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 ChrisBosh, Wizards forward Caron Butler, Hawks guard Joe Johnson, Pistons guard Chauncey Billups andCavs 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’ DirkNowitzki 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.
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. 
