AP Photo Courtesy Getty Images by Pat Sullivan

In case you haven’t been paying much attention, the Houston Rockets have reeled off 19 in a row- third longest in NBA history.

Even without star center Yao Ming, Rick Adelman’s team continues to play flawless basketball. Maybe they aren’t taken as seriously as Western contenders Los Angeles, San Antonio and even Dallas. However, it’s awfully hard not to take notice of how well they’re playing without one of the game’s best big men.

Like most observers when Yao went down, I figured you could stick a fork in the Rockets. Instead, led by leading scorer Tracy McGrady, who’s never been a fave of mine; the team is continuing to win games.

You have to give plenty of credit to Adelman for keeping his club focused when any slip up could mean no postseason in an ultra competitive conference. Instead, here they are fresh off a comfortable 91-73 home win over their latest victim the Jason Kidd-less Nets, boasting an impressive 42-20 record right on the heels of the Spurs and Lakers.

The 18-point home win improved them to 24-9 at the Toyota Center. They’re now 7-0 since Yao went down with a broken left foot. While a few of those opponents weren’t world beaters, there are a couple of impressive wins on that list including double digits over the Nuggets (103-89), Mavericks (113-98) and Hornets (106-96).

I have to also admit that I thought the game had passed Adelman by. His Kings teams always seemed to come up short and made you wonder if it had to do with the coach who once guided the Blazers to an NBA Finals appearance before losing to Michael Jordan and the Bulls.

The job the veteran NBA coach has done is just tremendous. Players such as Rafer Alston, European find Luis Scola, long range bomber Shane Battier, Luther Head and rookie Carl Landry have stepped up in Ming’s absence to team with McGrady playing an inspired brand of ball which includes hard nosed D. Just ask the Nets, who finished with a season-low 28 first half points and shot only 30 percent.

Even dinosaur Dikembe Mutombo is chipping in.

When you see how underachieving our local teams are, just look at what Adelman’s done with Houston.

That’s how it’s supposed to be. Kudos to them for getting it right.