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HOUSTON -- One night after struggling to contain one of the highest scoring guards in the NBA, the Rockets will get a second chance to shore up their defense when Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard pays a visit to Toyota Center on Thursday night.Wednesday night in Oklahoma City, Thunder guard Russell Westbrook torched Houston (6-5) for 30 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in a 105-103 Thunder victory. Westbrook entered the game second in the NBA in scoring (32 points per game) and assists (9.9), and pacing the NBA in usage rate at 41.4 percent.Lillard brings similar credentials, ranking fifth in scoring (29.8 points) and eighth in usage rate at 32.6 percent. But for all the success Westbrook had on Wednesday night and the potential for a similar eruption when they play host to Portland (7-5), the Rockets stumbled against the Thunder because their offense collapsed in the fourth quarter again.Houston has struggled with pace, scoring and shooting percentage in the fourth quarter this season and those issues were at the forefront of their loss to Oklahoma City. The Rockets posted just 13 points in the final period and were held scoreless between a Clint Capela dunk with 6:26 remaining and an Eric Gordon 3-pointer just prior to the buzzer. They missed nine consecutive shots during that stretch, adding to what has been a prevailing problem for an offense that oftentimes scores at will.We have that problem a little bit, Rockets coach Mike DAntoni said of holding the ball too long down the stretch of close games. I thought we got good shots. It might not have been your classic move the ball, move the ball, move the ball but I thought we had some looks. The 3s they had looks at we had them and they made them and we missed them. Sometimes it just comes down to youve got to make shots and we just didnt do it.The Trail Blazers issues are defense and rebounding. They entered Wednesday 29th in scoring defense (111.2 points per game) and 27th in defensive rating. The Bulls ravaged Portland on Tuesday night while rolling to a 113-88 victory at Moda Center, finishing plus-18 on the glass. Chicago managed 19 offensive boards, par for the course with Portland ranking 29th in defensive rebounding rate at 72.3 percent.Our defensive rebounding is a concern, Portland coach Terry Stotts said. Its addressed and weve got to get better and focus on it.Similar to the Rockets, Portland leans on offensive might to carry the weight most nights. The Trail Blazers trailed 13-2 before recording their first basket with 6:48 left in the first quarter against the Bulls and were down 17 when someone other than C.J. McCollum scored a basket.Yet for all the concerns over defense and rebounding, the NBA remains a make-or-miss league. When the Rockets and Portland make shots, particularly from the perimeter, they are difficult for any defense to slow. When they dont, whether in the first or fourth quarter, problems arise.Were not a paint team. We rely on 3s, we rely on penetration, Stotts said. When youre struggling offensively in the first quarter there are going to be a lot of bloated numbers across the board. Sammy Knight Jersey . Francis told several hundred members of the European Olympic Committees that when sport "is considered only in economic terms and consequently for victory at every cost . 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After Kenyas defeat in the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup, Michael Holding told me that the ICC had earmarked Kenya to be the next Test-playing country, he said recently. It would have been a glorious reward for Kenyas golden generation, a side that announced themselves to the world when they bundled out West Indies for 93 in the 1996 World Cup, and beat India in two ODIs before the glories of 2003.It never happened. Instead, Kenya were doomed to be the Icarus of Associate cricket, flying closer than anyone else to the sun and then falling to oblivion.Just when they needed help most, they were shunned by the myopia of the Full Members: Kenya played only five ODIs against Test nations from the 2003 World Cup to the end of 2005. Yet theirs was a self-imposed demise too.Our cricket management let us down big time, Tikolo reflected, calling corruption an open secret. The malaise extended to the team: Maurice Odumbe was banned for five years after being found guilty of associating with a known bookmaker.With a tiny playing base, and a poorly run team, Kenya collapsed. They made little impact at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups, and by 2013 they were forced to summon Tikolo, their one-time batting titan, out of retirement at the age of 42. Damningly, he was still among Kenyas best players when they lost ODI status in early 2014. Failure to qualify for the current edition of the Intercontinental Cup, the ICCs first-class competition for the top eight Associates, soon followed. Years of High Performance Programme seemed to have left no legacy at all - either on the team or the infrastructure in Kenya.Now, though, there is a little hope. On Friday the Nairobi Gymkhana ground hosts Kenyas opening match against Hong Kong in the World Cricket League Championship. It will be Kenyas first home game in an ICC-run tournament for four years and, it is hoped, a seminal point in the nations cricketing recovery.There is palpable excitement with cricket returning, says Rakep Patel, the skipper. He sees the matches as an opportunity to change the narrative around Kenyan cricket. Its been all doom and gloom in recent times with stories that Kenya cricket is dead.Much has been said about how Pakistan have been impeded by not being able to play a home Test since 2009, but consider the magnitude of Kenyas challenge: trying to grow a niche sport in the country without being able to play at home. That is why Cricket Kenya has worked with the government and security forces to bring international cricket back to the country. Perhaps the governments commitment represents renewed interest in helping what was once the nations most successful sports team.The return home comes at a time when there are tentative signs of the team improving too. They are definitely a team and country on the up, says Andy Hobbs, the ICCs acting Head of Global Development.Kenya performed respectably in the World T20 qualifiers last year, winning three of their five completed games. In the World Cricket League Championship, they have won three of their six games, including beating Namibia away twice last year. No one would pretend these results are remotely spectacular, but at least there is the sense that Kenya have halted their descent. And these results have been achieved with a team far younger than the one that lost ODI status two years ago.Irfan Karim, the teams leading batsman, who had a successful stint for Leicestershire 2nd XI last year, says that the team must improve their mental strength and game awareness.There are glimpses that youth development has improved, as Cricket Kenya has piloted programmes to grow the sport beyond its heartlands in Mombasa and Nairobbi.dddddddddddd The board is working on improving the education of coaches. In December, a new Under-19 tournament will launch, putting the most talented youngsters into three teams. According to the ICC census, there are now 3495 junior players in the country, up from 1100 in 2009.But, as ever with ICC census figures, some are sceptical. Three thousand five hundred youngsters? Its a joke, says Aasif Karim. If we had 5% of those figures, I would be happy. Those figures are totally fabricated.His son Irfan is rather more diplomatic. Better facilities, academies and higher-qualified coaches need to be put in place for there to be progress, he says. Increasing participation levels is not as easy as it sounds. Poverty is a problem in Kenya and some families are more focused on where their next meal is coming from. Without the basic needs fulfilled, cricket or sport becomes a non-existent thought. This is where the government needs to intervene and provide support in whatever way possible.Cricket Kenya also urgently needs to improve the domestic structure. Kenyas golden team learned the game playing alongside the likes of Sanjay Manjrekar, Kiran More, Sandeep Patil and Mark Ramprakash for clubs in Nairobi. Now, club cricket standards are very low, laments Aasif Karim. There may be only five quality matches a year. At times, club teams even fail to raise 11 players.On the bright side, Cricket Kenya is now run far better than in the years after 2003. Ten years ago their focus was very much on the national team, whereas now theres a very strong focus on the whole cricket system - on education, domestic leagues, grassroots, development and womens cricket, Hobbs reflects. Theyve got some really good people in there, and theres not been the underlying challenges there have been in the past.Jackie Janmohamed, the chairperson of Cricket Kenya and an eminent lawyer, has helped to improve governance of the game, yet her work remains unfinished. The system is corrupt. It needs a complete jolt, says Aasif Karim. The foundations are non-existent. Its time Kenyan cricket must accept that we are really down. We keep on denying it. Karim rues how Tom Tikolo, who resigned as Cricket Kenya chief executive in 2009 after $10,000 in cash was left unaccounted for, has returned to the game, as Chairman of Nairobi Provincial Association.At least administrators are now organising far more matches outside the ICC structure, even if the opposition are a salutary reminder of how far Kenya have fallen. They won a quadrangular series in September, albeit against Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Uganda, and the A side is about to embark on a quadrangular series in Uganda.Kenya have also benefited from Cricket South Africa taking a more active role developing the game in the continent. The national side performed reasonably in both their appearances in the Africa T20 Cup, winning one of their three games in 2015 and 2016.At a time when Afghanistan and Ireland can glimpse a tantalising future, Kenyan ambitions are altogether more modest. Theyre a country of huge potential, as they showed in 2003, says Hobbs. If they continue to remain stable off the pitch I see no reason why they couldnt be regularly in the top echelons of Associate cricket, in the top four.After the halycon age of 1996 to 2003, becoming a leading Associate side in ODIs once again, and regularly qualifying for the World T20, hardly sounds like a lofty aspiration. But after all that Kenyan cricket has been through since, it would be a triumph. Perhaps Associate crickets Icarus might yet come back to life. ' ' '