For one of the game's most prolific scorers and deadly shooters of his generation, a 14-point effort hardly merits popping the cork on a bottle of Dom. This is a man, after all, who has averaged in excess of 20 over six of his seasons and has more total points than anybody who has been drafted in the previous 12 years.

Still, given his foot problems last season with the Knicks and more of the same during the Rockets' preseason, when he also strained his back, Rice's looking as spry as he did against the Sixers was by far the best thing the home team showed its biggest crowd to date -- 12,351 -- when the basketball was the Rockets' to play with.