I didn't see it posted anywhere.... http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2253538 SALT LAKE CITY — Nothing fancy. Nothing that will put a new generation of Jazz players in the Hall of Fame. But it has become increasingly clear that it does not take Karl Malone and John Stockton to beat the Rockets. The Jazz played hard. They played smart. And for all the Rockets' All-Stars and high-priced talent, that was all it took for the anonymous, almost interchangeable Jazz parts to push the Rockets to complete collapse. The Jazz pulled away in the second half to take an 83-76 victory Wednesday night, leaving the Rockets reeling under the weight of their inability to handle a challenge. With their shiny record taking on the increasing appearance of fraud, the Rockets fell to 9-5, with losses to every winning team they have played since beating then 1-0 Denver to open the season. "You've got to play intelligently," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "You have to. You have to play with intelligent offense." Facing a Jazz team without Stockton and Malone for the first time in years, the Rockets also did not have to deal with injured point guard Carlos Arroyo. But it did not matter. Raul Lopez and Maurice Williams thoroughly outplayed Steve Francis, with Lopez driving the Jazz through their finishing kick. While Williams and Lopez did their best Stockton imitations, Andrei Kirilenko handled the Malone part, scoring 19 of his 23 points in the second half. "They did a good job," Francis said. "They moved the ball. They scored some points. I have respect for their starting point guard, Carlos Arroyo, but they ... get pretty much the same play out of all their guys." Francis missed 10 of his 15 shots and had eight turnovers with just three assists. Yao Ming made just three of 15 shots. And when they were unable to carry the load, the offense bogged down as if the Rockets had never met. With the exception of the discovery of Eric Piatkowski on the 3-point line, from where he was 3-of-6, the Rockets rarely moved the ball with any direction, and when they did hoist shots, they made just 25 of 75. But more than just miss, the Rockets missed the same shots all night. The Jazz alternated simple man-to-man defense, with Greg Ostertag on Yao, and double teams that came hard when Yao made his move. Ostertag and Kirilenko each blocked five shots as Yao and Kelvin Cato combined to make four of 21 attempts. But that might not have been enough for the Jazz to win had the Rockets solved their other familiar problems of shot selection, turnovers and rebounding. Though it began in the first half, the panic in the Rockets was most obvious down the stretch. With the Jazz lead at five midway through the fourth quarter, Cuttino Mobley came up with a turnaround fadeaway that fell short. Francis added an offensive foul by hooking Lopez. By then, the Rockets were alternately blaming the officials and running scared. Even after Piatkowski hit his third trey of the night from deep in the corner to pull the Rockets within 71-70, the Jazz were the only poised team in the building. In the next three minutes, the Jazz outscored the Rockets 12-3, never taking anything but a layup, a dunk or a wide-open 3. The run started when Ostertag grabbed an offensive rebound and the Jazz calmly worked the ball to Lopez, who splashed a trey for a four-point Utah lead with 2:57 left. Francis answered by charging into a crowd and, with nowhere to go, landing in the lane for a travel. Lopez followed with a drive for a layup that pushed the lead to six. The clincher came moments later. Yao had dropped in a hook for the Rockets. But Lopez coolly stepped behind an Ostertag screen. Francis went under the pick, and no Rockets big man stepped out toward Lopez, who stepped back for a trey and a 79-72 Utah lead with 1:48 remaining. "Offensively, we weren't taking the best shot," Maurice Taylor said. "Defensively down the stretch, we were missing assignments. There were things we talked about in shootaround — closing out the shooters, playing the pick-and-roll a certain way — we didn't get done." The Rockets' offense became so inept that after an eight-minute stretch without a field goal in the second quarter, they made their adjustments, ran their plays and improved to a five-minute third-quarter spell in which they could not put the ball in the basket. "We might have rushed some shots here and there," Piatkowski said. "With a team like this really coming down and doubling Yao, the important thing is to get the ball from one side of the floor to the other. We would only make one or two passes instead of three or four passes. If you make the extra pass, you'll get the extra shot." This is, of course, nothing new. But identifying the shortcomings, though rarely as obvious as Wednesday, has not been difficult. Fixing them has been the problem. "I don't think they played that well," Rockets forward Jim Jackson said of the Jazz. "We just didn't move the ball around, make the extra pass, the extra effort. It comes down to execution. "We beat ourselves. In the Dallas game, we got beat. In the other games we lost, we beat ourselves. I know that for sure. We beat ourselves." Rockets summary Same old jazz The crash of the Jazz was expected from the moment John Stockton and Karl Malone moved on. After 18 seasons together, Stockton retired, and Malone signed with the Lakers. But little else has changed. "When you prepare to play the Jazz, you better come with your hard hats on because they are the best-executing, most mentally tough, physically tough, hardest-playing team in the NBA," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "They get to loose balls, they have a 5.2 rebounding differential, and they come every night. "The elements change, but what they do well stays the same. Never underestimate Jerry Sloan's greatness. I would be a season-ticket holder if I lived in Salt Lake City." Sloan chose to remain on the Jazz bench despite losing the pillars of his system, giving him a chance to mold a team his way. But he said that was not necessarily the lure or even something he has especially enjoyed. "Karl Malone's gone," he said. "John's gone. "There really is nothing I can do about it. "You like to win. You'd like to have a chance to win. We've had a lot of good guys here. We've had guys missing before. We've lost guys in the past. It's just basketball. Either you like it, or you don't like it. I've always liked it. It doesn't matter who's here. We have to coach who is here." The Jazz have remained the efficient offensive team they were with Stockton and Malone, with Carlos Arroyo (now out for two weeks with an ankle sprain) and Raul Lopez at point guard and the high-energy forward combination of Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring. Sloan's views When the Rockets signed Scott Padgett, coach Jeff Van Gundy said that in addition to the skills Padgett would bring, the Rockets specifically valued Padgett's four seasons playing for Jerry Sloan. "What I liked most was he had been in a situation where he had been coached tremendously and tremendously hard both in college with coach (Rick) Pitino and in Utah with Jerry Sloan," Van Gundy said. "So you were getting a guy you knew had been in situations, had been coached extremely hard, and could make a shot." Sloan, however, was not interested in that praise or being grouped with Pitino, one of Van Gundy's coaching mentors. "I've never coached or played basketball for a compliment," Sloan said. "I don't give a (hoot). It's been a part of my life every day. I get a lot of fun out of watching guys play and compete." Padgett's tenure with the Jazz was more successful than that of Rockets center John Amaechi, who clashed with Sloan. But Sloan revealed no hard feelings. "He was not happy here," Sloan said. "If a guy's not happy here, the best thing is for him to be somewhere else. Life goes on. It's too short to be unhappy for 80 games. We wish him nothing but the best." Finding a way As much as he has been maligned through much of his career, Jazz forward Greg Ostertag has also competed well against the best centers. He hasn't outplayed Shaquille O'Neal but has had his moments. He had several highlight moments against Yao Ming last season. "I get up for the big-time centers," Ostertag said. "I guess I want to prove I can play in this league, that I can play against the best. He (Yao) is different. He's not a Shaq. Shaq tries to run you over. Yao wants to feel you and get off you. But he does cause problems because he's so damn big."
