The Houston Rockets and New Orleans Hornets battled for the lead all night, but it was left to Trevor Ariza to give the Rockets the lead and the victory late in the fourth quarter at the Toyota Center in Houston.
With Hornets’ shot-blocker Emeka Okafor sitting on the pine with six fouls, Ariza strode through the Hornets’ defense for an emphatic dunk to put the Rockets ahead for good 102-98 with 49.6 seconds remaining. Ariza, however, was not the star of the game.
Houston received strong contributions from Aaron Brooks (27 pts) and Shane Battier (20 pts) who shot a combined 10/15 from behind the arc. But David West uncorked a career high 42 points and collected 12 rebounds in the Hornets’ losing effort. He outscored the entire Houston team by nine points in the third quarter.
I’m enjoying watching the Rockets on One HD. I think that we are getting lots of Rockets games because Channel Ten is keen to showcase Australian talent in the NBA, in this case, David Andersen. (For the same reason, we’re seeing Andrew Bogut’s Bucks and Patrick Mills’ Trailblazers quite a bit as well.) But without a star player, and a deep rotation, these Rockets remind me of the “surprising” 03-04 Grizzlies.
Shane Battier, also a member of the 03-04 Grizzlies team, summed up the 09-10 Rockets earlier in the week saying, “
We have a collection of guys who have been told they’re too ‘something’ to play in the NBA… too small, too short, too dumb, can’t shoot, unathletic.” Full credit to the Rockets organisation and coaching staff for giving NBA fans a surprise team to cheer for this season!
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