by Aj Brady

Created on: May 03, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The Houston Rockets began their 2007-08 campaign not long after the 2006-07 season finished for them in the National Basketball Association (NBA), hiring the experienced Rick Adelman as the franchise's 11th head coach.

The Rockets were busy on the trading and drafting table in the off-season.

In mid-June, the Rockets traded Juwan Howard to Minnesota, in exchange for Mike James and Justin Reed.

Then at the 2007 NBA Draft, the Rockets ended up having three picks in total, with pick 26 they chosen Oregon point guard Aaron Brooke, having traded with Seattle to get pick 31, they chose power forward Carl Landry from Purdue, and with their final pick, at number 54, they selected Australian shooting guard Brad Newley.

Then, on July 12th, guard Vassilis Spanoulis was traded to the San Antonio Spurs, along with a future draft pick, in return for center Jackie Butler, and the rights to Luis Scola, a 2002 draft pick from Argentina, who was then yet to play an NBA game, however he soon agreed to finally play in the NBA, and suited up for Houston at the beginning of the 2007-08 season.

On July 20th, guard Steve Francis signed a two-year deal with the Rockets, ten days after he accepted a buyout of the last two seasons of his contract with Portland.

With All-Star shooting guard and team captain Tracy McGrady, and All-Star center Yao Ming all ready, willing and able, the Rockets entered the regular season with high hopes of going deep into the playoffs.

The Rockets began the season accordingly, going 6-1 in their first seven games, and things were already running smoothly for the Houston franchise.

However, they followed this with a disastrous six-losses in a row, before ending the month with three victories in a row, and a 9-8 record in total, nothing awe-inspiring for such a talented team.

December for Houston was very indifferent, not being able to string more than two wins together, and mid-month, dropping five of six games.

For the entire month, they went 6-8, despite McGrady, Ming and Scola all doing well.

At 15-16 at the end of 2007, pundits were wondering when the Rockets would come to play, saying the talent was there, but not the team cohesion and chemistry.

Just as the doubters were raising their voices, the Rockets lifted several notches with the dawn of a new year.

They strung together five wins in a row, then four later in the month, to go 10-4 for the month, with an excellent 5-1 away record for January.

If January was good for Houston, then February was simply, literally,

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