The Unheard Rockets' Fan

Although I wasn't too far off with my prediction of the 96-91 victory over the Rockets, the team sure did surprise me.

Rocket's Losing to the Lakers 105 to 100. It was an awesome game. The depth that we know the Rockets have, shined big bright and RED. They did not hide, they did not retreat, they FOUGHT and I am proud of the Rockets. Hell, Yao even got a technical foul. We had ball movement and a lot of other key factors that helped us stay in the game. Our shots were falling, and it seemed the Rockets did not skip a beat, even without Tmac and Artest out. With that said, let talk about why the Rockets lost.

I felt the refs called a fair game in the first half. Although in the second half, they seemed to let it slip away. The calls tremendously went Lakers way the second half and the "touch the MVP and be called for a foul" calls were horrid. I found myself getting up and yelling at the screen so many times. If a game is one sided in the refs perspective, they should give it to the home team. Don't be calling bullshit calls because one guy flopped or one guy faked a bad shot. IT'S BULLSHIT! Free throws for the night went 24 attempts to 8, with the Lakers getting the better bargain of the deal. I believe the calls in the second half cost us the game, frustrated the Rockets, and made an awesome game of two great teams be decided by BULLSHIT calls that shouldn't have happened.

On the bright side, Von Wafer is now becoming the x-factor for the Rockets with two of the "Big Three" out. Wafer had 23 pts on 10-14 shooting. That is amazing! Thats 71% from the field!

The team played excellent basketball and defense to say the least. Battier held the reining MVP to 33 points. Like Matt Bullard said after the game, "Held him to 33 points." Kobe shot 12-33 from the field. For a marginal 36% from the field. If it wasn't for Battier's great hustle defense, then Kobe would have dropped a 50 point game easily on the Rockets.

Yao showed what he is capable of...with his 19 points 17 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. If only Yao would do this every night, it could really bring the Rockets to the next level, even without Tracy. The problem for Yao Ming is his consistency this season with rebounding and his block shots per game. One night he will get 6 rebound then the next get 17.

BOTTOM LINE:
If the Rockets play with this type of intensity every game rather that stooping down to the level of their opponents, they will win A LOT of games, furthermore, a CHAMPIONSHIP. Although the Rockets lost last night, we showed that we can fight with the best of them. Imagine playing the Lakers with that intensity with a healthy Tmac and Artest, we would BLOW THEM OUT!

As soon as Tmac and Artest come back, which they shouldn't do so until they are 100%, Rockets will make the run, will go deep in the playoffs, will win the Championship. Let just hope when they do come back 100%, they bring the same intensity and give the 150% like every other Rocket on the squad is giving.