The Rockets are rolling and a lineup change in late January may have ignited their current run.

The first game that Luis Scola was inserted into the Houston Rocket’s starting lineup, they lost to the Utah Jazz 89-97.   That was on January 29th, since then, the Rockets have won a franchise-record 19 consecutive games with the Argentinian superstar in the starting five.  Scola, along with new addition Carl Landry, the ageless Dikembe Mutombo, and point guard Rafer Alston have raised their games in assisting Tracy McGrady and filling in for the injured Yao Ming.

It’s amazing that the Rockets are continuing their win streak without all-world center Yao Ming out for the season, including the last seven Rocket wins, and doing it in the super-competitive Western Conference.

It’s certainly helped that in that 20 game stretch, Scola has put up solid supporting numbers – 12.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and has shot 57.3% from the field, which included a five-game stretch in which he shot 65.3% from the field (34-52) including a 7-7 performance in a win over the Washington Wizards.

“He’s a guy who plays every possession hard, almost to a fault,” the Rockets coach Rick Adelman said about Scola “He just wants to do so well. I can’t say enough about the way he has been playing. He wants to prove that he belongs at this level. He’s one of the hardest-working guys and he doesn’t take any days off.”

During the Rocket’s winning streak, the 27-year old Scola, the oldest rookie in the league this year, was honored as the NBA’s Rookie of the Month for February, breaking Kevin Durant’s stranglehold on the award. With his performance and the Rocket’s eye-opening streak, the former ACB MVP has injected himself into Rookie of the Year talk (so believes Jeff Van Gundy). It’s unlikely he’ll win, but in this case, it really is nice to be nominated as a confirmation of how much Luis has improved.

And not to mention that Scola was also selected for the NBA Rookie-Sophomore game in which he scored 4 points. It’s been a great 2008 for Scola and a far cry from how he was performing during the beginning of the season.

Source: How Scola became Part of the Ride (Houston Chronicle), Al Horford, Luis Scola Named Rookies of the Month (NBA.com), NBA has found Slam Dunk in South America (Star Ledger)