Rockets missing too much firepower

HOUSTON — So maybe the Houston Rockets do need Yao Ming after all.

You don't just lose your wallet and call it good.

The Jazz took all of 45 game minutes, Saturday night, to do what it took them an entire seven-game series to accomplish last postseason — beat the Rockets on the road. So the Jazz's No. 1 big-deal, oh-me-oh-my-what're-we-gonna-do? question seems to have been answered.

Yes, they can win on the road.

That silly little 17-24 road record in the regular season?

Oh, that. They abandoned that in San Antonio three days ago.

After Saturday's 93-82 win, they're up 1-0 in their first-round playoff series and things and already looking up for them.

"Obviously that's what we came here for is to win," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, "but it's only one game."

Just goes to show the vacation commercials are true — you actually can leave your cares behind.

The playoffs are just started and already the complexion of the series has changed. That's how they work. Every game is a momentum swing. The Rockets' home-court advantage has vanished like Enron stock.

How did this happen?

It happened thanks in large part to the differences between last year and this.

The difference being, of course, a former No. 1 draft pick (Yao), a former starting point guard (Rafer Alston, out with a strained hamstring) and, at least to some degree, a 3-point specialist (Utah's Kyle Korver). And a rejuvenated Andrei Kirilenko.

This development dampens what, for awhile, was a wild, unlikely, totally unrealistic dream by the Rockets — that they could get along just fine without Yao and Alston. And it worked pretty well during the season when they won 22 straight, right after Yao went down with a fractured foot.

But then they lost two straight, three of four and five of eight.

Reality hit them like a sinus attack. Since then they have been off and on.

However, that doesn't mean Houston couldn't try. The Rockets talked about making do and how they confounded the critics. During Saturday's game, the club even flashed quotes from media outlets on the big screen, predicting Houston wouldn't make the playoffs and that it couldn't beat the Jazz.