When Yao Ming went down for the season with a broken foot, people said that the Houston Rockets would fall apart without him.  When he left the team, the Rockets had won 13 games in a row.  Last night, the team had expanded that streak to 15 games.  The quest for 16 straight, a new club record, would have to be tested against the visiting Indiana Pacers.  QUEST COMPLETE:  Houston clobbered the Pacers by a final score of 117-99.

The game was close for the first 18 minutes of the game.  The score was tied at 36 midway through the second quarter, then the Rockets went on a 15-0 run to make the score 51-36.  The score at the end of the first half was 66-49, a 30-13 run to end the half.  Tracy McGrady was on fire and scored 23 of his 25 points in the first half.  How he only scored two points in the second half is beyond me!

I don't want to focus on T-Mac though, the guys I want to talk about are Carl Landry, Chuck Hayes, and Luther Head.  Landry and Head both scored double figures off the bench and Hayes collected 11 rebounds coming off the bench.  The more I see Carl Landry play, the more I fall in love with his game.  He just has a non-stop motor and he is always hustling to every ball with a wreckless abandon that is rarely seen in professional sports these days.  Chuck Hayes, formerly of the Kentucky Wildcats, is considered "undersized" throughout the league.  At 6'6, Hayes plays power forward and plays it like he owns the paint.  Landry and Hayes are two second round picks that a lot of teams thought wouldn't amount to much as pros.

For the Pacers, not too many brightspots to talk about.  Troy Murphy came close to a triple double with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists.  Danny Granger also came through with 17 points.  Flip Murray came off the bench to contribute 14 points, but it didn't matter after that first half from the Rockets.

Indiana is now 24-37 and will take on the San Antonio Spurs this evening.  I would make a clever reference to the Alamo, but I really can't think of any.

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