Results tagged “neworleanshornets”

Led by Tracy McGrady’s 41 point scoring barrage, the Houston Rockets won their 18th consecutive game with a 106-96 victory over the New Orleans Hornets. McGrady converted 17 of 27 field goal attempts and reached the 40-point plateau for just the fourth time this season. The Herculean effort was needed by the Houston swingman thanks to front court deficiencies. In addition to the loss of Yao Ming for the season’s entirety, the Rockets were playing without rookie Carl Landry, who was relegated to the pine with a bruised left knee.

Many of the NBA’s so called pundits have dismissed the Houston Rockets’ accomplishments in achieving a 10-game winning streak, by exclaiming that until the squad beat a team of true substance, they were simply taking advantage of an undemanding schedule. Talking heads around the nation have stated that Houston’s road match-up against the Western Conference leading New Orleans Hornets would be the true test to determine if the Rockets were legitimate playoff threats.

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey may have been the busiest man not involved in a presidential election over the past two days. Less than 24 hours after trading Bonzi Wells and Mike James to the New Orleans Hornets, Morey was at it again. In what can only be dubbed as a swap of malcontents, the Rockets shipped Kirk Snyder and a 2nd round draft pick off to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for hometown Houston high school legend Gerald Green just moments before the expiration of the NBA’s trade deadline.

In a classic case of keeping up with the Joneses the Houston Rockets executed a player swap late last night with less than 24 hours before the expiration of the NBA’s trade deadline. As their Western Conference cohorts have made headlines over the last three weeks with the acquisitions of All-Star talent such as Shaquille O’Neal (Suns), Jason Kidd (Mavericks), and Pau Gasol (Lakers), the Houston Rockets found their crusade to climb in the playoff standings becoming that much more difficult. Therefore in order to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of the West, Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey made a deal of his own, though not quite on the league-shattering level as his foes. Houston sent forward Bonzi Wells and guard Mike James to the New Orleans Hornets in return for point guard Bobby Jackson, rookie guard Adam Haluska, and the higher of New Orleans’ two second-round picks in the 2008 NBA Draft (one of which previously belonged to the Rockets and was given to the Hornets in a trade last year to acquire Carl Landry).