FanHouse ChuckHayes

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

There is a scene in Major League where the manager relates how ownership essentially has stacked everything she can against the team. They have no hope, because no matter what happens, they'll only be released as soon as it's convenient in pursuit of moving the team. Essentially, there is no reason for hope, no reason for effort, no reason for showing up to play. Tom Berenger's character looks up and says, " Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do ... win the whole (expletive) thing."

And that's pretty much where the Rockets are this season, barring the psychopathic sexbomb owner, threat of relocation, and the fact that they play a much more strenuous sport.

The biggest free agent on the market this year just got inked. Kind of. Though he wasn't going anywhere, Daryl Morey's been working without a contract since the end of last season. And today, the Houston Chronicle reports, the Rockets have finalized a deal that will keep him with the team through 2013.

So given the new timeline for Morey and his prior success, what are the odds Morey nabs an Executive of the Year award by the time his next contract is up?

The undermanned Rockets were able to battle their way into a Game 7 with the heavily-favored Lakers, and this turn of events left much of the NBA world doubting L.A.'s championship aspirations.

On Sunday, however, there was absolutely no doubt who would be advancing to the Western Conference Finals. Behind huge games from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum (and a not-so-great one from Kobe Bryant), the Lakers finally completed their expected elimination of the Rockets.

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It's time to give Rockets coach Rick Adelman some credit before it's too late. After all, who knows what's going to happen Sunday? But it must be noted that he's doing quite the job on the bench this postseason, like he's done time and time before.

The mere fact that Adelman has been able to guide the Rockets to two victories over the L.A. Lakers since Yao Ming went down makes Houston's coach the MVP of this series right now.

It was one thing to shock the Lakers in Game 4 on Sunday, the first game without Yao. It's quite another to handle the Lakers again in Game 6 on Thursday -- by a score of 95-80 -- to force an anything-can-happen Game 7 back in L.A.

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If it's true the two most important positions in basketball are the point guard and the center, than the L.A. Lakers are going to be in for a doozy of a Western Conference final.

OK, so technically the Lakers haven't quite advanced that far yet. But after their 118-78 Game 5 blowout win over the Rockets, is it really going out on a limb to say L.A. is going to get there? Ditto for the Denver Nuggets, who lead the Mavericks 3-1 in the conference semifinals and have two cracks at putting them away on their home floor to close out the series.

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FanHouse previews the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Stick any two teams in a playoff series this season and it will feel glorious. Stick two well-matched teams with star power, stunning talents, opposing strengths, and raucous arenas in a playoff series and the glory has no bounds. Such is the situation with the West's 4-5 battle between Portland and Houston.

After tearing up the first few games of the season, including dropping an unstoppable 49 points on the Indiana Pacers, Amare Stoudemire has struggled a bit as of late. In his last two outings, he's had performances that were definitely sub-par: 11 points and nine boards against Houston, and just 12 points and five rebounds in last night's overtime win in Sacramento.

The reason for Amare's slowdown might just be more mental than physical. After the game against the Rockets, some of Stoudemire's comments would lead you to believe that he's less than impressed with some of the players that end up checking him on defense.

"You got Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry ... I mean, Scola, it's his second year in the league," Stoudemire said. "Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry, you know ... they're okay players, but I definitely can dominate those guys early. Anytime. Nothing against them, they played well tonight."

Those were some long pauses between those statements from Amare, and you could tell that he was trying not to say anything too disrespectful when discussing his opponents. But it's clear he feels that there's no way those guys should be able to stop him, even though the players he mentioned are more than capable NBA defenders.

Last night's Houston-Utah Game 5 will get little play this morning, for three reasons: 1) D'Antoni's exit is a league-rattling event; 2) Dallas's loss will lead to a league-rattling shake-up; and 3) no one cares about defense. If Tracy McGrady had dropped 49 points, or Luis Scola earned a triple double? Then we'd hear about it. But if Houston holds the league's best offense to 69 points in 90 possessions (a pro-rated offensive rating of 76.7, which is about 20 points worse than the Knicks offense), forcing the Jazz to shoot 37% from the field and 22% from three, causing 18 turnovers? We should hear about this.

Houston's defense has been unbelievable all season (it finished second in the league behind Boston); but this work is likely the Rockets' best game of the season. The Game 3 win in SLC was solid, but it didn't remind you of Houston's 22-game win streak. This one did. The offense of McGrady and Scola got the bulk of the credit for the midseason roll. In actuality, the defense sparked the streak ... and that's largely in the hands of Shane Battier (who shot 1-for-8 and was still a +12), Rafer Alston, Dikembe Mutombo, and the bench duo of Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry. (Not to diminish Mac and Scola's roles in the defense -- they do their jobs, and McGrady's man D can be downright awe-striking in moments.)

Most may shrug at Houston's Game 5 victory -- even the Associated Press game story (linked above) leads the fourth paragraph with "Now, the Jazz can end the series at home, where they went 37-4 during the regular season." What a relief, a Game 6 at home! Whew, glad we just got out of Houston alive! Earth to ... um, Earth: Houston just destroyed Utah. Let's hold off on foregone conclusions for a minute, yes?

If Houston's defense plays like that again, Utah's going down.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Jazz at Rockets game tonight.

1. Bueller? Rafer?: So much for the speed of Aaron Brooks. Brooks' size was insufficient to deny Deron Williams and his passing lanes, and Bobby Jackson looked like he might as well have been wearing clogs against Williams. Rafer Alstonis not supposed to play tonight, and that could mean more T-R-O-U-B-L-E for the boys in red. The big problem is that with Steve Francis long ago put on the shelf, and Rafer still doubtful, the Rockets have no one with the skills necessary to guard Deron. They jump directly from inept guards to tall forwards. So they are limited in what they can do. And with the way the Jazz are spacing the floor, a trap is just too risky. The Rockets can't stop Deron, they can only hope to contain him.

2. Will The AK Firing Continue?: The big question on everyone's mind in this series is if Andrei Kirilenko will continue the kind of shooting that he displayed on Saturday night, scoring 21 points on 50% shooting. He torched the Rockets with everything from the outside games to the post and mid range jumpers. And all of this while holding Tracy McGrady to 20 points on 7 of 21 from the field. It's probably too much to ask for this every night from Kirilenko, but even if he only performs like this twice more, that could likely be the difference.

Tracy McGrady mentioned before the Rockets-Lakers game that if Kobe Bryant tried to downplay the matchup of the two teams vying for first in the West, he was basically full of it. Totally back that. And the Rockets, especially knowing that Pau Gasol was missing, are smarter than to take direct shots at Mamba and the Lakers. But that doesn't mean that Chuck Hayes was opposed to taking a little dig at Bryant post-facto.

See, Kobe has said that if he were a superhero, he would be Batman. (I might argue I'd rather be Superman, but that's, ahem, already taken by this guy in Phoenix.) But the real Batman is apparently Shane Battier, and Chuck Hayes made sure to point that out after Bat-e-AYE spent the night guarding him.

'That's Batman, man,' said Chuck Hayes after the game. 'He [Battier] did a great job. Kobe's a tough guy to cover, but he made him work. Every shot he made him work.'

'Chasing that guy [Bryant] around, you want a Budweiser or two after the game, cause you've earned it.'

See, again, the Rockets aren't dumb enough to talk direct smack to the Lakers or Kobe. And Battier is a really humble guy, so it's unlikely you're gonna get a direct trash talking comment from him in the first place, even if he has been saying his nickname is Batman for well over a year now. And of course, even if the notion that Battier makes more sense in the role to begin with. But at least Hayes had the sense to make sure Mamba knew who fits the part better. Plus, it's nice to the see the Rockets stand up, even if snarkily, for the criticism they continue to receive as they plow through the West.