Wednesday they improved to 5-1 on the preseason with a 96-71 drumming of the Miami Heat. Dwyane Wade led all scorers with 26 points.

McGrady led the Rockets with 19 points, but was just 6-18 from the floor, 1-6 from downtown and a dismal 6-11 from the freebie stripe. Yao Ming had 14, 13 boards and 3 blocks, but was 5-12 from the field, coughed it up 5 times and was blocked badly by Shaquille O'Neal twice on turnaround jumper attempts.

So how in the world did the Rockets not only win, but simply crush the Heat?

For starters, Rafer Alston (13 points, 6 boards, 5 assists) is shooting out of his mind this preseason. He's nailing three balls that he would have been lucky to sniff iron on last year. He was 3-6 from downtown in Miami and has hit 10-19 from that range in 6 games.

It's just 19 shots in 6 preseason games -- not ready to call him Reggie Miller yet -- but this is a very good sign.

On the other hand, you don't have to worry about Steve Novak being a fluke... he's been shooting like this since birth. He was 4-7 from deep in Miami, scoring 17 points and 6 boards in 27 minutes of action. He's been so amazing in the preseason (18-36 from long range) that you can't help but find yourself wanting Yao and T-Mac to give it up to Novak.

Shane Battier (10 points on 4-7 shooting, 6 boards) was very solid and Kirk Snyder (11 points) also looked good.

Vassilis Spanoulis continues to have turnover issues (5 against the Heat), but his defensive intensity is impressive. It seems like every game thus far Span has intercepted a routine half-court inbounds or picked a pocket and gone the other way.

Still, if he's this turnover-prone in short minutes when the real games are played, I expect Jeff Van Gundy and Tom Thibodeaux to go Thelma and Louise off the nearest cliff. As much as I think his style is refreshing, he'll have to learn to take better care of the ball to get significant minutes under JVG.

The game was televised on ESPN and along with play-by-play man John Saunders was former Rocket Jon Barry doing the color work. Entertainment. I especially liked when Barry asked Saunders if Spanoulis had scored 22 points "against us" in the FIBA World Championships, to which Saunders replied that he was Canadian.

After the game, ESPN analyst Tim Legler acted as if he had a shocking warning for the rest of the league, stating that the Rockets were on a short list of not just good playoff teams, but teams that can win it all.