No Yao? No scoring from McGrady? No Problem!

Houston wins 22nd straight game
with no scoring from MVP-candidate Mcgrady (left)
by playing team ball
Kobe Bryant won the battle of the MVP hopefuls as he scored 24 and held T-Mac to a sickly 4 of 16 shooting (11 pts when the smoke cleared), but that didn't seem to matter as the surging Rockets won Sunday's match-up 104-92 for another double-digit victory. the win gives Houston sole possession of 1st place in the wild, wild west. when the Rockets lost 97-89 to Utah on Jan. 27, they were in 10th place, but since then, they have skewered all comers to lock up the 2nd longest win streak in NBA history. with T-mac shackled and Yao out for the season, Rockets' much-maligned point guard Rafer Alston played savior on Sunday, hitting 8 threes and leading all scorers with 31 points.

right now, the Rockets are playing the kind of team ball all coaches dream of. "There wasn't a time where we wavered from successful team basketball," according to do-it-all Shane Battier, who scored 14 points and chased Kobe around on defense all game... "Different guys hit shots and we tightened the reins on defense."
-gM