NBA – Houston Rockets outplay the Sacramento Kings

Chase Budinger scored 20 points and Kyle Lowry had 19 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as the Houston Rockets took a 123-101 win Monday night against the Sacramento Kings.

That was enough for Rick Adelman, the head coach of the Houston Rockets, to win his 935th game in the NBA, tying him with Dick Motta for 10th on the NBA’s career victories. To get this into the right perspective you might have to consider that among the top 10 in that list, only Phil Jackson (with great runs with the Chicago Bulls and the LA Lakers) and Red Auerbach, (who made his best run with the Celtics in the 50’s and 60’s) hold better winning percentages then him.

Now, besides being a significant win for Adelman, it was an important confident booster for the Houston Rockets. With a 33-32 regular season, the Rocket’s haven’t been at their finest, and yet, they sure enough are trying to turn the season around. Houston has won two straight games, seven of the last eight, and moved over the .500 mark for the first time all season in this valid and desperate run for a playoff berth.

The Sacramento Kings are on the other side of the spectrum. At 15-46 for the regular season and 8-24 on home games, the Kings are in a serious need of a lift off. There is really nothing this crew can do this season to get into the playoffs, but things could certainly get brighter next year.

For starters, DeMarcus Cousins had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings. For instance, there are many who believe that Cousins could really turn out to be one heck of the player. He has the all the talent you could wish for, but there are still many issues concerning his maturity and his concentration that could keep him from exploiting all his potential.

DeMarcus Cousins has had a brilliant start in March, completing his third double-double in as many games. Still, that was not enough to keep the Sacramento Kings from losing their third straight and fifth in six games.

It was certainly not a bomb-proof second half for Cousins. This doesn’t mean he had a bad game, au contraire; he dominated the paint offensively in the opening half when he scored 20 points. But then it all went south. The rookie center missed all five second-half shots, had zero points, and left the game in the fourth quarter after taking a hard hit. He didn’t come back but in the press conference team officials said that the injury was minor. Marcus Thornton had 16 points, Beno Udrih added 15, and Francisco Garcia scored 11 for the Kings.

For the Rockets, Courtney Lee scored 19 points and Martin had 15 for the Rockets, who shot 53 percent. Lowry scored 11 points and Luis Scola had 10 for the Rockets, who used a 36-28 second quarter to go into the half with a 65-58 lead.

The Houston Rockets will now have to face the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday before hosting quite an important and difficult game against the best team in the league, the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. On the other hand, the Sacramento Kings will play the Orlando Magic on Wednesday and then also face the Spurs on Friday on a very difficult on-the-road game.

NBA – Yao Ming could play in the preseason with the Houston Rockets

by Stephen Lars on Sep.26, 2010, under Basketball, Sports News

Yao Ming has been struggling with injuries ever since he made it to the NBA. But truth be said, he has been battling with injuries since his years rookie year playing for the Shangai Sharks in the Chinese Basketball Association. By the time Yao was 17, he had broken his foot twice. He was fully capable of recovering completely and it has been said that since that second injury, he lost some 10 to 15 inches worth of his jumping ability.

When Yao came to play in the NBA, he was the first foreign player ever to be picked as the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, without ever playing in an NCAA affiliated college beforehand. Now, he did not have it easy coming into the NBA. He had to deal with many unsporting commentaries from both the specialized press (who can forget Charles Barkley’s encounter with a donkey’s buttock after Yao scored his first 20 points in a single game).

Yet not only commentators gave him a hard time, even teams have been a bit harsh on him. The Miami Heat gave out 8000 fortune cookies to the fans on their first game against Yao Ming and the Rockets. As if that was not enough, there where the now infamous and somewhat rude and offensive (to say the least) pregame comments from Shaquille O’Neal.

Now, the issues come when you consider that the Rockets have only make it past the first round of the Playoff’s once since Yao has been playing for the Rockets. He has had to deal with many injuries, and considering this last foot surgery, which seemed at its moment as a drastic reconstruction of his foot, he has missed many games in each season.

Yao has not played since July 2009, and he is not eager to make his comeback. Doctors have gave him the thumbs up, but head coach Rick Adelman has been warned that Yao should only play 24 minutes per game. Yao is aware that he needs to take it easy. Recovering from such a complex procedure takes time, and there is no need to put more stress then what it is ultimately necessary on his foot.

The Houston Rockets begin their training camp this week. The team will play its first exhibition game on against the Orlando Magic on October 5th. Perhaps we will be able to see Yao take on a couple minutes worth of play.