As noted yesterday, the Rockets only seem to get better by removing stars from their lineup. Aaron Brooks, whom I'm told is not the former quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, scored 34 points as Houston played its best game of the season without Tracy McGrady or Yao Ming. It was pretty embarrassing for the Lakers. I'm sorry—Phil Jackson doesn't get fucking embarrassed.

Anyway, Brooks says everyone on the team has one of these snazzy red jackets and he was told that wearing them was mandatory, so he decided to take it up a notch with the kick-ass bow tie. Brooks was later taken out back to have his kneecaps broken in order to keep the "lose a player, win a game" strategy rolling.

Aaron Brooks will shred your defense, clear your plates [Ball Don't Lie]
Phil Jackson believed the Rockets should get "****ing" credit [Outside The Boxscore]

The matchup to watch is the Kobe/Artest pairing. Artest has been tossed in both games two and three, once for a confrontation with Kobe and once for a flagrant foul. Kobe was also called for a flagrant foul on Artest in game two.

"Both teams are just pretty much ready for war," Artest said. "You've always got to be ready to hit, in case somebody hits you. I think both teams realize that."

It's about to get ugly.

Consider this your open game thread. In the meantime, here's a little reminder of more peaceful times.

Someone dug up an old AP story from April 15, 1991, about Lloyd Newton, a 19-year-old basketball player from Queens who was killed in a fight at a Y.M.C.A. tournament in Niagara Falls.

The player, Lloyd Newton, was stabbed in the back with a leg from the scorer's table at the championship game of a Y.M.C.A.-sponsored tournament at the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club, the police in Niagara Falls said.

"An argument ensued about the score," Capt. Louis Curcione said, adding that one of the teams "thought they were getting gypped."

"A fight broke out between the players and about 40 fans in the stands," he said. "In the course of the fight, one person was stabbed in the back."

Newton died on the way to the hospital. A local teenager, Brian C. Young, was charged with second-degree murder, but a cursory online search did not reveal anything about the results of the case. However, there is a Brian C. Young, also from the Buffalo area and roughly the same age, who is currently in a New York State jail on drug charges. It could be a different Brian Young (it's a common enough name), but it might be the same.

It's not clear if Artest actually witnessed the game in person (it's unlikely actually; he was 12 at the time) or knew Newton personally (possibly) or simply heard the tale. But it did happen and yeah, it's very sad.

Player Dies in Stabbing at Basketball Game - The New York Times [AP/New York Times]
As It Turns Out, Ron Artest's Story About The Table Leg Through The Chest Really Happened [Mouthpiece Sports]
CRIME: Brian Muhammad has charges against him dismissed [MySpace]
Ron Artest Maybe Crazy, But He Isn't A Liar: Table Leg Murder Story Is True!!! [BlackSportsOnline]

Artest was ejected from Game 2 against the Lakers last night despite (sort of) trying to play the peacemaker. He was rightfully upset about Kobe Bryant's wild elbows and may have lost his cool a bit, but at least he's learned to keep things in perspective. And he definitely wasn't retaliating because Ron Artest knows about real retaliation. He told the media last night that one of his friends died during a playground game after being stabbed in the heart with a table leg. Yes, I guess that would be considered "rough play."

That kind of makes all the shoving and slaps to the head and teeth punching seem sort of silly, doesn't it? And yes, it does sound like something out of "Anchorman" (so go ahead and get it out of your system in the comments) but did it really happen? I choose to believe, only because I'm not going to call a guy who may have lived through something like that a liar. I enjoy my heart and would like to keep it where it is.

I Love Ron Artest Post-Game Interviews [Talk Hoops]
Ron Artest claims to have witnessed actual on-court murder, so Wednesday against Kobe and the Lakers was no biggie [LA Times]
NBA.com: Series reminds us that Playoffs are still a physical time [NBA.com]

UPDATE: It looks like the story is true, although Artest may not have actually witnessed it in person, not that it really matters. Scary stuff.

In the final minute of Houston's series clinching win over Portland, a classic Artest hustle play ended up with him somewhere around Row 15, where appreciative Rockets fans offered him a seat and a beer. (To drink this time!) Then at the post-game press conference, everyone got all misty-eyed and had a nice chuckle over it, because it was oddly reminiscent of that one time when Ron charged into the stands at Detroit and tried to kill a man with his fists.

See, that was funny because it started a riot that destroyed the Indiana Pacers franchise and forever branded Artest as a wild, unbalanced thug who should never be allowed in public without leg irons. More like a laugh riot, am I right?

Artest-Yao press conference [video via NBA.com]

Awwwww, right? So this guy I kind of know predicts the Blazers will beat the Rockets, only to be "schooled" as the saying goes by the Lakers, but adds that it will be "valuable experience for this promising young team," which is sort of how I feel about all my humiliations minus I guess the parts about "young" and "promising."

I find it always helps whenever I am writing about a challenging new topic to find sympathetic characters to whom I can relate and reading the internet I am starting to feel like this Greg Oden guy might understand. If A.J. fires me tonight maybe I'll just start a screenplay about what would happen if we met and by some unlikely sequence of events found ourselves charged with looking after an ethnically-diverse passel of potty-mouthed pipsqueaks, like a sort of fusion of Ghost World and Dangerous Minds. Probably though I will just get drunk.

Warriors can't hang with the Rockets. Houston's 119-108 win against a depleted Golden State team was never in doubt, thanks especially to a 24-10-9 performance from Tracy McGrady. Left with a pretty thin roster thanks to injuries and the Al Harrington trade the Warriors resigned themselves to a night of 22 jacked-up threes. Sadly they made just four of them. Stephen Jackson and Jamal Crawford, the team's foremost veteran scorers, combined to shoot 3-21 from the field. So yeah, Don Nelson is going to be pretty hungover this morning.

14 and counting. Boston trailed New Orleans by a point at the half, but they emerged from their home locker room intent on locking up their 14th straight win. The Hornets were held to just 35% by the stifling Celtic defense while Paul Pierce led the way on the other end with 28 points.

11 isn't bad either. Cleveland extended their own winning streak behind LeBron's 28-7-7 night at Philadelphia's expense. The Sixers out-shot and out-rebounded the Cavs, but they were done in by their 20 turnovers.

Richardson's debut. Jason Richardson was one of three Suns to score 21 points, although the two he scored on a reverse alley-oop stood out from the rest. Grant Hill added the final two for Phoenix to clinch a 113-112 win over Orlando. Dwight Howard was dominant at times, although he played just 23 minutes.

T-Mac print from Free Darko. Buy the book, it is changing lives.

The Chronicle explores the journalistic no-man's land between impartial reporting and the opinion page with their new, fun graphic: The T-Mac Injury Ticker. Now, readers of the paper's online Rockets' home page (I presume that it's in the print edition as well) can keep track at a glance of games missed and cost incurred during McGrady's lengthy knee injury hiatus. McGrady has said that he may stay out until Christmas to rest his knee, so this is just starting to get interesting. It's the Chronicle's T-Mac Injury Ticker vs. McGrady's Operation Shutdown. Let's watch the fun!

However, the Chronicle seems to be at odds with itself. On the one hand you've got the injury ticker, which in effect calls McGrady a malingerer who is stealing money. And then you've got today's Chronicle column by Richard Justice, which includes the observation: "McGrady doesn’t have to prove he’s a tough guy. He is. Anyone who thinks otherwise is clueless. Nor does he have to prove anything about how much he cares. He does care. Forget that three-week timetable for allowing his injured left knee to heal. He’ll be back when he’s back."

Of course the real fun will come in January once McGrady is back playing, when Chronicle reporters attempt to get some quotes.

Houston Rockets [Houston Chronicle]
The Houston Chronicle Seems To Dislike Tracy McGrady [Fan IQ]

"I honestly had no knowledge of Scott Brooks coming into today"

Even worse, this person actually researched Brooks and the most interesting fact that he took away from that investigation is that Brooks once played for the Albany Patroons of the CBA. A great franchise, yes, but this will not do.

You see, in the dark days of the mid-90s NBA, when the best basketball player on Earth was wasting his time playing baseball, the Houston Rockets were showing everybody what was what. It was during these difficult times that one man rose up to cheer on America. It was he, more than any other individual, who brought that title home to Houston and inspired a nation. That man was Scotty Brooks.

Brooks was like the über-Eckstein. Like Steve Kerr, Mark Madsen, and big piece of shoe leather all rolled into one. The undersized journeyman shooting guard bounced around several colleges and a couple of NBA teams before landing in Houston just in time for that magical run to the Bull-free Finals. He was the consummate bench player, waving his towels, cheering on his more notable teammates with gusto, but occasionally stepping into a game to drop a dagger 3-pointer on some hapless opponent.

He only played 23 minutes in five playoff games during that championship run, but his real contribution was the fighting spirit that he brought to that Rocket bench. Anyone who followed along during that gloriously dull summer will never forget what Scotty B. (that's what I liked to call him) brought to the table. He will be missed.

Oh, wait. I forgot he's still alive. This is actually his third stint as an "interim" NBA coach. (He's 2-6 so far.) The guy just keeps bouncing around, but hopefully OKC will forget to fire him at the end of the year and he'll stick for awhile. He'll always have a home at the end of the bench in our hearts.

Scott Brooks: Your New Skipper Of The Titanic! [The Howeva Files]
Thunder fire Carlesimo after 1-12 start [AP/Yahoo]
Scott Brooks Bio [NBA.com]
Scott Brooks [Wikipeida]
Scott Brooks [Basketball Reference]

I love the one kid's immediate response: Kick the giant bear in the nuts. Al Davis will follow your progress closely, young one.

Houston Introduces Its Secret Weapon [VOOT]

When last we saw them: Finished 55-27, third in Southwest Division and tied for fourth overall in the West. Despite a second-best-ever 22-game winning streak, the Rockets got escorted out of the playoffs in the first round by the Utah Jazz. It was the second consecutive year the Jazz have eliminated them.

New Arrivals: Brent Barry, D.J. Strawberry, Joey Dorsey, Ron Artest, Von Wafer

Tear-filled Departures: Bobby Jackson, Steve Novak

The Good: The Rockets were already a top defensive team - last season they were second in opponents field goal percentage (.433) and fourth in points allowed (92.0) - and the addition of Ron Artest, a former Defensive Player of the Year should make them even better. Speaking of Ron-Ron, he remains a Top-20 talent who can score from anywhere and defend like a pit bull at virtually any position (except maybe center). On the subject of centers, Yao might be the best in the game...when healthy (22.0 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 2.0 BPG and 50.7 percent shooting in a career-high 37.2 minutes per game last season). Yao has also become more of a team leader. Tracy McGrady is a spectacular scorer who might be the team's best playmaker (5.9 APG last season). Shane Battier is a selfless defender who brings a smorgasbord of intangibles to the table. The team's three-point shooting should be greatly improved by the additions of Artest (who will help draw the defense away from Rafer Alston) and Brent Barry (a career 40 percent three-ball sniper). The Rockets are a great rebounding team (their +3.97 differential was second-best in the league last season) and they're as deep as any team in the NBA (with Barry, Battier, Chuck Hayes, Luther Head, and Carl Landry coming off the bench). No matter how you measure it, Houston has championship-caliber talent.

The Bad: Ron Artest, for all his All-Star talent, is also a lock for the league's Crazy Bastard Hall of Fame. And if you don't think his antics can undo a championship contender, you should go talk to members of the 2004-2005 Indiana Pacers. Then there's the injury bug: The Rockets lost a total of 127 games last season to injuries, with a combined 43 missed games between Yao and McGrady. Yeah, and those two guys appeared in the same game only 40 times in 2007-08. Even more troublesome are the following facts: Yao hasn't played more than 57 games in any of the last three seasons, and McGrady is still recovering from offseason knee surgery and has been struggling to deal with an arthritic shoulder. Hell, even Shane Battier is expected to miss most of the exhibition season with inflammation in his left foot. If history has proven anything, it's that teams whose key players can't stay healthy cannot win an NBA title. Rafer Alston is inconsistent (at best) at the point and he shot below 40 percent last year...for the third consecutive season. Oh, and then there's the whole "Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming have never made it out of the first round of the playoffs" thing...

Fun Facts: The slogan for the 2008-2009 Rockets is "Get Red." As their team Web site says: "Red. It’s the color of passion and energy. It represents fire, heat and intensity. In so many ways, red is the color which perfectly reflects what the Houston Rockets and their fans are all about, especially with regard to this upcoming season - one in which excitement is already building to a fever pitch." Do you have the fever? I suggest bed rest and lots of liquids. The Rockets were founded in 1967 in San Diego and joined the NBA as an expansion team for the 1967-68 season. The franchise was named the Rockets because San Diego was calling itself "a city of motion." Jeff Van Gundy has the worst hair in team history. If, in fact, it is even hair and not some kind of space parasite.

Videotastic extra: Okay. Get ready for this: Clutch, the Rockets mascot, eats a cheerleader whole, gets beaten up by the other cheerleaders, and then vomits the original cheerleader back up. Gripping stuff.

Yao expressed some concern about whether or not Artest would still be fighting and going into the stands. Which isn't that big of a surprise considering that the Chinese calendar says it's still 2004. But Ron Artest wasn't pleased by the comments. So he did what Ron Artest always does, gave the Houston Chronicle a cogent explanation of his position. That, or said that Yao hadn't really played with any black basketball players yet. Okay, the latter.

Artest told the Houston Chronicle:

This is Tracy (McGrady) and Yao’s team, you know,” Artest said. “I’m not going to take it personal. I understand what Yao said, but I’m still ghetto. That’s not going to change. I’m never going to change my culture. Yao has played with a lot of black players, but I don’t think he’s ever played with a black player that really represents his culture as much as I represent my culture.

Well, this clears it up. Ron Artest—black cultural spokesperson.

Despite Yao's comments Artest seems happy about future [Houston Chronicle]

I feel like we've seen this before, Part I. Well, Dirk Nowitzki and his Mavericks got the playoff matchup they wanted...and five games later, they're once again on the outside looking in. Surprise, surprise.

Chris Paul had a triple-double (24 points, 11 rebounds, 15 assists), David West scored at will (25 points, 10-for-17), Jannero Pargo gave a "suck it, Jason Kidd!" performance (17 points, 7-for-9) and the New Orleans Hornets are movin' on up after a 99-94 victory. Man, what I wouldn't have given to be on Bourbon St. last night.

The Mavs didn't go down quietly. Or wisely. Jerry Stackhouse got himself ejected with 1:47 to play for batting the ball out of Paul's hands during a stoppage in play. Then Stack got all up in West's face. Brilliant moves, Jerry, both of them. Still, Dallas cut a 17-point lead to three with 33 seconds to go, and then they forced a big miss by Paul...but failed to grab the ensuing rebound. Tyson Chandler (10 points, 14 rebounds) smacked the rock out to Paul, who passed it to Peja Stojakovic, and Peja sealed the win with a couple freethrows.

Dirk Nowitzki (22 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists) did his best, but the results - as always - were the same. Still, Nowitzki offered that "We're better than we showed this series." Sure, Dirk. We hear that every year.

I feel like we've seen this before, Part II. Back in his MVP days, Shaq liked to quote Aristotle, who once said, "Excellence is not an act, but a habit." Unfortunately for the Suns, they have a bad habit of losing big games to the Spurs. Over and over and over again...

Speed it up, slow it down, doesn't matter. San Antonio eliminated Phoenix once again. And the 92-87 loss stung Amare Stoudemire as much as anybody else. "Every year it seems like we always play the Spurs, and they beat us every single time. As long as I'm here we're going to break it sooner or later, because I'm tired of losing to these guys. I'm sick and fed up."

And least Stoudemire is young enough to wait it out. Steve Nash - who lost the ball three big times down the stretch - might be out of time. And he knows what just happened to his team. "I think on paper we have more talent than they do. But I think their experience, their commitment and understanding of what they're trying to do is greater than ours. Their ability to play together and make small plays on both ends of the floor is unsurpassed."

As usual, the Spurs used two guys to do most of the damage. Tony Parker had 31 points and 8 assists, and Tim Duncan added 29 points and 17 rebounds. No other San Antonio player reached double figures, but, as Nash pointed out, they did all the little things champions do. And the Suns didn't.

Smackdown in Motown. Random statistical phenomenon: The Philadelphia 76ers are now 0-1 since Samuel Dalembert got his crazy-ass new mohawk. And given the importance of the game in question, this was the worst possible time for Sam to go on a spectacular hair adventure.

The Pistons, who have apparently turned their targeting computers back on, hit 58 percent of their shots and regained the series lead with a signature 98-81 win. Chauncey Billups finally had a big game (21 points, 12 assists), Rip was his old basket-making self (20 points, 10-for-17), 'Sheed did his 'Sheed thang (19 points, 6 blocked shots), and Tayshaun Prince chipped in with 17 points.

You know how to tell that Detoit has become totally serious about finishing Philly off? The near-to-complete absence of overconfident trash talk. When asked about his team's chances in Game 6, 'Sheed said: "I don't think they're going to lay down at all. It's do or die for them. It's not going to be a cake walk." Hey...who is that guy and what has he done with Rasheed Wallace?!

Andre Iguodala - who scored a career playoff-high 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting - finally figured out how to score against the Pistons. Unfortunately for the Sixers, most of his other players forgot. Louis Williams (16 points) and Andre Miller (13 points, 5-for-17) reached double figures, but that's about it. And that amazing first round upset suddenly seems very far away...

Problem solved. The Houston Rockets finally figured out the best (and perhaps only) way to keep Tracy McGrady from suffering his patented fourth-quarter meltdown: Just end the fourth quarter with a commanding 19-point lead. Not to go all John Hollinger on you, but the Rockets win almost 100 percent of the games in which that happens. Behold the power of math!

Thanks to a 95-69 shot to Utah's meaty flanks, the Rockets have lived to fail another day. McGrady finished with 29 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, and he even managed to scored 8 points in the fourth quarter...thanks in part to the fact that the game had already been decided. Now the King of Martyrs is filled with a ridiculous confidence. "We're in a great situation. We know we can win in Utah because we've done it before."

You know, back in college I convinced a friend to hit me with his car after a night of drinking our way through a Jackie Chan marathon. Sure, I survived, but thanks to the wonders of sobriety, I realize that just because I lived through my stupidity once doesn't mean I could necessarily do it every time. My point? Apparently, I'm an idiot.

Houston got some additional anti-elimination support from Luis Scola (18 points, 12 rebounds), Rafer Alston (14 points, 6 assists) and Creaky Mutombo (10 rebounds). Utah got double-doubles out of Carlos Boozer (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Mehmet Okur (14 points, 10 rebounds), but the Jazz shot 36 percent as a team and seemed to have developed a case of Let'swinitathomeitis.

With the Rockets down 2-0 and now playing in Utah, it's not looking like McGrady is gonna make it out of the first round this year either. And he's joking about it, kind of.

"It's my fault," McGrady said. "It's my fault we missed free throws. It's my fault we lost both games. Blame me. It's my fault we fouled to tie the game up. That's my fault. It's my fault they get easy layups. It's my fault we're not executing well on the offensive end. It's my fault a couple people in the stands ordered Heinekens and they got Budweiser. It's my fault. I'm sorry."

"It's my fault. Everything is my fault. It's my fault. It's T-Mac's fault. Everybody's blaming me. The Suns (for being down 2-0 to the Spurs). I mean, everybody. That's what it seems like. It's my fault. I'm out there by myself."

At this rate, in 2011, when a McGrady-led Atlanta Hawks fail to get past a Shaq-captained New York Knicks squad in the first round, he will take responsibility for the ongoing Democratic presidential nomination battle as well. (Which will still be going on then.) And everyone will believe him.

With Wink And Nod, T-Mac Takes Blame [Houston Chronicle]

Admist the wreckage of Houston's two-game deficit stands McGrady, one of the league's best through-three-quarters superstars, a guy who seems doomed destined to be remembered as the greatest player never to make it out of the first round. He had a great game — 23 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots — and Doug Collins repeatedly praised his brilliance while constantly reminding viewers that, should the Rockets lose this series, it won't be Tracy McGrady's fault. Yet T-Mac scored one point in the fourth quarter on 0-for-4 shooting. Mostly 'cause he was exhausted.

Said McGrady: "I had no legs. I was on empty. Banging with Matt Harpring, trying to rebound, trying to make plays for my team, trying to score, playing 43 minutes. That's a lot."

Yeah, it is. But still ... can you imagine Bird, or Jordan, or Magic, or hell, even LeBron or Kobe saying something like that? It's vintage McGrady: He did everything he could possibly do win, yet his team still fell a little bit short ... through no fault of his own. Just ask him.

Meanwhile, Utah continues to hand-feed all those "They can't win on the road" rumors to their critics. Deron Williams — despite a sore ass — had 22 points and 6 assists, the Turkish Assassin added 16 points and 16 boarded, and the rest of the Jazz continued to do what they do: Bump, bang, defend, pick, roll, and win. The mercy killing continues on Thursday on TNT.

Regret is a hard thing to live with. I wonder if DeShawn Stevenson is starting to realize that right about now? Mr. Overrated shelled the Locksmith (again) by going off for 30 points, 9 rebounds, 12 assists and 2 blocked shots. And unlike Game 1 — which the Wizards lost by only 93-86 despite playing poorly — there were no moral victories in Game 2. It was 116-83 blowout that represented the most lopsided win in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 112-game playoff history.

And what about Gilbert Arenas, who said, "I think everybody wants Cleveland in that first round" and "We don't think they can beat us in the playoffs three years straight"? Do you s'pose he'd rather be playing, say, the Hawks or Raptors? I do. Especially after last night's 7-point, 2-for-10 shooting performance.

Washington's plan for the series has been pretty obvious: Invite LeBron into the butcher's shop and then work him the hell over. Turns out that was the worst plan since, well, Plan 9 From Outer Space. King James rose to the challenge, scoring 14 in the third quarter and helping the Cavs blow the lead up to 25 points despite the thuggery of Brendan Haywood, who got the big bronze boot after sending Bron-Bron out of bounds with a flagrant foul. LeBron was pissed — and rightfully so — but all the outrage probably has Kurt Rambis doing gymnastics in his grave. (The McHale/Rambis clothesline has been taken down by the YouTube Nazis, by the way.)

Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 16 points and 9 rebounds to Cleveland's cause, and Wally Szczerbiak said "Suck it, Larry Hughes!" by scoring 15 on 6-for-9 shooting. Stevenson and Caron Butler scored 12 a piece and Antawn Jamison had 9, but the three combined to shoot 12-for-33 from the field. The series is now 2-0 and heading back to Washington.