Kleeman's Last Word

Rout of Celtics Shows Rockets' Promise

When the Rockets body slammed the Celtics 111-80 to the point of torture and suffocation, you began to see the spark of something special. We all saw it.
It's the potential this team has, when its entire lineup is intact, when everything is synchronized. It's the thought of Dallas Mavericks' coach Avery Johnson gasping when he finds out just how good these Rockets are. But of course, as the debilitating loss to Cleveland on Monday showed, it's still only potential.
Yao Ming had 11 points in 19 minutes but was benched due to early foul trouble. Tracy McGrady racked up 25 points. Then there's the matter of the other four players in double figures. Clutch shooter Luther Head was a basket away from making that seven players. Bonzi Wells, who the Rockets hope will turn into the star bench player come playoff time, missed another contest with injury.
The shooting percentages, the scoring, defensive intensity, the poise, ballhandling, everything seemed to be turning in the right direction Wednesday night.
The Rockets will depart from another well-earned rout knowing that they have a long way to go. To scare any teams with serious playoff experience, they'll have to consistently levy this kind of damage against better teams than the Celtics. Boston, after all, should have broken the record for most games lost in a row. Beating up on this kind of team, if you hope to make a deep playoff run, is like cheering when you beat your 90-year-old grandmother up two flights of stairs.
The season series' with Dallas and San Antonio have ended, but there's still one more meeting with Phoenix and Los Angeles. Detroit and Utah are also still on the docket. The Rockets have the next 20 plus games not only to try and catch the 4th place Jazz, but to secure something greater. To win in the playoffs, they'll have to win on the road, making any home court advantage irrelevant to them.
The Rockets have blown their chance at the #2 spot, but all is not lost. This team has the chance to do what the only other Houston championship teams have done: get it together and kick ass in the playoffs.
Right now, not a single sportscaster on ESPN, ABC or TNT believes the Rockets will get past the first round. That's precisely what people said about the team in the 1994-95 season. Even after Hakeem Olajuwon hoisted the Larry O' Brien trophy, still they said the Rockets couldn't do it again. Clyde the Glide and a host of others proved them all dead wrong. Houston has never been given the benefit of the doubt. The Rockets have had to work like the Mavericks and the Spurs never will, to earn respect.
The other Texas basketball teams have rarely dabbled in mediocrity quite the way this franchise has. In the 1990's the Mavericks weren't respectable enought to look good as the butt of a cruel joke. They just plain stunk. Now, they seem to be levels better than everybody else in the league. And who has ever doubted the potential of a Tim Duncan-led franchise?
Doubt Houston? All the time, every time. Even former Rockets Kenny "the Jet" Smith and Jon Barry can't even stick up for their own teams. They say look at the stats and you will see everything you need to know.
I say stats are bullshit and that a 52-win team can rally from two down in the Finals and beat a 60 win team that was favored to win, as it happened last season. I say Phoenix gave up 120 points to the league's worst scoring offense.
Since those two championship years, The Rockets have never been the worst team in the league, but they've never been the best. They always fall somewhere in the middle of the pile, a franchise with talented players, who just can't break that damn mediocrity curse.
This entire season, the Rockets have been dancing dangerously somewhere between a 1st round playoff exit and a championship.
It's only potential, right?

posted by Robert Kleeman @ 8:48 PM