I-10 Rivalry renewed

The Houston Rockets are coming off a hard fought 1 point loss to the Indiana Pacers this past Wednesday at Toyota Center. The Yellow and blue stunned the home town team by scoring often and late snapping the Rockets' three game winning streak. The loss soured the return of forward Shane Battier who made his season debut after missing the first 15 games of the season due to inflammation in his surgically-repaired left ankle.

The Rockets will try to turn the page returning to the court tomorrow night to face a familiar foe:

the San Antonio Spurs.

The two teams played earlier this season in a low-scoring affair. The Spurs won despite being without key parts Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. Tim Duncan and rookie George Hill came up big in the 77-75 win. Duncan had a game-saving block against Rockets guard Aaron Brooks late to clinch the win for the Spurs.

Tracy McGrady went 2-12 in the loss and Yao didn't fare much better. If the two would have played better the Rockets could have easily won, but should of, would of, etc...Tomorrow night the Spurs will be back to mostly full strength. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili will be active as the two rivals face off again. Both came off the bench during Friday night's game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The keys for the Rockets will be simple: Have Yao and McGrady get in the mix with decent games, have quality bench production from guys like Carl Landry, Aaron Brooks, etc., get the win on the boards, etc. Basically the same keys for every game for the Rockets. Back to back losses after the heart-breaker against the Pacers would not be good heading into Denver on Sunday. Spurs are heating up, Rockets try to avoid a 2-game losing streak... it should be an interesting game.