With the lockout finally over and the Rockets about to play their first preseason game, guard Kevin Martin called the night's officials over to ask about a change that had nothing to do with collective bargaining or luxury-tax penalties.

He had been told the rules had been tweaked in ways that would impact his specialty, drawing shooting fouls. The "rip-through," in which players swipe their arms laterally through the extended arm of a defender and into a shot, would no longer be eligible for a shooting foul.

Shot fakes that prompt defenders to leave their feet and land on an opponent would not send him to the line unless he had begun his shooting motion.