Houston, we have a problem

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    The Rockets have won 5 of 6 games, beginning with a pair of big wins
against New York and at Philly. The Dream has been the story. In the
past three games he is averaging 15.0 rebounds. Over the last six games,
his numbers are 15.5 points, 12.7 boards, 2.5 steals and 2.83 blocks.

    The Rockets have held 5 of their last 6 opponents to 90 or fewer
points. In there last game, a win on Saturday versus Cleveland, they
held the Cavs to 80 points and the Rockets backcourt of Steve Franchise
and Cuttino Mobley combined for 61 points, 15 boards and 6 steals.

    Mobley (19.7 ppg, 4.6 rebounds) and Francis (19.9 ppg, 6.6 rebounds,
6.0 assists, 1.9 steals) are the soul of the Houston team. Moochie
Norris is the pure pointguard backup, averaging 3.4 assists in 20
minutes.

    Houston also features a pair of valuable swingmen in Shandon
Anderson (8.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and Walt Williams (8.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg).

    The big acquisition this offseason was Maurice "Liz" Taylor, a pure
low post threat who has never put much thought or effort into rebounding
(5.5 boards this year, 5.3 career). Taylor is built solid at 6-9 260,
and he leads the Rockets in FG% at .483 while averaging 12.1 ppg.

    Houston will rotate a lot of generic forwards into their lineup,
notably 6-8 Kenny Thomas (25 minutes) and 6-10 Matt Bullard (15.6
minutes). The Rockets have four other 6-11 guys Carlos Rogers, Jason
Collier, Dan Langhi and Kelvin Cato getting minutes.

    Hakeem (.645) is the only regular shooting under 70% from the line,
on a team that averages around 25 trips to the line per game and hits a
solid .766. The Houston Rockets force only 13.5 turnovers per game and
have been out-rebounded, out-swatted, out-assisted all season, although
that trend is starting to change.

    Rudy Tomjanovich is in his tenth season as Rockets coach, and also
had his number retired as a player alongside three others (Calvin
Murphy, Moses Malone and Clyde Drexler).  His career coaching record is
414 wins and 293 losses, with back-to-back championships in 93 and 94.
Only once has his team played sub-500 ball: last season's 34-48 debacle.

    The Celtics continued their soft rebounding last night, getting just
28 boards led by Antoine's six. Pierce found his groove last night, with
22 points and 5 assists in just 28 minutes. Notably, only Antoine played
over 28 minutes last night, what with the outcome largely settled early
on. Obie is no dummy (he played all 12 guys last night) and clearly he's
hoping to engineer "three dubyas in dubya country" for Boston. Houston
hasn't played in three days and might even show a bit or rust out of the
gate. After that, there should be a lot of entertaining fireworks and
inside-outside scoring. Paul and Antoine will need all the help they can
get in a complete team effort.

    Go Celts!

----