Post#9 » by jradMIT » Mon Mar 3, 2008 3:28 am
After Yao went down, the talking heads for the most part concluded that Houston would be the odd team out of the western conference playoffs. Despite being hot at the time. After tonight and another blowout victory the Rockets have won 15 in a row and even more 24 of 27. I think because it was such a big blow to lose Yao, people jumped to conclusions.
What they forgot was that last year when Yao went down for 32 games the Rockets were 20-12. This years team is improved especially at the power forward position with Scola and Landry. Also with the addition of Bobby Jackson, Raefer Alston who is having a career year has someone to give him a breather who is acclimated in the offense.
Two Reasons the Rockets will easily get to the playoffs and have a legitimate shot at homecourt for the first round.
Defense. With Yao gone the rockets actually might get better defensively. Mutumbo is a better shot blocker. Also Landry who is very athletic will get more minutes. The rockets are as good defensively as anyone in the league, and can you remember the last time a team won a title that wasn't defensive minded?
Offense is much better with Adelman's offense. Right now during this run the Rockets are piling up assists averaging 26+ a game during the streak. It took the team a while to get the flow of the new offense but right now they are clicking on all cylinders. It is no coincident that Alston is having his best season as a pro. With Scola and Landry, the rockets have some of the interior scoring they lost with Yao. But the ball movement is really good and now they can score without heavily relying TMAC.
Bottom line without Yao the Rockets are still one of the better teams in the Western conference. With Phoenix looking out of sync, the Hornets being terrible inconsistent, and Utah slowing down, and the Mavs still trying to find themselves after the trade, the Rockets have just as good of a chance than any of those other teams to get homecourt.
