On the surface, this was sheer torture for Tracy McGrady and the Houston Rockets.

McGrady was brilliant for three quarters Monday night. Despite lacking All-Star center Yao Ming and resurgent point guard Rafer Alston, they were right there with the Utah Jazz – seeking a split of the first two games on their home floor.

But as is always the case, the Jazz pounded the boards, stayed in their face on defense and tormented them with offensive execution. The result was a 90-84 victory to take a commanding 2-0 series lead back to Salt Lake City for the next two games.

McGrady finished with 23 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, but had just 1 point in the fourth quarter and was clearly dead on his feet down the stretch. He got help in spurts from backup point guard Bobby Jackson and rookie Aaron Brooks. Actually, Jackson’s 3-pointer apparently tied the game in the final minute only to have it waved off on a contentious off-the-ball foul called on Luis Scola, with Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko accused of flopping.

And that was the end of that for the Rockets, who now have lost four consecutive playoff games to the Jazz dating to last spring.

Point guard Deron Williams led the Jazz with 22 points, while center Mehmet Okur added 16 points and 16 rebounds. Okur, Kirilenko and Carlos Boozer combined for 31 rebounds to lead the cause in a game so close there were 10 lead changes and 16 ties.

Despite McGrady’s efforts (16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in the first half), the Rockets couldn’t establish enough offensive punch to hang on to the lead even when they got it. Jackson finished with 18, Scola had 14 and Brooks added 11, but it was never enough. Even a pair of Shane Battier 3-pointers in the final minute of the third quarter merely served as a temporary tease for the Rockets.

In the end, there was little the Rockets could do and it’s only going to get worse now. The Jazz have been vulnerable on the road all year, finishing 17-24. But now the teams head back to Salt Lake, where Utah was an NBA-best 37-4 during the regular season. And with an exhausted and depleted Rockets team, this series looks over.

Sure, Williams has a badly bruised tailbone that took another serious jolt when Brooks flattened him on a screen, forcing him to hobble back to the locker room. Nonetheless, young backup Ronnie Price made big plays – including a clutch 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter – to keep the Jazz in order. And Williams was running the show down the stretch, doing whatever it took to keep the Rockets at bay.

The question now is whether the Rockets have anything left to extend this series beyond the next two games. They were losers in the conference finals to the eventual champion Spurs last spring, and the next two games will show how much the Jazz have matured.

If they complete the sweep, it will speak more of their execution – not of the battered Rockets – and they’ll meet the winner of the Lakers-Nuggets series. Meanwhile, the Rockets will just have to take it - drip, drip, drip …

Quotebook

Jazz guard Deron Williams on winning both games in Houston:

“It's great for us to come out the way we did and not settle for the one victory. We wanted to get both of them, get greedy. We've just got to go back now and take care of business.”

The stud

Cavs All-Star forward LeBron James just missed a triple-double in their 116-86 win over the Wizards to take a 2-0 lead in the series. James had 30 points, 12 assists, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal. In the two games he’s averaging 31.0 points, 8.0 assists and 7.5 rebounds.

The dud

Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, also known as Agent Zero or Mighty Mouth depending on your preference, had more turnovers than field goals. Making just 2-of-10 shots, Arenas had just 7 points, 3 assists, 4 fouls and 3 turnovers in just less than 24 minutes. In the first game he had 24 points.

Statbook

The Cavs now have beaten the Wizards in eight consecutive playoff games. … Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas has averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds in the two games. … Wizards All-Star Antawn Jamison went from 23 points and 19 rebounds in Game 1 to 9 points and 9 rebounds in Game 2. As a team they are 60-of-154 (.390) from the field and 9-of-40 (.225) from 3-point range. … McGrady is 16-of-43 from the field and 1-of-9 from 3-point range in the first two games. … Battier took seven shots in each of the first two games, making all seven in the first game to finish with 22 points, but hitting just three in Game 2 and totaling 7 points. … The Rockets are 10-of-41 (.244) from beyond the arc in the series and 34-of-55 (.618) from the free-throw line, while the Jazz are 12-of-27 (.444) from 3-point range and 27-of-40 (.675) from the stripe. Not coincidentally, Yao is their best free-throw shooter and Alston led the team in 3-pointers. Yao is out with a fractured foot, but Alston is a possibility for Game 3, battling a strained groin.

Tuesday

Now we’ll find out just how serious the Dallas Mavericks are about regaining their mojo and competing to win the Western Conference. After having fallen apart in the 2006 Finals, and getting upset by eighth-seeded Golden State in 2007, the Mavericks blew a 12-point lead at New Orleans Saturday and seem ill-equipped to come back from a 2-0 deficit.

Tonight in New Orleans, the Mavs must deal with their demons and gain a split.

Also, the Phoenix Suns will try to bounce back from their crushing double-overtime defeat at San Antonio, and the Toronto Raptors must figure out how to deal with the Orlando Magic’s monster in the middle, Dwight Howard.

Mavericks (0-1) at Hornets (1-0)

Chris Paul was brilliant in the 104-92 victory, with 35 points, 10 assists and 4 steals to lead the Hornets, who also dominated the interior thanks to the 10 points and 15 rebounds from Tyson Chandler. And after a sluggish start, forward David West had 23 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks for the Hornets. Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 for the Mavs, but Josh Howard (4-of-16) and Jerry Stackhouse (2-of-9) were a combined 6-of-25 from the field and Jason Terry produced just 6 points.

Suns (0-1) at Spurs (1-0)

Clutch 3-pointers from Michael Finley and Tim Duncan forced the two overtime periods in the remarkable 117-115 victory in Game 1. Duncan had a game for the ages with 40 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks. Manu Ginobili added 24 points for the Spurs, including the game-winning basket on a drive to the glass, and Tony Parker added 26 points and 5 assists. Amare Stoudemire had 33 and 7 rebounds before fouling out for the Suns, with Steve Nash adding 25 points and 13 assists.

Raptors (0-1) at Magic (1-0)

The Magic hit 16-of-20 shots, including 9-of-11 from 3-point range to take a 43-23 lead in the first quarter and never were really challenged on the way to a 114-100 win. Most of the reason was Dwight Howard’s intimidating 25 points, 22 rebounds and 5 blocks. Jameer Nelson had 24 points and 7 assists for the Magic, with Hedo Turkoglu adding 21 points and 6 assists. Anthony Parker scored 24 for Toronto and Chris Bosh added 21.

My apologies to all the Houston Rockets players, coach Rick Adelman, general manager Daryl Morey, owner Les Alexander and anybody else connected with the organization.

It was just last week I so cavalierly wrote them off as a fluke and the likely team to slip out of the playoff picture in the rugged Western Conference. Well, following Monday night’s 91-73 humiliation of the Nets, the Rockets became only the fourth team in the history of the NBA to win 19 games in a row. They've tied the 1999-2000 Lakers, and only the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (20) and the 1971-72 Lakers (33) have won more.

All three of those teams won the NBA title, while the Rockets have virtually no shot (hey, I said I was sorry ... but I'm not crazy).

But that’s not the point here.

Nobody could have seen this coming when they were struggling to stay over .500 before the first of the year. But by the end of January, they gained the kind of momentum that few teams ever find. They haven’t lost since Jan. 27 to the Utah Jazz and since Jan. 4, they are 28-3, winning 23 of 24 and going from 10th in the West to just a game out of first (they are in third).

Furthermore, the past seven wins have come since All-Star center Yao Ming went down with a fractured foot that ended his season. Two weeks later, the doomsayers are still scratching their collective heads as the Rockets have suddenly stormed into contention and haven’t just been beating teams, they’ve been slaughtering them -- tying an NBA record with 10 straight double-digit victories.

And they’ve been doing it with defense -- smothering defense -- even without Yao. Of course, everybody looks at Tracy McGrady taking over again, just as he did last season when Yao was down. And McGrady has raised his level of play with clutch shots and passes to make life easier for his teammates. But Monday night against the Nets was a microcosm of how they’ve won, with McGrady leading the charge with a moderate 19 points.

More to the point is the ageless finger-wagging of 7-foot-1 Dikembe Mutombo back in action with five blocks. They held the Nets to 28 points and .209 shooting in the first half and just 30 percent for the game. The Rockets added the tough versatility of Argentinean Luis Scola in the offseason and rookie Carl Landry to the rugged duo of Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes up front.

And really, that’s what they’ve become -- a blue collar group. There is 6-10 Steve Novak, a second-round pick out of Marquette in 2006, coming off the bench to sink a trio of 3-pointers to help the cause Monday night, and Rafer Alston suddenly settling into a dependable point guard role instead of the New York playground legend seeking style points instead of victories.

This alignment of the planets all begins with Adelman, a proven master at finding his hot buttons, and he has jumped to the head of the class in the coach of the year race. In his 17th season as a head coach in the NBA, Adelman, 61, is five wins shy of becoming the 13th coach in NBA history to win 800 regular season games. With the exception of a couple of bad years at Golden State (which until last season was redundant) his resume is dominated by exceptional achievement at Portland and Sacramento. The source of his success has been flexibility -- understanding every team is different and allowing them to play to their strengths.

There was no real reason for him to be fired at Sacramento other than owners Gavin and Joe Maloof wanted a change, but he took the year off to recharge his batteries. And when he was hired to replace Jeff Van Gundy with the Rockets, there were great expectations with what he would do with the combination of Yao and McGrady.

But they struggled early, particularly with erratic point guard play, with Adelman shuttling Alston, rookie Aaron Brooks, Luther Head and Steve Francis in and out trying to find somebody to handle the job. Finally, Alston has embraced it. During the streak he has been particularly solid, averaging 14.7 points and 6.8 assists. Scola, too, has raised his game, and is now getting mentioned for rookie of the year -- averaging 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds during the streak.

Obviously, it’s the collective effort that has the Rockets continuing to roll. They head to Atlanta Wednesday night with a chance to tie the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks for the second most consecutive victories in one season, followed by games against the Bobcats, Lakers and Celtics in the Toyota Center, where they’ve won 13 in a row.

And yet, we don’t know what will happen to their confidence when they finally do lose. And remember, while they were able to jump from 10th to third, they are still only 3½ games ahead of the Warriors in eighth and just six in front of the Nuggets, who are out of the playoffs altogether in ninth.

Because they are doing this with defense and an obvious sense of camaraderie, there is a tighter feel to this team. Van Gundy set up the structure for Adelman, but Adelman’s personality better fits this group. And because of that, they aren’t likely to tumble too far when they come back to earth. It won’t be easy to stay in the top four, and they probably won’t.

But that doesn’t matter now. They’re riding the wave and let’s ride it with them. We don’t get to see something special like this very often, particularly from a blue collar group filled with guys just happy to be there.

There are no surprises. There never are because there aren’t allowed to be when it comes to the fan balloting for an All-Star game.

So when the 2008 starters were announced Thursday for the 57th Annual NBA All-Star game to be played in New Orleans on Feb. 17, there was no reason to get excited. They all deserve to be there … with the big question coming next Thursday when the other guys who deserved to start get voted on to complete the squad.

Which is then followed by the furor over who gets left out.

Celtics forward Kevin Garnett earned the sixth most votes in history and paced everyone this season for his 11th consecutive trip to the All-Star game. He’ll be joined up front by super-youngsters LeBron James of the Cavs and upstart Orlando’s Dwight Howard. There are no arguments there, if only because they are the three best frontcourt players in the East.

And really, there’s not much to argue in the backcourt, either. Dwyane Wade – coming off surgery on both his shoulder and knee – has been his spectacular self, despite having no help at all on the horrifyingly bad Heat. And then there is the always confusing Jason Kidd, he of the passive aggressive personality and the perfect skinny triple-doubles.  Chauncey Billups would be a better pick, but he’s a lock to get added on next week anyway.

The West starters aren’t any more controversial, although next week figures to be even more difficult. The Rockets Yao Ming was a lock to be the top vote-getter at center, with the irrepressible Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant and Nuggets ubiquitous guard Allen Iverson the starters in the backcourt. Iverson came from behind to knock out Yao’s teammate Tracy McGrady, which is a good thing considering Iverson is a much better choice.

Next to Yao up front are the Spurs “Big Fundamental” Tim Duncan and Iverson’s Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony, considered by many to now be the best low-post scorer in the game today.

There are no arguments here to be made. This is the “fan’s game,” after all, and hopefully it will create some positive vibes for the struggles not even close to being resolved in New Orleans and the aftermath of Katrina.

But the questions remain about next week, and what the coaches are going to do about filling out the roster. They can not vote for players on their own team, plus they must pick five players by position and two alternates from their conference to fill out the 12-man roster. If there are injuries, it will be up to commissioner David Stern to supply the replacement.

Perhaps the biggest question – both literally and figuratively – is what to do about injury-ridden Heat center Shaquille O’Neal. Does he deserve a 15th consecutive trip to the All-Star game just out of respect for what he has accomplished in his career and for the league? If it’s a fan’s game, yes. But in many ways, out of respect for how Shaq has become just a giant shadow of himself on the court and no longer an All-Star caliber player, let’s leave well enough alone.

That being said, let’s fill out the rest of the East squad: Raptors forward Chris Bosh, Wizards forward Caron Butler, Hawks guard Joe Johnson, Pistons guard Chauncey Billups and Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas as the second five - with Celtics forward Paul Pierce and Pistons forward/center Rasheed Wallace as the two wild cards.

The West will be even more difficult to cut down, once you get past the second group of Suns center Amare Stoudemire and his teammate Steve Nash and New Orleans’ Chris Paul at the guards, with Utah’s Carlos Boozer and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki at the forwards.

That leaves us with just two spots to include Golden State’s Baron Davis, Phoenix’s Shaun Marion, Portland’s superb second-year guard Brandon Roy, along with the Hornets David West and Tyson Chandler, and that’s not to mention the Spurs Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili, and perhaps the best defensive player in the league, Marcus Camby at Denver.

Just for spark, I’ll go with Brandon Roy, for what he has done to life the Blazers from near oblivion and Tyson Chandler for how he has built himself into an All-Star caliber player at 23 after being beaten down to a nearly permanent fetal position in Chicago for five years.

And if you don’t like it, it doesn’t matter. This is what the All-Star game is all about. It’s filled with political, personal and popular decisions. Logic and statistics are merely props to justify whatever you want them to do. Every player mentioned here has the talent, style and statistics to be an All-Star. That’s why there has been a push going on the last few years to expand the All-Star rosters to 15 to avoid exclusion.

But it’s not likely to happen for now. The super weekend that’s expected to uplift the Big Easy is all about parties for sponsors and throwing money around in a city that is in such dire need, and hope against hope that it can add some juice to the Hornets franchise that is suffering the conundrum of being superb on the court but nobody comes to see the games.

So that’s why we’re making this point about picking whoever we want to be on the roster. When all is said and done about the weekend, it still comes down to the same thing for the players.

This is all about the game, and they all want to be there, if only because it’s the one time they call get to hang out together without the pressure of the regular season. And that’s the best part about it.