What is up with Houston?
I keep waiting for this streak to end and for Houston to come back to reality and it isn’t happening. Yao Ming has his once a year injury and the Rockets keep winning. I’ve only seen them play once since Yao was out and I was more than impressed with them. First thing I love about them is Coach Adelman. This guy is a great NBA coach who is a master with chemistry and getting the ball in the right players hands. Second, the Rockets have a ton of excellent role players who know exactly what they have to do. From Luis Scola, Luther Head, Carl Landry, Chuck Hayes and Dikembe they get exactly what they are looking for and this team plays great defense. Third, you have to love that they are doing this while playing in the western conference. This is arguably the best conference from top to bottom in the history of the league and the Rockets are nearing the top of that.
This team was at 24-20 when they started their streak and a few things happened. They learned how to play without Tracy McGrady and when he came back they were that much better. Now they are doing the same thing with Yao Ming. They miss Yao but obviously not that much. Luis Scola is doing great in his role. He is more mobile and just as good a rebounder. Yao isn’t much of a shot blocker for his size anyway so defensively they might be better. I love the rotation with Chuck Hayes because every winning team needs the player who is on the court and willing to do the little things without scoring. I love that about Chuck and Luis together.
Don’t forget that Mount Mutombo can still play defense. He is a big body and a gifted defender. He can still block shots with the best of them and gives them a solid lift off the bench on defense. Don’t get me wrong, on offense few players in the history of the sport are worse, but he deserves the money he’s making in Houston.
I don’t expect the Rockets to make it much further in their quest for 30 straight because they play a series of tough road games coming up, but then again I never expected them to win 20 in a row either.
