Game Two Notes: What I Saw From My TV

Another night in my apartment and watching on TV, another win for your Houston Rockets. Yes, I wore the same clothes as I did on Saturday night. It worked. Hooray for superstitions!

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Take away the first half of the first quarter and the whole fourth quarter and there was A LOT of ugly ball for the Houston Rockets. So many missed layups, so many missed open threes, and much up-and-down sloppy basketball were a big theme of the Rockets night.

Of course that all changed once we saw Josh Smith throw up some lobs for Dwight Howard and Superman converted them emphatically. The pretty passing was enough for some to call Smith a potential Texans QB candidate. Smith also got in the act of dunking himself, effectively terminating Tyson Chandler with a slam over the helpless Chandler.

Anyway, let’s just get to the notes from game two:

James Harden started off hot, scoring 10 early points in the 1st quarter. The good news for Houston is that they won again without a strong shooting performance from Harden and were able to rest him until the 5:00 minute mark in the fourth quarter. The bad news is that he struggled again from the field.
Dwight Howard was dominant again for the second straight game. He altered many shots at the rim and of course was on the good side of many alley-oops. Howard was victimized by the officials on two horrendous calls in the first half and he needs to try and avoid them if possible.
Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni had another excellent night for the Rockets. They switched much less on defense and only got caught on Nowitzki twice. Prigioni was excellent in the fourth quarter running the offense and allowing the Rockets to dominate with their bigs.
Trevor Ariza struggled to knock down open threes and wasn’t much of a factor on offense. However, he locked down Monta Ellis and the rest of the Mavericks tonight. Such an asset.
Terrence Jones took a few blows to the head and couldn’t convert on several buckets down low. The opportunities are there for him, especially on the pick and roll which Nowitzki has yet to figure out how to defend.
Josh Smith played poorly in the first half but turned up the jets in the second half. He and Howard paced the Rockets to victory in the fourth with their SIX alley-oops. Nowitzki and Chandler had no answer for the high-flying duo and expect the Rockets to continue to exploit that matchup. Smith was instrumental in the win and almost got himself a triple-double.
Clint Capela played limited minutes but still was impressive in his short time on the court. Easy, near the rim buckets, and rebounding.
Corey Brewer just knows how to spark-plug a team. Some big transition buckets and a three ball really helped keep the Rockets afloat.
Kevin McHale made some adjustments heading into the game and did another excellent job with his rotations. Played the hot hands in the fourth quarter, even resting Harden for much of the last 12 minutes.
Officiating again was quite brutal, much of it against the Rockets. Dwight Howard was whistled for two first half fouls, neither of which were fouls. Josh Smith was whistled for three and probably should have only had one. It’s excruciating to watch. And don’t even get me started on Howard’s “flagrant” foul. Just terrible.

Click here for Brian Patterson’s recap of last night’s victory.

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