1) Golden State shot 55.4% from the field.  Houston shot 26.7% from the three point line (we averaged 38% against them last year).  Neither of those will happen in future matchups between the two teams.

2) We played the 2nd night of a road back-to-back against the runningest team in the league at the beginning of the season, when players aren't really in shape.  We did this without our backup PG or our starting center, and we played *their* primary backups 8 (Ish) and 3 (Miller) minutes respectively.  And those minutes didn't go to Jordan Hill either. 

Golden State played out of their minds, we were tired (and seemed to voluntarily handicap ourselves), and it still came down to the final minute.  Now, I'm not taking too many positives away from this game, but we certainly don't need to be in panic mode. 

Every game means a lot for seeding, but nothing in this game is likely to resemble anything we will have to face in the run up to the playoffs.  In fact, it's conceivable that this was a look at the sort of playing-tired shortened rotation that we will employ in the playoffs.  Why we did it in the 2nd game seems silly, but it happened and it wasn't a blowout. That's not nothing.

Dreamshake stalwart Moondebah posted this gamethread for the FIBA Championships in Turkey, and since it is actual for-real basketball where the games have some meaning, I'd say it's worthy of a place on the front page.  Also, Rocket Luis Scola is heavily involved as the best player so far in the tourney, so there's your Rockets link right there. - Xiane

Just in case people are interested in gabbing about the USA games (or others, I watch what I can), I figured I could give a place for us to congregate.

Interesting games upcoming:

USA v. Angola, Monday at 10 am CT on ESPN2/ESPN3

The US should win this, but they're probably going up against the most athletic team (other than themselves) in this tournament.  I anticipate that we would do better against a highly athletic but unskilled team like Angola than a moderately athletic but highly skilled team like Spain or Argentina, but since we haven't really played one yet, who knows?  Winner of this game plays on Thursday vs. Russia/New Zealand

Argentina v. Brazil, Tuesday at 1 pm CT on ESPN3

Not only based on their 2 point loss to the US has Brazil been one of the more surprising teams in this tournament.  One of these two team (or Lithuania) will meet the US in the semifinals unless something goes wrong.  Argentina has been looking fairly week this tourney (and Brazil beat them last year on their way to the FIBA Americas championship), but Scola has been looking badass.  He's been carrying them, and unfortunately he can probably only carry them so far.  Winner of this game plays on Thursday vs. Lithuania (or China, but not really)

I hope I don't tread on the real Dream Shake writers' toes be creating a game thread for the World Championships starting Saturday morning.  I know it's not Rockets basketball, but I still wanted to do it because:

a) You can watch some of your favourite Rockets players and prospects!  Luis Scola!  Sergio Llull!  Brad Newley!  Not Yao Ming!

b) It's actual basketball and not Carmelo trade rumours.

c) I kinda like international basketball. This isn't the Olympics, but it's still fun to watch players who are the go-to player on their team not have to shoulder the entire load.  For example: Rudy Gay actually plays defense and gets at least one "where the hell did that come from?" block per game.  Plus I miss banging in the post and guards having to deal with contact, just like the basketball I grew up watching.

d) I will be watching as many games as I can anyway, and I'd rather read what you guys have to say about it than the masses at a generic basketball blog. We (well, mostly ressaliance_00 and myself) had a good game thread going during some of the exhibitions.

e) Since 1955 the Rockets and Team USA have been "World Champions" exactly the same number of times (twice), and we both won our last championship in 1994 (ish) with Hakeem Olajuwon.  Both teams must be destined to win this year...you know...because we're linked or some shit.  (Note: I would also accept Houston and Argentina both winning this year behind the dominating performances of Luis Scola)

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Team USA is going to be playing Lithuania (presently) and Spain (on Sunday) as a tune-up for the World Championship.  Even though the Rockets don't have anyone in these games per se (except for Sergio Llull in the Spain game) I'm a fan of international play so I'll be watching them.

So if anyone wants to make this a game thread, I'll be here.  I'd rather commiserate with Dreamshake folk than any of the ESPN or Yahoo hoi polloi.

I'm paying a bit more attention to the summer league this year, having done no more than check the box scores/highlights for my team (Rockets) in previous years, and I noticed something that I thought someone here might be able to confirm or disconfirm:

I've always thought the summer league is tailor made for (1) giving first round draftees that will eventually be rotation players a first look at the team's sets & NBA-style competition and (2) getting a look at undrafted or 2nd round players and determining if they deserve a contract.  This year, however, the latter seem to have been pushed out a bit because several teams are playing 2nd and 3rd year guys who were in the rotation last year (like Beaubois, DeRozan, Lawson, and half the Rockets team).

Is it just me, or are there many more minutes going to guys who already have both NBA experience AND a guaranteed spot on the team?  If so, why?  Are teams cutting costs by scouting fewer players?  Is there a trend toward developing young guys in summer league instead of or in addition to training camp?  Am I just reading too much into having experienced players dance around the summer league for a few games?

Donatas Motiejunas has decided to withdraw from the NBA draft this year.  I know this might not affect the Rockets much, but I was excited about him for two reasons. 

1) if we had gotten him at 14, I think it would have been a pretty solid pick: I am optimistic enough about our team for next year that I think that any rookie we got at 14 wouldn't be able to contribute much other than being played only so that they can develop in the future.  A lottery pick we stash in Europe would be able to develop without taking time away from Hill/Bud/whoever and would effectively allow us to reload (along with Llull) in between our 2nd and 3rd consecutive championships.  Or something like that. 

2) if he had gone before 14, that would have bumped someone down to 14 that we might not have otherwise been able to get.  Since I hope this is our only appearance in the lottery for a while, I want everyone that could possibly be a top 10 pick in the draft to declare, so that we have as many options as possible at 14.  I know that we might get another shot at a top pick next year with the Knicks pick, but between NY's free agency, top pick protection, and a possible lockout, I'd rather snag what we can while we're drafting high.

So, since our beloved PG is going to be the team representative at that draft lottery, he'll know before anyone where the Rockets will be in the draft.  I guess he won't care too much if we end up at 14, as expected.  Even if we end up 2nd or 3rd, that likely just means that he has some new toys to play with on offense next year.  But what happens if we win the first pick?  Watch his face and try to guess what he's thinking...

I don't really know how the elite free agents of 2010 think, and I don't really think that we'll end up with any of them anyway, but it's now the offseason for the Rockets and I can't stop thinking about basketball.

So the question is, does anyone else think that Miami's ignominious defeat at the hands of the Celtics bodes poorly for Wade's chances of staying in Miami?  I tend to think that, 10% of their salary from resigning with their home team and Miami nightlife aside, players really want to win, and Miami just showed Wade that they can't even come close to winning like this.

He's not coming to Houston, and I really don't care where he goes (unless it's NY, 'cause of the picks), but I think the asswhupping he was just handed adds some intrigue to the offseason.

Now that we have our 42nd win, this means that Rick Adelman has coached his teams to above a .500 record in all but THREE of his 19 seasons.  Which three?  His first as a coach, with Portland, and then twice with the Warriors.  He's done it with great teams, he's done it with ad-hoc teams, he's done it for over 20 years.  He finds ways for his teams to win.  Well done, Coach.

....and the Utah Jazz won the NBA title?  Would you invite them to the White House?  Give them a congratulatory phone call?  Throw them in a secret prison?

I don't know why I was thinking of this, but I was, and so now you get to take a poll about it.  Are the Jazz not your preferred rival?  Then just think about how you'd treat the Mavs or Lakers or whoever you hate.

I don't put a lot of stock in Hollinger's playoff odds on ESPN (where he simulates the results of the rest of the season 5000 times and gives the % of times a team makes the playoffs), but it's still a fun thing to check out occasionally.

One interesting tidbit: the Rockets are the ONLY team in the NBA in which the "best case" scenario is that we win all remaining games, and the "worst case" scenario is we lose all remaining games.  Every other team either steals or drops at least one in their best and worst cases.

How about it: it's possible for us (and no one else) to go 16-0 or 0-16 from here out.  An up-and-down season in a nutshell.

Not that this isn't a good trade for Houston, it's just that I couldn't believe it was the best deal we could have gotten.  Nevertheless, immediately after I heard about the trade, the first thing I thought of was "In Morey we trust," which is bandied about but I had so far avoided.  But this is actually one of those times I DID trust in Morey.  To be more specific, I forced myself to trust Morey after I heard about a deal that truly broke my heart and found that I already did.

I already knew that Martin was a better player than Landry and that we were strong at PF and weak at (true) shooting guard.  But the Morey-trust comes in because I honestly believe that at least 2 of the following 4 things will also be true:

a) Martin's style will fit perfectly in with Yao/Scola/Brooks more so than having to be Atlas in Sacramento. Morey knew this and was willing to pay a premium (vs. other King offers) to get him.

b) Landry's style wouldn't have fit perfectly with Yao/Scola/Brooks/other free agent. Morey knew this and used him to get a possible all-star.

c) One of the "filler" players in the trade...Rodriguez, probably, or whatever picks we would get from the Knicks, is secretly solid, a la Kyle Lowry.

d) We're not done moving, either now or summer, and there's some cap-math out there that this allows us to utilize.  Or maybe Les said "you get me under the luxury tax this year and I'll buy you picks 31-37 in next year's draft" or something.

THIS is where Morey gets trust, not for no-brainers like Spanoulis for Scola or nothing for Andersen.

According to this, if the Rockets win tonight they will have been 11-5 in December, matching their highest December win total ever. 

Wins aren't quite the same as having their best Dec. winning percentage, but taking 11 of 16 in 31 days in which SIX games were played at home....well that's damned impressive for anyone.  And it evidently matches up favourably with the great Houston teams of the past.  Who knew?

Of course, to achieve this feat they have to beat Dallas, so this is jumping the gun a bit.   But it's a fun fact to have available whenever someone posts something about Houston needing to acquire Larry Hughes in order to salvage their season.

Don't know how many of you were at the game last night, but during halftime Jermaine Taylor came out and shagged balls...for one of the ball boys.  I looked up and saw a horrible airball and traced back the shot to see who was shooting, and it was the 7 year old kid who they usually have chasing down balls. 

I wondered why he was being allowed to shoot, and then saw that Taylor was running after all of his shots and kicking it back out to him.  They did this for a couple of minutes before the rest of the team came out and then Taylor went back to warming up, but good on him.  Probably made the kid's day.

This is the first specific trade chatter we've heard in a while.  I'm no GM, but the Knicks' listed offerings seem to be underwhelming.  Expiring contracts for expiring contracts is only useful if it gets the Rockets under the luxury tax and any 1 for 2 trade would eliminate the roster flexibility they gained by cutting Pops. Plus, they (or maybe just we) were high enough on Pops that it makes me think we want someone more than filler for that space.

Eddy Curry doesn't expire, would barely see the court now, and would be a drain on the stated goal of finals run in 2010-2011.  Wilson Chandler is the only player with promise listed, but do the Rockets really need ANOTHER Ariza/Battier/Budinger? Duhon would be a nice 3rd pg, but doesn't give us, development-wise, anything that a RGV call-up doesn't.

Of course, all of this changes if NY includes a draft pick, which should be GOLDEN for years to come.

I was checking out what BTOTS had to say about the Rockets/Suns game tonight, and in their preview they had this to say in their rundown of Scola:

The Rockets have very little depth at any position so taking Louis (sic) out of the game would spell instant trouble.

 Is it just me, or is that the opposite of the Rockets' situation?  I would actually venture to say that the Rockets' backups are pretty close in ability to the starters at every position.  The "problem" that pretty much everyone has seen with Houston is that they have no star who stands out.

Even if you don't buy that Budinger and Andersen are close in value to Ariza/Battier and Hayes, I would say that the position where we have the least drop-off in ability is probably the Scola-Landry substitution.

Now, I don't want to see Scola in foul trouble early, but isn't the main (if not only) advantage of having a roster stuffed with interchangeable role players that something like foul trouble/injury affects us less? 

I guess I'm just ticked because I'm tired of hearing the Rockets getting dismissed because they have no stars, and right when it looks like that might die down a bit I hear that we have no depth.  Pretty soon we won't be able to win because our jerseys use only primary colours.

But we can maybe make someone feel bad about leaving him off the ballot.  You can write him in at nba.com or text his last name (they send you a follow up to see if you meant Chuck or Jarvis, I'll see if his full name works tomorrow) once a day to 69622. 

It's a shame, too, since the West centers are pretty weak this year.  The most talented ones on the list (Amar'e, Jefferson) are really combo PFs and they've even got some guys who haven't been starting (Camby and McDyess).  Camby is especially egregious; at center he's behind and being consistently outplayed by Kaman, who is not on the ballot.

I wasn't able to watch the Spurs game (or, really, any games this year since my local FSN shows Bobcats games), so I wasn't able to hear how the announcers pronounced Chase's last name. However, on the Rockets.com recap they pronounced it "Buh-din-jer."  Was this the pronunciation used during the actual game?

A bit of snooping around (at about the 3:00 mark) discovered that the man himself says "Buh-ding-gir," with both a 'ding' in the middle and a hard 'G' at the end.  Like girl, minus the 'l.'

Hopefully they'll clear this up before it catches on with the ESPN announcers, not that we have to worry about national announcers until at least April.

Also, I wonder how often he was called a "budding girl" by bullies growing up? Hopefully he had that growth spurt early.