Houston looked to be a potential playoff threat when they broke apart the Pacers' defense through a series of masterfully orchestrated plays by Rudy Tomjanovich. We saw the pick and roll, and it picked the Pacers' apart.
"They embarrassed us with their pick and rolls. We just didn't play defense,'' said Pacers forward Austin Croshere, who finished with a solid 14 points and 11 rebounds.
`"The use of their pick and roll killed us,'' added Travis Best, who had 16 points and 10 assists. "We did not adjust. We did not do anything right on the pick and roll.''

Steve Francis looked amazing in the second half, scoring 18 of his 20 points in that stretch, while adding 9 boards and 6 assists.
Hakeem Olajuwon once again looked solid, adding 13 points and 6 boards. If Dream can keep this up, we will actually have a redundancy at the center position. Who would have thought when the season began?

Some major props must also go to Matt Bullard and Walt Williams. The former had his best game of the season by hitting 7-10 (including 4-7 from 3 PT. range) of his field goals for 18 points. The Wizard lit it up for 16, although his performance was brought down a notch in my book when he got dunked on my former Rocket stiff Zan Tabak. Ouch.

The Rockets next face the Boston Celtics. Easy game, right? Not so fast. The Rockets tend to fold after winning a big game.

Box Score