Pain and sorrow
The pain was suffered by a couple of Houston Rockets, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest, who were seriously roughed up tonight. The sorrow was endured by the Oklahoma City Thunder fans, who got to watch their team drop to 1-10. It was close through the first half, but the Rockets came back with some sort of anti-basket spell that kept the Thunder from scoring worth a flip in the third quarter, and the final was 100-89.
Okay, it wasn’t a spell. It was industrial-strength defense, which OKC simply couldn’t penetrate for the six minutes it took Houston to build its lead from six to nineteen. And the Houston bigs were big indeed: Luis Scola knocked down 23 points, Ron Artest had the double-double (17 points/11 boards), and so did Yao Ming (19 points/12 boards). The closest thing to a weak point: the Merciless One actually missed one foul shot somewhere along the way.
Desmond Mason is out for a week, the Kevin Durant Show has settled into a groove of sorts — KD scored 29, swept seven boards and pulled off four steals — and Jeff Green is hitting shots these days, but the guys in the middle, while they’re getting their share of rebounds, aren’t scoring so much. Damien Wilkins, pressed into service in Mason’s absence, didn’t hit anything from the floor, but he did manage to get fouled a lot, and he did hit all five from the stripe. The Thunder shot 40.6 percent, still mediocre. (The Rockets broke 50 percent, though they didn’t do much of anything with the long ball.)
The Clippers are in town Wednesday for what looks to be a Battle of the Also-Rans. Watch this space.
john said:
18 November 2008 @ 10:08 am
You gotta credit to Luis Scola on the way he step up his game when the likes of Yao, T-Mac & Artest are injured. For me he is the main reason why I believe that the Rockets do have a shot at the title.
People always like to talk SA Spurs Big Three or Kobe & the Lakers in the West. But I always felt that many people underate the Rockets.
This time they have a strong supporting cast and in Scola particularly, they have another superstar who has seen many great success in his career.
I wish to hear your views about the game against the Thunders?
http://mundoalbiceleste.blogspot.com/2008/11/nba-news-thundering-scola.html
CGHill said:
18 November 2008 @ 10:36 am
I try not to underestimate the Rockets: they’re one of those teams that can always find another way to beat you. The absence of T-Mac didn’t hurt them in the least, at least last night.
Scola has had several good games this year and should be a continuing threat to the opposition. We only have to play Houston once more this year, lucky us.