Takeaways: Houston Rockets @ New York Knicks: Game 5

The Houston Rockets have ferociously arrived at leg two of their five-game, eight-day road trip with most of it on the East Coast.

Where’s the next stop?

Gotham City!

Yes, the Houston Rockets now have the opportunity to showcase their talents in one of the most-heralded sports facilities known to man — Madison Square Garden.

“The Mecca,” as it’s commonly referred to, is a theatrical stage where Walt Frazier once ruled the court and also where an injured Willis Reed famously hobbled up and down the hardwood in the waning moments during Game 7 of the NBA Finals to will his team to win the 1970 World Championship.

And just about all of the success in-between.

The problem is, as of late, there hasn’t been much going on and they’re far removed from the Golden Era of Knicks basketball.

Carmelo Anthony is more concerned about cashing-in, Phil Jackson is as far as he could be from the front office and it’s currently a coaching carousel of head coaches trying their hand to make that team better.

The latest victim is Jeff Hornacek.

I imagine that Jeff is one salt-of-the-earth, damn good guy but he asked for trouble when he took the job and he will see PLENTY.

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The problem is the Knicks are no stranger to not being spendthrift but they make the most horrible decisions with their cash.

Because as of right now, the best decision that was made was drafting Kristaps Porzingis last season.

But aside from all the pity that I’m writing about in regard to the Knicks, the Houston Rockets had a game to play.

And boy did they ever.

This team came out soaring from the start with a pair of Ryan Anderson threes — as well as a lay-in — to get everybody going early.

James Harden followed not too long after that with a dunk, putting the Houston Rockets up to 10-6.

From there, it was smooth-sailing as this team had their way with their opponent, with plenty of spacing on the floor, knocking down their shots and giving a considerable defensive effort.

As we expected with a Mike D’Antoni team, this team literally ran the Knicks out the building.

They couldn’t keep up and the surrender flag was seemingly waved somewhere before the end of the first half.

The Houston Rockets led 33-25 at the end of the 1st and went into the half up 68-51 with the game comfortably in hand.

Although I had concerns of the Houston Rockets letting the lead slip away, I forget that this team is one of good athletes, those that can run…run…run…almost forever.

The stepped in their necks and didn’t relent which is what I like to see out of any of my teams here in H-Town!

For a game where the Houston Rockets were up by as much as 25 points with only three lead-changes early in the game, I’d say they did a damn good job tonight.

There’s nothing I can really rib my team about tonight, they did what they were supposed to do.

Oh yes, they could’ve scored more points off turnovers — they only had 10 points off the Knicks 15 turnovers — but when one sees an offensive performance like that, one can forget about such a minute detail.

These are the moments you’re going to love as a Houston Rockets with this new offense, we saw it put to full-use tonight in this 118-99 win!

For what it’s worth, James Harden led all scorers with 30 points, 15 assists and six rebounds in 33 minutes of action.

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Eric Gordon followed 21 points and Ryan Anderson had 16 points and nine rebounds.

Montrezl Harrell made the most of his minutes tonight, scoring 17 points along with 10 boards in 26 minutes of action, a double-double in his own right.

Nene was out tonight because of rest and Harrell was more than capable to answer the call.

And for the Knicks, Anthony led with 21 points, seven rebounds along with Derrick Rose and Courtney Lee each adding 16 each of their own.

Now it’s onto the next one as the Houston Rockets take on the Atlanta Hawks Saturday night at Phillips Arena.

See you then — tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. CDT.

We’re already going to get to see Dwight Howard face his former team — I’ll be booing him from here!

Until then, go Houston Rockets.

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