Phoenix Suns

A Surprising Amount on the Line Tonight for the Rockets in LA

It's always amazing that after 81 games, it can come down to a single contest between two teams. Such is the case tonight in Los Angeles as the Rockets face the Lakers in the final game of the season. For both, a win is paramount but for different reasons. The Lakers, the preseason favorite to win i ... More >>

The Rockets Are Back In The NBA Playoffs! Their Complete Rebuilding Anthology

With four games to go in the 2011-2012 season, the Rockets were coming off a 117-110 loss to Dallas, a loss in which Dirk Nowitzki provided a stark reminder to last season's Rockets team that they were devoid of a superstar caliber player by dropping 21 points on them in the fourth quarter. To call ... More >>

Goooooooal Tending: Rockets Beat Suns, Make Playoffs on Bizarre Final Play

"What a long strange trip it's been." -- The Grateful Dead It is fitting in a season as crazy as this one that the young Rockets' road to the playoffs would ultimately come down to a game, a play and a call like the ones that occurred Tuesday night at Toyota Center. All season, the Rockets have don ... More >>

Keep Hope Alive: Rockets Meandering Along Towards the Playoffs

"It's the same old story, same old song and dance, my friend." - Aerosmith All year, I've repeatedly said that following the Rockets is like riding a roller coaster. There are some tremendous highs and some devastating lows, but no matter what happens, it's always exciting. This weekend was more of ... More >>

Win-Win: Harden Blisters Former Team On the Court, Morey Does the Same to Sacramento Off Landing Robinson

The NBA trade deadline is always a weird time. It comes on the heels of the NBA's most glamorous weekend and right in the middle of the season. Most years there are trades here and there. Occasionally, there's a blockbuster. Since Daryl Morey has taken over as the general manager for the Rockets, th ... More >>

Dragic Gone. Is It Time for Linsanity or Just Regular Old Crazy?

According to ESPN, Rockets point guard Goran Dragic has agreed to a deal with the Phoenix Suns worth $34 million over four seasons. The Rockets had reportedly realized last week that Dragic wanted much more than they were willing to offer and decided to pursue other options. Some reports suggest the ... More >>

NBA Draft: Recent Stinkhole History To Enlighten Rocket Fans

Prior to Wednesday night's game between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, the 27th annual NBA Draft Lottery took place, or as Rocket fans like to call it "a tradition like no other." For those Rocket fans, their 0.5 percent chance of coming away with the top pick gave the draft lottery a decide ... More >>

Rockets Sweep Road Trip, Bear Down on the Playoffs

Photo by Groovehouse This Rockets team, it just sneaks up on you. It's loaded with second- and third-tier players, most of whom would be backups (albeit rotation players) on good teams. They struggle with interior defense and have an unproven coach who was once a hated rival. They lost their entire ... More >>

Houston Rockets: Their Bench Is the Hottest Team in the Western Conference

In my season preview for the Houston Rockets, I cited the current portion of the season as the "make or break stretch" for the team -- a six-game road trip against a bunch of pretty-good-but-not-great teams followed by a six-game homestand against mostly good teams. And once the season started, and ... More >>

One Man's NBA All-Star Reserve Selections

Go ahead and chalk up the NBA All-Star Game taking place in a few weeks (Sunday, February 26, to be exact) in Orlando's Amway Center as the next "feels weird" moment of the NBA season. It feels like the season just tipped off a few weeks ago and yet here we are, about 20 games in, deciding who the b ... More >>

NBA Purgatory

Neither the best nor the worst, the Rockets remain stuck in professional basketball's great midsection.

Women's World Cup: Five Other Seeming "Game-Winning" Scores That Weren't

The USA's run in the Women's World Cup seemed to be finishing in grand style when Abby Wambach put in an extra-time header to give the team a 2-1 lead. It didn't last, and Japan won in overtime. Wambach's late goal joins a storied list of scores that seemingly iced a game or a series, only to be o ... More >>

NBA Draft Rewind -- 1986, The Worst Draft Ever

Plus the shorts sucked​As much as those who construct teams in sports would like to think that they have a formula and a blueprint that they can go execute with any team in any market and be successful, the fact of the matter is that even for the best personnel men in the best-run organization ... More >>

2011 NBA Draft -- The Live Blog

Keep coming back for the latest​The overwhelming consensus on the 2011 NBA Draft is that it's, by and large, a pretty underwhelming group of players, and it may quite possibly be completely devoid of future All-Stars. So why am I so excited about tonight's festivities? Because of all the thin ... More >>

Rockets Playing Well Under the Radar

Photo by Jeff BalkeFinally, the Red Rowdies have something to actually cheer about.​Houston's three major sports franchises have spent the last few seasons in the equivalent of purgatory. None have been good enough to contend for a title, but none have been horrid enough to elicit the types of ... More >>

NCAA Sweet Sixteen Central

What the hell happened to Leslie Visser?​It's generally accepted that the first two full days of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament provide the greatest two-day watching/gambling/drinking/eating experience annually, for obvious reasons: 1. Whether by illness, approved vacation, or planned s ... More >>

Houston Rockets -- Screwed City

Daniel KramerDaryl Morey needs to go big time​It's no surprise that Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey has a Facebook page. And it's not one of those aloof "Fan" pages, either, where all you can do is click "Like." Morey has one of those "regular guy" Facebook pages where you can send him me ... More >>

Nasty Nique EP Has The Heart Of A Champion

​This year, the New Houston Collective has really become a force. In no particular order, their attendance sheet: Fat Tony, Propain, B L A C K I E, Hollywood FLOSS, Preemo, Eskabel, Hubbard, Nosaprise, hasHBrown, Thuro, H-Kane, Delo, Les, Roderick, The Niceguys, John Dew, Montana, Virgo, Dirty ... More >>

NBA 2010-2011 Preview -- Reconstructing LeBron

Please, no more operations on Yao Ming​"What should I do?" -- LeBron James, over and over and over again his new Nike spot The fact that LeBron James is posing the question in his new Nike spot perhaps tells us that he is not completely devoid of self-awareness, as he appeared to be last summer. ... More >>

Game Time: Best of the Best -- Top 10 Moments from Clutch City Rockets (w/video)

Consensus Number One​I am a total sucker for lists.This makes me like roughly 95 percent of society; the fact that I openly admit I'm a sucker for lists makes me a little more unique. There are so many list books, list columns, list blog posts (many by yours truly) that it seems by admitting you ... More >>

Special Regional Anti-Mexican Slur Edition

Protests Against Arizona's Law At The Astros Game: One Way To Spend Cinco De Mayo

A team spokesman walks a tightrope in responding to the planned protests​Haven't found the perfect way to celebrate Cinco De Mayo yet? Some organizations have what they think is the perfect way to kick it off.Several Latino groups, including LULAC and Houston's Youth Coalition, will be protesting ... More >>

Happy Hour Scene: Darkhorse Tavern

​ It was sometime during our field sobriety test that we remembered how much we absolutely love Washington Avenue. We were thinking a lot of things when the officer asked us to step out of our vehicle, but chief among them was all the fun that we'd have at jail and who would be calling Tyler F ... More >>

Where Does Sunday's Rockets Victory Rank? It'll Have To Top These To Make The Top Five

Where does yesterday's deceptively close 99-87 shellacking of the Lakers rank in the annals of great Rockets victories? It's too soon to tell. If they build on that win by taking this series and then slip into their fifth NBA finals, minus not just Yao but also his geriatric Congolese understudy, no ... More >>

Life On The Rodeo Road: "The Steer Stopped And Run A Horn Through My Face"

Photo by Paul KnightName: Lee GravesAge: 37Hometown: Calgary, AlbertaEvent: Steer WrestlingI got into rodeo because I was raised around horses my whole life. I got involved with some neighbors who roped and stuff, and that's about it. I was playing a lot of hockey at the time, and I was probably lik ... More >>

Rockets-Suns: Brooks, Lowry Bring Small Ball to Houston

If the Rockets needed any additional evidence to the potential success of a two point-guard system, they only needed to look on the other end of the court on Friday night at Toyota Center. The Phoenix Suns (34-28) have been the model of up-tempo basketball in recent years, routinely playing small g ... More >>

Rockets-Suns: Brooks, Lowry Bring Small Ball to Houston

If the Rockets needed any additional evidence to the potential success of a two point-guard system, they only needed to look on the other end of the court on Friday night at Toyota Center. The Phoenix Suns (34-28) have been the model of up-tempo basketball in recent years, routinely playing small g ... More >>

Houston Rockets: This Needs To Be Yao's Team

Coming off a 2-3 road trip, plus wins over OKC and the Hornets, the Rockets make me feel the same way I did a few weeks back. Good, not great. They convincingly won the games they should have, home or away (Clippers, Thunder, Suns), and lost the games they should have (Lakers and a pretty dece ... More >>

The Five Worst Trades in the History of Houston Sports

The Five Best Trades in the History of Houston Sports

NBA Playoff Preview: Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

Over the Weekend: Rockets, Westheimer Block Party, Licorice, Bikers and Drinking

Rockets-Suns: Shock and Awe

Rockets-Sonics: Face to Face with Inevitability

Q&A with Daryl Morey: Down the Stretch They Come…

Rockets vs. Suns: Steve Francis at the Crossroads

Pro Athlete Musicians

Athletes step off the field and into the studio

The Houston Rockets vs. the L.A. Lakers

It’s the new and improved Rockets (we hope!)

Jason Friedman's NBA Predictions: Mavs Beat the Jazz, the Suns, the Rockets and the Pistons, Take the Championship in '08

Rockets Should Improve, But Will It Matter?

The New Bad Boys? No Way

JVG Bye-Bye

Dumb Questions, Dumber Answers

The Texans and Suns Still Have Hope (But Not Much)

Game Seven: T-Mac’s Biggest Test

Rocket-hater or Realist?

Dear Diary

Which Texas Team Will Take Home the Title?

Step Right On Up

It's better to receive than to give

Greed Head

There's a darkness at the edge of Clutch City, but one thing is clear: Les Alexander will get his. And maybe yours, too.