Houston Rockets Beat The Memphis Grizzlies 109-102

Thomas Campbell-US PRESSWIRE

I want everyone to welcome Jeremy Lin to the Houston Rockets. Seriously, he finally showed up tonight. The Rockets got their third win of the preseason over the Memphis Grizzlies 109-102. It was a great test for the young Rockets after getting blown out by the Dallas Mavericks.

Let’s also welcome Royce White to the team after the plays he made in just 5 total minutes of playing time. He didn’t light up the stat sheet, but he did show fans why the Rockets took a risk by drafting him. He made two amazing behind the back passes. One was in transition to Donatas Motiejunas who finished off the tremendous pass with a monster dunk. It may take a while for White to catch up and earn some playing time, but at least he reminded us this is why the Rockets brought him here in the first place.

Now back to Jeremy Lin. He still struggled a bit shooting the ball, shooting 3-9 from the field and 0-3 from downtown. He also shot just 1-4 from the line. I think this has more to do with getting his rhythm back. Lin missed a lot of time with his knee injury. Any basketball player will tell you how hard it is to get your shot back the way you want it after not being able to play for a long period of time. Lin also showed us why the Rockets brought him here. To run the show and get everyone involved. He’s showing everyone he is a true point guard. He dished out 12 assists and had only two turnovers. He also played great defense, grabbing 5 rebounds and getting 4 steals. Now he needs to build from that in the following games.

The man is back fans. Kevin Martin is just dominating the preseason. If anyone is ready for the season to start its K-Mart. In 32 minutes he scored 22 points on 8-11 shooting from the field, 4-5 from three and 2-3 from the line. He’s playing better now than he’s ever played in his career. It’s Funny how that works when it’s also his contract year.

Omer Asik had yet another stellar game. In 22 minutes he scored 9 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had a block. The guy is just a rebound machine. I know it’s just the preseason but it’s looking more and more like Asik will compete for the rebound title this year. When you go up against guys like Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph and still put up your averages, you might be a legitimate big man.

Patrick Patterson had a nice game as well against his opponent Zach Randolph, finishing with 17 points on 7-12 shooting, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 28 minutes. With Terrence Jones playing so well Patterson is basically fighting to keep his job. If he keeps this up he may succeed.

Speaking of Terrence Jones, if you couldn’t catch the game you missed two big time blocks by jones. He spiked one into the stands as if he was playing volleyball. This kid is steadily becoming a beast. Who knew that the guy picked third out of the three first-round picks would be putting up the best numbers. He finished with 9 points and 5 rebounds.

One thing I noticed is that Kevin McHale played the first half as if it was his rotation players. The guys off the bench look to be Jones, Delfino, Motiejunas and Toney Douglas. Guys like Scott Machado, Gary Forbes, White and Jeremy Lamb got limited playing time.

This will be the last game until next Wednesday. The Rockets will basically have another week of training camp. This will give White a chance to catch up and help McHale set his rotation properly. The odd men out will need to have a huge week if they want to make the rotation or even the team.