Houston’s 20-game losing streak mercifully ended Monday night with the Rockets capturing a long-overdue 117-99 triumph over Toronto. It must have felt good to finally exhale after an exhausting 44-day span of ineptitude that weighed heavy on the hearts and minds of both players and coaches. John Wall’s jumper wasn’t falling Monday night (8-for-30 from the floor), though the embattled veteran contributed in other ways, submitting his first triple-double in over five years on the strength of 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Between the rigors of a condensed schedule, James Harden essentially quitting on the team and his own change of scenery after a decade spent in Washington, Wall’s debut season in Houston has been a nightmare through and through. But at least he’s not first-year head coach Stephen Silas, who could never in a million years have imagined the gasoline-soaked catastrophe that awaited him when the Rockets tapped him as Mike D’Antoni’s successor last fall.
When Houston’s franchise-worst 20-game losing streak (the sport’s longest dry spell since Philadelphia’s record 28-game skid in 2015) finally dissipated Monday night, Wall and Silas shared an emotional embrace, reveling in the forgotten fruit of victory. How wholesome and beautiful.
It’s been an utterly disastrous year for local sports with Houston weathering countless controversies (the Astros’ cheating scandal, rampant allegations of sexual misconduct against Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, scam artist Jack Easterby’s improbable rise to power) and dismissals (D’Antoni, Bill O’Brien, A.J. Hinch, Jeff Luhnow), not to mention a mass exodus of on-field talent (Harden, Russell Westbrook, DeAndre Hopkins, J.J. Watt, Gerrit Cole, George Springer). But amid all that wreckage and debris is a faint glimmer of hope emanating from the Toyota Center, where the Rockets will look to extend their elusive winning streak to two games Wednesday night against the LaMelo Ball-less Charlotte Hornets.
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