Last week a Michigan news source speculated that the Detroit Pistons might be interested in acquiring Houston’s Tracy McGrady in a trade. Days later a Canadian news outlet reported that the Detroit Pistons were “making a big pitch to the Houston Rockets for perennial All-Star Tracy McGrady.” Many national news outlets began to fan the flames of conjecture and legitimized the story through broadcasted discussion, from ESPN’s “Sportscenter” to “Around the Horn.” Suddenly the......

Rookie power forward Carl Landry took a flying leap into the collective hearts of Houston sports fans last night with a gritty performance that helped the Rockets eek out a 94-92 victory against the Utah Jazz in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. On a night when every Houstonian who ordered a Heineken actually received his or her beer of choice, guard Tracy McGrady led the charge to give the Rockets a......

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......

Since joining TNT as an NBA studio analyst, former Houston Rockets star Charles Barkley has been quite the Negative Nancy when discussing the playoff chances of his old team. Year after year Barkley sits on his throne beside Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith and waxes poetically about his displeasure over the play of Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, and the rest of the Clutch City cast. Most particularly, Barkley constantly expresses his displeasure at the......

En route to a 117-99 road victory over the Indiana Pacers, the Houston Rockets set a franchise record with their 16th straight win last night. Courtesy of a stellar first half from Tracy McGrady (23 points by intermission), the Rockets went on a 15-0 run in the second quarter and overcame a third quarter surge by the Pacers to cruise to victory. Though so-called pundits around the nation left the Rockets for dead after......

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. Wonder......

How difficult is the Western Conference? Well, your hometown Houston Rockets just defeated the Portland Trailblazers tonight to notch their 11th victory in 12 games. With a 31-20 record to their name, the Rockets nevertheless continue to find themselves battling it out with the Golden State Warriors for the eighth and final playoff spot. Despite the grim outlook in the hyper-competitive conference, citizens of Houston can take solace in the fact that they are currently......

With a 19 point victory over the Atlanta Hawks last night, the scorching hot Houston Rockets have won 10 of their past 11 games. Led by Yao Ming’s 28 points and nine rebounds, Houston cruised to a 108-89 victory, with only two games remaining before the All-Star break. Houston dominated the match up from the initial jump ball and never looked back. Need proof on the total command that the Rockets held from start to......

The Houston Rockets returned home last night, fresh off of an eight game road winning streak, to host the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in a nationally televised match up. With Western Conference foes such as the Suns and Lakers making headline roster moves to improve their stock in an extremely competitive Western Conference, the Rockets were quickly becoming an afterthought as they fought for the final playoff seed. However, a 92-77 victory over the Cavs......

The Houston Rockets are seemingly transitioning into the New York Giants of the National Basketball Association. No, they haven't just won a championship. No, they haven't defeated arguably the best team in league history. No, they haven't snapped an opponent's 18-game winning streak. OK, so maybe they're nothing like the NFL's Super Bowl winner. Save for the fact that the Rockets have turned into road warriors (as the Giants have been characterized this season), after......

It's a struggle not to talk about how awesome the Super Bowl was last night, but since we're here to talk about Houston teams first and foremost, we'll have to stick to our mission. But how 'bout those commercials, huh? We went and looked at the GoDaddy.com Danica Patrick one online; who knew that she could put both legs behind her head while playing "Smoke On The Water" on kazoo? Here's what the blogosphere has......

Yao vs Yi failed to deliver in the NBA's world of one-name superstar marketing fashion. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of "Olajuwon vs Ewing" or "Shaq vs the Admiral" - David Stern had long been searching for the next big man rivalry to grace the National Basketball Association's hardwood. After the Milwaukee Bucks drafted China's Yi Jianlian last summer, the NBA found itself with two seven-foot Asian big men gracing its rosters - one......

Former Purdue standout and NBA rookie Carl Landry returned to his college roots on Saturday night and scored a season high 22 points to lead the Rockets to a 106-103 comeback victory over the Indiana Pacers. While stars Yao Ming (17 points and 12 rebounds) and Tracy McGrady (19 points and nine assists) struggled with their strokes from the field, hitting a combined 10 of 31 attempts, it was the 13 points that Landry scored......

The Houston Rockets were able to overcome the absence of Tracy McGrady (15th missed game of the season) to earn a 111-107 victory over the Golden State Warriors at the Toyota Center last night. With McGrady suffering from “flu-like symptoms,” the Rockets were led by Yao Ming, whose 36 points and 19 rebounds both matched season highs. Aiding Yao’s efforts were Rafer Alston’s 17 points and 12 assists along with Luther Head’s 20 points and......

With All-Star center Yao Ming sidelined, the Houston Rockets found themselves on the wrong side of a 97-89 score against the Utah Jazz at the Toyota Center on Sunday night. The loss ended Houston’s four game winning streak and brought to light Houston’s season long free throw shooting woes. Yao, who sat out the game with an upper-respiratory infection, has been listed as “day-to-day” on the injury report. In his place, rookie Luis Scola scored......

En route to a fourth-straight victory, the Houston Rockets defeated the scorching hot Portland Trailblzers to the tune of 89-79 at the Rose Garden on Friday night. The Blazers entered the contest having won 12 consecutive home games, thanks to the heady play of such stars as guard Brandon Roy and former Texas Longhorn LaMarcus Aldridge. However, the game remained very much undecided until Houston coach Rick Adelman elected to infuse the starting lineup......

The 2008 NBA All Star team starting lineups were announced yesterday, and Houston’s very own Yao Ming proved to be a fan favorite. The Rockets’ big man was voted in as the starting center for the Western Conference squad, ahead of such luminaries as Amare Stoudemire (2nd leading vote-getter amongst Western Conference centers), reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year - Marcus Camby (3rd), and Pau Gasol (6th). Yao was selected to start in the......

Houston, Rockets, basketball, McGrady, NBA, All Star...

The Rockets kicked a truckload of ass last week before getting a wake-up call against the Hornets. Amazing that they did all of this without Tracy McGrady. Kinda makes you wonder if GM Daryl Morey should listen to all those trade rumors. The T-Mac rumors and more in this week's run-through of what the sports blogs are saying: - Every time we think we're done talking about Roger Clemens, he pulls us back in. It's......

We usually run this column on Mondays, but the Clemens press conference inspired us to be petulant and storm out of things, so we walked away from our keyboard in a huff, drove back to our mansion in Memorial, and injected our kids whose names all begin with K's with horse steroids. After we calmed down and called our lawyer, we compiled this list of links. Here's what the sports blogosphere is talking about this......

The Rockets have been afflicted with shooting woes on a couple of occasions already this season. But the injury bug had stayed away so far, leaving many people optimistic about the team's chances for a high playoff seed in the Western Conference. But then Tracy McGrady's elbow barged in to the discussion. In the waning seconds of a disappointing first half against the Lakers at Toyota Center, T-Mac collided hard with Lakers forward Luke Walton......

It's no secret that there are many in the Houston sports scene who feel that the decision to trade the rights to one Rudy Gay to Memphis in return for perennial role player Shane Battier was a mistake. Rudy Gay is, in his second year, averaging 19.7 points and 4.2 rebounds. Last night the two had a chance to go head to head when the Rockets visited FedEx Forum. Fortunately for Rocket fans, Gay racked......

The Rockets have come back from a loss to Dallas with an impressive win against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs. The Rockets came out with a quick spurt put on by Shane Battier who came out of the gates with back-to-back three pointers. Other than that, the first quarter was uneventful with the exception of Chuck Hayes getting an elbow to the eye from Tim Duncan that required him to get stitches, forcing......

How sweet it is. They say revenge is sweet and the Rockets’ Tracy McGrady had a full helping of it last night with a 47 point performance against the Utah Jazz. The Jazz eliminated the Rockets in the 2007 playoffs in seven games and brought McGrady to tears after keeping him out of the second round once again. The Jazz had a lead as high as 12 points in the first quarter when they......

After months of anticipation and one of the best off-seasons in recent memory, the Rockets will begin their 2007-08 campaign tonight in LA against the Lakers. With a new frontcourt featuring Argentine sensation Luis Scola and a fully healthy Yao, the Rockets will be able to give the Spurs and Mavs a run for their money as the best team in the state. The focus tonight, however, will be on the matchup between Tracy McGrady......

In spite of what may have simultaneously been the best and worst game in Texans franchise history, we do have a lot of good stuff to share with you this week from the sports blogosphere. Pay particular attention to the gem at the bottom of the list. - Stevie Franchise may not really earn that nickname anymore, but he is back in Houston and he is wearing number 3 again. Just like 2002. Maybe we......

"Biggio" is the word on many bloggers minds this week, so this'll be a pretty Astros-heavy week here at the blog roundup. - Orange Whoopass is putting together some of the most poignant tributes to number 7. Here are a couple of them. - Biggio didn't break the all-time hit-by-pitch record (he came two short, but still holds the modern-era record). Plunk Biggio breaks it down with a great tribute, and some finger pointing. -......

Every week or so, Houstonist provides a rundown of what the Blogs are saying about our city's sports teams. Here's what we found this week: -Jeff Bagwell's life isn't all San Diego sun and jersey retirements. He's still working as a special assistant to Tim Purpura. He was recently in Lexington, KY to check out the Astros A-ball affiliate. Obviously, this was big news in Lexington. -The Texans have shown some interest in A&M and......

In hopes to discourage the use of performance enhancing drugs among high schoolers, a local campaign featuring four prominent local athletes kicked off today. The campaign, called “Be Smart. Stay Drug Free” was spearheaded by Dynamo president and general manager Oliver Luck, and features Dynamo midfielder Brian Ching, Astros left fielder Carlos Lee, Rockets forward Tracy McGrady, and Texans tackle Eric Winston. The campaign arrives on the heels of the recently passed Senate Bill 8,......

Steve Francis is happy to be back with the Rockets after a turbulent split with the team three seasons ago. Houstonist remembers that it was around the time of Superbowl XXXVIII that he first butted heads with former coach Jeff Van Gundy. It wasn't long after that he was traded to Orlando along with Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato for Tracy McGrady. He spent some time in Orlando and New York only to end......