowitzki hit a three-pointer to put the Mavericks ahead 72-69. That was his second three-pointer in a row, and leading up to that point, Dallas had made a furious 12-0 run in the third quarter to take away the Rockets’ hope that they could coast to a victory against their arch rivals.

It was sickening how the Rockets could hardly hit a bucket in that third quarter (only 3-of-13!), very reminiscent of their game in Dallas last week when the Mavs went on a 16-0 run to suck the life out of the Rockets on their way to a blowout victory.

Also sickening was how the Rockets squandered opportunities before those two Nowitzki three-pointers, missing 5 free throws in the 4th quarter alone before those buckets. Juwan Howard missed two free throws after a great hustle play by Chuck Hayes where he sprinted from behind to catch Jason Terry, knock the ball away, leading to a Houston fast break where Howard got fouled in the act of shooting.

T-Mac had missed 3 free throws at that point, precious points the Rockets couldn’t afford to squander when you have to play almost perfectly to beat a 43-9 team like Dallas.

Like I mentioned earlier, after Dirk hit his second trey and the Mavericks had all the momentum now leading 72-69, I had to stop watching the game and jump on my plane. It was an interesting position for me because I cannot ever remember NOT watching a game when it comes down to the wire. So I thought it would be interesting to predict what would happen. Since I was on the plane to the point I’m writing this, I don’t know what the outcome of the game is, so here’s my prediction.

“I predict the Rockets will continue to fall behind after having their ego crushed yet again by another Maverick comeback. They will make a valiant effort to stay in the game, but will continue to miss big shots down the stretch, including more missed free throws, while the Mavericks continue to make theirs and show why they have the league’s best record. The Rockets will lose and will be lamenting all the blown opportunities, including those huge missed free throws in the fourth.”

After I got home and watched the recording, I was able to see if my prediction was correct. I was partly correct. Here’s what happened:

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I was so looking forward to the Rockets-Mavs game Friday to really see where the Rockets stand as a team. Are they really as good as that 31-17 record indicates, or just pretenders and have a lot of work to do before they can even consider winning a championship?

That question was answered quite profoundly Friday night. The Rockets have a long way to go, losing 95-74 in a game reminiscent of that 40-point blowout in Game 7 of the Rockets-Mavs playoff series a couple of seasons ago. The bright side is that at least this time I had the wisdom to NOT attend this game.

In fact, for the first time in a long time, I turned off the game in the third quarter when Dallas went on a 16-0 run, 13 of those coming in just under 2 minutes to put the game out of reach. It was a complete disaster.

Luther Head kept turning the ball over (4 for the game, most on the team). Rafer Alston went back to his inconsistent self in the third quarter, driving into the lane and missing easy layups to help Dallas extend their scoring run and pull away. But you know it’s bad when Alston’s 6-for-13 shooting for 14 points was one of the best on the team.

Shane Battier was 1-of-9 (5 points). Juwan Howard was 3-of-9 for 11. Luther was 1-of-8, and 0-of-4 from three-point land. And Kirk Snyder was 1-of-7. Tracy McGrady was 7-of-16 with 20 points, which wasn’t bad, but he missed lots of shots in that pivotal third quarter before sitting out the fourth quarter. As a team, they shot 33%. Just as bad, they were outrebounded 55-40.

Even worse, they got rattled once Dallas started putting on the pressure in the third quarter, just like they did 2 years ago in that Game 7 I mentioned earlier, and extending their lead to 29 at one point. At least T-Mac admitted their softness after the game, “When things got tough, we folded…You just have to have heart, man. You just have to want it. Each individual. You can’t coach that.”

Now it’s almost not fair that Dallas has had virtually no injuries this year while the Rockets have had Yao out for 6 weeks and counting, and their X-factor-to-be off the bench, Bonzi Wells (well, he is one of their best bench players), had to sit out because of a sore back.

You know those two guys would have made a big difference, but still, the Mavericks are too fast and deep for the Rockets. But that’s what a huge payroll will help do for you.

What has to happen now is that the Rockets cannot be content to be good against the average teams and cupcakes. Every player has to ask, “Who is my counterpart on the Dallas team, and how can I get better than them, or at least close, if we face them in the playoffs?” A 21-point blowout instead of a 40-point one is not considered progress enough.

You can read more about the carnage in this Houston Chronicle game story.

I wasn’t able to watch the Rockets lose to the Mavericks 109-06 because I’m out of town right now. Even with the Rockets having won four in a row and 9 of their past 11 games, I knew there was no way the Rockets were going to win against the red hot Mavs. The Rockets have been relying too much on big plays down the stretch to win most of those games against mediocre teams.

Even with a monster game from Tracy McGrady (45 points on 17-of-29 shooting, 7 assists), his teammates provided hardly any help as they mostly watched T-Mac do his thing, including running out of gas late.

Juwan Howard chipped in 16. Rafer Alston (12 points) made 4-of-5 three-pointers, but missed his other 5 shots. And Luther Head was 2-of-10 for 8 points. Shane Battier surprisingly scored only 5. That’s not going to “git ‘r done.”

Meanwhile, Dirk Nowitzki scored 30, Josh Howard poured in 28, and Devean George was the X-factor by hitting 4-of-5 threes for 15 points. I thought Mark Cuban said George’s role was to mainly play defense, and wasn’t being asked to score in the Mavericks’ scheme? When you’ve got a guy like that who can come off your bench and jump-start an offense, it’s tough to beat. Especially when you’ve already got a guy like that in Jerry Stackhouse (13 points, 5-of-10 shooting). Too many weapons.

Also tough to beat will be the 29-8 Phoenix Suns Wednesday night, who aren’t playing a back-to-back like the Rockets are. Looks like it’s going to be another Dallas-Phoenix Western Conference Finals in May.

You gotta love the story line between good friends Dirk and two-time MVP Steve Nash facing off against each other deep in the playoffs for a second straight year.

For more on the loss to the Mavericks, let me refer you to the Houston Chronicle story on the game.

I was able to watch the Rockets beat up on the Mavericks, then I pulled an all-nighter doing some work on another project. Now I have to head to the airport and won’t be online all day Sunday, but I will provide some analysis late Sunday night after the Rockets-Hornets game.

In case you missed it Saturday night, the Rockets looked unbeatable in a 107-76 win over Dallas at Toyota Center. I can’t believe how well everyone (well, almost) played. These guys played like they wanted to make an early statement that they will be a force in the league this season. Yao scored 36 points on 12 of 16 shooting, and made all 12 of his free throws.

I can’t contain my excitement after this one. Good thing I have to shut down my computer and head to the airport, or I would be writing for hours!

TUESDAY, 3/21/06 - I can’t take it any more. There’s only so much you can say after the Rockets were dominated again, losing to the Dallas Mavericks on national TV Tuesday night, 88-72.

I know, I know. T-Mac is out. David Wesley is out. I don’t care. A team shouldn’t be so dependent on one player, no matter how much of a superstar that one player is. Going 0-13 against teams in their own division — worst in the league — is unbelievable. The Rockets also have the worst home record in the league (13-22).

We couldn’t even find solace in a Yao domination. Yao only scored 13 points on 6-of-15 shooting, snapping a streak of 14 games where he scored 20 points or more. He was blanketed by two or three defenders each possession, and his teammates couldn’t capitalize when he kicked it out to them.

The only hope the Rockets have is to hope for as many ping-pong balls in the NBA Draft lottery in a couple of months.

Sorry. No photo tonight. I’ve got too much work to do and I need a break from this depression. The only highlight for me was when Stromile Swift (5-of-8, 10 points, 5 rebounds in 12 minutes) threw down a monster one-handed dunk so powerful over Erick Dampier, even Yao opened his mouth wide in awe and yelled “WHOOOOAAAA!” to Swift.

By the way, did you see how former Rocket Mike James on Tuesday night scored 37 points, grabbed 8 boards and had 5 assists? Nice.

Before signing out, you won’t believe the email I received tonight. It was from the Rockets promoting their “Early Bird Campaign” for next year’s season ticket packages. Can you believe that? They have the brilliance to send marketing emails on the same night they got shellacked for the sixth game in a row! That’s about as smart as some of the players moves I’ve seen this season (e.g., aforementioned Mike James, Derek Anderson, Rick Brunson, Richie Frahm).

Just for kicks, here’s an excerpt from the email:

This season started off with the type of enthusiasm and high expectations that Rockets fans have not experience since our championship years. The results so far have not lived up to our expectations. A rash of injuries has kept us from reaching our potential. While we are disappointed in our current record, we remain confident in this team’s ability, desire and work ethic. Yao and Tracy will continue to form the foundation of our team through the end of the 2009 season and our expectations will remain high going into the 2006-2007 season.

I will probably respond to this email reminding them they were playing terribly even before the injures to T-Mac and Yao hit them, along with a few other comments.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.