Dash

What was that shit with Jericho? I feel trolled.

Wolves are looking like a playoff team right now or a team that can at least compete for a spot. Rick Adelman for Coach of the Year!

Casey can certainly work magic on the defensive end. Color me impressed.

Yeah its why I think we can manage to sneak into the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed. Still skeptical about this team though, seen some good and bad things in the early going. We also need a true small forward, Bud has virtually been nonexistent.

If he's outselling Lebron then apparently so.

This.

18 assists in a Rockets' win. Nice.

mr_jasonjones Jason Jones For those curious, teams that have liked Cousins and figure to call the Kings are Houston and Detroit. Kings say they aren't trading Cousins

Westphal will be fired before Cousins gets traded.

Crazy weekend. Wedding Friday night, same day I hear some dude I used to know was shot 3 times in front of his house (RIP). Attended the funeral service yesterday around noon and spent the remainder of the day at our planned New Years Eve party (strange change of gears, thought we were going to cancel) and went to bed at 5 am at my cousins' place. Woke up, watched the Texans lose, got a job interview and now I'm home.

Interesting bit per Bill Worrell during the game, the Rockets have the 2nd youngest roster in the NBA (can't remember the exact average age) but have the least experienced team (the average Rocket is in their 3rd NBA season), and we're competing for a playoff spot in a very competitive Western Conference. How often do you hear that?

Stat line for Lowry tonight against Memphis: 15 points (5-9 shooting), 3 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals in just 24 minutes. Too bad he couldn't get us the win but Lowry once again was very impressive.

Tough loss, besides Lowry and Martin there wasn't much going for the Rockets tonight. Parsons did get 13 points in garbage time though, which is impressive.

Great game, Minnesota has easily been the most fun team to watch this season thanks to Rubio. Team could easily be 3-0 right now.

We can compete with the best of them but I can't picture the Rockets as-is getting any higher than the 7th seed (maybe 6th) barring any significant trade. A lot of teams downgraded but that doesn't mean that they are still any worse than the Rockets and don't forget a good amount of non-playoff teams from last season have improved (Warriors, Kings, Clippers and even the Timberwolves). That said, I think we're going to surprise a lot of people later in this condensed schedule when teams have to rely on their depth, which we have a lot of (and they're all young too). Edit: I also wanted to say that its great that we get this back-to-back-to-back out of the way after a two day break (we didn't play in opening night either) and this early in the season when we have fresh legs.

I can't recall the exact record but I do remember that we had one of the BEST records since the All-Star break last season. I think we slightly improved our team since last season, the Dalembert-Hayes "trade" was an improvement since we desperately needed a shotblocker (Hayes is a shutdown post defender though but we have Patterson to do that now) and it seems some of our youngins got better over the offseason (T-Will, Jordan Hill) and lets not forget the emergence of Kyle Lowry. (he actually broke out late last season but we'll have this "new" Kyle Lowry for a full year). I think we got what it takes to make it as a 7th or 8th seed. Can't count out Morey making a trade either, always seems to make at least one big one before the deadline.

Never said he won't make it, most likely he will but not a guarantee if he doesn't get out of this slump. Whats wrong with anything said in this thread? If you ever bothered to watch Lowry play then its not hard to believe that he could be a top 4 point guard in the West this season.

Last I heard he was at practice yesterday but still was in a bit of pain. I wouldn't expect the Rockets to rush him back, we got enough depth to go on without him for a few more games. On Patterson though, I'm expecting a breakout season for him (behind T-Will, he definitely has the most potential on this roster) and I can't wait to see how this defensive lineup does: Dalembert/Patterson/T-Will/Lee/Lowry. Edit: just saw the tweet, good stuff. We're going to need him on Zach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtHq9RFQeqc&feature=g-u&context=G293e607FUAAAAAAAAAA Can you say MVP?

I don't think Westbrook is a shoe-in for the All-Star game, he's had a few bad games and one good one but he an always turn it around. Agreed on Curry being ahead of Lowry as the third PG. Agreed. Like I said, if the Rockets are in the playoff picture then Lowry has an argument to make the ASG much like Aldridge did last year when his Blazers played above expectations. Granted he didn't make it either but you get the idea.

I see Arsenal managed to sneak their way into the top 5, thought this team was a lost cause a few months back.

The Spurs burst through the gates to possibly the best start in the Western Conference for their first two games by blowing out the Clippers and Grizzlies, two of the top four or so teams in the West. They are showing flashes of last season where they owned the best record in the West, and were looking like legitimate championship contenders. For their first two games, they looked even better than last season because of the additions of Tiago Splitter and Kawhi Leonard. Yes, Splitter played last season but we all know that Popovich doesn't like playing his rookies much and he's earned some significantly more playing time. The Spurs might have lost George Hill in the draft night deal but I can definitely see why they did it, Leonard plays some stifling defense (could be their new Bruce Bowen) and he's excellent on the glass for a small forward. Had he not been a rookie, I could see Pop giving Leonard a shot at the starting job because Jefferson has been so awful. That said, here is what worries me most about the Spurs in this condensed schedule. On today's back-to-back game, they looked awful and got blown out by the Houston Rockets and were held to 85 points (would be less if not for garbage time). This team is young (believe it or not, they actually are) but its their core 2-3 players that are going to struggle to stay healthy and play consistent minutes on these back to backs (Duncan limited to 4 points, 1 rebound in 18 minutes). Thoughts?

Throughout tonight's game Drexler kept bringing up his bold prediction that Lowry would be an All-Star this year despite the bigger names in front of him, and in the post-game interview Martin jokingly called Lowry his all-star point guard. At first I thought it was ludicrous but then I went back and looked at Lowry's first two games and his production and...he has a case if he keeps this up. Yes its only been two games so far but check out his stats: VS Magic: 20 points (41% shooting), 7 rebounds, 12 assists in 36 minutes. VS Spurs: 16 points (50% shooting and 2-4 from behind the arc), 9 rebounds, 8 assists in 27 minutes. Lowry hardly played in the 4th quarter of tonight's game and if the game was any closer then there is no doubt in my mind that would have gotten his first triple-double this season. He has been stuffing the stat sheet though and if he can keep this up and Houston can grab hold of the 7th or 8th seed then I could see Lowry as a darkhorse for the All-Star Game. That said, I think its become quite clear that Lowry is now the leader of this team. Thoughts?

GREAT first win for the Rockets. Thoughts on the game: -Kyle Lowry looks like he could make a run for the Most Improved Player of the Year award if he keeps this up, possibly even a darkhorse for the All-star game. -Kevin Martin is back! 25 points and he only played in just three quarters. -Luis Scola is the heart and soul of this team, great to see all of our big three playing so well. -Goran Dragic has been the clear-cut leader for the second unit, he's been solid in both of the games so far and I can see him getting a nice payday in the summer. -Samuel Dalembert is a complete idiot offensively but by god does he make an impact defensively with his shotblocking. If he wasn't blocking then he was altering a bunch of shots. -Another decent game for Jordan Hill and Terrence Williams. Williams didn't play as great as he did in the first game but he's been displaying starting potential. -Hasheem Thabeet had 6 points in garbage time! He looks good when he's fresh off the bench, he just needs to improve his stamina so we could see more of him.