Top o' the afternoon to ya! We always have trouble with Irish accents; we always either end up sounding Scottish or like a pirate. But regardless, the Rockets' streak poses an interesting conundrum, especially if you plan on getting sauced tonight: do you talk about the streak (potentially jinxing it) or refuse to even acknowledge its existence (which makes you seem like kind of a jerk). The choice is yours. Here's what the blogs are......

Led by Tracy McGrady’s 41 point scoring barrage, the Houston Rockets won their 18th consecutive game with a 106-96 victory over the New Orleans Hornets. McGrady converted 17 of 27 field goal attempts and reached the 40-point plateau for just the fourth time this season. The Herculean effort was needed by the Houston swingman thanks to front court deficiencies. In addition to the loss of Yao Ming for the season’s entirety, the Rockets were......

En route to a 117-99 road victory over the Indiana Pacers, the Houston Rockets set a franchise record with their 16th straight win last night. Courtesy of a stellar first half from Tracy McGrady (23 points by intermission), the Rockets went on a 15-0 run in the second quarter and overcame a third quarter surge by the Pacers to cruise to victory. Though so-called pundits around the nation left the Rockets for dead after......

Well, it was fun while it lasted. The Rockets, riding high on a 12 game winning streak going into tonight's game against the Wizards, will be without star Yao Ming for the rest of the season after Yao was diagnosed today with a stress fracture in his left foot. The team's medical staf will speak to the press later today, but the word from the nearly-infallible Chris Berman at Fox26 is that Yao will have......

How difficult is the Western Conference? Well, your hometown Houston Rockets just defeated the Portland Trailblazers tonight to notch their 11th victory in 12 games. With a 31-20 record to their name, the Rockets nevertheless continue to find themselves battling it out with the Golden State Warriors for the eighth and final playoff spot. Despite the grim outlook in the hyper-competitive conference, citizens of Houston can take solace in the fact that they are currently......

The Houston Rockets returned home last night, fresh off of an eight game road winning streak, to host the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in a nationally televised match up. With Western Conference foes such as the Suns and Lakers making headline roster moves to improve their stock in an extremely competitive Western Conference, the Rockets were quickly becoming an afterthought as they fought for the final playoff seed. However, a 92-77 victory over the Cavs......

The Houston Rockets are seemingly transitioning into the New York Giants of the National Basketball Association. No, they haven't just won a championship. No, they haven't defeated arguably the best team in league history. No, they haven't snapped an opponent's 18-game winning streak. OK, so maybe they're nothing like the NFL's Super Bowl winner. Save for the fact that the Rockets have turned into road warriors (as the Giants have been characterized this season), after......

Former Purdue standout and NBA rookie Carl Landry returned to his college roots on Saturday night and scored a season high 22 points to lead the Rockets to a 106-103 comeback victory over the Indiana Pacers. While stars Yao Ming (17 points and 12 rebounds) and Tracy McGrady (19 points and nine assists) struggled with their strokes from the field, hitting a combined 10 of 31 attempts, it was the 13 points that Landry scored......

The Houston Rockets were able to overcome the absence of Tracy McGrady (15th missed game of the season) to earn a 111-107 victory over the Golden State Warriors at the Toyota Center last night. With McGrady suffering from “flu-like symptoms,” the Rockets were led by Yao Ming, whose 36 points and 19 rebounds both matched season highs. Aiding Yao’s efforts were Rafer Alston’s 17 points and 12 assists along with Luther Head’s 20 points and......

With All-Star center Yao Ming sidelined, the Houston Rockets found themselves on the wrong side of a 97-89 score against the Utah Jazz at the Toyota Center on Sunday night. The loss ended Houston’s four game winning streak and brought to light Houston’s season long free throw shooting woes. Yao, who sat out the game with an upper-respiratory infection, has been listed as “day-to-day” on the injury report. In his place, rookie Luis Scola scored......

• A Fort Bend County student has been accused of bringing a 9mm gun to school. The student was immediately expelled. • Two teens have been arrested after carjacking a family from their Cadillac Escalade at First Colony Mall. • Authorities are looking for a man claiming to be a police officer who attacked a 15 year old girl at a park in the 6400 block of Rustling Elms Drive back on November 18th.......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • A small plane made an emergency landing on a street near Lake Conroe. The plane landed safely, no one was injured and now it's up to the FAA to decide how to move the plane. • Several people were robbed while standing in line to by sneakers (did we just type that?) at Greenspoint Mall. The thief fled in a black Chevy......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • Recent Katy Freeway closures are sure to cause a few headaches. As of 10 p.m., Friday night, the Katy Freeway eastbound ramp to Beltway 8 northbound will be closed until April 2008. The westbound ramp to Beltway 8 northbound will be closed until August 2008. • Three Houston area residents have filed a lawsuit against Microsoft for breach of contract because they......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • Seven people are in custody after a SWAT standoff on Saturday in southeast Houston. • Five people were injured Saturday morning when a police chase ended in a wreck near downtown. • Traveon LeBlanc was laid to rest on Saturday with hundreds in attendance. Traveon was the 12 year old who was killed after attempting to run across the Gulf Freeway. •......

The Texans pleasantly surprised us yesterday. Here we were all ready for another defeat, and suddenly Sage "Best Backup QB In The League" Rosenfels makes us feel all better. The picture that accompanies the top link today captures the feelings of many Texans fans today, we'd imagine. But there's more than just football going on this time of year; read on and see! - The lovely and talented Stephanie Stradley at AOL Fanhouse has a......

The tryptophan has worn off, we all trudge back to work, and sit down to surf the web. Between another crushing Texans loss, the Aggies poaching one of the Texans' coaches, and the Rockets finally getting their act together, it was a busy holiday season for Houston sports. Let Houstonist do the surfing for you and bring you up to speed on what the web is saying about our teams: - Ok, this is just......

It was a good weekend for football in Houston, whether that means the one with the pads or the one with the round ball. But there were things happening in the Houston sports scene outside of RFK and Reliant Stadiums. As we do every week, here's a recap of what the blogs are saying about your hometown teams: - The Dynamo are the big news today, so here's a fantastic live blog of the game......

With the wounds from the Texans' loss to the Jaguars still fresh this morning, let's browse the blog world and see if there's any good news to be found. - Here we go. Rick Adelman + Rafer Alston = BFF. OMG ROFL. ;) - The Chronicle picks up a new blogger/editiorial columnist. It's always amusing to watch a non-Houston native try to put their finger on the pulse of this city's schizophrenic sports fans. It's......

With baseball season firmly packed into the history books, at least as far as the Astros and the rest of the NL Central are concerned (hi Cubs fans!), and basketball season around the corner, there's plenty of blog fodder out there this week. Here's what bloggers are saying about our sports teams: - The Rockets are hemorrhaging point guards. Even though the word on the street is that Rafer Alston is on the trading block,......

It's time again to look into the wilds of the internets and see what people are saying about Houston's sports teams. Without further ado, here we go. -Jacoby Jones is hands-down the most exciting player on the Texans right now, and probably their most anticipated rookie since David Carr. The national press is starting to take notice as well, as noted in this NFL.com article that compares Jones to last NFL season's IT GUY Devin......

This time, the weapon wasn't just spittle. Less than a month after being arrested in Houston for allegedly spitting on a parking attendent, Rockets point guard Rafer Alston is facing more serious charges in New York after an altercation in a club last night. According to the police report, Alston slashed another man's neck at the club; he has been charged with felony assault. The New York tabloids have all the gory details, which can......

Rafer Alston is spitting mad. He was mad, he admits, Sunday night when he got into a shouting match with a downtown parking attendant who was threatening to tow his car. But what has the erstwhile "Skip To My Lou" pissed today is that he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor public intoxication and assault as a result of the confrontation. The arrest record accuses him of expectorating on the parking attendant and being drunk......

As any good sports fan will tell you, the end of the season is just the beginning of the fun. Here's what's going on with the Houston teams that aren't playing games right now: Rockets -Plenty of Rockets news this week, starting with the announcement of their 2007-08 schedule. Their home opener pits them against the Portland Trail Blazers and 74 year old rookie Greg Oden. Full schedule at the Rockets' website. -Yao Ming is......

The Houston Rockets are set to re-acquire point guard Mike James in a trade that will send Rockets forward Juwan Howard to the Milwaukee Bucks. The deal, which is pending, could happen as early as today could include more players. James played for the Rockets in the 2004-05 season, helping lead the Rockets to the playoffs. After an early playoff exit to the Dallas Mavericks, James was dealt north of the border to the......

|| Game Date: April 30, 2007 || Game Location: Houston || Playoff Round: One || Series Record: Rockets 3 - Utah 2 || Final Score: 96 HOU - 92 UTAH || Box Score: Rockets @ Utah Info from NBA.com ______________________________________________________ First Quarter - A half empty arena greeted the Rockets when the game started and with only 36% shooting it was a rough start for the team. Yao would shoot only one of nine......

|| Game Date: April 26, 2007 || Game Location: Utah || Playoff Round: One || Series Record: Rockets 2 - Utah 1 || Final Score: 81 UTAH - 67 HOU || Box Score: Rockets @ Utah Info from NBA.com ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ First Quarter - TMac started it off as if he had something to prove to Oscar Robertson, who called him out in this article from SLAM Magazine. TMac scored the first four points......

|| Game Date: April 23, 2007 || Game Location: Toyota Center, Houston || Playoff Round: One || Series Record: Rockets 2 - Utah 0 || Final Score: 98 HOU - 90 UTAH || Box Score: Utah @ Rockets Info from NBA.com ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ First Quarter: It was all Boozer. I never wanted someone to miss a shot so much in my life. Bozo, Boozer would not miss. Finally at about seven minutes into the......

|| Game Date: April 21, 2007 || Game Location: Toyota Center, Houston || Series Record: Rockets 1 - Utah 0 || Final Score: 84 HOU - 75 UTAH || Box Score: Utah @ Rockets Info from NBA.com ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ After a strong start and a give and take first quarter, the Rockets appeared to come out with a lack of gumption (or maybe it was nerves) and ended the first half down by nine,......