News and Notes

Summoning the Spirit of 22, AB's All-Star chances and more time for Dorsey, Cook

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Houston - Up and down play. Shoulders slumping. A season seemingly slipping away. The Rockets have been here before. They’ve seen all the signs and recognize the urgency. They also understand it’s no time to panic.

Little more than two years ago - on January 29, 2007 to be exact – the Rockets found themselves suffering through somewhat similar circumstances. The team was just four games over .500 and struggling to string together some consistently strong performances. Then Golden State came to town, the Rockets held on for a 111-107 victory and, suddenly, everything started to click. One win bled into another. Momentum began to build. Six weeks later, Houston was the toast of the NBA and proud owners of the second-longest winning streak in league history.

Just to be clear, the Rockets are not sitting around expecting lightning to strike twice in hope of producing another 22-game run. The point is that out of such humble beginnings sometimes improbable, memorable and occasionally even magical moments occur. Rockets players and coaches know much work needs to be done in order to work themselves out of the hole their 5-9 January created. But with Golden State coming to town once more, the memories of 2007 also do well to remind them that recent struggles do not necessarily doom them to future failure.

“At the start of the year we circled this time to really make our move and get some momentum,” says Shane Battier. “It hasn’t worked out to this point but you just never know how this league works.

“You look back at it and that was a 22-game winning streak that came out of nowhere. No one was expecting it. We were sort of going along, we had some up games and some down games, then won a few, got some confidence, started to believe in ourselves and then really took off. In this league, all it takes is a few good games to get going and get some confidence and you’re an all new team.

“Look at the Chicago Bulls: they started their west coast trip with losses to the Clippers and Warriors; two games they felt they probably should have won. Then they go out and beat the Suns, us, the Spurs, the Hornets, the Thunder – in this league you just never know.”

Even rookie Chase Budinger, still a sophomore at the University of Arizona when the Rockets were in the midst of their amazing run, believes his team is on the precipice of bigger and better things.

“We know we can do it, we just have to do it for 48 minutes and that’s something we haven’t been doing lately. We’re playing for a half or three quarter but, with this team, we have to play all 48 minutes because, unfortunately, one quarter could be the downfall for us.

“We know we’re right there. We just have to get over that little hump that we’re having a problem with. Once we get over that hump, I really believe we can go on a long streak.”

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There were two notable tweaks to Head Coach Rick Adelman’s rotation Sunday night; one due to injury while the other was the result of a bit of experimentation. Addressing the former first, new addition Will Conroy saw playing time as the back-up point guard to Aaron Brooks because of Kyle Lowry’s left knee injury, logging nearly 10 minutes during which he recorded 2 points, 1 assist and 1 turnover. The Rockets struggled while Conroy was on the floor but Adelman was quick to point out Monday that he in no way blamed Houston’s lulls on the Washington product.

“I talked to him today about it,” said Adelman. “The two times he went in we dropped off but it wasn’t him. We have to remember what to run and what we want to do when he’s in the game where he’s comfortable. Today we went over some things that I think he can do on the court that’s going to help him and the other people. But he’s going to be fine. He just needs to get out there and just play. It’s just sometimes you get in the game and everything snowballs the other way. But it had nothing to do with him, it’s just the way the game went.

“Kyle is a guy who comes in, gives us a lift, pushes the ball and the whole game changes when he comes in. We’re going to miss that right now but it means everybody else has to step up and do a little bit more.”

Houston’s bench boss also gave Joey Dorsey the first meaningful minutes of his NBA career Sunday night, inserting him into the game for the final 4:15 of the first half in an attempt to send a different look at the red-hot Amare Stoudemire. Following Monday’s practice, Adelman hinted that both Dorsey and Brian Cook could get additional opportunities in the near future.

“I just felt Stoudemire was hurting us and felt I’d give (Dorsey) to the end of the quarter. I’m going to try to do the same thing with Brian. You’re trying to find out about people and sometimes you have to pick and choose. It’s not completely fair to him to throw (Dorsey) out there for four minutes and say this is what we saw. I think you have to give him a couple times where he gets a feel and then see what he can do.”

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With word out of New Orleans that Hornets’ superstar point guard Chris Paul is staring at a minimum of a month’s worth of missed time due to a knee injury, it will be up to NBA Commissioner David Stern to name CP3’s replacement in the All-Star game. The obvious choice is Denver’s Chauncey Billups, who’s played splendidly while leading the Nuggets to the second-best record in the West, averaging 19.3 points, 6.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game.

But based on those numbers alone, Aaron Brooks stacks up quite nicely, as seen by his averages of 19.1 points, 5 assists and 2.4 rebounds. And it’s worth noting that Houston’s point guard has elicited national attention for his play, with several members of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” crew lobbying for his inclusion. But Brooks is largely ignoring the chatter and, in his mind at least, the choice is obvious.

“Chauncey Billups has been playing pretty good basketball and plus his team is doing a lot better than us,” says Brooks. “If it happens, great, but I don’t really think about it. Right now we’re not playing too well so that’s pretty much all I’m thinking about.”

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