Houston Rockets Poach New Orleans Pelicans 121-114

My goodness.

It was excruciating watching the Houston Rockets meander their way through the back end of last week’s schedule.

The San Antonio Spurs picked the Rockets apart and the things that make them thrive like James Harden and the three-point shot were taking away.

They were force-fed to do something that majority of the team is not good at — shooting free throws.

It was like searing pain as Josh Smith clanked his way through 26 free throw attempts.

For the record, he made 12 which was less than half of attempts for 46 percent.

That’s unacceptable for a professional basketball player but for as much as he helps in other ways for the team, one understands but still can be in disbelief that something like that can happen.

Quite honestly, Kevin McHale had no choice but to keep him in because Dwight Howard was closing in on his max minutes limitation in the final quarter and Terrence Jones was in foul trouble so he had to trust that he’d do his best.

Well enough of my ranting and raving, that’s yesterday’s news and it’s time to turn the page.

The Rockets had a tough test tonight against the New Orleans Pelicans who are fighting for their lives to make the playoffs.

And many of us are hoping they’ll miss the playoffs so it can up the value of the lottery pick they get from them as a result of the Omer Asik deal.

But I’d actually like to see them there, they have a solid coaching staff led by Monty Williams and are an up-and-coming team.

The pieces are coming together.

From the opening tip of this game, things were tight but the Pelicans did go on a late quarter 10-4 run that was led by Jrue Holiday, who had seven of those 10 points.

He got extremely hot from the field and this put the Pels on top at the end of the 1st, 28-22.

In the 2nd quarter, the Rockets slipped a bit to fall behind by 10 points with the Pelicans leading 48-38 after a Pondexter three-pointer with 4:39 left in the 1st half.

But Jason Terry countered with a three-pointer of his own that started a 7-0 run to tie the game at 48-all with 2:51 left.

Both teams jockeyed for positioning for the lead but the Pelicans found their way still on top 55-52 at the half.

At the start of the 2nd half, the Rockets continued to make strides to take the lead themselves but it wasn’t until the 8:27 mark when they tied the game at 66-all.

This was after yet another Terry three-pointer giving the Jet nine points on the night.

But the Pels went on another run — this time 14-5 — to lead the Rockets 80-71, their largest lead of the quarter.

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The Beard wasn’t having it and he came alive for the Rockets as he lead the charge to tie the game at the end of the quarter at 86-all.

In the 4th quarter, the Rockets continued the momentum by going up by as much as six points after Corey Brewer hit a runner to the basket putting the team up 92-86.

Brewer was absolutely sensational for the next couple of Rockets buckets, he was truly the hot hand and helped keep the Pelicans at bay.

It seemed that things were firmly in control when Brewer drove in for two for his 17th and last points of the night with 7:19 left.

With the Pelicans becoming time-poor, Williams decided to employ the strategy the Spurs did with hacking our big men to see if they can stop the momentum and get themselves back into the game.

This is the type of strategy that I criticize because it slows the pace of the game down intentionally and it’s just plain boring basketball. Yuck!

It didn’t work — the missed free throws were few and far in-between going 14-for-23 in those last few minutes and eventually going 34-for-48 in the game which is good enough for 70.8 percent.

The bulk of those missed attempts were J-Smoove’s but the Rockets still found a way to overcome eventually beating the Pelicans 121-114.

What a turnaround and they made their free throws when it counted the most!

Beard led all Rockets scorers with 30 points and seven assists. D12 had 19/11 and three blocks in 28 minutes of action.

The Rockets bench was incredible — they combined for 49 points including J-Smoove (20), Brew (15), Pablo Prigioni (12) and Joey Dorsey (2).

Hey, at least I said something good to say about Dorsey for a change!

Up until the pace slowed down late in the game, the Rockets were pushing the ball hard and getting rewarded for it, with 21 fast break points to their credit.

How many did the Pels have? Zero!

That’s what I’m talking about!

Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with 27 points and 7 rebounds, Asik had 13/10.