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Sports

Better luck next season, Rockets

Mad Dog

Lee Clark

The NBA regular season is set to end a week from today, and mark my words: A team from the Western Conference is going to be this year's Finals champ.

Unfortunately for Rockets fans, Houston won't be adding another O'Brien Championship trophy to their display case come late June.

The Rockets have a good team this year, no doubt. Houston (49-29) is one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. The Rockets are tops in the league in rebounding (43.7 per game) and opponents' field goal percentage (42.5 percent).

Houston has a good low-post scorer in Yao Ming and legitimate threats from three-point range in Luther Head and Shane Battier.

Furthermore, Tracy McGrady is a do-it-all kind of player like Kobe Bryant or Lebron James. He can score, pass and direct the offense.

The Rockets, however, lack three important things that ensure success in today's NBA: quickness, good jump shooters and an attack-the-rim mentality.

Let's start with quickness. The Mavs, Suns and the Spurs all have it, from their point guards to their big men.

Houston, on the other hand, likes to run a methodical, slowed-down half-court offense, primarily because Yao can't run. 

As far as shooting goes, the Rockets rank 26th out of 30 NBA teams in field goal percentage (44.3 percent), whereas Phoenix (49.5), San Antonio (47.5) and Dallas (46.8) all rank in the top five in the NBA in that same category.

A big reason why the Mavs, Suns and Spurs shoot a higher percentage is because they get a lot of dunks and layups that come after attacking the rim.

The Mavs, Suns and the Spurs all have a slew of players who are adept at penetrating to the basket. The only Rocket tough enough to take the ball to the hole is McGrady. 

Houston can beat Utah in the first round, especially if it can hold on to the No. 4 seed in the West and thus keep home court advantage for that series. Just don't look for Houston to beat Dallas in the second round. 

Remember the 2005 postseason? Back then, the Rockets' offense couldn't match the Mavs' offense. You can bet the Houston offense won't cut it in 2007, either. 

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