Didn't see this posted. http://www.sportsline.com/nba/story/10468935 Over 200 million in China saw a Houston victory over the weekend, watching Yao's Rockets best Yi's Bucks. Add them to the list of basketball fans asking the same question about what has become the most talked-about basketball team in the world: Just how good are the Rockets? Everyone knew they would be strong given the pieces they had assembled, but declaring they could dethrone San Antonio or leapfrog Phoenix and Dallas was presumptuous. New coach Rick Adelman still had to find the pulse of his team and a rotation, defined roles had to be established, and more than anything, we had to see a little substance behind the hype. "We look great on paper," Tracy McGrady said during the preseason, "but sometimes it really doesn't translate on the court." Through the season's first two weeks, that substance has been delivered. Houston has gone into the Staples Center and Salt Lake City and won. It has been brilliant at home, including an impressive performance over the defending champs in which it asserted its dominance on the glass. The Rockets have only been outrebounded twice and are off to their best start in a decade, since Charles Barkley joined Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler on a team that won 15 of its first 16. It no longer sounds so far-fetched to think that Houston can win the Southwest Division, where it has run a distant third the past few years. Barring injury, the Rockets are a team built to excel through the grind of a regular season. They have two superstars who Charlotte forward Gerald Wallace said Sunday "might be the best 1-2 combination since M.J. and Pippen." There's a stopper in Shane Battier who comes to play every night and a collection of rebounders and tempo-changers, be it Chuck Hayes, Luis Scola or Dikembe Mutombo. When Rafer Alston is struggling to get the team into its offense, Mike James can come in and offer a new look. Bonzi Wells and Luther Head are specialists, one a garbage man, the other a dead-eye shooter. Either is capable of getting hot and winning a game by themselves; they just don't have to. No one should start whispering about championships just yet, particularly since Houston hasn't been able to get out of the first round of the playoffs since 1998. But there is something special brewing in eastern Texas. The Rockets not only could win 60 games for the first time in franchise history; they probably should. They can hammer in that point if they continue to play well, because the statement games pile up this week. Kobe Bryant's Lakers come into town Wednesday for a rematch of a memorable opening night game that Shane Battier won on a late 3-pointer. With Lamar Odom and Chris Mihm both seeing action, L.A. is at full strength for the first time. Friday, the Rockets visit San Antonio in a game that has become magnified after the 55-28 rebounding edge Houston enjoyed on Nov. 6. Gregg Popovich felt his team got bullied and will demand they give a better accounting of themselves at home. The next night, the Rockets return to Houston to welcome Phoenix. Rest assured, the Suns aren't simply going to roll over and hand over the role of heir apparent in the Western Conference. This will be their first look at the revitalized Rockets. Historically, Yao Ming has struggled keeping up with Phoenix's up-and-down style, but he finished with 34 points and nine rebounds the last time the teams met on April 16, when Houston snapped a six-game losing streak to the Suns and celebrated as if it had just reached the NBA Finals. Wins in big games have escaped the T-Mac/Yao Rockets over the years, but this season is all about leaving all those disappointments in the past. Huge weeks like this one should be viewed as an opportunity to re-establish Houston's basketball team among the NBA's elite, somewhere it hasn't been since Olajuwon was raising banners in the mid-'90s. Year 4 of the McGrady/Yao partnership affords that opportunity. More good reviews. This week is going to be tough...
Bonzi the Grouch. Oscar the Wells. Mejia the bandwagon jumper. I recant my position that publicity is bad, for NBA basketball at least. At best, the Rockets ignore stuff like this and just do their jobs, like Yao said.
