The Good

Cuttino Mobley & Hakeem Olajuwon Mobley was the star of the game, taking over in the fourth quarter of a close game and carrying the Rockets to the victory. But you have to give props to Hakeem, who kept the Rockets in the game through the 1st 3 quarters with 12 points and 11 boards, in only 24 minutes of action.

The Bad

Mo Taylor Evidently, Mo’s strong showing in Seattle was a fluke. He fell back into season-long form last night, with 1 point, 4 rebounds, and an 0-for-7 shooting performance.

The Ugly

The entire game, through 3 quarters, was just painful to watch. The 54 to 52 score was based more on sloppy half-court execution and missed jumpers than solid defense. Honorable mention to Calvin Murphy, whose blue and white sports coat ensemble, capped off by a black and gold tie, was the ugliest thing I’ve seen since Calvin used to wear that white drum major outfit and prance around the Summit floor at halftime.

Mobley and Bullard weren’t the only heroes for the Rockets. Hakeem Olajuwon hauled in 11 boards to go with his 12 points, in only a half of action. Kenny Thomas only scored 7 points and shot horribly, but was a monster on the offensive glass in the 4th quarter (12 rebounds overall), keeping alive several valuable possessions when the Grizzlies were threatening to catch the Rockets down the stretch. For the opposition, Shareef Abdur-Rahim was by far the game’s high scorer, pouring in 26 points, while Bryant Reeves, AKA “Big Country” kept the pressure up late with 8 points in the 4th quarter. Reeves made some very nice moves in the lane, making me wonder why Rudy T never brought Dream back in for his defense.

I might have somewhat overstated the horror that was the opening three quarters. There were a few highlights that I should mention. In fact, before the Rockets came alive in the fourth, my inclination was to find a way to devote the entire article to the sweet, sweet alley-oop slam by Francis off of a pretty feed from Mobley, late in the 3rd quarter. Words don’t do this thing justice, but basically it was Mobley and Francis alone on the break, with Mobley stopping to the right of the free-throw line to dish off to a high-flying Francis, who caught the ball and managed to strike a nice pose before throwing down a nasty one-handed dunk.

The highlight of the first half happened late in the first quarter. After a very slow start by the Rockets, with the Grizzlies leading 9-0 and 17-7, the Rockets forged their way back into the game with an 8 to nothing run. At that point Stromile Swift took it to the hoop and was stuffed by Olajuwon. The youngster apparently didn’t learn his lesson, and took it to Hakeem a second time in a row, where he was denied again by the Dream. Don’t they get cable in Canada?

The Rockets caught a break early in the game when Michael Dickerson aggrevated a previous injury, spraining his ankle. He didn’t return, leaving ex-Cougar Damon Jones to play 45! mostly unproductive minutes in his place. In a game as tight as this one, the ex-Rocket Dickerson might have made a difference down the stretch.