http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2005/04/27/Sports/Rockets.Burst.Onto.Playoff.Scene.By.Taking.First.Two.Games.At.Dallas-941131.shtml

Rockets burst onto playoff scene by taking first two games at Dallas

By Alex Blair

The Texas Triangle of the Dallas Mavericks, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Houston Rockets has made Texas the most feared road swing in the NBA. With the playoff emergence of the Houston Rockets, the Triangle just got a lot more fearsome.

The Houston Rockets are currently playing the best basketball in the Western conference, taking the first two games from a heavily favored Dallas Mavericks team in the playoffs. Houston's brand of playoff ball promises to take them all the way to the Western Conference finals and perhaps their first championship in ten years.

The Rockets have done it on defense. During the season they showed great success in stopping the fast break, the hallmark of this year's NBA. They held the Phoenix Suns to nine lowly points on the run March 11. Monday, the Rockets showed their D can bend without breaking under the furious scoring pace of the Dirk Nowitzki-led Mavericks offense. In addition, the Rockets are the only playoff team to do no worse than a series split against every single Western playoff team.

The Rockets' playoff brilliance shouldn't be surprising. They had won seven straight games going into the playoffs. In March and April the Rockets posted impressive wins against Seattle (three times), Miami, Phoenix (twice), Sacramento, Denver and Dallas.

The question about the Rockets isn't "How have they been able to handle Dallas so easily?" - it's "How did no one see this coming?"

Their critics alleged, going into the playoffs, that the Rockets had won against Dallas without having to face a complete Dallas team. But the same critics seemed to have forgotten the Rockets' win Jan. 12 at the American Airlines Center, a 124-114 victory with Nowitski, Eric Dampier and Jerry Stackhouse all contributing. This is why the Rockets' 2-0 jump on the Mavs shocked the world. No one thought they had it in them to be so dominant against a high-octane offense, which is why the rest of the West is on alert about the Rockets.

The Rockets will beat the Dallas Mavericks in the first round not only because they are hot and now have home court advantage, but because the Mavericks simply can't answer the electrifying Tracy McGrady. Who can forget his obscene 13 points in the last 35 seconds Dec. 9 to sink the Spurs? The T-Mac we are seeing now isn't the T-Mac most in the basketball establishment would have you expect - a ball hog, one-sided, lazy. Monday night's per????ance was nothing short of Jordan-esque. This doesn't even mention his posterization of Shawn Bradley. Before this series T-Mac was known as a good player. Now he will be known as a great one.

And then there is Yao Ming. Yao is the best shooting center in the NBA and proved it by going 13-for-14 Monday night with 33 points. The big man was flat-out unstoppable. He had been plagued by defensive lapses for a large part of the season, but that wasn't apparent Monday, as the Mavericks were helpless to stop his onslaught. Every time the ball touched his hands it was automatic. This is the Yao the NBA has been expecting ever since he arrived from China, all 7-feet, 6-inches of him. We're living in the Year of the Yao. Want to call him soft now?

The Mavericks would normally be hard-pressed to contain the one-two punch of McGrady and Yao, but in the playoffs, the Rockets' two stars are proving that containing them is the last thing you can hope to do. Yao is still climbing the mountain of hype that preceded him, and playoff success is what he needs to reach the summit. McGrady is proving to doubters that he isn't the playoff flake he appeared to be in Orlando.

But the reason to be excited about the Houston Rockets is it all seems so familiar. A flashy, drain the trey, go-to-the-hole-and-dominate player. A big man who will stuff the ball and knock down jumpers. A cast of characters who make open 3-pointers. Those components reflect T-Mac, Yao, Bob Sura and Jon Barry as well as Clutch City circa 1995 with Clyde the Glide, Hakeem, Mario Elie and Otis Thorpe.

After a decade, the Rockets are back, and the rest of the NBA is officially on notice.