“All good things must come to an end” Tracy McGrady told the Houston Chronicle after Tuesday nights defeat. In a battle between the top teams from both conferences the Celtics ended both the 22 game winning streak as well as the 15 game winning streak at home. Nothing should be taken away from these Rockets. They have managed to do something great that few teams in the history of the NBA ever did and credit is due to everyone in the organization. The front office for putting this team together, the coaches for keeping the players focused, and of course the players themselves for executing and buckling down in the face of adversity.
Unfortunately after such hard work there is still no time to rest. The Rockets currently hold the top spot in the West but the Lakers share our record and there are plenty of teams ready to see us slide in the standings. What’s scary is that after 48 days of hard work to push to the top of the brutal Western conference Houston could quickly find itself right where they started in a matter of days. Tonights game against the New Orleans Hornets is probably the Rockets most important game of the week. Head Coach Rick Adelman has said since the streak hit the late teens that he knew this team would eventually loose a game, what he was looking forward to is how the team would respond.
I’m looking forward to that as well Coach. I’m glad that the players can so easily shake off the comments made by the “main stream media” but I as a fan cannot be as forgiving. It seemed to me that Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley waited until the streak was ended to really give the Rockets credit and even then it seemed forced. I take comfort in the fact that it’s just their opinions and they are entitled to their own, no matter how wrong it may be. These so called ‘main stream media’ people overloaded the Rockets bandwagon and caused it to tip. I’d be willing to bet that at least half of the people that gave the Rockets even a LITTLE credit are running for the hills now. It just frustrates me to hear Houston get little to no credit for what they are doing this season.
