All That Power – The Houston Rockets’ slide down ESPN’s Power Rankings continues, as the committee of one bumped them one spot to no. 10 this week. Marc Stein writes:
Among the reasons why the Dwight Howard/Omer Asik tandem hasn’t worked: Houston looks better offensively when it plays faster and can up the tempo with Omri Casspi or Terrence Jones at the 4. Newsy development overshadowed by all the Asik stuff: Jeremy Lin’s shooting appears to have improved dramatically.
At NBA.com, John Schumann also ranks Houston at no. 10 as well, while docking them two spots from last week. And he did one heck of a job summing up last week’s ride:
Pace: 100.8 (5), OffRtg: 106.0 (5), DefRtg: 101.6 (13), NetRtg: +4.3 (8)
The Rockets certainly led the league in drama last week. They played two overtimes against the Raptors, another in Philadelphia, escaped New York with a wild victory, had one center (Omer Asik) ask for a trade, lost a second (Greg Smith) to a knee injury, and had another (Dwight Howard) shoot 17-for-24 from the free-throw line in Saturday’s win over the Nuggets. You just can’t look away.
Cheer Up, Omer – So after sitting out Houston’s last game due to a broken heart, Omer Asik was back at practice on Monday. He didn’t speak to the media, but his teammates did. From the team’s official site:
Dwight Howard:
“He apologized for it and we have to move on. We can’t dwell on it. We can’t make it an issue. Like I said, we have to love him at the point where he is now and keep on loving him. It’s a tough situation and we all have to be understanding and empathize with him and keep moving forward.”
Jeremy Lin:
“Our job is to support him. No one can really know what he’s going through against him. It’s easy to be on the outside and just make statements or come to conclusions, but our job is to support him as much as we can, talk to him and try to keep his spirits up.”
Chandler Parsons:
“I just try to be a friend in this situation and be there for him and talk him through it, but I’ve never been through what he’s going through so I’m not some genius or anything, but just trying to be helpful any way I can and keep supporting him.”
When Kevin McHale was asked if he had any insight on how he, as a coach, was dealing with Asik’s situation, he said, and I quote: “No.” Deal with it.
Consilience – Via USA Today, sometimes, the man, the medium, and the moment come together to create something perfect. Like Dwight Howard appearing on Sesame Street. Take it away, Youtube:
Next time Dwight Howard makes a free throw, I’m screaming “THANKS, MR. DWIGHT!!!” You should too.
(Seriously though, solid performance by Howard. Doing a completely uncut two-and-a-half-minute segment for television without any miscues or awkward pauses is much tougher than it looks.)
Tweet That – You wish you were Jeremy Lin.
Huge thank you to @playstation for the PS4 and travel case!! Graphics supposed to be crazyyy pic.twitter.com/L1HAwVsyIb
— Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) November 18, 2013
In the immortal words of Jimmy Stewart, “The prettiest sight in this fine pretty world is the privileged class enjoying it’s privileges.”
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