From Yahoo Sports

We got:

* Aaron Brooks, Tracy McGrady (even though he's not playing and in the inactive list) as guards

* Trevor Ariza and Luis Scola

HOWEVER, we DO NOT have a CENTER listed!!!!!

There's no love for Chuck Hayes!

This is an OUTRAGE. How many minutes does David Andersen have to get to qualify?

Chuck is down-right dominating other centers in the list, Oden sucks!

-> My 2 cents and 75 words

If the Lakers win tonight in Orlando, I think we can ALL be very happy that our Rockets were the only team to take them to 7 games...

The Denver Nuggets and the Orlando Magic as teams were not able to make Kobe work for his shot as Shane Battier did single-handed.

Rafer sucks!!! We should try to get Rashard for T-Mac!!! Yao is greater that Dwight!!! and those are my 75 words...

Do you get the feeling that Von Wafer has not played well since they diagnosed him with a bulging disk after game 5 in the first round?

I think his poor performance is hurting the team, he's very slow on the defensive side and not productive on the offense.

Reminds me of the injured T-mac.

Tonight he was 2-10 with 2 TO.

We need someone else to step up, what you think?

I need 75 words, so this sentence is pointless...

Lakers' Fisher, Magic's Alston each suspended for a game

By Official release

Posted May 7 2009 5:41PM

Rafer Alston of the Orlando Magic and Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers have each been suspended one game without pay for their roles in separate incidents last night, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations Stu Jackson announced Thursday.

Alston has been suspended for swinging and making contact with the head of Eddie House of the Boston Celtics with 48.6 seconds remaining in the third period of the Magic's 112-94 loss to the Celtics in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday night at TD Banknorth Garden.

Fisher has been suspended for striking Houston's Luis Scola with his shoulder and head with 13.2 seconds remaining in the third period of the Lakers' 111-98 win Wednesday over the visiting Houston Rockets in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals at Staples Center. Fisher received a Flagrant Foul Penalty Two and was ejected from the game at the time of the play.

Jackson also announced that the Lakers' Kobe Bryant has been assessed a Flagrant Foul Penalty One for elbowing Houston's Ron Artest in the chest area with 6:57 remaining in the fourth period of Wednesday night's game.

Alston will serve his suspension on Friday when the Magic hosts the Celtics at Amway Arena. Fisher also will serve his suspension on Friday when the Lakers visit the Rockets at Toyota Center.

Disregard this rant as it full of incoherentness and lacks any kind of sense whatsoever...

Forget ALL the statistics, the matchups, the experts' analysis, and probabilities!!!

If the Rockets WIN TONIGHT, THIS WILL BE A SWEEP!

Yeah, 4-0. It all depends on whether Yao can dominate and establish his game early.

Of course, that's a big IF, but I'm feeling HYPE right now. Can't wait for game time.

Hope I don't regret this later...

I believe the Rockets cannot afford to let Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry get enough experience from the remaining games to carry us thru the playoffs. Too much trial and error...

Would anybody object to having the Rockets sign Sam Cassell for the remainder of the season? Is it even possible? Can we waive Brian Cook to do it?

IMO, if we can afford to sign Dike just to be an inspirational cheerleader, we can do the same with Sam. I actually think Sam could even get on the court and show this boys how it's done...

What do yall think?

Last week we were celebrating Von Wafer's amazing play that had allowed us to beat Denver and eventually Utah (by the end of last wednesday) without T-Mac and Crazy Pills in the lineup.

Yao was destroying defenses and Rafer was impressingly playing well, but then...

* DISASTER *

Yao goes down, we lose and get swept by Indiana

T-Mac and Crazy Pills come back, we blew a big lead to the Pistons (the only reason we won is called Luis Scola)

And then our luck runs out and we end up losing to the Knicks!

But enough has been said about T-Mac and Artest sucking it up since they came back, and how Coach Sleepy needs to wake up. Bring back Von Wafer for crying out loud!!!!!

And with that, I'll bring back a poll I had a while back, just to see if more people will agree that Brent Barry should be taking 3 pters with less than a minute in the game to tie. However, I predict a fan favorite will win...

There are 7 days left to vote in the All-Star ballot and we pretty much have two of our stars, Yao and Tracy, set to play in Phoenix since they are leading by a couple hundred thousand votes. But there's one missing, Crazy Pills.

Rawn hasn't been in an All-Star game since 2004, I think he, as a Rocket, deserves to be in the All-Star game more so than T-Mac. And he is not that far, as of Thursday the Forward candidates stacked up like this:

Tim Duncan                             1, 454, 918

Carmelo Anthony                         905, 121

Amare Stoudemire                      894, 690

Ron Artest                                      890, 992

And honorable mention to Luis Scola with 281, 372

I think it'd be cool if we had 3 players in the All-Star game,

yeah not one but 3!!!

So go vote now and tell all your friends to vote!, you can vote once per day!

Things we already know...

So the Rockets currently sit on a less than expected 21-14 record and are carrying a two game losing streak. With Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest as former/current All Stars, how did we get to this point?

It is undeniable that we have the BEST center in the league in Yao (or one of the best, putting aside my own bias), and that we have 2 of the Top Defenders in the league in Ron Artest and Shane Battier. However, looking at our loses there were some statistics than stood out and seemed repetitive...

1st  Loss - 103-99 Boston Celtics:

    GUARDS - Ray Allen 29 points & Rajon Rondo 10 points

    CENTER - Kendrick Perkins, 15 points

    Yao 8 pts, TMac 26 pts, Artest 15 pts, Rafer 4 pts, Brooks 12 pts

2nd Loss - 101-99 Portland TrailBlazers:

    PF - LaMarcus Alridge 27 points & 9 rebounds

    PF - Travis Outlaw 14 points & 13 rebounds

    Yao 13 pts & 6 rebounds, TMac 30 pts, Artest 9 pts, Luis-Landry 18 pts & 6 rebounds

    OutRebounded 16-5 (offensive rbnds)

3rd Loss - 111-82 Los Angeles Lakers:

    GUARDS - Kobe Bryant 23 points & Jordan Farmar 16 points

    F - Pau Gasol 20 points

    Yao 12 pts, TMac 3 pts, Artest 8 pts, Rafer 7pts, Luis-Landry 24 pts

4th Loss - 77-75 San Antonio Spurs:

    GUARD - George Hill 17 points

    F - Matt Bonner 11 points, 3/4 3pt

    Yao 13 pts, TMac 7 pts, Artest 18 pts, Luis-Landry 12 pts, Rafer DNP, Brooks 14 pts

5th Loss - 96-86 Dallas Mavericks:

    GUARDS - Jason Kidd 8 points & Jason Terry 31 points

    PF - Dirk Nowitzki 24 points

    Yao DNP, TMac 16 pts, Artest 14 pts, Luis-Landry 20 pts, Rafer-Brooks 31 pts

6th Loss - 91-90 Indiana Pacers:

   GUARDS - TJ Ford 10 points & Brandon Rush 11 points

    PFs - Danny Granger 16 points & Troy Murphy 21 points, 4/6 3pt

    Yao 19 pts, TMac DNP, Artest 19 pts, Rafer-Brooks 14 pts, Luis-Landry 30 pts

7th Loss - 104-94 Denver Nuggets:

    GUARD - Chauncey Billups 28 points, 4/9 3pt

    GUARD - JR Smith 19 points, 5/9 3pt

    Yao 18 pts, TMac DNP, Artest 13 pts, Rafer-Brooks 31 pts, Head 3 pts

8th Loss - 109-97 Memphis Grizzlies:

    PFs - Rudy Gay 20 points & Hakim Warrick 18 points & Greg Buckner 8 points

    Yao 14 pts, TMac DNP, Artest DNP, Luis-Landry 28 pts

9th Loss - 95-82 Los Angeles Clippers:

    PFs - Al Thornton, 26 points & Zach Randolph 30 points

    Yao 24 pts, TMac 19 pts, Artest DNP, Luis-Landry 13 pts

10th Loss - 99-90 Cleveland Cavaliers:

    GUARDS - Mo Williams 23 points & Daniel Gibson 11 points

    F - LeBron James 27 points & 9 rebounds

    Yao 19 pts, TMac 4 pts, Artest 14 pts, Rafer-Brooks 30 pts

11th Loss - 88-79 New Orleans Hornets:

    GUARD - Chris Paul 26 points

    Fs - David West 23 points & Rasual Butler 13 points

    Yao 19 pts, TMac 11 pts, Artest DNP, Rafer-Brooks 12 pts, Luis-Landry 19 pts

12th Loss - 89-87 Washington Wizards:

    F - Antawn Jamison 30 points

    Yao 12 pts, TMac 15 pts, Artest 20 pts, Luis-Landry 22 pts

13th Loss - 94-73 Toronto Raptors:

    CENTER - Andrea Bargnani 19 points

    Fs - Chris Bosh 19 points & Jamario Moon 7 points

    Yao 14 pts, TMac 4 pts, Artest 12 pts, Luis-Landry 10 pts

14th Loss - 103-100 Atlanta Hawks:

    CENTERS - Al Horford 10 points & Zaza Pachulia 10 points

    GUARD - Flip Murray 17 points

    F - Josh Smith 29 points

    Yao 16 pts, TMac DNP, Artest DNP, Luis-Landry 34 pts, Rafer-Brooks 19 pts

We have two weaknesses @ the Guard & PF positions. Yes, while I agree that Luis Scola and Carl Landry are formidable players and can provide a spark on offense, in a position-by-position comparison against similar players, in our loses, they have either been shut down by the competition or lacked the ability to stop the competition. They lack size against those players (Glad Mutombo's back). However, I'm not taking into consideration that Shane or Artest might have been defending those players or whether their absence impacted our defense.

Just look at the Dallas game, it's not good when the scoring output of two of our players TOGETHER is less than or equal to the output of A player from the opposing team that plays in the same position.

However, it is ok sometimes when that player is the Star of the other team. That's when our own stars are supposed to step up. So to continue "Bash T-Mac Week", in the 10 games he's played that we've lost in, he's averaging 13.5 pts, and that's ONLY because of the first two games we lost where he put up decent scores. Taken those out of the equation, he's averaging 9.8 pts in our loses when he plays, truly a waste of 21 million dollars.

Have no fear dreamshakers, we can still look on the bright side. We've yet to lose to the same team twice (although that might change on wed when we play the celtics), Crazy Pills will snap and maybe T-Mac will decide to earn his paycheck on the last half of the season...

After seeing the Wizards game debacle, I started pondering on who should take the last second shot. On monday's game it was Yao, even though he was already 4-13 before taking a fade-away jumper that bounced off the rim. We have had games with similar situations but I fail to recall any successful last-second shots this season. I know Ron Artest and Tracy have both failed in a couple of instances.

So Dreamshakers, I leave it up to you to vote for whoever you think should take the last shot, either to tie or win the game.

My vote goest to Brent Barry, after some penetration by T-Mac/Brooks and a dish out for the 3. I believe that at this point T-Mac is not shooting well enought to take on the responsibility, even though he's better at it than Yao and Artest (in my opinion). Brent is like our upgraded Novak (who hit a game-winner against Sacramento last season) and could become our version of Big Shot Rob, for Robert Horry.