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Rockets Having Trouble Lifting Off

Jeff Van Gundy is about to lose the little hair he has left on his head if the Rockets continue to play this poorly. It seems unfathomable how a team that has two all-star players on its roster can struggle so badly. Upon a close look, one quickly realizes that that is just about all the Rockets have. Houston is lacking in the point guard department.

The Rafel Alston experiment hasn?t worked out and the team is now forced to play a rookie at the point. The Rockets don?t play another home game until December 21st, if you can believe that. They already played a stretch of seven-of-eight games on the road in November, and December is getting off to the same kind of start. The good news is that the Rockets will play a number of teams who are struggling, and thus have a chance to drastically improve their road record if they can take care of some business.

The 7-11 Kings have lost four games in a row, 5-12 Portland has lost five straight, and the Lakers are basically a one-man show and playing sub-.500 ball. The challenges on this road trip will be against two teams who would normally seem like the soft spots on the schedule. The LA Clippers are leading the division and playing as well as any team in the league, while the surging Warriors are starting to live up to the expectations set by their outstanding play at the end of last season.