[Chronic] Rockets aim for more consistency in Scoring

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5386012.html

Dec. 18, 2007, 12:31AM
Rockets' offense fleeting
Team scoring comes early, then disappears later

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

For a few stunning moments, the Rockets' scoring came from every direction.

Tracy McGrady drilled a 3. Yao Ming took a pass from McGrady to finish at the rim. Chuck Hayes tapped in a missed shot and put in a layup. Shane Battier hit a 3. Steve Francis had three assists in six minutes.

Yao and McGrady were doing what they do, but they were finally, though briefly, not alone.

Then those six minutes to begin Saturday's loss to the Mavericks were over. The rest of the quarter, there was just one field goal and no assists from anyone but Yao and McGrady. And the Rockets returned to their familiar, season-long search for anyone to offer offensive help to their leading scorers.

"Right now, we're relying on Yao and Tracy so much," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "A lot of guys haven't stepped up that we thought were going to step up. I just have to keep looking at it and see what we can do to improve. We can't win games relying on those two guys game after game after game. That won't work."

The Rockets are the only team in the NBA with just two players scoring in double figures. The rest of the NBA has an average of 4.6 players per team scoring in double figures.

Team average dropping
Last season, five Rockets — McGrady, Yao, Battier, Rafer Alston and Luther Head — averaged in double figures. Juwan Howard was close, averaging 9.7 per game, more than this season's third-leading scorer.

This season, Yao and McGrady average a combined 46 points, but the third-leading scorer, Bonzi Wells, averages 8.8.

Only the Denver Nuggets, who have gotten 47.3 percent of their scoring from Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, have relied more heavily on their top scorers than the Rockets have on McGrady and Yao, who account for 46.9 percent of the Rockets' scoring.

Teams often win without balance. The only teams with just three players averaging at least 10 points are the 20-2 Celtics and 18-5 Spurs.

But those teams are 11th and 12th, respectively, in scoring, third and fourth in shooting percentage. The Rockets are 22nd in scoring, 19th in shooting.

Much of the offensive problems could be traced to simple poor shooting. Only McGrady, Head and Kirk Snyder are shooting better than their career averages. The Rockets are 28th in the NBA in 3-point shooting.

But with Adelman unwilling to limit his coaching to a suggestion that players shoot better, he spent the bulk of Monday's tape review and two-hour practice working to get shots his wayward shooters are more likely to make.

Time to run and gun
"We can't do it the way we're playing," Adelman said. "I said it even when we were 6-1; 'We are not playing good offensively.' I'll take it on myself. I've got to get these guys to get out and run and get some easy baskets. I think we're the last team getting easy baskets in the league. You're never going to do that unless people make a commitment. It's not fast-breaking like Phoenix. It's getting the ball up the court where you can get the defense on their heels. If they make a mistake, you can take advantage of it and get easy baskets."

With the Rockets last in the NBA in fast-break scoring, averaging just 7.5 fast-break points per game, they spent Monday emphasizing running. But beyond just scoring a few more points per game on the break, they want to get into their offense quickly, and then move themselves and the ball rapidly once they are in it.

"We can't continue to come down every trip and play against a set defense and run plays," McGrady said. "If we get our guys to get out and run and get easy buckets before the defense sets up, that gives us a chance of keeping them on their heels. When we do get into the half court running our offense, we have to run it fluidly, we have to run it smart and we have to do a better job executing."

The hope was besides getting more shots they are unlikely to miss, that hitting a few of those will make the other shots seem easier. With more possessions and ball movement, they hoped for balance.

Wanted: Easier shots
"We need to get easier shots," Battier said. "All our shots are so difficult. It takes a toll, especially when you're trying to execute in the fourth quarter and the other team has seen all the aces up your sleeve. We're talking about getting out, getting down the floor faster, if not fast-break points, early-flow points."

By now, more of any kind of points would be welcome.

But that might only come when they get more players scoring them.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

 

i agree - for the life of me, i can't remember the last time i saw TMac running up the court this year, last year, or ever.