Unity leads Rockets past Mavs

Every expert on television, news columnist, sports reporter to your chat room and forum users all say the Houston Rockets can go deep into the playoffs if A: They can keep Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming healthy and B: If Ron Artest can keep his composure on and off the court. Earlier tonight, if a single game was any indication; Rockets fans will have something to cheer about in late April and May and fellow NBA teams can expect Houston to be a legit threat all season.

During the 4th quarter Yao was fouled hard going up for a shot by Mavericks' Josh Howard. Ron Artest rushed up and gently brushed up against Howard as he tried to separate the big man and Howard. Officials then decided to give Artest a technical. No doubt, if it wasn't for Artest's past reputation no technical would have been called (most likely!).

Yao then argued his case supporting his new teammate to one of the officials. Artest and Yao then slapped hands as they didn't let the bad call by the officials affect them. Artest brought his complete game on offense and defense and the Rockets fed off it and rallied in the 4th outscoring the Mavs 16-2 at one point in the 4th quarter.

Rockets' back-up young star Aaron Brooks was announced by the team to be out 1-3 weeks with an ankle bruise however coach Rick Adelman sent him out in the 2nd quarter and Brooks showed no signs of any ankle soreness. The former Oregon Duck scored a key 11 points in a pivotal 4th quarter the Rockets needed to take to win the game.

Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki put the Mavericks on their shoulders for the most part as they combined to score 27 alone in the 1st quarter. Howard finished with 28 along with 36 from Nowitzki. However the trio of Kidd-Howard-Nowitzki had a combined total of 1 point in the 4th as they fizzled out completely at the end giving the Rockets no reason not to take the victory at the end 112-102. The win makes Houston 2-0 on the season and they take a game in a city they've had struggles in the past several years --Dallas.

The Rockets return home on Saturday night to host Kevin Durant, Jeff Green and the Oklahoma Thunder. Houston will then host defending World Champions Boston Celtics on Tuesday Night in a game NBA fans had a chance to vote in to watch. If you haven't heard, you can vote on NBA.com for 1 out of a choice of 3 games to watch every Tuesday exclusively on NBA TV.


Around the NBA:

- It's been confirmed by one source that Lakers and center Andrew Bynum have come to terms of a three-year contract extension worth approximately $42 million. (Not bad for a 21 year old who has exceptional upside, but still on the unproven side). I think he'll be worth it for sure if he can manage to stay healthy and on the court.

- Trailblazer's center Greg Oden will miss 2-4 weeks due to a 'mid-lateral' foot sprain suffered in the first quarter of the Blazers opening night loss to the LA Lakers. Sad to see Oden having all these troubles with all the anticipation Blazer fans had for him in the opener and after the team signed him with the 1st overall pick in last year's draft.

- The city of Dallas has been granted the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. The game will be played at the new Cowboys stadium and could have more then 100,000 seats available for the game which would be well...extraordinary for a basketball game. We shall see.