Anytime Rafer Alston is coming off of a good game, you can bet the Rockets TV crew is going to put up the Rafer Madness text during the pre-game highlights. Lord help us if Skip ever cracks 40-percent shooting in a season.

In the 81st game of the season, Matt Bullard has concluded that Amare Stoudemire has come back strong from knee surgery. He also thinks the Mavericks will be good this year. Next week, the Bull will go out on a limb and predict home-court advantage for the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.

On a night when Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming combined for 73 points on 54.9 percent shooting, the Rockets beat the Suns by three points. Anyone else rooting for the Lakers in Round One?

The Rockets retired Caroll Dawson’s initials tonight, sending a jersey labeled “CD” up to the rafters for a man who, fortunately, never had to suit-up during his tenure with the Rockets. Does this mean Chris Duhon would have to change his name if he ever wanted to play for the Rockets?

On a related note, Dawson’s tribute video at halftime appeared to have been compiled by his six-year-old grand-daughter or someone with a similar mental aptitude. Maybe Stromile Swift. A tribute to CD’s greatest accomplishments created by a man whose signing was one of Dawson’s least successful moves? The irony is delicious.

Is it wrong that as soon as we see Courtney Kirkland’s name listed as one of the night’s referees, we think “damn, we got the woman this game”? Dan doesn’t think so. Kirkland did a fine, adequately masculine job tonight, though we wouldn’t have minded if he had picked a fight with Amare.

The only way the Rockets were going to beat a team that shot 57 percent from the field for an entire game was by getting more shots than them. The Rockets scored an impressive 30 second-chance points, thanks to nice efforts from Juwan Howard and and Dikembe Mutombo. Once we get Juwan scoring on first-chance opportunities, we’d say this team is ready for the playoffs.

One night after taking a bit of a tumble while pretending to be a cheerleader, Patti Smith sat this one out. Pray for her.

McGrady finished with 39 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. According to our buddies at the Elias Sports Bureau, T-Mac became the first player in Rockets history to reach all three of those statistical levels. We looked into it, though, and the Dream came pretty close when he recorded 37 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists on Dec. 1, 1994. That guy was pretty good.

Bullard applauded the home crowd for standing through an entire timeout, saying, “That’s the kind of atmosphere we have here in Toyota Center.” Oh, the kind of atmosphere that can influence people to stand up for 90 seconds at a time? Watch out, Utah!

Though he was certainly unaware that he was making team history, T-Mac spent a large portion of tonight’s game with a giant smile on his face. We’re not sure what other viewers saw, but we saw a man who’s ready for five straight wins over the Jazz.

The Rowdy Report got six comments before we even contributed a single wisecrack or piece of analysis. That makes us wonder why we didn’t sell more t-shirts this year.