The cellar? The basement? A rung above "dirt level?" Ready for a "dirt nap?" Out to sea? Up a creek? Planning a fishing trip? Barely a .500 club? Struggling? But seriously, anyone know?
I remember halfway thru the streak and folks were complaining that we were only in 7th or 8th place. Even though the place in the standings didnt rise, the GB from everyone did. Thats why the 2nd 10 game streak so to speak saw the Rockets climb all the way to a 1st way tie.
Since Fran Blinebury wrote this blog on 1/15, the Rockets have gone 25-1! [rquoter] January 15, 2008 The day the music died. Bye- bye, Miss American Pie. Turn out the lights, the party's over. The NBA draft lottery will be held on May 20. No matter how you say it, this was the game that made it safe to plan a spring vacation. The Rockets are going nowhere at warp speed. Not with a back-to-back set of games where they give up 29 and 37 points in the fourth quarter. Not with a backcourt collection that cannot execute the simple entry pass to a center who stands 7-6. Not with a collective backbone that couldn't stand up to a jellyfish. "We let up, as we usually do," said Rafer Alston. "It was a total let-up." A complete and utter breakdown. This has turned into nothing short of a clown act, missing only the fright wigs, red noses and big shoes. And once more they disgraced the throwback uniforms of champions. We're way past the point where any of this can be attributed to a new coaching staff and a roster full of new players. This time the Rockets weren't beaten by a better team. They were beaten by a low echelon bunch in the weaker Eastern Conference that was willing to one thing they wouldn't do for four quarters. Work. This was a bad Philly team that came in dragging a 7-game losing streak. The Sixers were on the second night of a back-to-back and the Rockets supposed had the memory of last month's embarrassing loss in Philly to fuel them. There are few "must win" games over the course of the long NBA season. But this was one of them if the Rockets were hoping to gain ground and get into the Western Conference playoff race. But they missed shots, 18 of 24 in the fourth quarter, and they turned the ball over 9 times in the final period. Much of that happened because the Rockets packed it in and called it a night after building a 16-point lead late in the third quarter. The Sixers decided to earn all four quarters of their salaries. They turned up their intensity on the defensive end. They began fronting Yao Ming and sending help from the weakside. They forced turnovers and missed shots and they ran like the wind at every opportunity to score layups at the other end. Don't let Yao totally off the hook. He finally got the ball in the paint for 3 shots in the final 2:49 of the fourth quarter - a 10-foot hook, a 10-foot jumper and a 9-foot hook - and he missed them all The next time Rockets owner Leslie Alexander decides to label his team the best collection of talent since the championship years, he'd better pop in a DVD of the old days and remember that giving a damn counts, too. Especially in the backcourt, there has been some serious misjudgment of talent and know-how, from Alston and Luther Head to Mike James and Steve Francis. The Rockets are a ship without a rudder at crunch time. With his random rotation changes, head coach Rick Adelman appears clueless and every combination he tries gets to the fourth quarter and looks hapless. "There's not much for me to say," said Adelman. "You don't take care of the ball and (when) they beat us to the basket time after time in the fourth quarter, it's going to be hard to win...We acted like the game was over starting the fourth quarter. We're not good enough to act like the game is over." Now Tracy McGrady comes back from his knee injury, maybe Saturday night against the Spurs, maybe the following game. But it hardly matters now. You can give up on this season. The Rockets have.[/rquoter]
