John Lopez
But look at it this way in the wake of a coulda-woulda 113-107 loss to the Mavericks on Tuesday night: compared to where the Mavericks once were, the Rockets' still are ahead of the curve.

"We were the armpit of the NBA," Mavs assistant coach Donn Nelson said. "There wasn't a free agent in the world that wanted to come to Dallas. We were horrible."

Thus, the second half of the Rockets' 2002 season began horribly Tuesday night, and the lessons only seemed to get more painful.

This time, the Rockets felt the pain of having to face the hottest team in the league without the services of Kenny Thomas, whose three-game suspension for fighting in Atlanta came down Tuesday. On top of the assortment of other injuries, tough losses and sad twists affecting the Rockets in this transition season post-Hakeem, could anyone outside the organization seriously still believe this will be a playoff season?