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Houston Rockets Red Glare Stirs Excitement, Fades into Offseason
by
Contributor
Written on May 26, 2009
Single Page
(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
They dazzled the faithful sea of red from late-October until mid-May.
They restored life in a city blemished by heavy winds emanating from a hurricane considered the third most destructive sea storm of its kind in United States history.
They made a run through the postseason that hadn't been matched in franchise history in 12 seasons.
After the Houston Rockets won their first round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers and took the Los Angeles Lakers to seven games in the Western Conference semifinals, there were enough fluffies to go around they could fill the Toyota Center's noise-making balloon sticks with plenty of hot air.
"Good Lord, we were ecstatic to be here, pushing the Lakers to Game 7 shorthanded," Rockets forward Shane Battier would say afterward, "so I have nothing but pride. It would have been better if we played better and had a better showing, but we were running on fumes."
This much is true: The Rockets gave Houston something to be captivated by for nearly seven months. They nearly won the Southwest Division title, falling a game short -- the race decided on the final day of the regular season. They nearly beat the heavily-favored Lakers to advance to their first conference finals since getting out of the first round in 1997.
The Rockets waged through a season that saw star Tracy McGrady miss 47 games due to a knee injury he deemed severe enough to undergo microfracture surgery on Feb. 24 in Chicago.
McGrady, who's been plagued by back spasms during his career and sat out 35 games in his second season with the Rockets in 2005-06, missed 18 games before the All-Star break this year. Yao Ming missed time for the fourth straight year—his broken foot culminating a year in which many started to believe he was the NBA's best big man.
Don't forget about backup center Dikembe Mutombo, a 17-year veteran from Kinshasa, Congo who appeared in just nine games in the regular season. Mutombo strained his left knee 1:40 after stepping on the court in Game Two of the first round series with the Blazers, and then publicly announced you had seen the last of him as a player.
"We battled through a lot of injuries and things like that, a lot of issues or problems," second-year forward Carl Landry said, "but the guys in the locker room continued to fight and stay strong through everything we went through."
Landry, of course, missed three weeks after being shot in the leg in the early morning hours of March 17 after the Rockets returned from a game at New Orleans the night before. A second team NBA All-Rookie selection in 2007-08, Landry lost a tooth in Game 3 of the Rockets' 2008 first round series with the Utah Jazz.
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