Rockets-Suns: Houston Soars to Victory in Phoenix

In this battle of the giants, Tracy McGrady emerged from his slump against the Clippers to rally the Houston Rockets (5-3) to a 94-82 win over the Phoenix Suns (6-3). 

This game featured Shaquille O’Neal passing John Havlichek with 26,396 points, which put him in 10th on the NBA’s career-scoring list.

O’Neal had 18 points, 13 rebounds, and four blocks in this game.  He looked more like an early '90s Shaq, stronger and seemingly younger, easily moving up and down the court with Yao Ming.

Early in the first quarter, you could sense that Ming and O’Neal were going to be battling it out all game.  And that is exactly what happened—until Yao could no longer keep up with Shaq deep into the third quarter.

Both superstars played well in the post and were contesting against each other shot-for-shot, while moving well up and down the court to keep up with their team’s transitions. Ming, with 17 points and 15 rebounds, and O’Neal, with 18 points and 13 rebounds, gave each other a great defensive match.

During the first half of the game, Luis Scola was forcing a few outside shots, and failed to mesh offensively with the rest of the team throughout the night.  A big shocker in the first half was Amare Stoudemire’s quiet performance—only two points and five rebounds. 

Stoudemire is used to getting to the line and averages 10 free throws a night.  But in this case, he only got to the line once—which was in the early stages of the fourth quarter.  Stoudemire started to heat up early in the third and assembled eight points quickly after switching to his perimeter game, since the Rockets were doubling him in the paint.  He ended up finishing the game with 11 points and nine rebounds.

The second half of the game turned entertaining very quickly, with Tracy McGrady getting 22 of his 27 points in the second half and dictating his offense, to Matt Barnes catapulting his body into Rafer Alston—which turned into a semi-brawl and led to both Barnes and Alston being ejected from the game.

If the referees would have called a foul quickly on Barnes instead of waiting until McGrady got his shot off, it would have prevented a ridiculous show of frustration on behalf of the Suns' Matt Barnes.

Phoenix came into the game with the second-best PPG average at 103, which trailed behind the L.A. Lakers by just one point, but was only able to put up 82 against the Rockets defense on Wednesday night.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Suns were only shooting 34 percent, while the Rockets were shooting 42 percent from the field. The Suns ended the game shooting 37 percent, which is well under their offensive average of around 52.

The Suns' lack of offensive production came from missed opportunities.  The Phoenix Suns had a lot of wide open shots missed by Barnes, Nash, and Barbosa due to their tempo slump throughout the game.

Ron Artest, with only four points and six rebounds, did not play well throughout the whole game, after orchestrating a "veterans only" players meeting for his team to come together offensively and step-up to their abilities.

Another undaunted player wheeling his team to a victory was Rockets PG Aaron Brooks.  We have all seen him play at Oregon with his fast-tempo offense and hot-streak shooting. On Wednesday night against the Suns, we saw him do it with ease against the pros. 

This second-year rookie came into the game shooting well in the second quarter, was benched later in that same quarter, and then took over as a starter after Alston was ejected from the game in the third quarter. Brooks could not be stopped—he even snagged an offensive rebound from Diaw late in the fourth. 

Aaron Brooks was definitely one of the reasons for the Rockets' victory due to his outstanding play and great ball movement. He finished the game with 19 points.

Game Notes

• Shaquille O’Neal reaches 10th on the NBA’s Top 10 Career scoring list with his 26,396th point coming from the halfway mark into the third quarter. He joins Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, & Wilt Chamberlain (just to name a few) on the elite list of 10.

• Suns had zero fast break points in the loss to the Rockets.

• PHX averaged getting to the line 30 times before the match-up against Houston, and only went to the line four times in Wednesday’s game.

• PG Goran Dragic for the PHX Suns showed growing confidence running the offense late in the first quarter.