Last spring on their way to an appearance in the Western Conference finals where they lost in seven games to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors, the first step for the Houston Rockets was dispatching the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. Facing the eighth-seeded Timberwolves was a reward for a 65-win regular season but so far the first 22 games for the Rockets can be described as a series of stops and starts, resulting in an 11-11 record. The Rockets hope they can get over .500 for good and they get their first chance Monday night when they visit the surging Minnesota Timberwolves.