NBA Southwest: Rockets set pace in disappointing division

Basketball Betting Lines

11/21/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Injuries to Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have put San Antonio in a holding pattern, while New Orleans is playing .500 basketball and the Dallas Mavericks are looking to dig out of an early season hole.

So, what was supposed to be one of the NBA's toughest division has turned into a rather pedestrian group, at least early in the season.

The Houston Rockets are driving the pace car in the Southwest Division with a 7-5 record but things haven't been all rosy in Houston as nagging injuries have taken their toll on Rick Adelman's team.

The Rockets were without center Yao Ming (sore left foot) on Wednesday when they lost to Dallas at the Toyota Center. Meanwhile, Tracy McGrady played despite leaving Monday's game against Oklahoma City with a knee injury and Ron Artest continues to play through an ankle injury.

Defensive stalwart, Shane Battier, practiced on Tuesday for the first time this season, but was in street clothes again as he continues be sidelined due to offseason foot surgery.

"When you don't have Yao, you've got to move the ball and you have to create situations," Adelman said after the loss. "We don't have a lot of guys who can break you down off the dribble. So the guys who can't do that, you've got to give them some room and I thought there were times when we had the ball in the hands of someone who could get there and our thought process was very poor."

Obviously McGrady is on the one player Adelman can count on to break down a defense with the dribble but the All-Star has considered shutting it down for a while to help his balky knee.

A healthy Rockets team would be quite a headache for the rest of the Western Conference but it's hard to imagine Yao or McGrady getting through the rigors of an entire NBA season without a litany of minor injuries.

SPURS STEADY SHIP WITHOUT STARS

Normally Gregg Popovich wouldn't be all that happy staring at a mediocre 5-6 record.

But, with Ginobili and Parker on the sidelines with ankle injuries things certainly could be worse. After starting the season an ugly 2-5 record, San Antonio reeled off three straight wins before coming back to earth Wednesday against Denver.

The Nuggets' Chauncey Billups scored 22 points, doled out six assists and hauled in five rebounds to lead Denver to a rather easy 91-81 victory at the AT&T Center.

Parker's replacement, rookie George Hill scored 20 points for the Spurs, who struggled to find a rhythm without Parker running the show. Veteran Michael Finley netted 13 points, while All-Star Tim Duncan had just 12 points and 11 boards.

"It's very disappointing when you lose a game," Hill said. "You always go out there to win. We learned from it. We learn from our mistakes. We made a couple of bonehead mistakes down the stretch, and it hurt us. It just shows you, in this league you can't make mistakes. You have to be successful at both ends of the court."

Despite the early season troubles Popovich may finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Ginobili accompanied the team on its last road trip and began to do some light court activity.

Popovich also announced that the Argentine's rehab, which originally set mid- December as a possible return date, is ahead of schedule and the team expects Ginobili to do some 5-on-5 work in the next week or two.

ROAD WARRIORS

When a team is struggling, a lot of coaches like the road. It's a simple thought process...the players are removed from all the negativity in the local papers and sports talk radio.

When the Mavs, a team used to the view from the top of the standings, got off to a miserable 2-7 start, you can bet coach Rich Carlisle wasn't all that upset to waive North Texas goodbye.

On Wednesday Jason Terry scored 31 points, and Dirk Nowitzki added 24 points and 12 rebounds as Dallas completed a 3-0 road trip with a 96-86 victory over the Yao-less Rockets.

Now that the Mavs have shown a pulse on the road, they will try to win for the first time in Dallas as they welcome the Memphis Grizzlies to American Airlines Center on Friday.

Something has to give as the Mavs are 0-4 in Dallas this year but have beaten Memphis 11 straight times. The last time the Grizzlies beat Dallas was on November 26, 2005 in North Texas.

Off the court, Mavs owner Mark Cuban is dealing with a lot. The SEC has charged the outspoken billionaire with insider trading while veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse publicly asked to be traded or released on Monday.

Cuban has vowed to fight the legal charges and said he would not buyout the remainder of Stackhouse's contract but will look at any trade offers.

Cuban likes Stackhouse and wants him as a mentor to Gerald Green but the former North Carolina star is loathe to accept a reduced role.

BIG LETDOWN

The Hornets call the Big Easy home but right now they are a big letdown.

Most consider New Orleans a legitimate championship contender but the Hornets fell to .500 Wednesday when they let a bad Sacramento team without its best player, Kevin Martin, escape New Orleans with a 105-96 win.

Chris Paul, nursing a balky ankle, logged 20 points and 15 assists, while David West scored 22 points for New Orleans, which has lost three of four.

"This is a bad loss for us," West said after the game. "We definitely have taken steps back as a team. We're going to have to come together and make a push because right now teams are just walking over us."

The Hornets have a chance to get back on track in a familiar setting on Friday. The team returns to the Ford Center for the front end of a home-and- home series with the woeful Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Hornets played 71 home games at the Ford Center in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons in the wake of the destruction of Hurricane Katrina before returning back to the Big Easy.

While toiling in Oklahoma City, the Hornets averaged over 18,000 fans per game and the NBA was so impressed by the local faithful that the city rose to the top of the list for a future expansion team or as a possible destination for a relocation. That came to fruition in the offseason as the Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma, and the Thunder were born.

A loss to the Thunder on either end of the home-and-home set could be disastrous for the team's psyche.

"Our guys are fooling themselves if they think that when they walk on the court anybody is going to be scared of them," coach Byron Scott said. "We haven't done anything to scare anybody."

ONE-TWO PUNCH

Eleven games might not seem like a lot in an NBA season but the Grizzlies are usually buried by this point in the regular season.

Not this year...Sure, Memphis is still looking up at the rest of the Southwest Division with a 4-7 record but its just 2 1/2 games back since everyone else has taken a step back.

That doesn't mean anyone is going to take the Grizz seriously any time soon but the team is slowly developing a solid one-two punch in Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo.

Gay notched 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds Tuesday as Memphis routed Sacramento, 109-94, at the FedEx Forum. Hakim Warrick scored 21 points and raked in 10 rebounds off the bench for the Grizzlies, who stopped a four-game slide. Marc Gasol added 16 points and Mayo had 11 points for Memphis.

Gay or Mayo have led the Grizzlies in scoring during every game this season and have been showing nice consistency for young players at that end of the floor.

Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni would like the same kind of consistency at the defensive end, however, and that will likely tell the story of how much improvement there is on Beale Street this season.