how sweet it is!

Ken Hoffman on the Houston Rockets' New Year's Eve deal to lure fans to Toyota Center

The Rockets are making a sweet deal ... for fans.

If you’re planning to attend a Houston Rockets game and buy tickets like a normal fan, it’s always smart to jump on Toyota Center online and click on “events” first. You might find a special ticket price or bonus deal, like a free hot dog or whatever that night’s giveaway is.

I can’t remember a Houston Rockets deal like the upcoming New Year’s Eve offer, when the Rockets play the Miami Heat and they’re offering one ticket and two free drinks (beer, soda or water) for the crazy low, low price of $21. (Why am I using Mattress Mack's gimmick?)

A beer at Rockets games costs $9. Crunch the numbers and you’re getting a ticket to a regular season NBA game with an attractive, most likely playoff-bound opponent in town, from an official, reliable ticket source, for $3. You’re losing money by staying home!

The New Year's Eve game will start at 6 pm. Be smart, wear a mask over your nose and mouth.

The only Houston sports deal that tops the Rockets beer-soaked offer took place in May 1995, when then Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane — as an apology to fans for one of baseball’s beloved work stoppages — gave away all 54,350 tickets (four per person) to a game against the visiting Phillies.

How angry were fans at baseball coming off the strike? Even though all 54,350 free tickets were claimed, only 30,828 people showed up at the Astrodome for the game. Trivia buffs know that the Phils beat the Astros that night, 5-2, with pitcher Curt Schilling besting Doug Drabek.

Of course fans who buy the Rockets’ one ticket/two drinks deal shouldn’t expect to sit courtside. But you’ll be in the building and the Rockets are playing pretty decent ball since their horrendous 1-16 start. They’re sitting at 10-20 heading into the December 20 game against the Bulls in Chicago. Upper deck tickets at Rockets home games can run $60 to $80 and up depending on seat location and the opponent. And that’s without free anything.

Of course, there’s the option of buying tickets on the secondary market or from those friendly sidewalk vendors shouting “Who needs two tickets?” Those prices fluctuate with demand and how close to the opening tap.

However, if you don’t missing the first quarter of games and you catch a desperate scalper downtown heading home, there are rock-bottom prices to be had: I have a friend who once bought a ticket for Paul McCartney at Toyota Center for $5. He missed the first few songs, but he saw Macca do “Hey Jude,” “Yesterday,” “Sgt. Pepper,” “Get Back,” and the medley from Abbey Road live in-person — for less than he could buy those songs on iTunes.

The Rockets aren’t dumb (not counting certain trades we don’t need to bring up here). While they’re practically giving away the New Year’s Eve game, they’ll still make money off you for parking, jerseys, food, and your second (and please no more) beer.

As every opening act at Giggles comedy club would say, that’s how they getcha.

For comparison: A beer at Astros games costs $7.50 at Minute Maid Park. Surprisingly, a beer costs only $6 at Texans games at NRG Stadium. The cheapest beer I could find is $5 at Falcons games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and Jets games at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The most expensive suds are $11.50 for New Orleans Saints games at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and Buccaneers games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

The Rockets are averaging 15,183 fans at games this season. The seating capacity at Toyota Center for basketball is more than 18,000, so the Rockets need butts to fill those seats.

The Rockets best season for drawing fans was 2013-24 when they averaged 18,124 fans at games. That was James Harden’s first year in Houston.

Mind you, the NBA — like other pro sports leagues — includes season tickets sold, individual game tickets, plus freebies given to sponsors, radio contest winners, local big shots, and players’ friends and family in its announced attendance figure.

For example: that’s how the Texans with a straight face can say last Sunday’s attendance was 67,000 when NRG Stadium looked half-empty and was quieter than a branch library.

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Movie review

Florence Pugh proves her stardom yet again in A Good Person

Photo by Jeong Park / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

Florence Pugh in A Good Person.

The rise of Florence Pugh has been pretty astonishing to witness. After gaining acclaim for her film debut in 2016’s Lady Macbeth, the actor has gone back-and-forth between mainstream and art fare, starring in films as disparate as Fighting with My Family, Midsommar, Black Widow, and Little Women, for which she earned an Oscar nomination.

Now, thanks to her former romantic partner Zach Braff, she has another intense leading part to add to her filmography in A Good Person. Pugh plays Allison, a young, music-loving pharmaceutical rep who’s engaged to be married to Nathan (Chinaza Uche). One day, however, she’s involved in a car accident that winds up killing Molly (Nichelle Hines) and Jesse (Onwumere), her would-be sister- and brother-in-law.

The bulk of the film takes place a year after the accident, as Allison is still struggling with pain resulting from the crash and the grief/guilt over the deaths. Simultaneously, Daniel (Morgan Freeman) is doing his best to raise Molly and Jesse’s daughter, Ryan (Celeste O’Connor), and deal with his long estrangement from Nathan. A search for help with addiction for both Allison and Daniel leads them into a tentative friendship.

Written and directed by Braff (Garden State), the film touches on its serious issues in a deft manner. While Allison’s depressive state sends her down a bunch of tough roads for both her and the audience, the film is balanced with lighter moments, many of them courtesy of Allison’s mom, Diane (Molly Shannon). As much as the film is a meditation on how – and how not – to handle grief, it thrives on Allison’s various relationships, and scenes with each of the main co-stars build those bonds nicely.

Smaller details, like Allison riding her bike everywhere because she’s afraid to drive, pay dividends as well. Riding her bike causes her to show up sweaty and out-of-breath in multiple scenes, adding to the haggard and withdrawn look she maintains for most of the film. There can be a certain cliché in how someone acts when they’re trying to portray the state Allison is in, but Pugh, Braff, and the filmmaking team are able to subvert that trope with their choices.

If there’s one fault to the film, it’s that Braff can’t quite land the plane on each of the characters’ stories. All of the stories are related to one another, so it’s difficult to untangle them. After spending most of the film keeping them relatively separate, a decision to bring them all together in a late scene feels rushed and unsatisfying. It doesn’t ruin the film, but it does lessen it to a degree.

Written for Pugh by Braff when they were still a couple, the film hinges on Pugh carrying most of emotional weight of the story, and she delivers in a big way. She eschews histrionics in favor of more subtle acting, and the result is powerful. The 85-year-old Freeman hasn’t had a meaty dramatic role like this in a long time, so it’s nice to see he still has it. Shannon, O’Connor, and Zoe Lister-Jones also elevate the story.

Though it’s early in the year, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Pugh could snag an Oscar nomination for her performance in A Good Person. You could call it a star-making turn if she weren’t already a star; this just solidifies her place in Hollywood for years to come.

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A Good Person opened in theaters on March 24.

Photo by Jeong Park / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

Florence Pugh in A Good Person.

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