|
The Houston Rockets (31-32) season has been like skateboarding on a half-pipe in a skate park.
Every time they start going up and trying to get over the break even point, gravity pulls them right back down and they come back in contact with the surface, trying to get back up in the air.
In laymans terms, the team always approaches and sometimes breaks even with the .500 mark only to fall right back under, this time losing to the Los Angeles Clippers (22-40) 106-103 Wednesday night at Staples Center when Chase Budingers(notes) 3-point shot bounced off the back of the rim at the buzzer. The loss, which prevented the team from moving above .500 for the first time all season for the third time, snapped a 5-game streak for both teams, one of winning for Houston and one of losing for the Clippers. Additionally, it snapped the Rockets 6-game road winning streak, their last loss away from Toyota Center coming in the same arena to the Lakers on February 1.
“We can get better,” guard Kyle Lowry(notes) said when asked about the impact the road trip had on the way the team approaches each game. “We can be more detailed, we can play harder and we can always improve our team.”
Given that it was their fourth game in five nights, it seemed obvious the team was short on their shots and had less energy than the young Clippers, who beat them to loose balls and rebounds often even though Chuck Hayes(notes) held his own with 12 rebounds on the night. Even still, the players tried not to use fatigue as an excuse.
“Yeah I think we were a little tired,” Lowry,cheap football team shirts, who finished with a team high 24 points and 11 assists, said. “Those guys are long and athletic but those 50/50 ballsweve got to get those.
“We fought the whole time, even after being down 11 in the fourth quarter.”
The team had fallen down by that much after hitting a wall from an energy stand point midway through the second half, allowing the Clippers to go on a 19-5 run to take an 83-72 lead thanks in part to missing 5 straight free throws at one point. The team used a 13-2 run to tie the game 91-91 but couldnt quite retake the lead.
Luis Scola(notes) was slowed to the point where he could not run or jump effectively at some points in the game, the Rockets were hampered by early foul trouble to Hayes and Kevin Martin(notes) and the Clippers were sparked by Chris Kaman(notes) (19 points) and Eric Gordon(notes) (24), both coming back from injuries. Thrown in Blake Griffin(notes), who was as explosive as always, and DeAndre Jordan(notes) off the bench and it was too much for the team to handle.
The loss spoiled what had otherwise been a very impressive road trip, as the team stunned New Orleans by rallying from a 16 point deficit to win in the Crescent City and pulled out a surprisingly dominant 16 point win in Portland.
With19 games left on the schedule and with the team 3.5 games behind the Grizzlies for the 8-seed, the 11th place Rockets will have a shot to try and sneak back into the thick of the playoff picture with 12 home games and 9 games against teams who are currently .500 or worse, not including a fast falling Utah Jazz team (32-29).
The Rockets know that although they suffered a setback, the road trip was ultimately a success.
“We beat some good teams on their home court so that gives us some confidence,rangers football shirts,” Budinger said. “Still, going home 2-1 means its been a good road trip for us. We just have to keep playing as we have been, protect the homecourt and try to sneak out a couple on the road.”
The team is off until Saturday, March 5, when they take on the Indiana Pacers in Houston.
Stats and Facts
After the Blazers win,serie a napoli, the Rockets moved to the .500 mark for the first time since January 1 (coming off a 114-105 home win over Toronto on New Years Eve) and tied their longest winning streak of the season of 5 games, originally set December 17-27.
What was most startling about the Portland win is that the team dominated the points in the paint 52-26 statistic despite the fact that Chuck Hayes, a great defender and controller of the paint for his size but none the less undersized, was matched up with star player LaMarcus Aldridge(notes). The team used quick double teams to force him to pass the ball every time he caught the ball down low, thus they were able to contain his production.
With their 58% shooting against the Blazers, Houston moved to 9-0 when shooting 50% or better. Scola shot a remarkable 10/11 (90.9%) despite playing on a strained knee. The Rockets had a very balanced distribution of scoring against Portland, with Lowry scoring 21, Scola also scoring 21 and Martin finishing with 20 points.
Lee is now tied for fourth in NBA with a 44.2% from behind the 3-point line.
Clippers shot 48.2 percent to the Rockets 41.8 % and outrebounded Houston 51-39, including 12-9 on the offensive glass.
Great Quote
“If you win every quarter, youre going to win the gameIt just goes hand in hand that if you score more than the other team, youll win every night.”
-Said by Houston Rockets TV color commentator Matt Bullard after the Rockets win over the Blazers during the post-game show.
This is said while Bill Worrell compliments him for making comments such as that and them being “a reason underpaid why [hes] underpaid” and that he needs his own show because of it. It was hard to tell if he was being facetious or not in giving the compliment.
Bullard later went on to to explain that the Gatorade the team drank that night was wet, the shots the team made from behind the arcs on each side of the court counted for 3 points apiece and that Houston was a long ways away from Portland,official everton website, to which Worrell replied each time with amazement.
Seriously, and to be fair, Worrell seemed to bring it up since it didnt seem that Bullard was going to actually say it after thinking about it. This was presumably something they conversed about off camera, as evidenced by the fact Worrell told him to say what he had just said before the cameras started rolling when they actually did start filming the broadcasters in the post game.
Whatever the truth was, the quote is in and of itself hilarious and is right there with Patrick Ewings infamous “NBA Players make a lot of money but they spend a lot of money.”
Sean Mitchell is a writer in the Houston Area. He has followed Houston sports, the NBA and college basketball since he was he was in elementary school.
Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.
|
