by Thomas Halzack, Bleacher Report, Special to FOXSports.com

Rockets 100, Thunder 89

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Who says that Rick Adelman is an offensive-minded coach?

The Rockets, who lead the league in points allowed, roll over, or should I say... limp over league doormat, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Rockets lead a division with three legit title contenders, including themselves. Their offense is third worst in scoring in the NBA. The surprise is that record is good enough to make them the leader in this tough division.

What's not a surprise is all three Rockets stars played hurt last night. Tracy McGrady's surgically repaired knee began to bother him and he left the game for good early in the 2nd half, playing just 18 minutes. Yao Ming still has foot problems as he gutted out 33 minutes. Ron Artest turned his ankle, but played 38 minutes.

Luis Scola led the way with 23 points, followed by Yao with 19 on an efficient 7-of-8 shooting and Artest with 17 points. Yao and Artest both had double doubles with 12 and 11 rebounds.

Adelman has the team playing well enough to compete with one star out, as evidenced by their playoff performance last season without Yao. But two stars out would be asking too much. So far, that hasn't happened.

The Thunder have a few bright spots in what will be another long year. Their record drops to 1-10. Everyone knows that scorer Kevin Durant will work to hone his skills again this season. He led both teams with 29 points and hit 13 of 23 shots.

The Thunder's No. 4 pick in this year's draft, rookie point guard Russell Westbrook had three straight steals and five overall in an attempt to bring his team back by himself. He had 14 points in 28 minutes off the bench. His future looks bright. As he develops and gets acclimated to the NBA game, he will eventually supplant Earl (play me or trade me) Watson as the starting point guard.

The big red injury (so far he has made Greg Oden look healthy), 7-footer Robert Swift, got the start and had eight rebounds, two blocks and six points in 25 minutes for the Thunder.

Houston's wobbly run toward a chance at an NBA Championship continues. The main thing is that they know defense is the driver. Take that -- Adelman doubters!

2009 NBA Finals

Sunday's Game 5

• Lakers 99, Magic 86 (Lakers win 4-1)

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FOXSports.com analysis

• Playoff results, schedule
• 2009 NBA Playoff Central
• Rosen: Why the Lakers won
• Behrendt: L.A's title sequence
• Rosenberg: Kobe not done yet
• Tomasson: Kobe proves critics wrong
• Feigen: Jackson in class of his own

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Video

• Postgame: Lakers celebrate 15th title
• Postgame: Kobe leads Lakers to title
• Postgame: Magic discuss Finals loss
• Marques Johnson's NBA Finals recap

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Photos

• NBA Finals, Game 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

Jazz 109, Suns 97

Phoenix's Shaquille O'Neal had just one rebound for only the second time in his career. Yes, you read that correctly.

Beyond that, Shaq, looking all of his 36 years, was blocked on three consecutive attempts. The first was by 6-8 Paul Millsap, who stood smack in the way of a Shaq rim-rattling power move. Millsap actually hurt his arm in the process but managed to reject the Big Diesel.

That was followed shortly after by two straight blocks by Andre Kirilenko. Shaq appears to have no lift left. The Diesel is carrying a heavy load and seems to be running out of gas. He doesn't even cross half court until very late on some plays.

Even more telling -- (if the plus/minus is correct at NBA.com) the Suns were being beaten by 27 points while Shaq was on the floor in his 31:48 minutes. That means they outplayed the Jazz by 15 points in the 16 plus minutes he was on the bench.

OK, so it was a bad night. We can't forget that the Suns are 8-4 right now, and perhaps surprising some people. Shaq must have something to do with that -- like attracting defensive attention while Amare works over opponents. Amare certainly knows Shaq's value.

Shad did have 5 assists, 9 points and 3 blocks of his own. But it seems the Jazz went right by him -- often. And before anyone wants to bury the Big Aristotle ...

It may surprise you to know that Shaq's season stats are close to (slightly better) than Cavaliers big man Zydrunas Ilgauska's, in spite of all that. Look it up.

This is what Goliath might have looked like if he hadn't met David and got to age. Eventually life catches up to you. You have good days and bad days.

The Jazz have lost only once at home in the regular season since Dec. 31, 2007. They are coming off three straight road losses while playing without Deron Williams (injury) and Mehmet Okur (personal reasons).

Unheralded Jazz high-school-to-pros second rounder (2005) C.J. Miles started, scoring 15 first-quarter points and finishing with 21.

The Jazz bench lit up the Suns for 59 points, led by Kirilenko, Millsap, Brevin Knight and Kyle Korver.

Knight helped out in Deron's absence with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting and had 6 assists, in what was a great trade of PGs for the Jazz with the Clippers (for Jason Hart) in the offseason.

Spurs 86, Clippers 83

The Spurs are now 5-5 without Manu Ginobili, but are 4-1 without Tony Parker and Manu. Go figure.

Last night, Spurs newcomer Roger Mason made the game winning shot with 8.4 seconds left. Baron Davis missed a 3-pointer for the Clippers as time expired.

This was after the Clippers closed the gap by 11 points in the last six minutes.

Without Parker, the Spurs have bonded together as you might expect a Gregg Popovich team to and are finding ways to win.

Tim Duncan still leads this team and had 20 points, 15 rebounds and 6 blocked shots. Former Wizard Mason led the Spurs with 21 and Michael Finley added 19 points.

Cuttino Mobley led the Clippers with 18 points, followed by Chris Kaman with 17 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks. Baron Davis shot just 5 for 17, finishing with 11 points.

The Clippers blocked 13 shots as Marcus Camby equaled Duncan with 6 blocks of his own. Many were against Tim as he was blocked 4 times.

The Clippers played better than they have in many other games. They have the league's worst point differential at 13.9 per game.

They have a talented core of players in Davis, Camby, Kaman, Mobley, and Al Thornton, but the chemistry is just not there yet. It is just the opposite of the Spurs. Popovich has a well-defined system and the Spurs execute it well even with major players out of action.

So that's it. As the Ankle Turns ... The Knee Bends ... and the Diesel gets blocked. Until next time.

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