[CHRON] Players' drab effort to blame for Rockets' poor start

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES

NBA:
Houston 77,
Philadelphia 76
FINAL


The Rockets must be complete fools. The solution is right there, available from television's talking (and screaming) heads, Internet blogs and e-mails by the truckload.


The problem is, we are told, Jeff Van Gundy's "style." That's what is wrong with the Rockets. It's his "system," his "style."

Style? Apparently, basketball analysis has been taken over by Joan Rivers or those Queer Eye for the Straight Guy folks.

Style? Please. The Rockets have not been close to worrying about style. That's like Butch and Sundance looking over the edge of the cliff and worrying whether Sundance could swim. It was the fall that was more likely to kill them.

The style argument ignores only one thing: this season.

For much of the Rockets' losing streak, they did not try hard. Arguing about style on a team that does not play hard is like worrying about the decorating in a house that's burning down. Dress it up any way you like; it's not going to last.

But for argument's sake, we'll play along.

The logic that follows is that a coach should play to his talent. Sounds good. That's why it got to be a cliché.

Just wondering — was that really Charlie Ward passing batons with Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell for the Santa Monica Track Club?

Van Gundy's "talent?" What high-flying, slam-dunking kid speedster are we talking about, Juwan Howard or Jim Jackson? Perhaps Van Gundy has Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion buried on the bench somewhere. Or maybe the talent he keeps missing is that little flyer Yao Ming, who by the way is a pretty important part of the Rockets' "talent" and at 7-6, 310 pounds would seem difficult not to notice.

The notion that Van Gundy has some kind of style or system that does not fit with his team is an explanation left over from his Knicks days with Patrick Ewing, Anthony Mason, Larry Johnson and Ward — piano movers who, of course, did not run.

The argument is that those teams fit his style and this team does not.

Yao is the Rockets' center. Ward was the point guard, playing with a bruised knee until he was replaced by Tyronn Lue and his torn knee. Teams can run without being fast. The old Celtics and new Jazz offer proof. But teams cannot run without rebounding, solid defense or consistent effort. This team's problem was not a coach who wouldn't let sprinters run.

Now that Bob Sura has returned from back surgery to replace Ward and Lue, the Rockets can increase their tempo and should. Getting Tracy McGrady into a faster pace and taking more shots obviously fits.

But the argument that Van Gundy does not want his team to play at a greater tempo not only assumes he's lying when he says he does, it suggests he's speaking in tongues when he stands at the side of the court screaming "run" and "move it."

The real question is why the Rockets haven't gotten — or when they will get — his messages. For now, if they play with energy, intensity and passion, if they rebound and have Sura to push the pace, then style might become an issue. Then we'll see if Van Gundy is stuck in the Knicks '90s.

The kinder, gentler approach
No wonder Kobe Bryant loves Rudy Tomjanovich so. Where Phil Jackson would offer subtle but sharp digs at Bryant when the latter's attempts to take over the end of games failed, Tomjanovich's praise has been unshakable.

"If a guy can create shots or score, if the game turned out a different way, everybody would say, 'Whoa, that was fantastic. Way to take over the game,' " Tomjanovich said. "If you don't do it, it's like, 'What was that all about?' "

All-Stars coming to town
The surprise is long gone. Everyone from NBA commissioner David Stern to officials from other teams bidding for All-Star weekends have said they were certain the next All-Star Game to be awarded would to go to Houston.

It becomes official Tuesday.

Stern will be in town to announce that the 2006 All-Star Game and related events will be in Houston. He pretty much made that clear when he attended the Toyota Center opening last season, and the Rockets just needed time to get the assorted contracts complete.


Back with a bang
Cuttino Mobley missed nine games with a groin strain, but he did not quietly slip back into the Magic rotation.

On Wednesday, he scored 16 points as Orlando whipped Toronto 129-108. He then had 34 in the Magic's triumph at New York, sealing the victory with a last-minute steal of Jamal Crawford's inbounds pass.

The Magic's 129 points were the most scored in the NBA this season, and helped Orlando take over first place in its division.

"I think people finally got to see what we can do as a team when we're all on the court and healthy," Mobley said, sounding very much as he did when the Rockets started winning in the 2000-01 season. "With Grant ( Hill), Steve ( Francis) and myself on the floor, we can be a really hard team to guard."

Said former Rockets center Kelvin Cato: "For Cat, sitting on the bench was killing him. He was killing me sitting over there. I wanted him back out there so I didn't have to deal with him on the bench."


Rolling with Dice
After Antonio McDyess whipped the Rockets so easily last week, the issue in Detroit became whom to sit as Ben Wallace's suspension ended.

McDyess scored the first 12 points of the victory at Toyota Center and has looked sharper with each game. But if he starts, Rasheed Wallace sits.

"We'll figure something out," Pistons coach Larry Brown said. "You know, maybe we will bring Rasheed off the bench. He won't care at all, as long as it means something for the team."

"That's cool with me," Rasheed Wallace said. "I don't have no beef with that. It ain't hurting me none. I am not one of those types of players that a starting job feeds my ego. If that's a scheme that he sees, I'll go with it."

McDyess, however, demanded that Rasheed Wallace continue to start, and he did.

"Oh, hell no," McDyess said about moving into the starting lineup. "I wouldn't even feel right with that. Rasheed is a starter."


Makeshift Pacers
The Pacers' combination of suspensions and injuries have taken their toll. Indiana might have survived one, but not both.

After an impressive start after the Auburn Hills fight, Indiana has lost four straight. Of the eight players the Pacers dressed against Clippers, none of whom would normally be a starter, four were free agents, and three were not with the team two weeks ago. Among them, they had played a collective 406 games, fewer than than one-third as many as Reggie Miller (1,323).

Besides injuries to Miller, Jonathan Bender and Anthony Johnson, who is now coming back, Austin Croshere suffered a fractured right rib when he tried to take a charge from Seattle's Rashard Lewis and played Friday with a protective pad. Rookie center David Harrison sprained his right ankle against the Clippers.

"It can't get much worse than this," Harrison said. "Every time we start to become a unit, someone else goes down. It's hard to play with someone you just met two days ago."


Garnett spreads the love
An MVP who seems to be getting better and better, Kevin Garnett is mocking the notion that he's too unselfish.

Garnett has decided to spend much of the first half of games getting his teammates shots, knowing he can dominate later.

"If I can get whoever is on the floor with me comfortable and get them six to 10 points, then I feel like I've made them better," Garnett said. "It's important to make somebody else better; that's my mentality."

Now that Wally Szczerbiak is back in the starting lineup with Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell — scorers all — the mentality fits.

"That's just something the great players do," reserve guard Fred Hoiberg said. "I think ( Michael) Jordan used to do that. He'd get his guys involved and keep them in the game early on. Then he'd take over in the fourth quarter, and that's what Kevin has done."


Taking the reins
Nice of Don Nelson to hand the coaching reins to Avery Johnson for a game — against the Spurs.

Nelson actually plans to let Johnson apprentice about a half-dozen times this season. He owes him a Bulls game.

Much has been made of whether Nelson was shirking his duties by not having the best coach available working every game. That talk should have ended when the Mavericks played as if they had no chance. Since Johnson is already running so much of the Mavericks' practices, perhaps he gave them as good a chance as Nelson to win.

"Nellie's in Hawaii all summer thinking this stuff up," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of his longtime friend. "He has one of those pink drinks or whatever and thinks something up and writes it down.

"We all enjoy Avery; we respect Avery; we love Avery; we want him to be famously successful. But I think it's unfair to act like he's going to be Red Auerbach, just like certain players have decided they are going to be the next Michael Jordan. Avery's Avery. He's going to be one heck of a coach, and that's good enough."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com


Jonathan Feigen covers the NBA for the Chronicle.