Rockets almost lose to worst team in league, but grind out a win
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
by John
The Rockets did just about everything they could to give a league-worst 5-31 Oklahoma City team a victory Friday night. Not able to put them away after holding a 15-point lead in the second half, Houston committed numerous blunders and almost experienced what would have been their most humiliating loss of the season. That’s saying something for a team that has lost to Memphis, the Clippers, Washington, Toronto and Philadelphia, all teams with bad records.
Oklahoma City had their chances late to pull off one of their few wins of the season, but they couldn’t make big shots at the end of the game, and the Rockets escaped disaster, winning 98-96.

Yao Ming had about as ugly of a game as
Robert Swift’s tattoos. Click here for more game photos.
When the score was 83-83 entering the 4th quarter, I couldn’t believe the Rockets were in that kind of position against the league’s worst team. I understand that Ron Artest and Shane Battier weren’t playing, that Brent Barry had to skip the game because of a personal emergency that popped up, and the Rockets were probably tired playing their 5th game in a row on a grueling road trip.
But this is the Thunder we’re talking about, a team the Rockets should be streamrolling like almost every other team, take for example a 9-25 Minnesota team that beat them by 42 points on Wednesday night.
The Rockets did just about everything they could to give a league-worst 5-31 Oklahoma City team a victory Friday night. Not able to put them away after holding a 15-point lead in the second half, Houston committed numerous blunders and almost experienced what would have been their most humiliating loss of the season. That’s saying something for a team that has lost to Memphis, the Clippers, Washington, Toronto and Philadelphia, all teams with bad records.
Oklahoma City had their chances late to pull off one of their few wins of the season, but they couldn’t make big shots at the end of the game, and the Rockets escaped disaster, winning 98-96.

Yao Ming had about as ugly of a game as
Robert Swift’s tattoos. Click here for more game photos.
When the score was 83-83 entering the 4th quarter, I couldn’t believe the Rockets were in that kind of position against the league’s worst team. I understand that Ron Artest and Shane Battier weren’t playing, that Brent Barry had to skip the game because of a personal emergency that popped up, and the Rockets were probably tired playing their 5th game in a row on a grueling road trip.
But this is the Thunder we’re talking about, a team the Rockets should be streamrolling like almost every other team, take for example a 9-25 Minnesota team that beat them by 42 points on Wednesday night.



Houston’s Luther Head drives the baseline Wednesday night against the Sonics. Head got the start since Tracy McGrady sat out the game because of a sore shoulder, and he came through with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The Rockets beat Seattle 103-80 to tie the Lakers and Spurs for second place in the Western Conference.
Yao Ming takes it strong to the hole against Seattle’s Nick Collison. Yao scored 26 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 14-of-15 from the free throw line. He also had 12 rebounds and 6 assists to team up with Tracy McGrady (28 points) to overcome a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a miracle win against a team that had lost 11 in a row before the game.

