[Chron] Rockets won't let up with 2-0 lead against Jazz

Rockets won't let up with 2-0 lead against Jazz

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

There were smiles and slaps amid the roars from the Toyota Center crowd, but that hardly qualified as celebration.

The previous time the Rockets led a series 2-0 they practically floated back from Dallas, feeling bulletproof and shaking three-finger hand signals as part of a bouncy strut toward the second round.

But Monday, when the Rockets held off the Utah Jazz to take another 2-0 lead in another first-round series, they reacted the way teams might after a good January night. They were happy enough but far from satisfied.

They might not have fallen into a complacency trap two seasons ago, the only time in the eight playoff series the Rockets have led 2-0 that they did not win. They might have lost anyway. But this time they are not taking a chance at easing into a 2-0 cushion.

"Personally, just going through playoff series where I've been up 3-1 (with Orlando) and when I was with the Rockets we were up 2-0 not having the home-court advantage," Rockets guard Tracy McGrady said. "Going through that, I think, being in a situation like now motivates you to be a lot more focused. I think we have a much more mature group. I don't think we're going to relax."

The implication might have been that the Rockets did relax against Dallas in 2005, when they lost in seven games.

There are not many Rockets players left from that series, only Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo and McGrady. (Juwan Howard was hurt and did not play.) Rockets forward Chuck Hayes said the veterans have not mentioned that experience. Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said it is not relevant.

"No bearing," he said. "Different series."

But in best-of-seven playoff series going into this season, teams with 2-0 leads are 182-11.

In 78 of those series, the teams with the 2-0 leads won Game 3. None have then lost the series.

Yet Van Gundy said that if it is necessary to remind a team that two wins are not enough in a best-of-seven series, the reminder would not help, and could even invite a self-fulfilling prophecy of danger.

"I think just like with children, many times warnings are very ineffective," Van Gundy said. "Either you have the right players and you have the right coach, or you don't. Either you have the maturity level to you to know what we're facing, or you don't. Either you're mentally strong and physically tough enough to absorb all that you're going to absorb throughout a series, throughout a playoff stretch, or you're not. You say, 'Watch out!' I don't think (that) is really effective.

"I refuse to look back and I refuse to look too far forward. There are many negatives to my personality, but the one thing that I don't think I can be accused of is complacency. I think that serves all of us well."

With that in mind, there will be plenty to address when the Rockets convene today before flying to Salt Lake City for Thursday's Game 3.

That might start with finding a way to slow Carlos Boozer, who burned the Rockets for 41 points Monday.

Van Gundy said Boozer should be credited for his production, but he also said that if the Rockets continue to defend him as they did, he will continue to put up the best numbers of his career.

"Obviously, our defense was weakened by our inability to defend Boozer," Van Gundy said. "Any time you get hit by someone who scored so much and so easily — and I'm not just putting it on ... the individuals guarding him — our team awareness was not what we had hoped."

Yao spent most of the game on Boozer, with Hayes on Mehmet Okur. Boozer slipped easily behind screens for some shots and finished well on pick-and-roll cuts to the basket. But he also knocked down jumpers before Yao could close out to him.

"On some, Yao did a good job contesting," Van Gundy said. "Sometimes we have to give credit to the other guy. He outworked us early and outskilled us from then on.

"I mean this guy is a hell of a player. We're dealing with a star player. When a guy can shoot from 17, 18 feet and drive it and get to the free-throw line and offensive rebound and pass it, that's a ballplayer.

"If we guard him like we did last night, he'll score big."

That in itself should be enough to fight any feelings of superiority with a 2-0 lead. The Jazz return home, where they were 31-10 this season. Okur, their second-leading scorer, has yet to get going. And teams rarely have problems with overconfidence when struggling with their shots as the Rockets have.

When they led Dallas 2-0, they were rolling offensively. This time, the Rockets know they can do better. More important, they seem certain they will have to.

"We can't get comfortable," Hayes said. "Just as quickly as it has been 2-0 for us, it can easily be tied 2-2 leaving Salt Lake. We can't get comfortable, can't get content. We have a great group of guys, veterans to lead the way, and the coaching staff is going to make sure we don't get comfortable."

ROCKETS NOTES

Solid against Okur

The Rockets have had trouble slowing Carlos Boozer, but Mehmet Okur, the Jazz's second-leading scorer this season, has made four of 23 shots, averaging five points in the first two games of the series.

"I try my best to be a pest, irritate him, do the best that I can," Rockets forward Chuck Hayes said. "But it's a team defense. When I do try to crowd him, he's going to try to put the ball on the ground, post me up, back me in, and the guards are doing a great job digging on him, making him hesitant.

"It's not just me. The whole team will have to work to stop him. I just try to make him a hassle for anybody I guard."

History favors Rockets

While it is standard talk at this point in the series to say that all the Rockets did was "hold serve," and now it's Utah's turn to benefit from home cooking, the fact is that only eight teams in history have rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series.

The Rockets did it twice, beating Phoenix in 1994 and 1995 and were the victims of a Dallas comeback in 2005.

Stepping up defense

The Jazz have made just 37.4 percent of their shots in the second half, averaging just 41 second-half points.

The Rockets said some of that has been because of improved defense after halftime, in part because of their struggles offensively.

"Nothing can affect your defense," guard Rafer Alston said. "Right now, we're doing a good job in the second half defensively. In the first half, we're not sharp defensively. In the second half, we're using defense as a key."

Road woes continue

The Jazz have lost 17 of their last 18 road playoff games, dating to 1999. The only win during that stretch was in the first round at Sacramento on April 23, 2002.

The Jazz also have lost four of their last five home playoff games, dating to 2001.

Tough place to play

With the Rockets' first-round playoff series shifting to EnergySolutions Arena, where the Jazz are 31-10 this season, the Rockets expect the series to get tougher.

"As you know, Salt Lake, that's a tough place to play, those fans and how loud it gets in that arena," Chuck Hayes said. "You can imagine they're going to be as fired up as we were here when we go back there. We got our work cut out for us.

"This series is far from over."

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said he expects to see Utah's best.

"We know what we're in for," Van Gundy said. "They're extremely hard-nosed, competitive, tough, skilled, deep, and I have ultimate respect for them, and I believe in my team as well."

Not getting to the line

The Jazz finished the regular season with the second-highest number of free-throw chances in the NBA.

They shot an average of 30 per game.

But the tables were turned in Game 2, with the Rockets shooting 38 to their 17, and Utah coach Jerry Sloan noticed.

"Those third-quarter free throws got them back to their comfort zone a little bit, and then they moved forward from that," he said. "They had 32 free throws in the second half. That's unusual, and you aren't going to have a chance to win with that many fouls and foul shots."

Time to move on

Both sides of the Andrei Kirilenko-Jerry Sloan soap opera are tiring of the subject.

Kirilenko broke down in tears at Sunday's practice after spending the last 17 minutes of the series opener on the bench. He then played just 17 minutes in Game 2 and finished shooting 0-for-3 with no points and five fouls.

"I didn't do the job," Kirilenko told the Salt Lake Tribune. "I don't know. I don't know. It's tough to explain. I just don't want to talk about it."

Sloan, too, would like to turn the page.

"That situation is, as far as I'm concerned, in the past," the Jazz coach said. "I don't want to answer any more questions about that.

"I probably made a mistake. I take full responsibility for it. That's my job as a coach.

"We move on and try to play and be as good as we can be. We need everybody to play against this team. We'll see what we come up with on Thursday."

Kirilenko's wife, Masha, suggested there is a language barrier.

"It's frustrating. His English is not good," she told the Deseret Morning News. "Maybe he needs an interpreter. Yao Ming has one all the time. Maybe we'll hire one."

Yao has not used an interpreter for the past two seasons.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

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