NBA.COM : The Top 10 Reasons Why the Rockets Are Red Hot

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The Top 10 Reasons Why the Rockets Are Red Hot
By Gene Peterson, Radio Play-by-Play, KILT 610 AM
Posted Mar 13 2008 5:59PM

NBA.com caught up with Houston Rockets' broadcaster Gene Peterson to discuss why and how the Rockets are in the midst of a 20-game win streak. The Rockets expert provided 10 solid reasons that explain the team's recent success.

1) The team’s adaptation to Rick Adelman’s system
The defense was there a year ago, which was something that Rick obviously was pushing hard to have continue, but they have adapted to his offensive style after taking a couple of months to fully adjust. His is a motion offense that is structured around everyone passing the ball, of everyone being involved. They did it earlier in the season before Yao got hurt and it has just continued. That is the most important factor as to why they’re playing so well right now.

2) A top notch T-Mac
Tracy is playing the best he has ever played in his entire career. I’ve told him that and he’s said other friends have told him the same thing. There is no question about it. He had to do a lot of things in Orlando – mainly scoring – that no one else could do. He even led the league in back to back years (’03 and ’04). Here he hasn’t had to do that. He’s been the consummate team player and very, very unselfish. He scores when he has to score. For example, against New Jersey he scored 19 but he could have scored two and we would have won that ballgame. He has adapted himself to Adelman’s style.

3) The coaching of Rick Adelman
The job that he has done as head coach is absolutely phenomenal. His substitution patterns have been terrific and when Yao Ming went down he was able to get this team to continue to play his style of basketball. Rick makes sure that they take it one game at a time. These guys are not caught up in a 20-game winning streak. How could they be when you see how close it is from No.1 to No.10 in the Western Conference? They are caught up in trying to make the playoffs. He has done a marvelous job of coaching this basketball team and I think he is one of the best in the business. This year he has really proved that.

4) Rafer Alston – no longer just ‘Skip To My Lou’
Rafer has been absolutely superb. A lot of people have maligned him but they don’t realize that he’s averaging double figures in scoring; he hands out six, seven, eight assists a ballgame; and he only turns it over twice a night. This young man is playing the best of any point guard in the league right now. That’s not to say he is the best point guard, but he is playing superb basketball and is a major reason the Rockets are having the success that they are.

5) The adaptation of the Van Gundy defensive style
Jeff Van Gundy instilled a lot of his defensive principles into these guys’ minds that were here last year and it has maintained. They have adapted that philosophy, led by Shane Battier, who is probably the best defensive forward in basketball. Every single night Shane gets the tough scorer. The other night he did a marvelous job on Vince Carter holding him to 5-for-15 shooting. Night after night he does it.

6) Daryl Morey: The Team Architect
Our general manager, Daryl Morey, has done a great job, mainly because he was given carte blanche by our owner, Leslie Alexander, to go get the likes of Luis Scola and Carl Landry. The deals were made and both have been major, major parts in the play of the Rockets this year. Scola had tremendous success while playing in Europe with Spain and with Argentina as a professional. Even though he’s one of the older rookies in the league at 27, this is a new story for him. The NBA is a much different style of basketball. And Carl Landry was just a gold find, having been obtained from the Sonics on draft day. This young man is a terrific young player and he’s got the heart of a lion. We’ll give a little bit of credit to the youngster, Aaron Brookes, too. Despite the arrival of Bobby Jackson recently, he’s had some very good moments with the Rockets.

7) The ageless Dikembe Mutombo
How about the play of this guy at 41 years old? He had to step in with just unbelievable shoes to fill with Yao Ming out for the year and all he did his first game in there was block four shots. The next game he blocked four more. The next game three more. Against New Jersey he blocked five. So in about 130 minutes of play he’s blocked about 15 shots. Dikembe Mutombo is just the consummate professional. He’s not going to score a lot of points for you, but he does the job in the middle. He plays 23-24 minutes a ball game and is extremely effective. His contributions have been a major reason as to how we’ve won eight straight without Yao Ming.

8) Yao Ming, pre-injury
Yao Ming is just a terrific, terrific professional. He has skills that I don’t think any other 7-6 guy has. Because of his size he has defensive liabilities and he doesn’t have the greatest of hands and leaping ability, but when it comes to offensive skills, he has it all – the jumphook, the fadeaway jumpers. How many guys do you know 7-foot-6 that shoot 86 percent from the free throw line? He was a major part in this run for 12 games who was enjoying his best season to date before the unfortunate season-ending injury.

9) Chuck Hayes, Luther Head and the entire Rockets’ bench
Chuck Hayes is a guy that people say can’t start because he can’t score, but he has been another major factor coming off the bench for this team. He was starting for a long time, but since Scola was inserted in the starting lineup, we haven’t lost a game. Coming off the bench in situations where defense is required, and I’m talking about against the Tyson Chandlers of this league, the seven footers, you can’t say enough about Chuck Hayes and the great hustle that he provides. And as an added bonus he’s even had 12 assists in his last five games. Luther Head has been another guy who, with this outside shooting ability, has affected the game for the Rockets. Overall, whenever anybody has been called on by Adelman, they have gone in and done the job.

10) The Red Rowdies
The electricity of the fans in Houston over this last series has been terrific and I think the players would agree with that. Sometimes it hasn’t been as volatile and vociferous as you’d like it to be, but lately it has been a big boost. The city of Houston right now is caught up in Houston Rockets basketball, not in the Astros or anything else. Let’s face it, there’re only two championships in the city of Houston as big as it is – the fourth largest city in the United States – and both of those championships belong to the Houston Rockets.