http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/bloggers/tom-ziller/ By: Tom Ziller Why Folks Picked the Houston Rockets I think this is why people picked the Houston Rockets as a title contender last fall. By this, I mean: Twelve straight victories, including a 20-point win over New Orleans a few days ago. The Rockets beat Chicago on Sunday, with Tracy McGrady scoring 24 points on 13 FGAs and adding 8 assists, several of those to... improbable Rookie of the Year contender Luis Scola, who scored 17 and has seven double-digit scoring nights in his last nine games. It took a while, but Houston's stew is really coming together. The defense is statistically #2 in the league -- a Rick Adelman team, with the #2 defense! The offense, again, is coming along. After three months with nothing but awful emitting from the point guard position, Rafer Alston's providing stability. The key: He's not having to shoot much, as Scola soaks up a lot more offense than old power forwards Chuck Hayes and Juwan Howard did. This is precisely why so many of us thought Scola acquisition was huge -- he instantly became the needed third option between Yao Ming and McGrady necessary to keep the shots falling when Options #1 and #1a were unavailable. Houston should cool off at some point, and we're seemingly always one bounce away from a protracted McGrady injury. But this offense should only get smoother with time. If Adelman (and Shane Battier) can keep the defensive standards high, we once again have a very dangerous team come April and May.
