http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/rox/2497202 April 10, 2004, 10:41AM Rockets back in playoffs Sellout crowd sees Francis help clinch first trip in 5 years By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Maurice Taylor wrapped Steve Francis in a tight hug and told him how wonderful he had been. Cuttino Mobley rocked backwards, eyes shut, with a finger pointing toward the Toyota Center ceiling and beyond. Jim Jackson walked off wearing a smile nearly as long as the arm he wrapped around Mobley's neck, confetti falling around them. Doing it the hard way turns out to have its rewards. Weeks after the Rockets could understandably assume they were a playoff team and five seasons since they were one, the Rockets surged through the second half Friday to a 106-103 win over the Denver Nuggets. With the Trail Blazers' loss in San Antonio, the Rockets are going to the postseason for the first time since 1999. Their first-round opponent is yet to be determined. The Rockets, seventh, could fall into the eighth spot. "It's been a long time coming," Rockets forward Kelvin Cato said. "We've had a 45-win season and have been sitting outside. It feels good, man. It feels good." The Rockets had waited for a night like Friday after so many failed seasons and defeats along the way. They built their familiar hole against the Nuggets, then flew out of it as they rarely have this season. "That was probably the best second half we had all year," Taylor said. "Everybody contributed. Down 10, come out at halftime, playoffs on the line, sellout crowd -- that's like a storybook. That's like what you look at on ESPN Classic." If not quite that, Friday's game is as close as the Rockets have been to classic in years. With Francis grimacing through the pain in his inflamed left elbow and sprained right wrist, he scored a season-high 33 points with 11 assists, soaring through a "fabulous" performance Rockets owner Leslie Alexander called Francis' "best game of the season by far." "I'm going to do what I have been doing, and that is playing hurt for five years," Francis said. "I'm not saying that I have been hurt every game. These injuries that I have are aggravating, but I am not going to try to bail out and make excuses. "It's important that your team sees your focus and they see how fat my elbow is and how swollen my wrist is and my team sees that I am going to go out and play hard no matter what. But I am not like Willis Reed or anything like that." Reed limped out for Game 7 for the Knicks in the 1970 NBA Finals, and no one was comparing what Francis did to that. But the Rockets did take the playoff spot memorably and joyfully, rather than have it fall to them by default. As with the entire season, they had to first overcome their failings. With a horrible defensive first half, they gave the Nuggets' big men midrange jumpers from the opening tip and failed to close out on much else on the perimeter. Marcus Camby and Nenê, who had combined to make 16 of 24 shots against the Rockets last week, made 10 of 13 in the first half as the Nuggets led 48-33 with 94 seconds remaining before halftime. "How we started was inexcusable defensively," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "Our big guys got overwhelmed." But the Rockets ambushed the Nuggets in the third quarter, rolling up 36 points -- as many as they have scored in any quarter this season -- to take a five-point lead. "Responding to the circumstances would have been not to get in that position in the first place and play all 48 (minutes)," Van Gundy said. "But we did respond well to being down ... and I thought our guys played a great second half." But they did not take the win until the final moments, when they had so often lost before to bring them to the final week checking scoreboards and holding their breaths. With the game tied with 3:19 remaining, the Rockets scored seven unanswered points as the news from San Antonio was announced to the Toyota Center sellout crowd of 18,148. The Nuggets rallied as a matter of course, with Camby passing to Andre Miller for a layup and a three-point play, and Miller setting up Camby for a jumper, giving him a season-high 23 points. After an exchange of Francis and Carmelo Anthony free throws, Jackson nailed a corner try for a five-point lead with 62 seconds remaining. But Miller brought the Nuggets within three, and after four offensive rebounds Nenê put in a layup to bring the Nuggets back to 104-103 with 18.4 seconds remaining. The Nuggets quickly put Jackson on the line, and he calmly dropped in both attempts. The Nuggets looked first to Anthony, but Jackson wrapped him up. Anthony sent a pass out to Rodney White, but he could not shake Bostjan Nachbar and missed badly with 6.9 seconds left. The Nuggets, however, found one more chance. Miller stole Mark Jackson's inbounds pass and took off toward the other end, getting his running trey off at the buzzer. But when it clanged on the rim and away, the Rockets knew that they had won more than a game, seeming to delight in doing it the hard way. "It definitely make it more satisfying, man" said Mobley, who had 18 of his 22 points in the second half. "We pushed hard in that second half. Denver played hard because they knew they were on the line also. It was a great game all the way around."
Rockets summary Pressure gauge Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said he did not discuss the playoff situation with his team before Friday's game. "Because that's what we can control," Van Gundy said. "If you need additional motivation, we have the wrong guys." That said, he had no interest in diminishing the pressure the Rockets might feel. Rather, he said, "significant" players feel pressure, but learn to enjoy it. "I just think the idea that you can avoid pressure in the NBA is ridiculous," Van Gundy said. "You can't avoid pressure if you're going to be a significant player on a significant team. You think Kevin Garnett feels pressure? Great competitors (like it). Because great competitors are prepared and ready to play and know they put enough work into it that they are ready for the challenge "This idea of relieving pressure, that there is too much pressure, it's not possible if you want to be a significant player on a significant team. You just have to learn to deal with it. "If you can't deal with it, you're in the wrong profession. I've never seen significant teams run from pressure. I've never seen significant teams not relish the challenge of playing meaningful games. If you want to avoid pressure, be out of it after 40 games. You'll never face pressure in your life, and some of our guys, that's what they've done. They've had only those experiences." Cato factor With one game to see how well Kelvin Cato would come back from his stint on the injured list, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy returned Cato to the starting lineup Wednesday, and the Rockets got off to a fast start. Friday's game was the Rockets' 65th this season with a starting lineup of Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Yao Ming, Jim Jackson and Cato. They went into the game 40-24 when starting together. "Obviously, Kelvin's greatest attributes are defense and rebounding," Van Gundy said. "It gives us better balance between offense and defense both when we start the game and when we come off the bench. It would be an excuse to say we were ... (3-10) when he was out because he was not there. That's not true. He's had a significant impact on helping our team play well when it has played well. I thought he competed at a high level (in Los Angeles)." Cato matched his season high with six blocked shots in his first game back in the starting lineup. But by doing that from the tip, he helped set a defensive tone the Rockets had been lacking. "It helps a team know you're coming to play, you're going to play defense and have an effect on the game," Van Gundy said. "Certainly Yao and Cato did a good job early in the game, establishing a defensive tone." Learn as you go The Nuggets know less about the playoffs than the Rockets. They are younger, less experienced and are trying to help secure their franchise a spot in the playoffs for the first time in nine years. For the last two weeks, however, the Nuggets have looked like a team that knows what to do in playoff-type situations. "They are playing playoff basketball, and they don't even know it because of the intensity of all the games we're playing and the pressure of all the games," Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik said. The Nuggets looked to be on a downward spiral just a month ago. They lost eight of nine games between Feb. 20-March 7. "I thought we kind of exhaled a little bit from our passion, our defense and our rebounding and our running and sharing," Bzdelik said. "We got a little comfortable also. "We stopped defending and rebounding, and we tried to outscore people." Press row view Jeff Van Gundy suggested that he would change nothing for the final three regular-season games. But he does face a difficult decision. Kelvin Cato and Steve Francis are clearly playing with injuries, and much of the rotation is spending time in the training room. Yao Ming looks exhausted. But the Rockets have shown that when they begin playing poorly, reversing that momentum is like sweeping back the ocean with a broom. As much as he might want to rest his players, he also can't allow them to back in to the postseason, having seen how much trouble they have changing direction. Inside the numbers The Rockets topped 100 points in consecutive games for just the third time this season. They are 13-1 when scoring 100. ... The Rockets won their sixth consecutive home game against the Nuggets. ... The Rockets' 36 points in the third quarter and 64 points in the second half were season highs. Did you know With 33 points and 11 assists Friday, Steve Francis has had at least 30 points and 10 assists seven times in his career, with the Rockets winning six. -- JONATHAN FEIGEN and MEGAN MANFULL
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/rox/2497497 April 10, 2004, 1:47AM Alexander reborn in playoff berth Rockets owner breathing easier as postseason drought comes to end By MEGAN MANFULL It was what Rockets owner Leslie Alexander had been missing. A packed arena, playoff implications, a clutch victory. It took five years. But Friday night, the Rockets clinched a position in the postseason for the first time since 1999 with a 106-103 victory over Denver. With Portland losing to San Antonio on Friday night, the Rockets secured at least the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. "It's great," Alexander said. "It's what we've played for. We're in the playoffs, and now we've got a chance to win the whole thing. We're thrilled to be in it." What a difference one game can make. Just a few days ago, Alexander was dreading the thought of a fifth consecutive seat in the draft lottery. He sat and sweated as he watched the Rockets lose five straight games. The team that had just seemed like a shoo-in for the playoffs began talking about a "historic collapse." "It was horrible," Alexander said. "It was gut-wrenching; you didn't feel good. It was hard to read the sports pages. "I got nervous, obviously. You want to be in the playoffs; you want to do well, and losing one after the other is just hurtful." But that is all in the past. Just like the past four seasons -- and Alexander doesn't want to talk about those. "Let's talk about the first five years," he said, laughing. The playoffs and rings are what Alexander knows. That's what he's always wanted. That is why he bought the team in July 1993. He wanted to have a front-row seat to watch the Rockets be a postseason contender. For the first few years, that's what he got. In Alexander's first two seasons as the team owner, the Rockets won back-to-back championships. The next four seasons, the team also reached the postseason, going as far as the Western Conference finals in 1997. But then things changed. The Rockets missed the playoffs for four years in a row after falling to the Lakers 3-1 in the first round in 1999. The most frustrating season for Alexander was 2000-2001, when the Rockets won 45 games, the most by a team that didn't make the playoffs. "That was really tough," he said. "We had a really good team. We won 45 games and were better than a lot of teams that were in the playoffs." One victory and one playoff berth cannot erase the past four disappointing seasons, but for Alexander it helps. With three regular-season games left, Alexander said he is happy he can relax a little. "It should have been (clinched) 10 games ago, but it's nice," he said. "It's nice that Portland lost tonight and Utah lost (Thursday). We're probably going to get the seven seed, so that is nice also." Just like the players and coach Jeff Van Gundy keep reiterating though, Alexander isn't satisfied with the season yet. He hasn't gotten "everything" he has hoped for -- at least not yet. "Everything is a championship," he said. "We haven't got everything."
http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Rockets_Owner_Leslie_Alexander-105754-34.html Rockets Owner Leslie Alexander on Making the Playoffs Apr. 9, 2004 - Following his team's 106-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets that clinched a playoff berth, Rockets owner Leslie Alexander talked about his feelings on the Rockets' first postseason appearance since 1999. LA: It's what we've played for. We're in the playoffs, and now we've got a chance to win the whole thing. We're thrilled to be in it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On how nervous he was at the end of the game: LA: This was an amazing game. It was back-and-forth, back-and-forth. They looked like they had us dominated, then we came back and won it. It was a great game. It was a lot of fun to be in. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On if he feels like having a full building and a crowd like this will give the team extra momentum heading into the playoffs: LA: Winning always gives you momentum, so hopefully this does. There's nothing like basketball, because it goes back-and-forth, back-and-forth so many times in a game, so it's great. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On how he feels right now: LA: I feel elated that we're in the playoffs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On how difficult the last two weeks have been: LA: It was gut-wrenching, and you didn't feel good. It was just hard to read the sports pages and that kind of thing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On if he lost confidence or got nervous at all during the course of the last two weeks: LA: Well, I got nervous - obviously. You want to be in the playoffs, you want to do well, and losing one after the other is just hurtful, if that's the word. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the how hard it was the last four years after missing the playoffs every year: LA: Let's talk about the first five years (he laughed). The year that was tough was when we had won 47 games and it was the most wins ever by a team that wasn't in the playoffs, and that was really tough. We had a really good team, but the West is always tougher than the East. We won 47 games and were better than a lot of teams that were in the playoffs, so that was very tough that year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On if this is everything that he had hoped for: LA: Well, not everything. Everything is a championship. We haven't got everything. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On if he has a preference on who the Rockets play in the first round: LA: No. You don't know who is going to play well in the playoffs or what is going to happen. You have no idea until you get there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On how nice it is to have a spot locked up with three games to go: LA: It should have been done 10 games ago, but it's nice. It's nice that Portland lost tonight and Utah lost last night. We're probably going to get the seven seed, so that will be nice also. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On if he thinks the Rockets will be in the marquee matchup in the first round no matter who they play: LA: I think we're going to be a marquee matchup. I don't think we're going to be the marquee matchup. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On if it seems like it has been five years: LA: It's been a loooong time. (It has worn on me) a lot. A whole lot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On what he thought about Steve Francis tonight: LA: I thought he was fabulous tonight. It was his best game of the season by far. I thought he was great at both ends of the floor and was great on the fast break, which really helped get us back in the game. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On how the team has had some key additions this year: LA: I think (Jim) Jackson was real key. He's the glue of the team, he's so tough. You see the kind of defense that he played on Carmello Anthony tonight. Carmello had a tough game because of him. If it wasn't for him, who knows what the game would have been like. He's always trying every second on the court. He makes the guys better and is a team leader. It think he is the glue of the team and is just fabulous.
